A Tender Word of Comfort in the Wilderness—A Lectionary Reflection for Advent 2B (Isaiah 40)
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Isaiah 40:1-11 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
40 Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.3 A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass;
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers; the flower fades,
[[when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers; the flower fades,]]
but the word of our God will stand forever.
9 Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him
and his recompense before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom
and gently lead the mother sheep.
*************
The Advent season continues its
march toward Christmas. The readings from Isaiah and the Gospel of Mark feature
prophets crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming of the
Lord. The word we hear from Isaiah 40 is one of comfort. It’s a tender word
given to exiles, letting them know that their term of service had come to an
end as their “iniquity is expiated” (Is. 40:2 Tanakh). That is, the penalty for Israel’s iniquity had been paid. So,
a new day is coming when the people of God can return home. Because it is time to return home a voice
rings out in the wilderness “Clear in the desert a road for the Lord! Level in
the wilderness a highway for our God!” (Is. 40:3 Tanakh). It is these words that speak of preparing a way for the
Lord in the desert that Mark draws upon in opening his Gospel, putting the
words of Isaiah in the mouth of John the Baptist (Mk 1:1-8).
The words of our reading from
Isaiah 40 might sound familiar. Not only does Mark draw upon them as he begins
his Gospel, but George Frideric Handel drew upon them as he wrote his oratorio The
Messiah. The first five verses of Isaiah 40 provide the words of three
pieces from Part 1 of The Messiah. Verses 1-3 that offer a word of
comfort provide the words for the first tenor recitative— “Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and
cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Following that there is
a tenor air featuring Isaiah 40:4— “Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.” Finally,
the first chorus comes from Isaiah 40:5— “And the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it.” It might be worth listening to these pieces from The Messiah
as one contemplates the reading from Isaiah 40. While the words will sound
familiar to those who know the Messiah, they are not merely lyrics in an
oratorio. They are words directed to exiles, offering comfort and hope for a
new day of freedom from captivity.
As noted above, Mark drew upon
Isaiah 40 to provide a background and foundation for the ministry and message
of John the Baptist, who for Mark serves as the forerunner of the Messiah. It
is John who serves as the voice, whose calling is to prepare the way for the Lord’s
coming (Mk. 1:1-8). According to Second Isaiah, the voice that rings out,
calling for the creation of a road in the desert so that God might lead the way
out of exile. So, the prophet declares:
Again, we get to
sing along with Handel. However, this is first a word to exiles living in
Babylon. This chapter begins a new section of the Book of Isaiah, which is
known by the scholarly community as Second or Deutero-Isaiah. It is a word
directed at a community living in exile. The prophet encourages this people
living in exile to remain patient until God acts to liberate them from their
present distress. In proto-apocalyptic language, Isaiah proclaims that the “glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Is. 40:4-5).
That is the word of the LORD! The message here is that when God’s glory is
revealed, it will not occur in a quiet corner. Everyone will see, hear,
and experience this revealing of God’s glory. For the exiles, this is an
expectation to be realized on the return from Babylon to Jerusalem. From a
Christian repurposing of the passage, this is understood as referring to the future
inbreaking of the realm of God.
When it comes to this Word of
God, let us be clear that we’re not talking about a book. The word of God here
is God’s covenant promises that will not fail. If we read this through a
Christian lens, following Karl Barth’s idea of a three-fold Word of God (my
usage here), that Word would be Christ our Lord. It is Christ who does not fail
and whose word will be fulfilled. As followers of Jesus, we can also grab hold
of the promise that God is faithful to the covenant promises. What Isaiah is
doing here is emphasizing the relationship between God and God’s people. The
promise here is that a time will come when the exile the people are
experiencing will come to an end. That is because, as we read earlier in the
passage their term is over and their sin or iniquity is expiated. The price has
been paid and freedom is on the horizon.
If we understand the Torah/the
Law as the foundation of the covenant relationship, the prophet's job is to
call attention to the mutual nature of the covenant. God is faithful, but
sometimes the people drift away, and they suffer the consequences. The prophets
call the people back to the covenant, reminding them of God’s faithfulness. Thus,
there is both a word of judgment and a word of restoration. As we read the
accounts of the people of Israel during and after the exile, it appears that
their time in exile, along with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem,
proved transformative. Thus, the identity of the people seems to have been
forged during the exile, which proved to be a period of purification. When that
was completed, they were restored to the Land.
Since this word from Second
Isaiah is understood to have been delivered during the exile, they are still
waiting for their redemption. The good news that comes as the people endure
exile is that God has not abandoned them. A road will be laid down so that the
people can return to their homeland. As the road is laid through the hills, the
glory of God will be revealed.
This word from Isaiah is spoken
to us during the Advent season, which is understood to be a season of
preparation. It is even understood to be something of a penitential season, much
like Lent. The connection has often been symbolized by the usage of purple
vestments and paraments, though in recent years blue has begun to replace purple
at Advent. The seasons have some connections but they're also very different.
For one thing, the season leading up to Christmas is much more volatile than
the one leading to Easter. It’s more difficult to focus on looking inward as we
prepare to welcome again the Christ child, even as the passages point us beyond
Bethlehem to the future coming of the Lord (the second Advent). The words that are
spoken here involve preparation, but they also offer comfort. Comfort is
something that is in short supply in many parts of the world.
This word of comfort is helpful at
this moment in time when the days of Christendom have largely gone away. Some
seek to restore some kind of theocratic nationalism, but that ship has sailed
and isn’t coming back. So how do we experience exile? Where do we find hope and
comfort? According to Isaiah, our hope and our comfort is to be found in the
faithfulness of God, not in some kind of political power. While some in Israel
hoped for the restoration of the Davidic monarchy that never happened and
likely never will. While a Temple was built to replace the former Temple, that
too has disappeared. If we understand ourselves as exiles, then the point of
our existence as a community is not to gain power over the world, but to
exhibit the true nature of God’s realm through our lives.
According to the Advent calendar,
we have arrived at Peace Sunday. As we look around at the world, we quickly
notice that peace has not been achieved in our world. War is taking place in
Ukraine, and many Russians, led by the Patriarch of Moscow, have cast this war
in sacred terms. I don’t buy it but that is the way some understand it. Then
there is the war that is taking place in Gaza, as Israel seeks to destroy its
enemy. We wonder how many innocents will die as a result. This is not to support
Hamas, it’s just recognizing that the “collateral damage,” is exceedingly
great. So, lighting the Peace Candle might seem somewhat ironic. Nevertheless, we
hear Isaiah proclaim:
Our hope for experiencing peace, according to Isaiah, is to be found in the faithfulness of God who like a shepherd “will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom and gently lead the mother sheep” (Is. 40:10-11). In this promise, there is comfort. For many in this season, when loneliness is most keenly felt, or when disappointment is present as a year comes to a close, or because of the violence and anger that fills the land is ever-present, this is a powerful word of comfort. It is a call on the people of God to bring comfort to our neighbors.
So we sing:
Blessed be the God of Israel,
who comes to set us free,
Who visits and redeems us, and
grants us liberty.
The prophets spoke of mercy, of
freedom and release;
God shall fulfill the promise to
bring our people peace.
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