Praise for deliverance

Isaiah 25:1-10a

Isaiah’s authority is evident in this passage. He knows Israel’s history, he knows their context, he knows their needs, and he knows Yahweh’s plans for these people. Isaiah speaks on Yahweh’s behalf through the peaks of hope and harmony, and the pits of disobedience and despair.

God and God’s people don’t live a roller-coaster ride. They live at the pace of foot travel, or camel trains, or laden donkeys. Slowly the people turn back to God. Slowly the people drift away. Slowly they repent. Slowly they fall.

Witnessing and histories

Isaiah witnesses Yahweh’s might, directing the people’s praise for the one who “has done wonderful things.” Wonderful is one way to translate the Hebrew pele, or astonishing. The destruction Isaiah describes is certainly astonishing. (It’s the same word the Israelites sing in Exodus 15:11.)

Yahweh’s actions include apparent extremes: destroying a city such that it can never be rebuilt and sheltering the poor and needy from storms and heat. Do you struggle to reconcile God’s gentle kindness and God’s violent punishment?

Yahweh witnesses the people who do not know God (strangers, aliens) and destroys them (verse 2 could refer to Babylon, Nineveh, Moab, etc.). Other times Yahweh uses these strangers/aliens to punish the Hebrew people. What stories do the Babylonians tell of being Yahweh’s helpers, yet never knowing God in the way God requires? I haven’t found these records yet, but you can review ancient Babylonian letters online. Highlights include a reference to the great threat of “Hapiru-brigands.” The Hapiru-brigands are not a clearly defined tribe or ethnic identity, but a looked-down-upon class of people. Some scholars believe some of them became the Hebrew people, both because the words are very similar and because Yahweh has such passion for the marginalized.

Shelter

God as shelter is a theme throughout scripture, including perhaps the best-known and possibly most-loved instance:

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade
at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night
(Psalm 121:5-6).

I recall running from train to bus stop to bus stop to train in Chicago in a torrential downpour, arriving at my destination as wet as if I’d jumped in a lake. Walking the dog in the bitter days of January is daunting. But longing for shelter is not a daily reality for most of us the way it could have been for our faith ancestors. Those who lived in deserts didn’t take shade or water for granted. Those who lived nomadically understood hospitality as sacred.

Psalm 121, Isaiah 25, and other scriptures describe God as shelter—that God is absorbing the heat or hail for us, with the same nature as the “suffering servant” later in Isaiah, and the same nature as Jesus. In Isaiah 32, Isaiah speaks on God’s behalf that human leaders might be shelter:

See, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule with justice.
Each will be like a hiding place
from the wind,
a covert from the tempest,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in
a weary land (Isaiah 32:1-2).

A nearly opposite promise comes later in Isaiah; rather than “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night,” we find:

Your sun shall no more go down,
or your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your
everlasting light,
and your days of mourning
shall be ended (Isaiah 60:20).

Human needs shape how we understand God’s provision.

This mountain

Which mountain (v. 6, 7, 10)? Mount Zion, though some scholars say Sinai. For many Christians, the promise of a “new Jerusalem” could be realized in any location. The mountain and the city could be God’s holy plan realized in any place, or many places. These discussions can get complicated quickly, in ecumenical and especially interfaith dialogue.

Muslim faithful know which direction Mecca is throughout their day (or will be sure to find out) in order to pray facing Mecca. In Jewish tradition, one should face the Holy Land when praying. If praying in Israel, face Jerusalem. When praying in Jerusalem, face the Temple Mount, and those on the Mount should turn toward the Holy of Holies.

Three locations have been called Mount Zion over time, because each location became worthy through events:

• The original location of Jerusalem during David’s reign, through conquering the Jebusites and their city of Jebus, and specifically where David had his palace built.
• Where the First Temple was built.
• And finally, the location where people later believed David’s palace was!

Part of the confusion is due to different details in this story recorded in both Samuel and Chronicles.

And if you want a little more complexity, Mount Moriah is another name for at least one of these locations. Mount Moriah is where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. Later, during Solomon’s reign, the First Temple was built on Mount Moriah.

However, Samaritans understand Mount Moriah (where Isaac was bound) to be in a different location (remember that conversation Jesus has at a well with a Samaritan woman, about the different locations where their communities worship?)

And Muslims, who share many sacred stories with Jews and Christians, understand Mount Moriah to be in a wholly different location!

Swallowing death

Wherever it’s happening, the feast would be familiar to our faith ancestors for celebrating special occasions and following military victories. Human leaders sponsored banquets to feed the people. Other gods were understood to sponsor banquets too, especially on their holidays.

Does your stomach begin to growl at the description of this feast?

But there’s something unique on God’s menu that won’t whet your appetite: Death. “He will swallow up death forever” (v. 8). Death could be written with a capital D, because this is Death personified. We find this in other scriptures: “Like sheep [the foolhardy] are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend” (Psalm 49:14a). “Death consumed me” (Psalm 104:2b, Inclusive Bible).

Yahweh swallowing Death is a clever and contextual image. Their neighbors’ mythology included a deity, Death, who swallows its prey. Death’s most impressive prey was Baal (should sound familiar; there are over 100 references to Baal in the Old Testament), a fertility, storm/weather god. Yahweh swallows Death, the swallower!

Beyond a dying sun

You may hear the hymn “Beyond a Dying Sun” (no. 323 in Hymnal: A Worship Book) as you read Isaiah 25:

For God at last shall wipe away
the tear from every eye.
The sting of death shall pierce
the heart no more.

Revelation 21 makes these promises, and there are other promises shared between Isaiah and Revelation. This feast is for “all people” (vv. 6-7) even “foreigners” (vv. 2, 5). The vision of the new or heavenly Jerusalem depicted in incredible detail in Revelation includes foreigners as well (7:9).

Why we worship

Why do we worship? Is it for God’s sake, or for our sake, or both?

Though we have a few references in scripture to God being jealous and demanding the people stop worshiping other gods, the notion that God needs our worship to feel okay doesn’t make sense to many Christians. If we understand God as whole and perfect, how could God need our worship?

Perhaps God longs for relationship with us but does not “need” our worship to feel good. Our worship, directed to God, may primarily be for our own sake: to right-size ourselves, to orient ourselves, to remember who and whose we are.

“We pray because our life comes from God and we yield it back in prayer. Prayer is a great antidote to the illusion that we are self-made,” says Walter Bruggemann. Worship (including prayer) reminds us that we are created beings and invites us to be in relationship with our Creator.