The
church often turns to the prophet Isaiah in Advent. Isaiah comes
just before the conquest of Judah by Babylon, a time of unrest, injustice where
the rich are getting richer and more powerful, the poor, widows, and oppressed
are ignored, and compassion is hard to find. Isaiah warns of God’s judgment
against his own rebellious people, but also against the nations that defy God.
Psalm
72 is a prayer that reflects the desire of the people for a king whose reign will
be shaped by justice and righteousness; the virtues of a faithful king,
faithful to God and to his people. The Hebrew word ṣeḏeq, which is translated
righteousness, probably comes from Arabic meaning ‘straightness.’ The basis
of righteousness in the Old Testament is relationship, both between God and man,
and between man and man. Righteous is about promoting the well-being and peace
of the community. For the prophets, righteousness includes the idea of helping
the poor and needy. In terms of the relationship between God and men,
righteousness points toward a correct relationship to the will of God shaped by
Israel’s covenant with God.
Righteous action flows out of God’s
election of Israel and according to his covenants. God is a righteous judge
who acts for his people and whose righteousness his people depend on for
deliverance and protection. Psalm 72 is praying for a righteous king, praying
that God will send the promised Messiah king to bring freedom. In the time of
Isaiah and the psalmist, God sees and hears the people that the rich and
powerful fail to see, except as a means to grow their own power and wealth. For
those looking for a righteous king, for a Messiah, there seems to be little
hope to hang onto. But the prophets keep pointing the people back to God, reminding
them that the weak and needy are precious to him; he hears their prayers for a
king that will have God’s heart for them. The hope for God’s people is that a
king will come from the line of David, son of Jesse. Isaiah’s looking ahead to
a time when it will look like David’s family tree has been cut down with only a
stump left.
Today
it’s easy to be pessimistic about life and wonder, as Israel often
did in the time of Isaiah, is there any reason to hold onto hope. Jesus still
hasn’t returned and it’s hard for so many today. The gap between the wealthy
and poor continues to grow larger, so many corporations have lost any sense of
social responsibility and are focused on making the greatest profit they can
for their share-holders, even if it’s on the back of the less fortunate. This
week a new report came in that 25% of Canadians are suffering from food
insecurity, meaning there’s a growing number of people going hungry, needing to
access food banks to feed their families. More families are literally living
from pay-cheque to pay-cheque, frightened of even one unexpected bill or
sickness, while the very wealthy don’t seem to see or care. There are wars,
rumours of war, the number of refugees in the world grows daily, and more and
more countries want no part of welcoming them in. Persecution and oppression occur
around the world and our brothers and sisters in the faith often suffer greatly
for following Jesus. As the French writer Jean-Baptiste Karr said, “The more
things change, the more they stay the same.”
With
defeat at the hands of the Babylonian empire coming close, Isaiah offers a
burst of hope, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on
him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of
might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in
the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or
decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness
he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of
the earth.” This shoot will do the two things everyone wants from their
leaders: with righteousness he will lead with compassion and care for the least
among us, and punish the wicked.
Isaiah’s
a prophet of hope,
pointing the people to the promises of God that he’ll send a Messiah; the
Lord’s servant who will rescue them from both political and spiritual
oppression. Isaiah points ahead to a shoot coming up from a stump; revealing
that the seemingly dead stump’s roots are still filled with life, and a Branch
will grow up and bear fruit again. This Messiah’s often referred to as the
Lord’s servant, but unexpectedly, a suffering servant who will bring justice
and rule in righteousness while experiencing injustice himself.
Isaiah
points to a renewed creation where all of creation is at peace within
itself. There’ll be no more survival of the fittest, but instead peace and
flourishing for all creatures. Predators and prey will sleep side by side in
safety, a beautiful picture of what justice and righteousness looks like in the
kingdom of God; relationships of shalom with all the meaning of this Hebrew
word where there will be peace within creation, flourishing among all people
and with all creatures, where there’ll be building up rather than destruction,
and the earth will know the Lord within a covenantal relationship of
faithfulness. This image occurs repeatedly in Scripture: Ezekiel 34:25–27 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the
land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the
forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a
blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of
blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops;
the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord,
when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who
enslaved them.”
The
Bible closes with a picture of the renewed creation and the second
advent when Jesus returns, Revelation 22:1–5 “Then
the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great
street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing
twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the
tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The
throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve
him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There
will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of
the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever
and ever.”
Yet
God’s people experience 400 years of silence after the return from exile. But hope wasn’t
dead, just as it’s not dead today. An angel comes to a young virgin in
Nazareth, a small town in a small country under foreign rule and tells the
young girl Mary, “Greetings, you who are highly
favoured! The Lord is with you.” Judah’s under Roman rule, things are
hard, oppressors have come and gone. They were free for a time under the
Maccabees, but that’s long gone. Messiahs have come and gone, usually making
things even harder for the people. Herod’s built a beautiful temple, but he’s
cruel and unjust, only in it for himself. Now an angel comes with amazing news
for Mary, “You will conceive and give birth to a
son, and you are to call him Jesus. he will be great and will be called the Son
of the Most-High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.”
Her son will be born through the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus, the holy one, will be called the “Son of God.”
With
the coming of the shoot from the stump of Jesse, this Branch has
begun to gather people around him from all nations. Paul writes in Ephesians
1:10, God’s plan is “to bring all things in heaven
and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” In our world filled
with failed flawed leaders, Jesus is returning to bring in a renewed kingdom of
justice and righteousness under God, the king-child born of Mary, raised, and
crucified in a small oppressed country, raised from the dead for our sin, and
returning to deliver the needy, defend the oppressed, and hold the wicked to
account for their actions for failing to care for the people. Jesus comes to
transform hearts, to create a new people shaped in his image, and to call us to
follow him as our Lord.
We’re
the body of Christ, part
of the already/not-yet kingdom of heaven, a sign of hope to the world. Until
Jesus returns, we’re called to be shaped by his values of justice and
righteousness, to answer as Mary does, “Here
am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Righteousness and justice are personal, lived out in relationship with our
neighbours. Where can we, as a church, as individuals, or families can be
involved in acting justly, seeing and walking alongside the poor, the orphans,
the widows, and foreigners among us, offering the hope of Christ, sharing the
new life found in Jesus? Go, sharing the hope of Jesus with words and actions
this week.
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