Isaiah 60:1-6

This text is used for the Lectionary Year B on January 4, 2015.

Chapters 56-66 of Isaiah are generally considered to come from a time after the Babylonian exile (587-539 BC) when the returnees were resettled in Palestine. The first section of the book (1-39) largely reflects the pre-exilic preaching of Isaiah of Jerusalem warning of God’s judgment for failures of justice and righteousness. The second part (40-55) is full of the ecstatic anticipation of the end of Exile and return to the land. But this last part is about a time when the routine of life in the land has dulled the earlier earnestness of those who have returned, a return that is much more a trickle than a flood. So, it is the prophet’s task to rekindle the enthusiasm of the people with messages of hope centered on God’s faithfulness.

Understanding the timing of this oracle is important. Most scholars think that chapters 60-62, while post-exilic, were written fairly soon after the first return in 538 BC. Those pioneers found Jerusalem largely destroyed and abandoned. The soaring hopes of a triumphant return (cf. chapter 40) have been brought back to earth. The rebuilding of the Temple, passionately preached by Haggai, has not been a panacea. The rebuilding of the city under Nehemiah has not yet happened.

The joy of this passage is based on the promises at the end of the previous chapter that God’s “spirit” and “word” will not depart from his covenant people for all their generations. This presence of the Lord, then, is their “light” and the “glory of the Lord” that has risen upon them should remind them of the light they experienced in Egypt all those generations ago while the Egyptians were in palpable darkness. The “glory of the Lord” (כָּבוֹד), verses 1 and 2, is his weight, his immense value. This is also the word translated “honor.” In its verb form, this was what children owed their parents (Exodus 20:12); they are to treat their parents as weighty, valuable. This word from the prophet also recalls the famous declaration of the seraphim in chapter 6: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” The same Lord who ruled as King not only of Judah but also the world in 742 BC (chapter 6), also rules over the world of the returnees and has a promise for them.

Verses 4-6 are a promise that the greatest days of return are still ahead of them. Returnees will still stream back to the land, even the fragile and vulnerable “sons” and carried “daughters” will make it safely back.

Unlike English, in Hebrew everything is masculine or feminine. Often this does not come out in translation. This passage is striking because all of the “you” forms in verses 1-6, verbs and pronouns alike, are second person feminine singular. Israel/Zion is being personified as a woman. God’s promise voiced by the prophet is personal, intimidate.

Indeed, the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt at foreign (Persian) expense (v. 10) in the coming days of Ezra and Nehemiah. But (Third) Isaiah’s vision of the part that foreigners play is different from that of Nehemiah who holds them at arm’s length. Does this inclusive faithfulness of Isaiah serve as a response to Nehemiah’s exclusive version of faithfulness?

In the old cowboy and Indian movies the settlers crossing the plains were often attacked by hostile natives. The classic response (in the movies) was to “circle the wagons” and keep the outsiders at bay because they were a threat. This might be called a “fortress model” of faithfulness. That was certainly Nehemiah’s idea of the way to be faithful (chapter 13). But this third part of Isaiah takes a different tact toward the outsiders, these nations (גּוֹיִם), these “gentiles.” They can also be part of what God is doing (56:3-8). This is one of the differences between “Second Isaiah” (chs 40-55) and Third Isaiah. In 44:28, Persian king Cyrus is God’s instrument to return his people to their land and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. And what is more, in 45:1 God calls him “his anointed” (מְשִׁיחוֹ). This is the only time that a foreign king is called God’s messiah. While this is an amazing step forward, it falls short of Third Isaiah’s vision of foreigners’ participation in worship of the Lord (56:6-7). This model of faithfulness might be called the “light on a hill” model.

It is extremely important to be careful when thinking and talking about these two models. First, it is important to recognize that Nehemiah (and Ezra) had very good reasons for their fortress faithfulness. It was intimate contact with outsiders that had brought down Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-8 and Nehemiah 13:26). It was the intense community building that went on in the Babylonian Exile that led to the strong, post-exilic community that rebuilt the land. All of that could go away in a generation without faithfulness.

Second, it is incredibly important not to read this as a text against the Jews for their insular, exclusivist attitudes versus an open hearted Christian attitude. This is important because the writer of Isaiah was also a Jew, and because none of us have to think very long to remember hostile Christian attitudes toward outsiders. This text is very valuable for us if we read ourselves in the text facing a choice as to our response to outsiders. We must make a choice both individually and collectively between being either the fortress or the light on the hill.

The prophet who speaks in these chapters anticipates a greater mission for the Jewish people than the tightly controlled faithfulness enforced by Ezra and Nehemiah (cf. Genesis 12:3b). It will be a time of plenty funded by the wealth of the nations, but the nations are drawn by Israel’s “light” and that light is “the glory of the Lord.” It is their desire to be part of God’s people, not merely serve God’s people that draws them. By their coming they “proclaim the praise of the Lord.”

Dr. Timothy G. Crawford
Dean of the College of Christian Studies
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas
tcrawford@umhb.edu