November 18, 2002

BaptistWay Bible Study for Texas lesson for Dec. 8

Isaiah heard the music of hope in troubled times

___Isaiah 40:1-11 ___1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. ___3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." ___6 A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" ___"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." ___9 You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, "Here is your God!" 10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

___By Brent Beasley
___Jeremiah Wright, pastor of the largest United Church of Christ congregation in the country, an African-American church in the South Side of Chicago, tells of seeing a painting by a man named Watt.
___It is a painting that seems at first glance to be a study in contradictions, because the title of the painting and the painting itself seem to be in direct opposition to each other. Wright said that when he first saw the painting, he wanted to protest to the artist for playing such a cruel joke on Christians who might see this painting.
___You see, the painting is titled "Hope." It shows a woman who is playing a harp sitting on top of the world. Now, that by itself would be all right, for what more enviable position could any of us ever hope to be in than being on top of the world with everyone dancing to our music?
___But when you look closer at the painting, it becomes clear that the world on which this woman sits--our world--is one torn by war, destroyed by hate, decimated by despair. The world, in fact, is on the very brink of utter destruction.
___Yet the artist dared title his painting "Hope."
___When you look more closely you can see that this harpist sitting on top of the world is sitting there in rags. There is a bandage on her head with blood beginning to seep through. Scars are visible on her body, and the harp she is playing has all but one of its strings torn, ripped out, dangling down.
___Yet the artist dared title his painting "Hope."
___And so, Wright recounts, he wanted to protest this offensive painting, this desecration of hope. But then, he confessed he had missed something in the painting. Something important had been overlooked.
___He had looked down on the painting and had seen the war, the hunger, the distrust and the hatred on top of which the harpist sat, but he had not looked above her head at the brush strokes there.
___When he looked over her head, he saw some small notes of music moving playfully and joyfully toward heaven. And it was then that he understood the thinking that had led the artist to call that painting "Hope."
___He said that it caused him to recall the old Spiritual, "Over my head, I hear music in the air. Over my head, I hear music in the air. Over my head, I hear music in the air. There must be a God somewhere."
___In spite of being perched on a world torn by war; in spite of being on a world wracked with hate; in spite of being on a world devastated by distrust; in spite of being on a world where ignorance and apathy reigned supreme; in spite of being on that tangled, torn and tormented globe, with her body bruised and her harp all but destroyed except for that one string that was left--in spite of all of these things, the woman rejoiced in her hope. It would not be vanquished.
___A person of hope still can hear the music in the suffering. The prophet Isaiah was just such a person. Above the din of dispair he still heard the song of hope.
___Isaiah hears the music of hope
___In spite of the fact Isaiah wrote this part of the book to the Israelites during one of the darkest periods of their history; in spite of the fact the Babylonians had taken over their Promised Land; in spite of having had their beloved temple destroyed--the dwelling place of God, the center of their worship and their identity as a people; in spite of the fact the Israelites had then been removed from their homeland and scattered all over the area in what is called the exile--in spite of all these things, the prophet rejoices in hope. Over his head, he heard music in the air and he set to words this poem of hope in the midst of suffering.
___Isaiah 40 is looking ahead to just a few years down the road when things are going to change for for the better for the Israelites. It was during the decade before the collapse of Babylonian rule that the prophecies that make up chapters 40-55 of the book of Isaiah were written. Sure enough, in 538 B.C., a combined force of Medes and Persians entered the city of Babylon, having previously defeated the Babylonian armies. And so began the return of the Israelites to their homeland and Jerusalem.
___This piece of poetry we know as Isaiah 40:1-11 is a hinge on which the book of Isaiah turns. It marks the end of the long exile of the Israelites that was decreed by Isaiah in 39:6-7. Between the threat of chapter 39 and the promise here in chapter 40, there has been a 200-year span during which all of the leadership of Israel was "carried to Babylon" (39:6). But now the dawn of a new day is beginning to crest.
___Isaiah 40:1-11 is a decree to be sent to Jerusalem and to Jews in exile that Jerusalem has now paid fully for its sins and is to be released from exile and permitted to return home. This message is indeed like a commutation of a prison sentence in which the prisoner is released to go home. Thus the poem begins: "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ... Cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid" (v. 1). It is time to go home.
___How can we hear the music of hope?
___How does one hear music in suffering? What do we need to do to be in a position to receive the good news from God? We must be in preparation to receive the good news. Just as Isaiah issues a decree of good news, the prophet also issues a call for the people to prepare the way for God's good news to come.
___All four gospels portray John the Baptist as the one who prepared the way for Jesus' ministry. The gospel writers all interpreted John to be the fulfillment of Isaiah's words from chapter 40: "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight'" (Isaiah 40:3).
___The gospel writers understood this declaration in Isaiah 40 as not just an announcement of good news, but also as a message to the hearers that they needed to be in preparation to receive the good news--they needed to get ready.
___The message is given to prepare a road for God's good news procession. If you were going to build a road, first of all you'd need to survey. Then, to prepare a way in the wilderness, you'd have to get rid of all the muck, dig down to more solid ground. Then, you'd want to find the best materials that could be had and bring them to the site. And then to actually get the road built; there'd have to be a great deal of cooperation and hard work. Long before there is any visible evidence of a road, a great deal of work already has been done.
___For Christians, what we are doing in these weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas is building a road, preparing a way, together. John the Baptist is our leader on the work site. He's surveying, cutting through the pretense and self-righteousness, sticking a shovel in the muck in order to clear it away.
___John knows there's no hope for us without change, without moving along a different way. And John knows, and so do we, that preparation involves sacrifice. And John knows, and so do we, that the way of the Lord is prepared by clearing out the muck and getting down to the good, solid ground again. But without the preparation work--the really hard part of the job--there will never be a road to take us to the place we really want to be.
___It takes preparation to turn the bad news into good news. Not just anticipation, not just looking forward to it happening or being excited about it. Not just anticipation, but preparation.
___We all are anticipating Christmas day, but preparing for it is what will make it really special.
___Last year, my mother gave my 6-year-old son, Sam, a cloth calendar with 24 nativity scene figures and 24 pockets. So, every day of December, he can put one figure into a pocket until Christmas Eve, when they will then all be full. And this is what he did: The first thing in the morning as soon as he got up, he put a new figure into the next pocket. Children anticipate Christmas day. When it comes to Christmas, anticipation is easy: "I can't wait for it to get here."
___Preparation is harder. It's one thing for us to anticipate the coming of Jesus. We can't wait to celebrate that sweet little baby. But before the gift of the baby comes the desert of preparation. That's what the gospel writers teach us by interpreting John the Baptist as the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah 40.
___John's calling, as expressed by the prophet Isaiah, was to "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (v. 3). John was sent to prepare the way for the good news.
___And the preparation of the way is a repentant heart, will and mind. The preparation for the great gift of Christmas is repentance. Preparation is undoubtedly harder than anticipation. It's hard to repent in the middle of chestnuts roasting on open fires and Jack Frost nipping at your nose and "Joy to the World." But the end product makes it worth the time and trouble.
___The prophet Isaiah heard the good news of hope in the midst of suffering. Just as Isaiah issues a decree of good news to the people of Israel, the prophet also issues a call for the people to prepare the way for the advent of God's good news. Get ready; good news is on its way.
___This is our task in these days--to prepare our hearts with repentance to receive the good news of Jesus Christ. A clean heart and a fresh reception of the gospel--how much better could it get?

Questions for thought and discussion
___ Has there been a time when you were given hope in the midst of trials? How did God smooth the rough road in your journey? Has he done it the same way each time?
___ What types of things are most likely to drown out the sound of hope in your life? Does knowing what these things are help to fend them off?
___ Isaiah gave this Scripture of encouragement to the Israelites when they needed it most. What passages of Scripture have rescued you when your hopes and dreams seemed far from reach?
___ How are you preparing for the coming of Christ this Advent season? During these weeks, make time for periods of silence and solitude to look deep within to see and hear what's going on in your life.
___ All this talk of preparation sounds like work. How do you think this preparation might enhance your Christmas season? How are you going to find the time when there are so many "important" things to do?
___ Some lament that the Christmas season doesn't hold the joy for them it once did. Is there a possibility that a lack of preparation for the day is the root cause? If you are one of those people, what are you willing to do to prepare spiritually for Christmas this year?
___ How will you spread the good news this Christmas season?
___ The Christmas season can be a difficult and lonely time for many people. How might you give comfort and hope to someone experiencing sadness or sorrow? What would "carrying them close to your heart" (v. 11) look like in your life?

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