November 25, 2002
BaptistWay Bible Study for Texas lesson for Dec. 15
The coming of God to restore & redeem the world
_____By Brent Beasley
_Isaiah 61:1-11
___1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
___4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. 5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. 6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.
___7 Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.
___8 "For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed."
___10 I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
___11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
___Chapters 56-66 in the book of Isaiah, the concluding chapters, fluctuate between rebuke and reassurance.
___In chapters 56-59, rebukes are offered for the people of Israel's disloyalty, return to idol-worship and for conflicts within the community. Even the observing of festivals and holding of fasts is criticized as fraudulent and insincere, because those who are participating are not practicing proper dealings with their fellow citizens.
___Even so, there is the reassurance in chapters 60-62 that the coming restoration to glory of Jerusalem is something the Israelites can rest assured of, although the time of that fulfillment is uncertain.
___These chapters were most likely compiled later than chapters 40-55 and much later than chapters 1-39. Chapters 56-66 most likely belong to the period of time after the first stages of return and rebuilding in Judah around 520-500 B.C. or possibly even later.
___The poem found in chapter 61 anticipates a massive reversal of fortunes brought about by the power of God. Through that reversal, those who are now abused and oppressed will be given joy, security, prosperity and well-being. Better days are coming for the people of Israel.
___In Isaiah 61:1-4, an unnamed speaker makes the procalamation that he has been given a special calling by God to bring about the renewal of the community. This person is anointed and empowered by God to bring the gospel. The verb "basar" is the same as in Isaiah 40:9 from last week's lesson.
___The good news contained in this announcement is that the Israelites' beloved city of Jerusalem, left in shambles by the Babylonians, will be rebuilt (v. 4). This hope for a new Jerusalem after the exile is rooted in the belief that Jerusalem will be fully restored.
___Reversal of fortune
___The theme that runs through all of chapter 61 is that the work of the anointed one is to bring a reversal of fortune to those living in destitution and deprivation. The recipients of the redemptive work of this one who is appointed and sent by God will be the afflicted, the brokenhearted, the captives, those bound in prison and those who mourn.
___As with so many others, our church holds a special Hanging of the Green worship service at the beginning of December. In this service, we explain the symbolic significance of the many items that decorate our sanctuary during the Christmas season. One story we always recite is the legend of the poinsettia plant. The poinsettia was a nondescript weed that grew by the dusty roadside in Mexico. In 1836, the plant was brought to the United States by our first minister to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, and the flower was named for him.
___One legend tells of a poor little girl who was absolutely heartbroken because she had no gift she could bring to Jesus. As she walked along the dusty road, she desperately pulled one of the weeds as an offering to baby Jesus. The weed was immediately transformed into the beautiful red floral showpiece that we see today.
___We believe God turns weeds into flowers every day. In this world, there are many people seen as nothing more than weeds on the side of a dusty road. In Christ's new and coming world, they are seen as a dazzling red floral showpiece picked out especially by God. It is the special work of God to take that which is ugly and make it beautiful, to take that which is insignificant and make it special, to take that which is here today and gone tomorrow and make it eternally valuable.
___In Isaiah 61, we see clearly God's desire to transform the oppressed, brokenhearted and poor into "oaks of righteousness" to "display his glory." It is God's desire to give them "garlands instead of ashes" and "the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit" (v. 3). The message is that God is sending a chosen one who will turn weeds into flowers in the twinkling of an eye.
___Good news that is material as well as spiritual
___It is very important that we resist the temptation to simply spiritualize these actions that this anointed one of God has been called to accomplish. What the Lord has called his servant to do in this passage is described in what are very much physical and political terms.
___Gene Tucker points out that bringing good news to the oppressed and binding the brokenhearted (v. 1) can only refer to the alleviation of these conditions. Liberty to the captives and the opening of the prisons (v. 1) suggest a political act, and many think the new king Cyrus may have inspired this description, because he freed many who had been exiled in foreign lands by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Often, new kings proclaimed amnesty to those enslaved and imprisoned to curry favor and signal that a new day had begun.
___Finally, the reference to the year of the Lord's favor (v. 2) is best understood as either the coming of a sabbatical year or the year of Jubilee. The sabbatical (seventh) year was a time when slaves were freed and debts were cancelled (see Exodus 21:1-11; Deuteronomy 15:12-18). The Jubilee, the 50th year in a cycle, was the time when slaves were freed, debts were canceled and landholdings were redistributed to their original owners (see Leviticus 25). This was truly a time of God's favor being poured out on those who were oppressed, and it was a time of God's vengeance (v. 2) on those who were the oppressors.
___Good news in the flesh
___Isaiah 61 is a wonderful text for Advent because it speaks of a hope that God is coming to restore and redeem the world. And, most importantly, in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus quite specifically claims this text for himself and his vocation. Jesus is in fact the anointed one of God who will liberate the defeated.
___As Walter Brueggemann points out, it is no wonder that the beneficiaries of longstanding injustice were "filled with rage" at these subversive words that Jesus appropriated from Isaiah 61:1-2 (see Luke 4:28).
___The miracle of Christmas is that the great and mighty God of the universe would humble himself to send an anointed one, Jesus Christ, to care for common everyday people--the oppressed, brokenhearted, slaves, prisoners and mourners.
___Philip Yancey writes of J. B. Phillips' fantasy tale where a senior angel is showing a very young angel around the splendors of the universe.
___They view whirling galaxies and blazing suns and then flit across the infinite distances of space until at last they enter one particular galaxy of 500 billion stars. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its orbiting planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a tennis ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had previously seen.
___"I want you to watch that one particularly," said the senior angel, pointing with his fingers.
___"Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me," said the little angel. "What's special about that one?"
___When the Apollo astronauts were in space, they described our planet "as whole and round and beautiful and small." Jim Lovell, reflecting on the scene later, said, "It was just another body, really, about four times bigger than the moon. But it held all the hope and all the life and all the things that the crew of the Apollo 8 knew and loved. It was the most beautiful thing there was to see in all the heavens."
___That was the viewpoint of a human being. To the little angel in Phillips' story, though, Earth did not seem nearly so impressive. He listened in stunned disbelief as the senior angel shared with him that this planet--small, insignificant and not overly clean--was the celestially renowned Visited Planet.
___"Do you mean to tell me that our great and glorious Prince ... went down in person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should he do a thing like that?" ... The little angel's face wrinkled in disgust at the thought of such a journey by the Prince of Heaven. "Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that he stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?"
___"I do, and I don't think he would like you to call them 'creeping, crawling creatures' in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, he loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like him."
___The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.
___I agree with Philip Yancey when he writes that it is almost beyond his comprehension, too. And yet this incredible fact is the crux of the meaning of Christmas. And it's the absolute cornerstone of our faith. When you consider the grand scope of the universe and the grand scope of the God of the universe, the fact that God became human and came to Earth to care for lowly people because he loves us is almost impossible to believe.
___And yet it is the truth: Jesus came as the anointed one of God to bring good news to "creeping, crawling creatures" such as us.
___Brent Beasley is pastor of First Baptist Church in Eagle Lake
Questions for thought and discussion
___ Isaiah 61 was a source of hope for the Israelites; a clear word that better times were coming. What passages of Scripture have you held on to in tough times to sustain you until better times arrived? Has God led you to different passages at different times?
___ We believe that Christ came to restore the broken, but what about ourselves? What is our responsibility in bringing about restoration? How important is forgiveness in the restoration process?
___ Part of the good news of Christ is that he will bring "beauty from ashes" (v. 3). What illustrations can you give from your life or acquaintances where beauty came out of ashes? How do those type of occurances in life impact the faith of an individual?
___ What in your life needs renewing or restoring?
___ Does Philips' story of the angels' tour of the heavens speak to you more loudly about the insignificance of humanity or of the awesomeness of a loving God?
___ The author of this poem in Isaiah has been a source of hope for countless people. Has God given you a word of encouragement to share with others. How do you share encouragement without sounding Pollyanna-ish? What is the difference between hope and wishful thinking?
___ Isaiah 61 gives us great hope. Re-read the text; make a list of hopes it inspires.
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