10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her—
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious bosom.
12 For thus says the LORD:
I will extend prosperity to her like a river,
and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm,
and dandled on her knees.
13 As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
your bodies shall flourish like the grass;
and it shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants,
and his indignation is against his enemies.
(NRSV)
Chapter 66 is the last chapter in the Book of Isaiah. Most biblical scholars see (at least) two separate movements in the book of Isaiah. The first part seems to warn against the result of continued disobedience. The second part is more positive, talking about God’s post-exilic restoration of Israel. As the second part (scholar refer to this as second Isaiah) moves along the tone shifts again to a more eschatological outlook as the author talks more and more about a new heaven and a new earth. These sorts of interpretive clues absolutely cannot be ignored when faithfully reading the biblical text.
This piece from Isaiah 66 talks both about Israel’s restoration and a coming day when God’s reign will be established on all the earth. It speaks of Israel becoming a blessing to all nations. It’s important for us to remember that when God elected Israel to be God’s special people, God did so with the intention of redeeming the world. Sometimes there’s this misguided notion that Israel’s election was an election to become separate, isolated, exclusive. God’s intention has always been much more cosmic in scale. When God separated Israel to Godself it was not that God turned God’s back on the rest of creation. God desired to bring about the new creation through Israel.
Perhaps there’s a lesson here for the church. Though I don’t agree with the idea that the church is the ‘new Israel’ (such ideas tend to lead to anti-Semitic tones and precluded Israel from being part of God’s people), I do see the church as a new people of God (one that includes the Israel—though differently and we don’t have space to develop that thought). As the church we are not so much saved from the world as saved for the world. Some ecclesiologists see the church’s essence as mission. If that’s so, then we need to answer the question, “What is mission?” Without ignoring or discounting many of the notions of mission as evangelism (‘winning people to Christ’), I would suggest that mission is also something much broader. Mission has to do with God’s desire to make all things new. It has to do with God’s Kingdom here on earth.
In his hymn, “A Charge to Keep I Have,” Charles Wesley says, “To serve the present age, / My calling to fulfill; / O may it all my pow’rs engage / To do my Master’s will!” As the church we are to serve the present age. Not some past age when things we “much better”, or some future age that has yet to be realized, but this present age. If we neglect that calling, we ignore God’s will for the church. Wesley’s hymn continues: “Help me to watch and pray, / And on Thyself rely, / Assured if I my trust betray / I shall forever die.” It seems Charles Wesley clearly understood the exigent nature of God’s calling to serve this present age.
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