It seems we tend to emphasize the liturgical nature of scripture and often wind up underappreciating it as literature. We talk dully about the Bible being "inspired" as if this fact was nothing more than a dusty doctrine buried in a creed somewhere. We forget that it was "inspired" in the most bold and burning sense of the word. I do not suppose the Biblical authors arose in the morning and said "It seems God desires me to write thus-and-so. I suppose I must do it." Au contraire.
The authors of scripture lived and wrote under the same terrible sky full of the same sparkling stars. They wrote in wonder and joy, and they wrote in stinging bitterness and disillusionment. They wrote in castles, and they wrote in caves. They wrote in peace, and they wrote in prison. They wrote in the dewy sunshine of early spring, and they wrote in the ghastly glare of burning cities. The result is a body of literature most if not all of which is unmatched anywhere else for pure glory and intensity of expression.
Consider this passage, from chapter 5, and judge for yourself if it would not be worthy of the most passionate revolutionaries who ever laid pen to paper or sword to tyrant's neck:
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!"
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!"
If that doesn't make you feel like tearing your clothes, it ought to. God is jealous over justice, and this jealousy has burned within His people through the ages. (These days, you will find most anyone is zealous for justice as an end, but few zealous for justice as a means.)
The sternly beautiful picture of the nation serving as the Lord's instrument of justice makes my pulse quicken with military adrenaline and fills me with a desperate desire to be part of such a company:
"He will raise a signal for nations afar off,
and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
None is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistband is loose,
not a sandal strap broken;
their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
Their roaring is like a lion,
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and none can rescue.
They will growl over it on that day,
like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds."
and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
None is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistband is loose,
not a sandal strap broken;
their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
Their roaring is like a lion,
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and none can rescue.
They will growl over it on that day,
like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds."
Can you not hear "the growling of the sea"! This is high and holy language, full of life and color - "blood and sap," as Lewis would say. And no wonder, for these are the very words of God.
People may say many things about the Bible, but they cannot say that it ignores the real nature of things. It never "smooths over" the agonies and ecstasies of existence: it plunges into them headlong - rashly almost - and comes out the other side bloody, exhausted, and victorious. Even C.S. Lewis's oft-quoted praise of Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings - "Here are beauties that pierce like swords and burn like cold iron" - is surpassed by the ringing words of the anonymous writer of Hebrews:
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." - Hebrews 4:12-13
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2 comments:
I KNEW I liked you.
I too am a lover of the Book of Isaiah. I have taught it verse by verse (took well over a year) and I don't agree that the first 39 chapters are judgemental. In fact there is redemption all thru the book. Just as there is in the 66 books of the Bible. I think the Hezekiah story is certainly redemptive. Chap 25, 40, 45. The whole Immanuel Child is inspiring. I believe that woman was Isaiah's wife. There is the discussing in Chapter 13 of the redemption of Babylon by a Meade. Much there.
I know people love the 40-66 chapters. But there is much in the first 39. I use The Prophecy of Isaiah by J. Alec Motyer (InterVarsity Press, 1993) as a guide.
You're right Gene: the 39/27 is a bit of a generalization. But I still think it's interesting.
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