The image is utterly false which sees God looking far into the future of Israel and marking some date on His Heavenly calendar for the birth of His Son. Rather, He watched over things, guarding and guiding, until His wisdom saw the time was right. God is interactively involved in His Creation, a living relationship which ignores the constraints of our human awareness on that level. So it is with That Last Day, as well as every other That Day on the way. We cannot hope to comprehend what lies behind it, only that it represents His own sense of justice against sin. Isaiah begins this chapter with a type of That Day, which echoes down to the final end of all things.
The symbol of Edom is complex. It means "red" as much from the appearance and appetites of the man as from the appearance of the place. It was generally south by southeast from where Isaiah prophesied and wrote. For God to arise from that direction with robes stained red conjured the explicit image of red grape juice from wine making, the blood of warfare. It could easily remind one of red dust clouds on the southern horizon, but was the symbol of God's wrath against sin. During Isaiah's lifetime Edom had committed several egregious crimes against her cousin, Israel, and so it was also the place of great sin.
The point Isaiah makes is no one seems willing to stand for Him against the sin which characterized Edom the place, Edom the people or Edom the man who gave them his name. Was Jacob now at peace with Esau, the Chosen now cooperating with the Rejected? How was Israel more righteous and Edom? The history of Israel was the history of grand heights from which she repeatedly dove head first into failure, wallowing in sin more often than struggling against it. In the end, God was left to accomplish His redemption alone. So it would be when He sent His Son, who would fulfill the failed destiny of Israel, and fulfill the Covenant. God was the Guarantor from the start, and the final acts of closure were His. Sadly, it was the people of Israel who would be trodden down with their sin.
Against this Isaiah compares the purity and worthiness of the God whose wrath fell on Israel. He alone is the wronged party, for He abundantly offered and supplied more than Israel dared ask. All along the way, He kept calling her back to His bosom. Time and time again, He acted the love stricken husband, who so quickly forgot her sins. Surely she would get it right this time! But no. Finally, with a broken heart, He had to let her take the path she had chosen.
Surely He never forgot, though. During those brief moments of righteousness, she was such a treasure to behold! Could not this God Almighty finish what He started? Was He who brought her out of Egyptian slavery unable to make her His queen? This is the image of our common human condition after the Fall. We cannot even want His redemption, so it is by His own hand and choice we are brought up from slavery to sin, and every moment of every day, He purchases us back from slavery. The difference is our identity as followers of Christ is not simply a discrete nation on earth, one among many nations, with a covenant based merely on ritual and laws. Our identity is purely spiritual, rooted in Christ Himself. This is the ultimate redemption, the final fulfillment of all God's desires for His Creation.
Under such an eternal covenant, what would He see looking down upon us from Heaven? Can He see any part of Himself on earth? Yes, His zeal is alive in reborn spirits. Abraham and Jacob could not have imagined the end result of their promises. Why did He make Israel hardened against His love? So He could share it with all Creation. Israel's rejection is our acceptance.
Return to Isaiah Index
[<-- Previous]
[Next -->]
By Ed Hurst
09 October 2009
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)