THE PROPHETS OF THE SOUTHERN
KINGDOM, JUDAH
The prophets of Judah can be divided into those who were active before
the deportation and those whose ministry was carried out actually during
the time of the captivity itself. To the former group belong Obadiah,
Joel, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah; to the latter
Ezekiel and Daniel.
The history of the kings of Judah is related primarily by the books
of Chronicles. The nation's well-being is dependent on the Temple and on
the people's own call as a priestly nation. Jewish tradition, which is
also accepted by many Christian scholars, states that the books of Chronicles
were written by Ezra -- the last two verses of 2 Chronicles are in fact
identical with the first two of the book of Ezra. The books of Kings, on
the other hand, follow for the most part the events which took place in
Israel, the northern kingdom. Ezra then comes into this picture with his
description of the reconstruction of the temple after the captivity and
of the hopes associated with this. Both before and after the deportation
to Babylon (in 586 BC) the prophets stress the significance of law and
justice in the life of the nation.
The Messianic hope is seen in the distant future by the prophets of
Judah. They speak of the "day of the Lord" and of the "day of wrath", in
which the nation of Israel and the whole of creation will be sifted.16
Isaiah too describes the same all too familiar cosmic outlook known to
us from the book of Joel.17
"But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name
of the LORD. The remnant of Israel will do no wrong... " and those rescued
from Zion will find refuge.18
But what do the prophets of Judah have to say about the days of the Messiah?
The vision of Obadaiah,
by which name this, the shortest book in the Old Testament, is known,
depicts for us the conflict between Edom and Zion: "The day of the LORD
is near for all nations... " In that day the house of Jacob will be a fire
and the house of Esau will be like stubble. It is said of that time that
we should not look down "on the Jews in the day of their disaster". But
"on Mount Zion will be deliverance" and "the kingdom will be the LORD's".
Yalqut Mechiri says in connection with this book that,
"the word of God speaks in ten tongues: prophecy, vision, preaching,
speech, sayings, commands, examples, jokes, riddles and prediction."
In one chapter Obadiah twice mentions the "deliverance" associated with
Zion. For this reason the Rabbis consider it worth asking here, "When
will the Son of David return?" and they describe how Israel in those days
will be left all alone. The Yalqut also brings in the words of Zechariah:
"On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives" (14:4). And then
he will come of whom it is said that, "a star will come out of Jacob, a
sceptre will rise out of Israel" (Num. 24:17). The passage which says
that "on Mount Zion will be deliverance" refers to "The one who is to
come"... "Earlier the kingdom was Israel's, but since they fell into sin
the kingdom was taken from them and given to the gentile nations and the
land was sold to strangers". The Yalqut appeals here to Ezekiel 30:12,
which speaks of the coming punishment "by the hand of foreigners". However,
according to the last verse of Obadiah, in the end the "kingdom will be
the LORD's".
Joel's Messianic message
is a powerful word even for the Rabbis. Joel 2:23 in particular has
given rise to discussion:
"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God:
for he hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come
down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first
month" (AV).
The phrase "the former rain moderately," morêh litsdaqâh
(or AV margin "former rain according to righteousness"), really means "the
teacher of righteousness", although the word morêh 'teacher'
is in fact synonymous with the usual word for 'autumn rain', yorêh.
Thus Ibn Ezra, for example, explains: " 'teacher' means that he will
teach the way of righteousness" and "there is a long period of time between
the former and the latter rains". Rabbi David Qimhi understands the
whole analogy as pointing to the Messiah: the words of the following verses
about the "threshing-floors" being filled with grain are a "parable
of the days of the Messiah". The word "afterwards" (v 28) means "the End
Times, which are the days of the Messiah, as it is written: 'The earth
will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD' (Is. 11:9)... , and 'I will
pour out my Spirit on all flesh' refers to Israel... 'and they will
all know me, from the least of them to the greatest'." This final line
is taken from the passage describing the "new covenant" in Jeremiah (31:34).
The Metsudat David also explains the outpouring of the spirit as referring
here to the Messiah's time. This Rabbinic interpretation certainly
gives abundant food for thought when approaching the New Testament!
Joel 3:18 speaks eventually of "a fountain" which "will
flow out of the LORD's house". This is virtually the opposite of the
picture of drought and famine at the beginning of the prophecy. The book
of Amos also closed with the statement that when God restores the nation's
fortunes "the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter
by the one treading grapes". Isaiah 35 and 65 for their part associate
similar happenings with the final Messianic fulfilment. Yalqut Mechiri
sees here a connection with the picture in the Midrash which speaks of
God, in the days of the Messiah, pouring down manna from heaven and opening
a spring which will flow from the house of the LORD. Thus the "first
saviour" Moses and the "last saviour", who is yet to come, are reminiscent
of one another, and so RaDaQ interprets this as referring to the days
of the Messiah.
The Dead Sea Scrolls too mention the "Teacher of Righteousness" here
and there.19
The basis of this Qumran Messianic figure is understandably the words of
Joel 2:23. RaSHI likewise hints at this interpretation when at the beginning
of his commentary on the book of Zechariah he says that,
"Zechariah's prophecies are impenetrable... we will never understand
the truth of his words until the Teacher of Righteousness comes".
And it is indeed true that Christian Messianic interpretation receives
abundant support from the book of Zechariah.
Joel's description of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is borrowed
almost in its entirety by Peter in his preaching on the day of Pentecost
(Acts 2:16--21). The Talmud says of the Holy Spirit that,
"after the last prophets had died the Holy Spirit left Israel, although
the heavenly voice (bath qôl, the 'daughter of a voice')
could still be heard".20
The scholars understood that the Spirit of God would function in an entirely
new way on the arrival of the Messiah. Again, in the description of the
day of the Lord Joel 2:32 sets out the Bible's simplest doctrine of salvation,
which Paul borrows in Romans 10:13: "Everyone who calls on the name of
the LORD will be saved".
Zephaniah
son of Cushi, or "dark-skinned", was apparently of mixed blood. He was,
however, a fourth generation descendant of King Hezekiah and according
to tradition a childhood friend of the prophet Jeremiah. It may well be
that Zephaniah had had the opportunity of encouraging the young king Josiah
in his spiritual reformation, which took place in the year 622 BC. He was
above all the prophet of the approaching Day of the Lord and of revival:
"Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the
day of the LORD's anger" (2:3).
God will one day "purify the lips of the peoples". "The remnant of Israel
will do no wrong, they will speak no lies" (3:9,13). A missionary in her
early days in Israel, a Dr Aili Havas, was once listening to a Jewish academic
praising the high moral standards of the pioneers who had come to Israel:
apparently violence, theft and alcoholism were unheard of in the whole
country! At length the young graduate, as she was at that time, spoke up:
"Well I must admit that in Finland we have plenty of crime and alcoholism
-- but Finns don't usually tell lies." At that her Jewish acquaintance
let slip, "Are they as stupid as that?" To some extent this is illustrative
of eastern attitudes, even though the Rabbis themselves emphasise that
"truth is God's seal".
Zephaniah 3:9, which speaks of "purifying the lips of the peoples" says
that mankind will one day serve the Lord "with one mind" -- in Hebrew shechem
ehad, 'shoulder to shoulder' (NIV), or 'in concert'. The Yalqut points
out that according to the Talmud, "the nations will be blessed through
Israel in the days of the Messiah".21
Regarding the promise in Zephaniah 3:11 that God will "remove from this
city those who rejoice in their pride", and that "Never again will you
be haughty on my holy hill", the Yalqut reminds us of the discussion in
the Talmud which says that "The Son of David will not come until boasting
has ceased in Israel and until God takes away the people's pride... and
leaves a miserable and troubled people".22
The last chapter of Zephaniah contains yet another deep consolation for
the stricken soul: "He will quiet you with his love"... God will
"rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered" and will restore
their fortunes. "The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from
you; they are a burden and a reproach to you!"
The prophet Habakkuk
was active in the last years of King Josiah (640--608 BC). He "stood
at his watch", "observed" and then "made his complaint about the degradation
of the people of Judah. In his ministry he uttered words which have been
immensely influential in Christian and in Essene thought. The words
of Habakkuk 2:4 -- "the righteous will live by his faith"-- appear three
times in the New Testament.23
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament made
ca.200 BC, translates this verse as "the righteous will live ek pisteôs
mou, 'from my faith' or 'from my faithfulness' " according to its secondary
meaning -- the believer lives, then, through faith effected by God.
The doctrine of Justification by Faith is an essential part of the Old
Testament's Messianic vision. Daniel 9:24 speaks of the "anointed" or Messiah,
who will "make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness" (KJ acc. to Hebrew) Jeremiah
23:6 and 33:16 stresses that the Messiah's name will be "the LORD Our
Righteousness"; and Isaiah 53:11 compresses the significance of the
death of the Lord's suffering servant into the saying that "my righteous
servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities". This, as
we have seen, answers to the import of the last verse of psalm 22, that
the Messianic meal "proclaims his righteousness... for he has done it".
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain a remarkable statement in the commentary
on Habakkuk: "And God commanded Habakkuk to write what will happen in
the time of the last generation; he did not, however, reveal to him the
final decree. In saying that 'he may run who reads it' he was referring
to the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom he has revealed all the secrets
of his servants the prophets."24
The Yalqut speaks of a vision "which waits, but which will
not be late": the Talmud says of it that "the End Times are already
upon us, but the Messiah has not yet come".25
There follows a reference to Abraham's significance as the Father of the
Faith: "Israel will one day sing a new song to Him Who is to Come, as
it is written: 'sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous things'
(Ps.98:1); What right does Israel have to sing this? For Abraham's sake,
because he believed... and the righteous will live by his faith." This
simplification of the commandments to a few individual precepts is compared
in another parallel passage with "this one" commandment of faith, which
is the most important of all.26
It is no wonder that Paul made a bridge between the faith of Abraham and
the words of Habakkuk in the third chapter of the letter to the Galatians.
Habakkuk 3:18 concludes the prophet's vision with praise: "Yet I will
rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign
LORD is my strength." Targum Jonathan explains that this word is connected
with the deliverance which the Messiah will bring about, and with the miracles
he will perform. Very often the prospect of joy is associated in the Old
Testament with the coming of the Messiah, as we see in, for example,
the 9th, 60th and 61st chapters of Isaiah or in Joel 2:23 and Zechariah
9:9.
The prophet Micah
gives a more detailed account of the Messianic hope than the other pre-exile
prophets. He was active during the reigns of Judah's kings Jotham (740--732
BC), Ahaz (732--716) and Hezekiah 716--687). Both Micah and Isaiah, who
were contemporaries, had the same concern for the nation and in part even
word for word the same message:
"Here, O peoples, all of you, listen, O earth and all who are in it...
In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains... and peoples will stream to it...
The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." (cf
Micah 1:2, 4:1--2 and Isaiah 1:2, 2:2).
Both speak in the same terms of the Messiah's appearing.
Micah sees the tribe of Judah in the last days being once more a blessing.
At that time:
"One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break
through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them,
the LORD at their head." (Micah 2:13)
When discussing Perez in connection with Genesis chapter 38 we saw that
the Messiah who will break down the hedge around the law is the "one
who will prepare the way", porêts, of Micah's prophecy. The same
root connects this "pioneer" with the wider discussion of the Messianic
office. RaSHI saw in Micah's words "their deliverer, the one who
will open the way", whereas RaDaQ reckoned that "the one who will
open the way is Elijah, and their king is The Branch, the Son of David".
The Rabbis saw a connection between this verse and the description of Elijah
at the end of Malachi, Elijah who will once more "turn the hearts of the
fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers".
(Malachi 4:6)
The Targum describes the king of Micah 4:7--8 who signifies the Messiah:
"I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation.
The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion, from that day and for ever."
The Targum says somewhat oddly that,
"Israel's Messiah has been concealed on account of the sins of Zion,
but later the kingdom will dawn for him".
The coming ruler in the beginning of chapter 5 who will rise from the tribe
of Judah is also understood by the Targum as indicating the Messiah.
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans
of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
Again it is worth recognising that when looking at, for example, psalm
118 we saw that RASHI identifies this ruler with the "cornerstone" which
will be rejected, and with the Yinnon or 'flourish' idea in psalm
72:17. The Yinnon Messiah was before the sun, moon and course of
the stars. This special name also describes how he will "awake the children
of the dust from the dead" It is quite impossible to understand what
the New Testament has to say without some familiarity with these roots
of our faith which arise from the Jewish literature.
The Messianic tone of the book of Micah is also apparent from the fact
that both the Talmud and the Midrash each attach to it their own discussions
of the coming Deliverer.27
Micah has, however, as does Isaiah, his own message of comfort:
"He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require
of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
"I wait in hope for God my Saviour... Though I have fallen, I will
rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light... He will
bring me out into the light; I will see his justice." "Who is a God like
you, who pardons sin?... You will again have compassion on us; you
will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths
of the sea." 28
We may mention here that according to Daniel 2:22 God "reveals deep
and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells
with him." One of the Messiah's secret names, "Nehora", is taken from
this verse, and when we looked at psalm 22 we saw that the Midrash speaks
of the Messiah who "has sat in the darkness and in the depths" -- Micah
also promises that the Lord our Light will come into the darkness of men.
The prophet Isaiah
was active for forty years after the death of King Uzziah in 740 BC.
Jewish tradition says that he was the son of the brother of Uzziah's predecessor
Amaziah, which would make him Uzziah's cousin. This would also give an
explanation for the fact that he would seem to have had direct access to
the ruling family and the possibility of having some influence on the political
decision-making of the day. Isaiah lived at a time when the corruption
of the kingdom of Judah was not yet at its worst. Nevertheless, as a prophet
he was one of "history's storm petrels" and foretold the nation's impending
destruction. The shoot of hope was to sprout from the "stump of Jesse"
only when it had been cut right to ground level (Is. 11:1 and 10).
Isaiah outlines the Messiah's prophetic and high-priestly office. He
sees his birth, his majesty, his humiliation and the glory of his exaltation.
Isaiah also describes the resurrection hope, the new heaven and earth,
and the last judgement.29
He has justly been called the "Old Testament's Evangelist". Furthermore,
just as the whole Bible is divided into the 39 books of the Old Testament
and the 27 of the New, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are primarily proclamations
of judgement and the last 27 a "book of consolation". In general the first
part of the prophetic books are judgement on the nations, and the latter
chapters contain comfort and Messianic hope. However, the note of rebuke
and forgiveness sounds right from the opening chords to the final chapter.
The Messianic nature of the book of Isaiah is so clear that the oldest
Jewish sources, the Targum, Midrash and Talmud, speak of the Messiah in
connection with 62 separate verses. Anyone who wishes to familiarise
himself with this background can refer to the list below.30
Even though these works tell us something of the roots of our Christian
faith, the most important thing is always the message of the Bible as it
stands.
Certain basic features dominate Isaiah's preaching. They come to the
fore in both the general nature of his presentation and in his Messianically
interpreted words.
a) Firstly, the message of repentance and consolation are apparent
right at the beginning of his prophecy:
"Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: 'I reared
children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox
knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.' Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt,
a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken
the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs
on him. Why should you be beaten any more? Why do you persist in rebellion?
Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted." "Wash and make
yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight!" " 'Come now, let
us reason together', says the LORD; Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall
be like wool' " (1:1--5,16,18).
b) Even rebuke is presented with poetic beauty by the prophet:
"I will sing to the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved
one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of
stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in
it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit. 'Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of
Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done
for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to
my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will
break down its wall, and it will be trampled' " (5:1--5).
Here we have reflections of both the breaking down of the "hedge around
the law" and the "trampling" of Jerusalem (Eph. 2:15 and Luke 21:24), and
we have another example of how the New Testament makes proper sense only
in the light of the Old.
c) Isaiah's Messiah-pericopes often have their own historical background:
we read in Isaiah 7:14 that,
"The LORD himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanu-El ",
which means 'God with us'. It would appear that the prophet may have been
referring to Zechariah's daughter Abijah, who was the mother of Hezekiah
the son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1--2). The Jews expected this devout king Hezekiah
to become the real liberator of the nation from the northern threat. The
word .almah, which the Septuagint translated 200 years before Christ to
mean primarily "virgin", was, however, also a "sign" of what was to come.
In the same way the beginning of ch. 9 with its mention that "in the past
he humbled the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali" refers to the
tribute lands of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser. "In the future",
however, "he will honour Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea,
along the Jordan". And so it was that the precise areas in which Jesus
carried out most of his ministry came to experience that "the people walking
in darkness have seen a great light". "And the government will be on the
shoulders" of the child, on whom Isaiah pinned all his hopes. Even his
name has a divine quality: "Wonder, Counsellor, God, Hero, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace (Is. 9:1--6 acc. to the Hebrew). The emphasis on
the "future" also leads to a Messianic interpretation, in which the coming
Deliverer's supra-historical features are taken into account.
d) The vistas of hope illuminated by the prophet dawn, according
to both Isaiah and the rest of the prophetic literature, on the "remnant"
of the people.31
Isaiah uses of this the terms "shoot", "Branch" and "root".32
This "Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious... the LORD will
wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains
from Jerusalem... " (4:1--4). The "Anointed" of the Lord will comfort the
humble, those in prison, and those who are sorrowful, giving them "the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness",
as promised in eg. chapters 42, 52 and 61. A noted scholar once pointed
out that Hebrew is the only one of the Semitic languages like Ugaritic
or Aramaic which does not lack the concept of "hope". Exile, oppression
and despair have given birth to this word tikvâh, from which
Israel's national anthem Ha-tikvâh derives its name.
e) Isaiah's Messianic hope is personified in his "book of consolation"
in the many touching descriptions of the "Lord's sufferring servant".
The most important of these are Is. 42:1--7, 49:1--6, 50:4--9 and 52:13--53:12.
Chapters 61 and 62 add the final touches to these features. The Targum
refers to the Messiah as the Lord's servant three times: firstly, in the
words of Is.42:1, "Here is my servant whom I uphold... I will put my Spirit
on him"; secondly, regarding the servant of 43:10, whom God has "chosen";
and thirdly, in 52:13, in which the Synagogue's pericope of the "suffering"
servant of the Lord really begins. In actual fact, that whole 53rd
chapter in our Bible is conspicuous by its absence from the Synagogue's
yearly haphtarôt prophetic chapter and all the mediaeval commentaries.
In its place there is a statement in brackets to the effect that "Some
things are missing from here"!33
But what is the message of Isaiah's Messianic hope as it stands? The
reader should be able to visualise it as one coherent image. We will attempt
in what follows to see the elements of that picture:
"A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch
will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him -- the Spirit
of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the
Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -- and he will delight
in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will
judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the
earth" (11:1--4). "In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more
the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy
One of Israel" (29:18--19). "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen
one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice
to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the
streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will
not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice" (42:1--3).
"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your
hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives
from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness"
(42:6--7).
Israel too is the Lord's servant:
"But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This
is what the LORD says -- he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and
who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun [the
name is taken from Deut. 32:15 and is used as an affectionate name for
Israel, meaning 'upright', 'honest'] whom I have chosen. For I will pour
water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out
my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants" (44:1--3).
f) Although Isaiah speaks of the Messiah-figure almost as if he were
both an individual and a nation, he centred the national deliverance on
a person whom he called Cyrus:
"I am the LORD... who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd and will
accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt,"
and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid.' " This is what the LORD
says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue
nations before him... I will strengthen you, though you have not
acknowledged me... I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will
make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward... " (44:28--45:1, 5,13).
Isaiah speaks in his prophecy of events which took place almost 200 years
later. The Greek historian Xenophon wrote of this ruler in two of his works.
In one of them, which is called Kyroupaideia or "The Education of Cyrus"
he says that this king was not stained by cruelty. He relates how it had
been prophesied that he would be king and how he was to have been murdered
as a child, but the shepherd who was given the job to do spared him. Cyrus
ruled Persia from 559--530 BC and was remarkable for the fact that he saved
Sumeria and Akkadia from destruction and protected the religious rights
of various nations. Observing these principles of his he granted the Jews
the right, by his proclamation in writing, to begin the rebuilding of the
temple which lay in ruins.34
Some critics are of the opinion that Cyrus' name was added at a later date
to Isaiah, and others that precisely this Isaiah tradition coupled with
the Jews' significant influence in Persia might possibly have caused the
ruler to take this name to himself. In any case, Cyrus' character matches
the picture given in Isaiah.
g) Most remarkable in Isaiah is the glimpse he gives us of the Lord's
suffering servant. This is so central to the Christian interpretation
of scripture that we will touch upon it again separately, as with the issue
of the birth of the Messiah. This image is one of the group describing
the Messiah's high-priestly office. Isaiah states:
"The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the
word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my
ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears,
and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. I offered my back
to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did
not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD
helps me, I will not be disgraced... " (50:4--7). "Burst into songs of
joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight
of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation
of our God" (52:9). "See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised
and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled
at him -- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his
form marred beyond human likeness -- so will he sprinkle many nations"
(52:13--15).
There follows the description of the Sufferer who "was pierced for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities" (Chapter 53). These portraits
are universal in their intention, and they speak clearly of the "redemption"
and the "atonement" which will be effected by the Lord's Suffering Servant.
h) Isaiah gives the Messianic hope a universal dimension and describes
its eschatological nature. One day the "Root of Jesse will stand as
a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him" (11:10). God will
destroy "the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death for
ever" (25:7--8). The anointed servant of the Lord will be made "a covenant
for the people and a light for the Gentiles" (42:6). He is made "a light
for the Gentiles, that he may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth"
and he has been prepared as "a covenant for the people" (49:6--8). "Many
nations will marvel at him" (52:15 NIV footnote). "Nations will come to
your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn... To you the
richness of the nations will come... Surely the islands look to me"
(60:3,5,9)."Raise a banner for the nations. The LORD has made a proclamation
to the ends of the earth: Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your Saviour
comes!" (62:10--11). In the light of this universal vision, which was already
in evidence in the "books of Moses" -- the Pentateuch -- Jesus' commandment
to go to "all nations" seems quite natural.
Isaiah wishes to underline this aspect from the point of view of
the Covenant. In the 24th chapter, which could be considered the strongest
description of the judgement on the world in the Last Days, we are told
how God will "ruin the face of the earth", and that the inhabitants of
the earth will be "burned up", because the people have "violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant" (v.5). Chapter 55 says, however,
that all those who are thirsty may come to the waters, and it gives the
promise:
"Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, my unfailing kindnesses promised
to David."
And it continues:
"Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not
know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy
One of Israel, for he has glorified you" (55:5).
RaDaQ explains that "the 'unfailing kindnesses promised to David' signify
the Messiah, as the name 'David' is used of him, and it is written that
'David my servant will be their prince for ever' (Ezek. 37:25)...
he will be the teacher of the nations... " and of the Messiah he says
that, " 'he will warn the people and rebuke them' ".35
The passage from Ezekiel continues: "I will make a covenant of peace
with them; it will be an everlasting covenant." Jeremiah too concurs
with this mention of an "everlasting covenant" and states that it will
be a "new covenant", based on the forgiveness of sin (Jer. 32:39--40
and 31:31--34).
As we have seen, the oldest Jewish sources refer to the Messiah at 62
different points in Isaiah, although a mere glance is in itself sufficient
to convince us of the Messianic drift of the "Old Testament's Evangelist".
Jeremiah,
the last of the great prophets of the kingdom of Judah, began his ministry
in the 13th year of King Josiah, 627 BC, and continued his proclamation
until a little after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. He became
the "prophet of the nations", and was called to "uproot and tear down,
to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (1:10). In practice it
meant a call to failure: he met with violence, imprisonment, he was thrown
into a pit, branded a traitor, and in the end it would appear that he was
stoned. Jeremiah, the son of a priest, was able to observe the progress
of the reform of 622 instigated by his contemporary, the young king Josiah,
which resulted from the finding, during the repair of the temple, of the
"book of the law" from one of its tumbledown rooms, apparently a part of
Deuteronomy (2 Kings 22 and 2 Chron. 34). A similar time of revival was
experienced in Isaiah's time when King Hezekiah purified the land from
idolatry (2 Kings 18). The temple, the law, and circumcision had however
become a false security for the people (Jer. 7,8 and 9). Courageously Jeremiah
stood "at the gate of the Lord's house" and rebuked the people for having
made the place into a den of thieves. It was not enough to chant "the temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" or "we have the law" or "peace, peace",
when both heart and tongue had become accustomed to deception. Jeremiah
also struggled against false, unspiritual prophets (23:16--40). He who
has the word of God must speak it faithfully:
"Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that
breaks a rock in pieces?" (23:29).
It has been estimated that the terms used to indicate God's addressing
man, "declares the LORD", "the word of the LORD came" and "thus says the
LORD" appear in the Bible 3808 times -- some 500 times in the book of Jeremiah
alone. The prophetic office generally began when God spoke, with mention
often made of the very year or even month in which it commenced. The Bible
is indeed a record of the very words of God to man.
Jeremiah chapter 23 says regarding listening to the words spoken by
God:
"If they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words
to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their
evil deeds."
The word for "council" or "counsel", sôd, 'secret', underlines
the fact that we meet with God "in secret". Jeremiah did not, however,
feel the injury to his people as an outsider. He said that his heart was
"broken" on account of the breaking of the people; he "secretly wept" because
the "people of God will be taken into captivity" and he "writhed in pain".
When he wished to keep silence it was as if there was a "burning fire"
in his heart. In this way the Old Testament's "weeping prophet" displayed
characteristics which some critics hold to have given additional impetus
to the expectation of a suffering Messiah. The nearer the destruction of
Jerusalem came, however, the more comforting became the prophet's voice,
until the Messianic vision unfolds itself to its brightest splendour in
chapters 30--34. It is these chapters which hold most of Jeremiah's Messiah
prophecies.
We find an eschatological term associated with Jeremiah's prophecies
too. The phrase "the days are coming" is found 16 times in the book
whereas only five times elsewhere in the Bible:
" 'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will raise up to
David a righteous Branch' " (23:5--6 and 33:15--17); " 'In that day,' declares
the LORD... 'they will serve the LORD their God and David their king whom
I will raise up for them' " (30:8--9); "In days to come you will understand
this" (30:24).
The whole of chapter 31 speaks of this time after the Jews return to their
homeland, twice making mention of Ephraim, God's "dear son", his "firstborn"
and "the child in whom he delights", all of which phrases the Rabbis considered
Messianic expressions. As we have seen, Ephraim is specifically associated
with Jewish interpretation of the Suffering Deliverer. Verses 31--34 speak
of a "new covenant" in which God will put his law "in their minds and write
it on their hearts" and he will "forgive their wickedness", and 32:39--40
promises:
"I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will
always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after
them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them... "
The Aramaic Targum interprets the following verses of Jeremiah as Messianic:
23:5, which says that God will "raise up to David a righteous Branch";
30:9: "they will serve the LORD their God and David their king"
-- If I might make an aside at this point; once in our Hebrew school in
Jerusalem a young student saw in this and in another corresponding verse
the Hebrew word la'avôd, 'serve' in the sense of 'worship
as to God', which is in fact the meaning the word most often has in
the Old Testament; 30:21, according to which "their ruler will rise
from among them"; even 33:13 is given a Messianic significance: "flocks
will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them [ie. the
shepherd]"; and immediately following, the name which refers to the righteous
Branch of David and to Jerusalem, "The LORD Our Righteousness",
is also a Messianic prophecy in the Targum. We find also in the Talmud
three discussions of the book of Jeremiah which deal with the coming of
the Messiah.36
Jeremiah's most important contribution to the Messianic idea is in
his prophecy of the righteous branch who will be called "The LORD our Righteousness".
This name appears in the Talmud as a secret name for the Messiah, and supports
the tendency of the early Christians to read the Old Testament "Lord" or
"Yahve" and the Greek "Kyrios" as referring to Christ.37
Thus the early church broadened its Messianic interpretation, adopting
a principle which, it must be conceded, often corresponds to the similar
views brought out by the Rabbinic literature.
Another point to note in Jeremiah is in the words "firstborn" and "dear
son" used of Ephraim, the name which is associated with Jewish tradition's
most shocking descriptions of the Suffering Messiah, as we saw when we
looked, for example, at psalm 22. The Talmud contains a tradition regarding
the history of this son of Joseph, according to which the "sons" of
Ephraim attempted prematurely to invade Canaan and met their deaths in
the struggle.38
Jeremiah's most important Messianic prophecy is, however, the description
in chapter 31 of the promised new covenant.
----------
16. See eg. Obadiah
1:15, Joel 1:15, 2:1-2, Zephaniah 1:14-15 or Habakkuk 3
17. Is. 24:17-19,
41:15-16 and Joel 2:30-31 and 3:13-16.
18. Zephaniah 3:12-16.
Joel 2:23 and 3:21 and Obadiah 1:17-21.
19. Eg. the commentary
on Habakkuk 1:12, 5:10, 7:4, 8:3,9:9-10 and 11:4-5.
20. Yoma 9b
and 21b.
21. Avoda Zara
24a.
22. Sanhedrin
98a.
23. Rom. 1:17, Gal.
3:11, Heb. 10:38.
24. Comm. on Habakkuk,
beg. of p7.
25. Sanhedrin
97.
26. Makkôth
24.
27. Sanhedrin
97a and 98b, Sutta 49b and the Midrash to Canticles, 8:10
28. Nicah 6:8, 7:7-9
and 18-19.
29. Is. 25:7-9, 26:19,
30:19-20 and 66:22-24.
30. The Targum reads
the follwing u referring to the Messiah: Is. 4:2, 9:5, 10:27,
11:
1, 11:6, 14:29, 16:l, 28:5, 42:l, 43:10, 52:13 and 60:1. With reference
to Isaiah the
Talmud
comments on the Messianic idea in: Shabbath 89b, Pesachim 5a,
68a, Rôsh
ha-shanah
11b, Mo'ed Katan 28b, Yebamoth 62a and 63b, Ketuboth 112b,
Sanhedrin
38a,
91b, 93b, 94a, 97a, 97b, 98a, 99a and 110b. The Midrash and Yalqut
are not
included
here. The observations of the Targum, the Aramaic paraphrase of the
Bible,
are generally very short. Eg. Is. 16:1 says: "Send lambs as
tribute to the ruler
of the
land". This refers to the fact that on the death of King Ahaz in
716 BC Moab
no longer
sent tribute lambs to the the king. T'he Targum refers to the fact
that
"tribute
is to he brought to the Messiah". T'he idea that the lambs which
rightly
belong
to Christ should be brought to him would serve well as a "Targum" or
sermon
theme for our day. The Talmud's train of thought is not readily grasped
by
the
reader of today as it is mainly concerned with the exposition of the Jewish
law.
T'he
Midrash also practices this kind of ribuyim amplification which
does not often
have
points of contact with Christian thought.
31. See Is. 10:20-22,
16:14 or 28:5 and Jer. 6:9, Ez. 6:8 and Zech. 8:12 or Deut. 28:62-64
32. See Is. 11:1,10
and 53:2 or Jer. 23:6 and Zech. 3:8, 6:12 etc.
33. See the corresponding
section of Yalqut Mechiri.
34. See eg. Encyclopaedia
Judaica and Ezra chaps. 1-6.
35. Mikraôth
Gedolôth, corr. sect.
36. Berakoth 12b,
Baba Bathra 75b and Sanhedrin 98b.
37. See eg. Baba
Bathra 75b
38. See Sanhedrin
92b.
The next chapter "THE
PROPHETS WHO WERE ACTIVE DURING THE EXILE"
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