Proper 28
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons:
With an Eye to the New
This text forms the last portion of the long judgment-salvation oracle that is contained in Isaiah 65. It comes from Israel's post-exilic period, when for the first time in the Old Testament, the Lord divides his covenant people into two groups, those who will be judged and those who will be saved. The difference between them is that one group has depended on the Lord for its life, while the other has not and has deliberately turned away from its Lord (cf. 65:1, 11-12). Trust, faith marks the way by which God's saving acts will be received.
Because of the way verse 17 is used in the New Testament, in Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:11-13, it has often been held that it characterizes the beginning of apocalypticism in the Old Testament, in which our present evil history is abandoned and God creates an entirely new heaven and earth. However, there is no abandonment of this world in our text. Verse 17 reads in the Hebrew, "For behold, I am creating ..." that is, God's act of re-creation has already begun, as God works gradually in human history, and the salvation that is promised is spelled out in the concrete circumstances of Jerusalem's everyday life.
In contrast to the New Testament, there is no mention of eternal life here. The Old Testament has no statement of resurrection or life after death until the time of the second century B.C. Book of Daniel (Daniel 12:2-3). There are earlier hints that even death cannot separate the faithful from God (Job 19:25-27; Psalm 73:23-26; Isaiah 25:6-8). But after all, the incarnation and resurrection have not yet taken place. Therefore our text deals concretely only with the saving work of God in this world.
The transformations that God here proclaims that he will work in the life of the faithful are marvelous in their promise. To the suffering faithful (cf. chs. 58 and 59), the Lord promises that he will replace their distress and weeping with joy and gladness (65:19). And that gladness will come from many things. For example, no longer will there be premature death, either of infants or of elderly (v. 20). To the Hebrew mind, long life was a gift of God, who is the Source of all life (cf. Deuteronomy 4:40; Job 5:26). Death was seen as a natural part of life and was accepted rather peacefully (cf. Genesis 25:8), unless it was premature or violent. Then it was understood as a judgment or curse from God. The implication is, therefore, that all of the faithful will live in the favor of the Lord.
The Lord also promises that his people (note "my people" in v. 19) will never again suffer the loss of their houses and vineyards and property, either through the ravages of war, or, more importantly, because of the greed and injustice of the proud and powerful. Many of the prophets condemned the injustices perpetrated upon the poor by corrupt courts of law, that seized the property of the helpless in payment of debts, while throwing them into prison or selling them into slavery. Such injustices and violence will never again take place, the Lord promises.
Further, our text proclaims that those faithful to the Lord "shall not labor in vain" (v. 23). Rather, they will reap the rewards of their labor. One of the curses on Adam in the story of the Fall in Genesis 3 is that he will no longer experience reward from his work commensurate with the effort he puts into it. His sweat, his toil, his drudgery will be meaningless and without due reward.
Perhaps that promise of meaningful work furnishes the most relevant entrance into this text for the preacher, for there are a lot of people in our times who see no point in the way they earn their daily bread or in the way they have to struggle. As has been said, they lead lives of "quiet desperation," in which all that they do has no meaning or satisfactory recompense. They experience the same old routine, day after day, with no purpose to it all.
Indeed, even parents can feel that way when they spend hours of anxiety and toil raising their children, only to have them turn out badly. As one mother put it, "We raise our kids, and someone else tears them down." Nothing seems to bear good fruit. And of course, all the labor, all the anxiety, all the struggle to make something of life, ends in death, and we are gone, forgotten in just a few short years.
But the promise of God in our text is that there will be a permanence to human life -- "like the days of a tree," says verse 22, which is often a symbol of permanence in the Old Testament (cf. Psalm 92:12-14; Job 14:7-9). Honest work will render meaningful and lasting results, and labor will not be spent in vain.
Above all, verse 24 emphasizes that God will be near his faithful folk. Even before they pray, he will hear them, and even before they finish speaking, he will answer them. In contrast to those mentioned at the beginning of chapter 65, to whom God called but who never answered, those who trust in the Lord will find themselves in an intimate communion with their God, who will be sufficient for all their needs.
The New Testament did not err in the way it used the words of this chapter from Third Isaiah. For finally, the fulfillment of all of these promises from the Lord will come only when Christ does return to set up the Kingdom of God on earth, with its total transformation of our lives. We do in fact still suffer the violence and heartbreak of premature death of beloved infants and elderly. Our earth still knows the greed and injustice of the powerful and proud, and the rape and pillage of war. We still do know the impermanence of life in an era of dizzying change. Many still suffer the meaninglessness of the work they are doing.
But God has promised to transform it all. He made that promise to Israel -- a promise that is now extended to all his faithful covenant folk through his Son Jesus Christ. And ours is a God who always keeps his promises. In the New Testament message, there rings out the assurance of triumph over death, over suffering, over evil, over all, and yes, the reward for labor in the Lord. "Therefore, my beloved," writes Paul, "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58). If we trust God in Jesus Christ, we can know that is true.
Because of the way verse 17 is used in the New Testament, in Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:11-13, it has often been held that it characterizes the beginning of apocalypticism in the Old Testament, in which our present evil history is abandoned and God creates an entirely new heaven and earth. However, there is no abandonment of this world in our text. Verse 17 reads in the Hebrew, "For behold, I am creating ..." that is, God's act of re-creation has already begun, as God works gradually in human history, and the salvation that is promised is spelled out in the concrete circumstances of Jerusalem's everyday life.
In contrast to the New Testament, there is no mention of eternal life here. The Old Testament has no statement of resurrection or life after death until the time of the second century B.C. Book of Daniel (Daniel 12:2-3). There are earlier hints that even death cannot separate the faithful from God (Job 19:25-27; Psalm 73:23-26; Isaiah 25:6-8). But after all, the incarnation and resurrection have not yet taken place. Therefore our text deals concretely only with the saving work of God in this world.
The transformations that God here proclaims that he will work in the life of the faithful are marvelous in their promise. To the suffering faithful (cf. chs. 58 and 59), the Lord promises that he will replace their distress and weeping with joy and gladness (65:19). And that gladness will come from many things. For example, no longer will there be premature death, either of infants or of elderly (v. 20). To the Hebrew mind, long life was a gift of God, who is the Source of all life (cf. Deuteronomy 4:40; Job 5:26). Death was seen as a natural part of life and was accepted rather peacefully (cf. Genesis 25:8), unless it was premature or violent. Then it was understood as a judgment or curse from God. The implication is, therefore, that all of the faithful will live in the favor of the Lord.
The Lord also promises that his people (note "my people" in v. 19) will never again suffer the loss of their houses and vineyards and property, either through the ravages of war, or, more importantly, because of the greed and injustice of the proud and powerful. Many of the prophets condemned the injustices perpetrated upon the poor by corrupt courts of law, that seized the property of the helpless in payment of debts, while throwing them into prison or selling them into slavery. Such injustices and violence will never again take place, the Lord promises.
Further, our text proclaims that those faithful to the Lord "shall not labor in vain" (v. 23). Rather, they will reap the rewards of their labor. One of the curses on Adam in the story of the Fall in Genesis 3 is that he will no longer experience reward from his work commensurate with the effort he puts into it. His sweat, his toil, his drudgery will be meaningless and without due reward.
Perhaps that promise of meaningful work furnishes the most relevant entrance into this text for the preacher, for there are a lot of people in our times who see no point in the way they earn their daily bread or in the way they have to struggle. As has been said, they lead lives of "quiet desperation," in which all that they do has no meaning or satisfactory recompense. They experience the same old routine, day after day, with no purpose to it all.
Indeed, even parents can feel that way when they spend hours of anxiety and toil raising their children, only to have them turn out badly. As one mother put it, "We raise our kids, and someone else tears them down." Nothing seems to bear good fruit. And of course, all the labor, all the anxiety, all the struggle to make something of life, ends in death, and we are gone, forgotten in just a few short years.
But the promise of God in our text is that there will be a permanence to human life -- "like the days of a tree," says verse 22, which is often a symbol of permanence in the Old Testament (cf. Psalm 92:12-14; Job 14:7-9). Honest work will render meaningful and lasting results, and labor will not be spent in vain.
Above all, verse 24 emphasizes that God will be near his faithful folk. Even before they pray, he will hear them, and even before they finish speaking, he will answer them. In contrast to those mentioned at the beginning of chapter 65, to whom God called but who never answered, those who trust in the Lord will find themselves in an intimate communion with their God, who will be sufficient for all their needs.
The New Testament did not err in the way it used the words of this chapter from Third Isaiah. For finally, the fulfillment of all of these promises from the Lord will come only when Christ does return to set up the Kingdom of God on earth, with its total transformation of our lives. We do in fact still suffer the violence and heartbreak of premature death of beloved infants and elderly. Our earth still knows the greed and injustice of the powerful and proud, and the rape and pillage of war. We still do know the impermanence of life in an era of dizzying change. Many still suffer the meaninglessness of the work they are doing.
But God has promised to transform it all. He made that promise to Israel -- a promise that is now extended to all his faithful covenant folk through his Son Jesus Christ. And ours is a God who always keeps his promises. In the New Testament message, there rings out the assurance of triumph over death, over suffering, over evil, over all, and yes, the reward for labor in the Lord. "Therefore, my beloved," writes Paul, "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58). If we trust God in Jesus Christ, we can know that is true.
