A PEOPLE IN EXILE
I want you to close your eyes for a moment. Now imagine with me that you are an Israelite during the Babylonian Exile around 2,500 years ago, standing on the bank of the Euphrates River. You look downstream as two priests and a small crowd gather to perform an “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony as they consecrate a small stone statue of one of their gods. You are wondering how a few magical mutterings could possibly give life to a block of stone when you recognize a couple of the faces in the crowd.
They were friends once, in childhood. You would play tag and hide-and-seek in the streets of Jerusalem as your parents prepared for the seasonal feasts to honor your God, Yahweh. But now those streets lie in ruins and those other children are grown up and have begun to follow the Babylonian gods, thinking that Yahweh has forgotten them. You remember how, 49 years prior, the walls burned and you along with your family were roughly gathered into groups by the invading Babylonian soldiers and officials, and carted off with a few meager possessions to Babylon, a land of which you had only heard vague whispers. Lifelong friends were lost forever, taken away to other parts of the Empire or killed in the process. The Babylonians were not kind invaders, and they had a reputation for unsurpassed cruelty.
But through the past 49 years, you and your family struggled to be true to Yahweh and continued to worship in new, small congregations called synagogues. The old Temple had been destroyed and the Ark lost, but you kept your prayers by the old hours of the sacrifices. But maybe by now they seemed superficial. Where was God in all this suffering? How could he forget his people? How long would they cry and suffer before he would here them? And just when it seemed there was no reason to hope anymore, a new Empire came to power and a new ruler issued a decree: We are all going back home...
This is probably how the Israelites felt when Isaiah, a prophet who had experienced the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent Exile with them, began proclaiming a seemingly impossible hope. God had not forgotten Israel. God had not abandoned Israel. Israel had been unfaithful for generations, following other gods and relying on the benefit of political alliances with other empires for their safety, and it had finally caught up with them. The exile wasn’t just punishment. It was justice. Justice for Israel’s lack of faithfulness and for its mistreatment of orphans, widows, and resident aliens.
JUSTICE AS EXPRESSION OF GOD'S LOVE
But God’s love far outweighs his justice. Indeed, his justice is a manifestation of his love, and so he would not hold Israel to her sins forever. As v. 2 of our passage states, vindication lasts for a day, but the LORD’s favor is proclaimed for a year. And as a fulfillment of God’s eternal loving-kindness, his Holy Spirit will rest with his Anointed Conqueror, and Israel’s restoration would be accomplished by this Anointed One. This Anointed One has appeared over and over again in the prophetic proclamations of Isaiah. In the first chapters of Isaiah he is portrayed as a long awaited King. In chapters 52-53 he is the Suffering Servant who takes on the sins of the people and atones for them. And now the Suffering Servant returns triumphant.
In doing so, he replaces wastes with ripe fields in vv. 4 and 11, he repossesses the desolate cities in v. 4, and restores the people in v. 7. In fact, the language Isaiah uses to describe this process directly reflects the Jubilee Year as ordained in Leviticus 25. You see, every Sabbath Year, the Israelites were told to let their fields lay fallow and empty so that the land could rest (Lev. 25:5), and after seven Sabbath Years, or 49 years total, they were to proclaim a Jubilee in the 50th year with the blast of a trumpet. This was to usher in a a time when all debts were forgiven, where all Israelites who were slaves were to be released, and when all land that had been sold was returned to its ancestral owners. It was a time of liberty and release, as well as a time of return and restoration.
And that is what the Anointed One is doing here in Isaiah 61. He is proclaiming a year of favor from the LORD in verse 4 exactly 50 years after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, just as the Jubilee Year had been proclaimed every 50 years since the time of Moses. And just as the Jubilee Year proclaimed liberty from captivity for slaves, return of ancestral land bought in land deals, and the forgiveness of all debts, even those that were the result of bad decisions; so Israel was being released from the Babylonian Captivity and were being returned to their ancestral land, forgiven of their debts with the establishment of a new covenant giving Israel the rights of the a firstborn son. For just as a firstborn son was entitled to a double inheritance in the Torah, in verse 7 Isaiah proclaims that God was now going to replace their shame with a double portion of everlasting joy.
JESUS AND THE ESCHATOLOGOICAL YEAR OF JUBILEE
But there is an even deeper layer to this prophetic proclamation than just Israel’s return from the Babylonian Captivity. I do not believe that anything within scripture is simply a historical curiosity or accident, and it is no accident that God inspired Isaiah to proclaim this prophecy, not only for the benefit of the nation of Israel, but for all people present and future. Isaiah hints at this with the last verse in the chapter, when he says:
“As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all nations.” (v. 11). What the people of Israel may not have realized at the time was that Isaiah was pointing toward the long-promised Christ. The Sovereign Lord who was to be made manifest as Suffering Servant, Anointed Conqueror, and Triumphant King. It is also no accident that Jesus quotes the first two verses in Luke 4, when he preaches in the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth, where he unequivocally states, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” (Luke 4:21). Jesus’ incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection not only atones for our sins, but conquers and redeems on our behalf, restoring us to right relationship with him and promising us an Eternal Year of Jubilee.
And as we celebrate this Advent Season, we also express our eternal hope by remembering the wonders God has performed in the past and by living the principles of generosity which defined the year of Jubilee just as the early church did when “there was not a needy person among them,” (Acts. 4:34a). God was faithful to Israel by returning them to the land and restoring the nation when all hope had seemed lost. Even today, Christ is faithful to transform ashes into a beautiful headdress, a spirit of mourning into the oil of gladness, and a faint spirit into a garment of praise; as he adorns his bride, the Church. No matter how far off the hope of God’s help may seem to you now, I want you to remember He is faithful and that the Anointed Conqueror, our Triumphant King will return again.
Delivered on Dec. 16, 2017 – First Church of the Nazarene, La Junta, CO.
