Day 32

Into the conversation, Peterson now brings the one he calls the prophet of the exile.

He reminds us that:-

“the general consensus on the authorship of Isaiah is that the named prophet is responsible for chapters 1-39 of the book. An unnamed prophet during the exile picked up where the first Isaiah left off and continued the story (chapters 40-55). For convenience I call him simply the Prophet. Isaiah of Jerusalem preached a message of warning and judgment, unsuccessfully attempting to rouse the people from an idola­trous preoccupation with themselves. Their refusal to listen and repent and obey re­sulted in the devastation of the exile. Isaiah of the Exile, the Prophet, took up the task of comforting the people and leading them into an obedient life of trust and singing as salvation was worked out among them. A third, also unnamed, prophet is responsible for post-exilic messages (chapters 56-66). Given the three preachers and the stretch of time involved (in round numbers, two hundred years), most readers (this one at least) marvel at how wonderfully and congruently the parts flow together.

The prophet of the exile faced the task of recovering for his companions in exile a sense of the living, present God - the God of their salvation. The people had to realize that they were still God’s people and the story of God’s people was not going to fizzle out in the land of Babylon.

He preached good news and his sermon strategy comprised three elements –

1) providing images of God - especially the image of Creator and Saviour.
(creation is the theatre, covenant is the salvation played out in it).

2) exposing the idols of Babylon for what they are - ‘no gods’

3) recovering a sense of ‘our God’ rooted in history - a lived history grounded in creation. God works in us, but not in us abstracted from creation and history.

The powerful message is that ‘salvation is on the way’. But the way this would be achieved would be a surprise. It would happen through the ‘servant of the Lord’.

The 4 well known ‘servant songs’ in Isaiah are an important expression of the way in which salvation would come through the servant.

The first song (Isaiah 42:1-9) - the servant is chosen for a mission

The second song (Isaiah 49:1-7) - ‘formed in the womb’ - ‘the servant is no late-coming desperate attempt to save a failing enterprise.'

The third song (Isaiah 50:4-9) - the work of the servant is one of witness and preaching and it will be met with scorn and contempt

The fourth song (Isaiah 52:13ff) - the way will involve suffering and sacrifice and this is the chosen means of salvation. The Christian way is the way of the servant. Wonderfully all of this is beautiful, good.

Peterson sums this up -

“If we are to keep company with Isaiah 53 we have to radically revise our imaginations and memories in order to take it in - to see sacrifice, offering, weakness, suffering as essential and not as an option to salvation….. there is fathomless mystery at the heart of this.”