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V4 is better translated ‘Yahweh your god Yahweh one’. Yahweh probably means something like ‘He who is’. ‘One’ or echad is very emphatic. Not the rather bloodless word ‘only’. It’s fundamental to the Christian understanding of God.
And ‘love’ does not mean warm fuzzy feelings. It means putting God first.
How can I do that in practice?
A problem: did God really want them to exterminate the inhabitants and take over their property?
What a shocking story! A thieving son, idol-worshipping family, amoral priest, greedy tribe of mass-murderers. All because there was no king to keep them under control. No wonder the prophets were angry.
Social equality or free market?
Many traditional cultures assume that land cannot be owned, e.g. American Indians. Here God says ‘The land is mine’. So every 50 years the land has to revert to the original settlers; at the time of the conquest?But property within walled cities can be sold subject to a year’s change of mind by the seller.
It assumes a static agricultural society. Is our equivalent the right to social security/state support?
The way to holiness is to show respect: to your parents, old people, food you cook, trees and nature, the poor, and your own body. Loving your neighbour means not holding on to resentment
Lots of New Testament echoes: the goat carrying the people’s sins to Azazel like Jesus dying an accursed death outside the city. The high priest needing to sacrifice for his own sins, unlike Jesus.
The link between blood and forgivenessThe Day of Atonement
Very difficult passage. It seems that Jerusalem is under attack again. Homemade inspirational e.g. prophets won’t work butHod himself will intervene. Be realistic about the coming threat but also leave space for God to work
I would not have the courage to preach as forthrightly as Jonah did. On the other hand if I got the reception he got. I would be pleased if they repented. On the other hand I really do not like being uncomfortable and am quite capable of giving God a hard time over it
The actual passage chosen is Isaiah 24. We don’t know when it was written. The description of the earth died up and withered sounds like the future with the effects of climate change. At the very end there is a verse which speaks fo teh Lord being king on earth. But I think we need to stay with teh reality of the coming desolation and have to find some and of hope within that – perhaps that The Holy and Eternal One is greater than our world.
Whenever I walk away form God, often through harbouring a resentment, my spiritual life is deadened.
A depressing picture. Towns are in ruins, Jerusalem is a desolation. The prophet hods onto to things.
1 God is great, he wants to bless his people, but punishes their backedslidings.
2. Wee are backslidersOur hope is in God’s mercy. He is our Father, he the potter, we the clay.
The prophet talking to a people back in Judah? A religious people, praying, fasting. BUT oblivious to the poor around them. As ! John says, “Anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen CANNOT love God whom he has not seen.”
At the same time, over-busyness is a cancer to the soul. Keep the sabbath! One day off a week to give God a chance to get though our misty concerns. That is why I try to have a couple of days’ retreat in a monastery every month or so.
Whom does this description of the servant remind me of? Jesus, no question. Or perhaps better yeshua Ish Natzeret – the same name as Joshua.
The servant is both blind and deaf – i.e. a genuine part of the suffering community.
He is also quiet and does not throw his weight about, and is considerate to the poor and vulnerable. Good news for me!It’s hard not to carry on reading into chapter 43. Do so! The chapter division are purely arbitrary divisions made about 1200.
The obvious example in my lifetime was the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the recovery of freedom through all eastern Europe. Of course it did not mean the problems went away! Perhaps today we could see in the prophecy a hope for the restoration of the church in the West.
The other prophecy was the uniting of both Judah and Israel as one people, which really did not happen. A call for the unity of the Church? Maybe the chapter is a call to hold fast to prayer and hope.
