Isaiah's Servant
"Isaiah 40-66..., a message of comfort and hope for God's people in the hopelessness of exile, it constantly stresses the greatness and sovereignty of the one true God over against the idols of Babylon and those who follow them, including those who seem to be great kings and tyrants...But it also repeatedly plays off the power and faithfulness of YHWH against the folly and failings of Israel itself...Flanked by the wickedness of Babylon and the failure of Israel...a third figure emerges, bearing the divine purposes into the heart of the storm. The 'servant of YHWH' is a strange, much-discussed character..."
The identity of the "servant" has been discussed at length; on the one hand, he is seen as "Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isa. 49:3)...but in the larger context of Isaiah's great poem, it's clear that Israel as a nation has failed miserably in fulfilling the required task. Other things in this portion show that the "servant" must be a man, "a kind of true Israel figure, doing Israel's job on behalf of the Israel that has failed. And doing God's job on behalf of God himself."
"The return of YHWH to Zion, on the one hand, and the suffering of the servant, on the other, turn out to be - almost unbelievably - two ways of saying the same thing...this is where the power of pagan Babylon and the failure of God's people Israel are met with the sovereign, saving, kingdom-establishing rule of YHWH himself. This is Isaiah's version of Jesus' perfect storm: the gale of pagan tyranny, the high-pressure system of Israel's national life, and the hurricane of divine purposes..."
Daniel's Son of Man
Wright gives primary focus to Daniel 7, though he says of the whole book that "nowhere in Scripture is it set out more clearly that the kingdom of the one true God stands over against the kingdoms of the world, judging them, calling them to account, condemning them, and vindicating God's people..."
In the vision of Daniel 7 we see the pagan kingdoms (including the final king of the final kingdom) raging against God's people and God pronouncing judgment resulting in God's people being vindicated and given the kingdom. In this vision "the figure who is seen (is)...as 'one like a son of man'...like a human being", a symbol for the whole faithful people of God. Like the "servant" in Isaiah, this phrase "one like a son of man" has been greatly debated and discussed.
Wright gives a "commonsense view" of Daniel 7: "...the vision and interpretations of chapter 7 are telling substantially the same story as chapters 1-6, namely, the story of pagan empire reaching its height and Israel's God then stepping in to call 'time' on the whole sequence, to bring arrogant paganism to judgment, and to establish instead his own kingdom in and through his faithful people. This is the story, in other words, of how God becomes king, overcoming the kingdoms of the world and establishing, through his faithful people, his own sovereign rule over the world instead. Exactly as in Isaiah, we should expect (rather than be surprised by) a certain fluidity between the people of Israel and a single representative..."
When Jesus Himself quotes from Daniel 7 (Mark 13:26; 14:62), we should understand Him to be tapping into "one of the most central and vivid prophetic accounts of the 'perfect storm', of Israel's God sweeping in like a cyclone where the pagans were doing their worst and Israel was unable to rescue itself...But the kingdom, the authority, the supreme power that is then given to the 'one like a son of man' is...something Jesus already claimed during his short public career (Mark 2:10). Along with Isaiah, Daniel was one of the key elements in Jesus's understanding of how the 'perfect storm' would work out."
Zechariah's King
It's in the second half of Zechariah (chapters 9-14) that we find the material that Jesus drew on when He went to face the "perfect storm". First there is the oracle about the king arriving on a donkey followed by promises of God's rescue of His people; but there are also warnings about God's punishment of Israel's shepherds who have led the people astray...then a glimpse of the nations gathering to fight the Jewish people and God's victory over the nations and a promise of cleansing from sin; but before God can purify His true people, they will be scattered as their shepherd goes to his death.
Zechariah concludes with the nations again coming to fight Jerusalem, God's appearance as king over all the earth, and warnings to the nations. In the center of all of this is the cleansing of the Temple itself.
Wright summarizes this section, saying, "For our purposes, the main thing to notice here is that Zechariah, like Isaiah and Daniel, envisages the same three lines all converging: the wicked pagan nations who fight against God and his people; the failed Jewish leadership; and God himself coming to do what nobody else can do.
Chapter 12 ends with a brief word about the Psalms which was Jesus' prayer book and would have played a major role in shaping His worldview. In the Psalms we find the major themes of YHWH becoming king and installing His Messiah (His son!) in Jerusalem (Psa. 2; 72); we also find in Psalm 22 (which speaks powerfully of the coming of God's kingdom), "the sense of utter desolation and being abandoned by God to horrible and shameful suffering and death...These themes come together in many different ways in these ancient poems, and we are on utterly safe ground in assuming that Jesus not only knew them and reflected on them, but made them the very stuff of his vocation. He found himself in them and determined to act accordingly."
All of this leads to the question of chapter 13, "Why did the Messiah have to die?"
No comments:
Post a Comment