Now, before we make it too far, we’re going to need to deal with the questions that have arisen out of my title for this post. I’m sure some of you are wondering where I got the crazy idea that there is more than one prophecy of Isaiah. The last time you checked, there was only one — and it’s a big one. (You may even be thinking that we don’t need any more.)
In fact, most scholars are in agreement that we have multiple authors at work in the book of Isaiah; they also believe that the work/content of Isaiah covers a very wide breadth of history. However, this is the point where the agreement ceases. There will be a thousand opinions on the finer details of questions: How many authors are at work in Isaiah? How is the book divided up? Is it divided up cleanly or has it been pieced together by the work of a redactor like a patchwork quilt? I’m certainly not the expert and it would be futile for me to try to explain the debate in a blog post, but I will give you my opinion.
The ancient language of Isaiah seems to make it clear that we have different writings from different times; that being said, I think it’s obvious even to the English reader that we have some major shifts in the book of Isaiah. Part of the problem is that we get so lost in the gear-shifting and woes of the middle of the book that our eyes begin to glaze over and we lose our grasp of the “larger picture” of the prophetic movement of the book. If you were to keep your attention focused on the literature of Isaiah, I believe you would feel an obvious shift between the content of Isaiah 1-12 (or so) and Isaiah 13-39.
Needless to say, I am going to suggest that we will hear three distinct voices in Isaiah which I will refer to as 1 Isaiah, 2 Isaiah, and 3 Isaiah. This first voice is to be heard in the first twelve chapters of Isaiah, during the reign Uzziah — a Pre-Assyrian voice to Judah.
The content of 1 Isaiah is pretty straight forward and to the point, which will make wrapping up this post a little cleaner. There are some things we’ve consistently talked about with each prophet.
Each prophet contains the message of hope. In many of the “minor prophets,” the package/message is so small that the message of hope is tucked into the prophet’s ending, almost as a postscript to the larger message. However, in these larger prophets (like Isaiah), we are going to find these messages of hope sprinkled throughout the larger message. You can find these messages of hope in places like Isaiah 2:1–5, chapter 4, and chapter 7, to name a few. These messages can often feel sporadic and lacking context; to be honest, I’m still studying and wrestling with how one is supposed to “hear” these pronouncements of doom and hope so close to each other. There are many theories, yet my point remains — the hope is clearly there.
Each early prophet has a sense of warning. Some of my favorite prophetic passages of the Tanakh come in places like Isaiah’s opening chapter. He tells the people of Judah exactly how He feels about this “trampling of my courts.” It’s so poetic and electric and straightforward, I can’t help but hear the heart of God.
Prophets often have an image that drive their message. One of the most famous images of the prophets is the image of the vineyard in Isaiah 5. This image will drive more of Jesus’s parables than any other single image. This depiction of God’s people will serve as the basis of a poetic understanding of who God sees His people to be and what He thinks about what they are doing.
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| "My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside..." Isaiah 5 |
And throughout the message of 1 Isaiah, God’s frustration is abundantly clear. They are not taking care of the alien, the orphan, and the widow. They deprive the poor of justice and are overcome by their greed.
They are too busy building their own empires to worry about God’s kingdom. And God’s had enough: Shalom is about to come crashing into earth, one way or another.
And so God speaks of planting a vineyard (His people) on a fertile hillside. He talks about all the things He did for His vineyard to set it up for success. He even claims that He built a wine press — a silly thing to do, and a clear sign of His belief and confidence in His vineyard. (It takes five years to produce your first harvest of grapes. You would never dig a wine press without waiting to see if the vines took.)
Yet when He came with excitement to see His vineyard’s good fruit, He found only betushiym. Betushiym is a condition that grapes get when they aren’t tended. The grape never matures and it becomes diseased and useless.
And then, God makes a play on words. God says He came looking for righteousness, but instead heard cries of distress (5:7). The word for righteousness is tzedekah. And we’ve ran into the word for “cry out” before — tze’ekah. God says He came looking for tzedekah, but instead all He found was tze’ekah.
God tells us what kind of fruit He’s looking for.
He planted a vineyard and was looking for partners.
He wanted to reap a crop of mercy and generosity and grace.
Instead, He found greed, selfishness, and injustice.
I think it may be wise for us — as individuals AND communities — to heed the voice and call of the prophets. Because I believe that God comes to each generation looking for a crop of good grapes.
And I’m not sure how He’ll feel about what He finds.
We have a garden to tend to. And it’s not enough only to make sure we’re matching up to the morality parade and following all the rules correctly.
God cares about people. The rules are supposed to help us love people.
And one day, when a King reigns in righteousness, rulers will rule in justice. And we’ll know that the Kingdom of God is among us when people find shelter and shade from the heat of the day.
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