Isaiah

I am always blown away by the poetry of the prophet Isaiah. It is a beautiful book and yet one of much tragedy as yet again the people of God wander off in their own way and a prophet calls them home.

This mixing of tragedy and beauty seems to be a feature of human existence - we are capable of so much beauty and yet so often turn ourselves to destruction. The prophets, again and again, are sent to remind the people that the problems they are facing start with relationship, that core relationship which they must have with Yahweh. That relationship which they must nurture and treasure against attack - the imagery of that relationship in the Bible is both the most beautiful and heart wrenching which we come across.

Such love as God has for us means a life of great heights and great depths - getting caught up in that love is always a height, but our wandering away and our realization of needing return is hard, sometimes very hard as it involves admitting who we are and where we have moved to - albeit often unwittingly.

Love God, say the prophets, love God more and more and pay attention. Isaiah gives both local and eternal imagery and we should not feel awkward if we just allow his words instead of over-analyzing them. The image of the young woman and the child in Isaiah 7 speaks of the imminent danger to the people but also of an eternal act of salvation for all people - in an age of Christianity. I am wary of limiting the prophet to his time in historical context - after all aren't words allowed to be larger than the speaker - what he meant and what God means are all wrapped up together in the living word in the Bible.

Come home - is the eternal message - come home to the Covenant and the New Covenant in the Incarnation - return has never been easy but at the season as we plan to dig into the season of Advent and prepare for Jesus once again, return is what it is all about.