Isaiah 12
Have you ever held your breath waiting for some kind of intense pain to pass and ease? Have you ever known the joy and the peace of returning to normal and breathing easy after a season of exertion and exhaustion that left you out of breath and gasping? The litany from Isaiah 12 is about God’s people who had been holding their breath in exile coming to exhale and breath in the fresh air of God’s grace, might and renewal.
God’s judgements against his people begin to take shape in chapter 9. The arrogance and pride of his people had angered God. The elders and dignitaries of Israel were more willing to trust in and turn to the nations of world for their safety and security than to the God who had created, loved and cared for them. This pride and arrogance was not confined to those on top, even young people, widows and orphans where judged for their arrogance and pride. “For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.” (Isa. 9:21, NRSV)
God’s anger burned against his people for creating oppressive laws that allowed some of God’s people to prey upon others of God’s people. The poor became a commodity. The needy became nothing more than a means to the end of the wealthy. Injustice and the diminishing of human beings was met with a corrective God breathed calamity. “For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.” (Isa. 10:4, NRSV)
Mixed in with the heat of God’s anger and punishment are promises for the those of his people who truly repent. For the repentant remnant there is given the promise of a return to their own land. For those who return there is the promise of a king like David that will rise up out of the stump of Jesse. What was cut off will be reborn. It will be a kingdom according to chapter 11 that will be marked by the Spirit’s wisdom, counsel and knowledge. People will fear the Lord and know peace.
God’s people are holding their breath as they prepare to take the hit of exile. They breath in and hold on as they are taken from their homes to Babylon. God’s people lose their breath and pant from the exhaustion and exertion of slavery in a foreign land. God’s people hold their breath in anticipation of a day beyond the pain, beyond the slavery; a day on the other side of God’s anger when wrath abates and they can return home.
Isaiah 12 ends the opening section of the book of Isaiah. It is the worship at the end of the wrath; the liturgy at the end of the long ordeal. In the first three verses, Isaiah gives individuals words to lift and pray on the day when what God has promised comes to be and the remnant returns.
You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Prayers of thanksgiving are lifted because God is no longer angry and has allowed them to breathe again. The comfort God provides here is the comfort that comes when one can exhale after the pain and catch their breath after the exertion returning to peace. On the day beyond God’s anger, his people will recognize that God is their salvation and always has been. On that day they will trust more in their God than in the political protections of Assyria, Babylon or Egypt. On that day, as they breathe in and out again, they will remember that from the creation God had been their strength, their might, their salvation and the well from which they can endlessly draw joy.
The singular responses of prayer on that day merge into a corporate litany provided by the prophet. All together God’s people will proclaim what should be done in response to such a glorious salvation as theirs,
And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
As we pray the prophet Isaiah this week, it might be good to begin by reflecting upon those things that have sucked the breath from the lungs of our people. Have they turned for oxygen to sources (politics, entertainment, medication/addiction) that do nothing but drain them more? Has arrogance or pride left them unwilling to receive fresh air from anyone? Has any sin left them in suffocating consequences, preying upon the lives of others just to get by?
Pray the promise beyond the pain. Pray the hope that lies beyond what feels like God’s anger and rage. Remember that this joyful liturgy is prayed by a repentant people who have come to find God’s promised salvation more compelling than their current captivity. May we all come to surrender to the kingdom ruled by Jesus the root of Jesse. On that day may we become a people together who give thanks, who make known God’s deeds, who proclaim his name and sing praises. After a season of holding our breath, may we exhale and breathe in the God’s own Spirit which has been given to us. May we come to pray these words from a heart that recognizes as Wesley noted, “My salvation hath not been brought to pass by man, but by the almighty power of God.”