Isaiah 63:7-9
Lesson Focus:
God’s salvation for us comes, not all at once, but in steps. Even though we have celebrated Jesus’ birth, we must still wait for God to come again, finally and fully making all things right.
Lesson Outcomes:
Through this lesson students should:
Be encouraged to recount the gracious and praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.
Come to understand that God’s salvation, for us as individuals and for the world at large, often comes in steps but that God’s final and full salvation is coming.
Be encouraged to go forth in hope that the God who has been faithful in the past will continue to be faithful in bringing salvation in the future.
Catch up on the story:
This week’s passage comes from a portion of the book of Isaiah comprised of chapters 56-66 and known as Third Isaiah. These chapters were most likely written during the post-exilic time, the time after Israel had returned home to Israel after being in exile. Israel has begun to rebuild their lives and their homeland after it had been almost utterly destroyed. This includes the restoration of the Temple, which had also been destroyed and profaned.
This destruction took place in 586 B.C.E while the writing of the text takes place some 70 years later. The return from exile was a much-anticipated event. As you might be able to imagine, there was a level of excitement for those who had now returned to their homeland. Earlier in Isaiah we get lofty statements about the nature of the transformation that is to occur as God begins to restore Israel (41:17-20, 43:1-7, and 52:7-10). Yet, those who had returned were not fully prepared for the problems they would face upon their return. God has indeed acted in decisive ways in bringing Israel back to her homeland, but the restoration is not yet complete. This leaves Israel in a place of hopeful frustration as they look toward the future.
The Text:
This week’s text is part of a larger text, Isaiah 63:7-64:11, which can be identified as a communal lament. A lament, of course, is a way of expressing the grief and anguish one feels when life is not as it should be. So, as Israel reflects on her distant and not so distant past, her present and her future, she collectively expresses her current anguish to God. While we will not get to explore the entire section, this first bit will give us something to think about as we move past the hopeful expectation that comes with Advent and the joy we celebrated on Christmas Sunday.
Our text for this week is the first part of this communal lament and thus recounts God’s past activity for his people. The other elements of a lament include Israel’s inadequate response to God, complaints about the current deplorable conditions, and urgent petitions to God (Lilly). We begin with the recounting of God’s gracious deeds.
In the midst of such a time of turmoil, the people begin to tell of God’s previous works. There is a sense that, even in such terrible times, what God has done in the past God will do in the future. The language is generic, not detailing all of God’s mighty saving acts. Specifically, verse 7 focuses on the character of God as being filled with steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness. “Gracious deeds” and “steadfast love” are both translations of the Hebrew word hesed. With hesed, the emphasis is on the initiative of God to always continue to deal with Israel in a completely loyal manner. It is the word used to describe God’s unrelenting love and faithfulness to his creation. The idea conveyed in verse 7 is that God has been, and by corollary, always will be faithful to Israel.
As we move on to verse 8 we get God’s words on the lips of Israel. God expresses his confidence that his chosen people will deal truthfully with him. God becomes Israel’s savior conjuring up images of the Exodus. Of course, we know the story and know that Israel will be less than truthful with God. Israel’s testimony about God is that God has always been faithful and God has always believed in Israel.
Verse 9 comes with some tricky translations issues. Here, we go with the translation from the NIV, “In all their distress he too was distressed and the angel of his presence saved them.” Echoing language found in Exodus 33:12 and following, God’s presence or “face” continued to follow Israel despite the golden calf incident at Mt. Sinai. The term “angel of his presence” was an acceptable way to speak of God’s divine presence with Israel (Childs, 523 ). God’s salvation for Israel emanates from love and pity. Here the NIV gets it right again, translating the Hebrew not as pity, but as mercy. God’s response is a movement of God’s love toward Israel to remove her from her distress. It has a similar sense to the steadfast love and faithfulness which is so prominent in verse 7.
If we stop with verse 9 we get a very confident and positive understanding of God’s relationship with Israel. Verse 10, which moves beyond our text this week, begins with “But they rebelled…” In what follows our passage, Israel will recount not God’s faithfulness but their own sinfulness; God’s response to their sinfulness; and their plea for salvation and restoration. In the end, Israel demands to know how long God will keep silent.
Remembering our context, Israel has again been saved because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to Israel. They have returned from exile, from living in a land not their own. Again they inhabit the Promised Land. Again they construct a home in which their God will dwell. Yet, as they survey their situation they find that not all is right.
What we take away from this passage is that even though salvation has come, it is not yet complete. God’s salvation is almost never a single event. It is almost always multivalent, a series of events. We focus on this first part of the lament—not to ignore Israel’s (or our own!) sin and the consequences of those sins—but so that during a possible letdown after initial salvation, we might remember that God is and will always be faithful, working toward our final and full salvation.
So What?
I’m sure you have experienced it: the let down after Christmas. Now, beginning even before Thanksgiving, we begin the countdown to the big day when we wake up in our warm homes, gather around the Christmas Tree, and open presents. There’s food, games, love, and laughter with family and friends. At least, that’s how modern advertising agencies and the Hallmark Channel want it to be! The lead up to Christmas is huge, and we place a lot of expectation for fulfillment on Christmas Day.
The day is hardly done and we begin to sense feelings of loss and grief. We don’t want it to be over. All of our hopes, filled and unfulfilled, still remain on December 26. The day after Christmas can almost seem like a day of mourning. And that’s just how we feel because of the commercialized side of Christmas!
Yet, there’s a parallel here to our hopes and dreams for what we want the world to be post-Christmas. Rightly so we spend the season of Advent hopefully and expectantly waiting for Jesus to be born on Christmas Day. Wrapped up in our Advent waiting is not just waiting for Jesus’ birth, but for his second coming as well.
We get to Christmas Day, we sing all of our favorite Christmas Hymns, look out our window, check our email or turn on the TV and realize that the world is almost exactly the same as it was on Christmas Eve. What gives? It almost makes you want to forget about the whole church thing, giving yourself over completely to the materialistic side of Christmas. At least you have something to show for it!
This is where our passage for this week becomes so important. Israel was back in the Promised Land after years of exile. They had spent a very long time waiting for God’s salvation to come and bring them home. God did show up, orchestrating their return to the land. They’re home now, but not all is right and perfect. Indeed, there’s still trouble in the land. The Temple is in ruins. Jerusalem’s wall stands in heaps of busted stone. God’s salvation had come, but why is it still so dark and seemingly hopeless?
So, Israel composes a lament. They call out of their distress for the God who began their salvation to complete it. Our passage doesn’t focus on their struggles; it focuses on God’s past faithfulness. It’s a reminder that God is steadfastly loving and faithful and that God will bring about to completion to what God has started.
We must always remember that God’s salvation, for us as individuals and for the whole world, as grand and magnificent as it is, is never a one-step thing. It’s always a series of events, a succession of movements that move us closer and closer to full and final salvation. Israel sits in the middle of a ruined city, knowing that God has come and begun their salvation. Yet at the same time, they are calling out for God to complete it.
On this, the first Sunday after Christmas, we sit with Israel knowing that God has arrived on the scene and our salvation has begun. We have celebrated God’s faithfulness to us in Jesus Christ, but now we must wait a little bit more for God to come and make our salvation full and final. We experience this as individuals and as the gathered Body of Christ as we wait for him to finally make the world right again.
In the weeks that follow we will discover that our waiting is not a passive one. As we have been called out of this darkness that surrounds us, we are called to march with the light into our dark world. As Israel participated in the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem, partnering with God in their own salvation and the ongoing salvation of the world, so too must we pick up our tools and join the work that God has begun through Christ the new born babe.
Critical Discussion Questions:
How does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing in this text?
Hesed – steadfast love and faithfulness. That’s the one word that emerges from this text to describe the quality and character of God. God is faithful in an unrelenting way, even when we don’t see it. This one word gives us hope that the work that God has begun at Christmas, God will surely see through to completion. Of this we are confident.
What does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
The temptation to seek to finish what God has started in our own way will always be there. In a very real way, both our final and full salvation and our sanctification are contingent on our actively waiting (doing the things Christ did; loving our neighbors, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, comforting those who mourn. In a word, its proclaiming the Good News in word and in deed), with God for the time when all things are finally put right. Holiness, in part, is a dogged hope that refuses to feel as if the world is just the same as it always has been after Christmas.
How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
This text calls us to engage in an active remembering of God’s past faithful deeds. We must proclaim the stories of God’s faithfulness in the Scriptures and we must share with one another the stories of God’s current faithfulness. Remembering is the only way we can move past any Christmas let down.
Another thing this text calls us to is to continue to actively wait for our full and final salvation. As we go forth each week from our worship gathering, we go with the tools to participate with Christ in the movement toward final salvation.
Specific Discussion Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
This week’s text is part of a larger section of Isaiah (63:7-64:11) which can be classified as a communal lament. What is lament? Why would a lament begin with the recounting of the gracious deeds of the Lord?
Isaiah doesn’t go into any detail about what these “gracious deeds” or “praiseworthy acts” are. Think back through Israel’s history and think of some stories you might classify as “gracious deeds” or “praiseworthy acts.” Share them with your group.
Is recounting the “gracious deeds” or “praiseworthy acts” of God a habit in your life? Why or why not? Why is that important for our spiritual lives?
One of the main themes, especially in verse 7, comes from the Hebrew word, Hesed, which means steadfast love and faithfulness. Why would this be an important theme for Israel at this time? Keep in mind the context of this week’s passage: Israel has just returned from Exile.
If we read past verse 9 the tone of the passage changes. Israel, despite having returned from Exile, still feels as if her salvation isn’t complete. Have you ever felt similarly, like you’ve received God’s salvation but there’s still so much more that needs to be fixed in your life and your world? If so, how do you deal with that?
Sometimes we might have a tendency to go through seasons of expectation like Advent and Lent and find ourselves on the other side feeling like, even though we have celebrated this great thing that God has done, the world has not significantly changed. How does this passage help us with this problem?
Read Philippians 1:3-6 and 2:12-13. Paul describes the salvation of the Philippian Christians as a work in progress. In 2017, how do you plan to “work out your salvation?” What good work do you pray God will complete in you?
Works Cited:
“Commentary on Isaiah 63:7-9 by Ingrid Lilly,” accessed November 28, 2016, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1904.
Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah: A Commentary, ed. William P. Brown, Carol A. Newsom, and Brent A. Strawn, 1st ed., The Old Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001)
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