Nielsen’s Nook

Thirsty ones come to the waters! The Lord sees our want; he knows our deepest needs. With this intimate knowledge of us he does not exploit us; but, he seeks to fulfill us. The human situation is not simply that we “still haven’t found what we’re looking for;” but, that we are looking for all the wrong things. Why do you spend money, the prophet asks, on what you do not need? Why do you work so hard for that which does not satisfy? Before and after these questions, the Lord has wrapped us up in his mercy: you who are poor, come and eat what is good, delight yourselves in rich food, so that you may live.

This passage in Isaiah seems to be at least one of Jesus’ sermon texts in his Sermon on the Mount, namely in his introduction we commonly call the Beatitudes. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matthew 5:6, author’s translation).

If the questions posed by Isaiah 55 affect you; if they thud off the emptiness that I believe we all have when we consider the lusts of our own flesh; then, I believe Jesus’ words have a most merciful weight for us.

Most of us don’t strive after the unsatisfying because we really enjoy being unsatisfied. Sometimes we do not realize just how unsatisfied we really are. Other times we know that we’re unsatisfied, but don’t feel we have any better options. In even other situations, we cannot imagine how any of this matters because we’re operating in an economy of the world that uses completely different currency than the economy of life. It is as if we have fistfuls of cash we just printed out on our home computer, funny-money, and we cannot imagine why it buys us nothing.

It is not the rich that buy what Jesus offers. In fact what Jesus offers cannot be bought at all; it is received as a gift. We see that in Isaiah 55: Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. In the language of the Beatitudes, it is the poor who paradoxically trade in Christ’s economy, for theirs and theirs only is the kingdom of heaven. These are not the blissful poor, the ignorant poor. No, they are painfully aware of their poverty, such that they mourn it.

My wife and I have a really nice set of living room furniture that we could never have afforded to buy.  If you knew my wage, you would wonder how this furniture happens to be in my home at all. It is furniture that was given to us by a most gracious friend when we bought our home. So when people pay compliment to it when they visit our home, I am quick to mention that it was a fantastic gift. I cannot boast in myself or my provision, but in what the Lord has given us benevolently.

Ultimately the couch is going to disintegrate; but it is a figure of the way God’s gifts work in the divine economy. He gives us the greatest riches in such away that we may not point to it as a result of our own labor or merit or wealth; however, what God gives us is really ours to care for and walk in.  This gives the Christian the impetus for meekness.

Isaiah has asked us why we hunger and thirst for that which does not satisfy. Jesus proclaims that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. We of ourselves will chase after all sorts of things, all the wrong things. Christ comes to us that our affections may be recalibrated and our appetites whet for what is glorious and truly wealthy.

Righteousness is a character trait of the Lord. God is not righteous because he does certain things. Rather he is simply righteous, in and of himself. We are created as the image of this righteous God and yet we have chosen a path that is most unlike him. We live in a way that is disharmonious with our status as image and this disjunction is the root of our dissatisfaction.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:10-11 that we are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness sake, when we suffer on his account. In these two verses the grammatical parallelism identifies righteousness as Jesus himself.

And so we come full circle. God sees us buying everything but what will truly satisfy and grow us. He is not content to placate our “bentness,” to multiply our fists full of funny-money or nice furniture. Rather, he enters our economy with his own currency, himself. It is an infinite currency that has only one bill. In God’s economy there is Christ: Christ incarnate, Christ crucified, Christ risen and exalted, Christ the Lord. He alone is the righteousness of God. He alone is the one human being who has lived as the image of God also in his likeness. As such, fellowship with God has been restored for humanity (Colossians 1:15-20).

When we see what God offers all humanity in Jesus, how foolish are we to not seek the Lord while he may be found. He calls us to lay down the fistfuls of funny-money that we have printed off for ourselves and lay hold of Christ. Why, scripture asks, do you spend your money for that which is not bread.  Jesus will later ask why do you labor for bread that perishes, “for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33)

Every Sunday this truth is proclaimed, reenacted, and received by faith. The Word of God is spoken, inviting all who thirst to the living waters. Every Sunday we celebrate the Word of God broken in which the bread of life is given to the eater that in mind and body, the whole person may be gratified with Christ, who alone satisfies. For it is Jesus who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4:6).

Commentary

[a] Isaiah 12:2 appears to have the greatest correlation with Hebrews 2:13, reading אֶבְטַ֖ח וְלֹ֣א אֶפְחָ֑ד in the MT. I will trust [or rely upon] and not be afraid (author’s translation). This MT rendition of Isaiah 12:2 helps in understanding the semantic scope. Hebrews 2:13 is a direct quotation of Isaiah 12:2 LXX which reads, πεποιθὼς ἔσομαι ἐπ̓ αὐτῷ. I will depend upon him (author’s translation).

[b] This is a clear quotation of Isaiah 8:18 LXX, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ καὶ τὰ παιδία, ἅ μοι ἔδωκεν ὁ θεός, καὶ ἔσται εἰς σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ Ισραηλ παρὰ κυρίου σαβαωθ, ὃς κατοικεῖ ἐν τῷ ὄρει Σιων. Behold, I and the children which God has given me, are even the signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord of Hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion (author’s translation).

[c] Keeping in mind that the New Testament writers had not the versification and chapter divisions we currently employ in the current day, it would seem plausible that this quotation is only partial because it is intended to draw the larger passage that it begins to mind. In the context of Isaiah, this would be something like, God who has been hiding his face from Zion (Isaiah 8:17) has given us hope in sending his Son; for behold, unto us a child is born (Isaiah 9)!

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Translation

the forgiveness [1] of sins

[1] When used with ἁμαρτία, ἄφεσις speaks of the forgiveness or “cancellation of the guilt” of sins (BAGD). 1 Esdr 4:62 employs the word to denote “release from captivity” in the context of Israel being allowed to return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. The LXX of Isaiah, regarding the Day of the Lord, is compelled “κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν” (Isa 61:1 LXX) to proclaim the release of the captives and restoring sight to the blind. Here ἄφεσιν is used to translate the Hebrew דְּרוֹר (dərôr), which has the idea of liberty or free flowing as in Ex 30:23 where it is used to describe myrrh (BDB). So when ἄφεσιν arrives in the NT there is a tremendous history and colorful circumference to its semantic field (cf. this list from BAGD: Mt 26:28; Mk 1:4; Lk 1:77; Lk 3:3; Lk 24:47; Acts 2:38; Acts 5:31). Thus, the nature of the forgiveness Christians confess is one that is liberating and free-flowing, one that deals with the forensic (cancellation of the guilt) and the existential (liberation from sin’s dark grip).

IV.Nakedness and Investiture

A. The Inherent Progression

Genesis 2:25 tells us that prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve were naked and without shame. One scholar suggests that vestment was not “an antidote for shame” but that clothing was intended to be a means of “royal honor”.[3] Kings are clothed with garments of honor. Priests are vested with garments that direct us to the transcendent. Prophets have typically been robed with anti-clothing, directing us to the fact that the People of God were in ill standing with the Lord.

B. Illumination and Investiture

Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened after they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They saw their nakedness (illumination) and they clothed themselves with fig leaves (clothing).[4]They sought wisdom on their own terms and made their own vestments. God had created the world and said it was good. Like Adam and Eve we take hold of a good thing, seeking to subdue it to our own wills apart from God and we inevitably pervert the thing. Just as a hammer can be used to build great palaces and shelters for the poor, hammers have also been the instruments of brutal murders. In this way king David functions as an anti-type. Where Saul had been made king according to the will of the people as they strayed from God, David was appointed king by God himself. Twice David had opportunity to take Saul’s life and end his own suffering, to exalt himself to the throne on his own terms. Twice David refused to strike the Lord’s anointed, Saul. David was content to be king according to God’s will not his own.

C. Vestments and the Image of God

1. Isaiah 44:9,21

⁹All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. (Isaiah 44:9, ESV) ²¹Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. (Isaiah 44:21, ESV)

a) Idols

Idols are the manmade images of false gods. In the ancient Near East they were fashioned out of metal and wood and would be adorned with clothing appropriate for a god.

b) Human beings

Isaiah draws clear parallel between idols of false gods and human beings who are the God-made images of the true and living God.

c) Yatsar (יָצַר) – to form, or fashion

This contrast is seen in the fact that the same Hebrew verb is used to describe how idols are fashioned and how God forms us as the image of himself. It is the same word used at the end of Genesis 2:8, speaking of the man that God formed. God had formed humanity in his image and likeness (Gen 1:27). He breathed life into us (Gen 2:7), expressing something “warmly personal.”[5] This is a deliberate and not an accidental creation.”[6]

2. Ancient Near Eastern Context

In the ancient Near Eastern context both kings and idols were thought to represent God and as such were “expected to be clothed as a sign of their royal authority.”[7] If we transpose our understanding of Isaiah 44 to Adam and Eve, we see that the clothing intended for them was far more than the grand vestments of those representing false gods and certainly immeasurably distant from fig leaf loincloths .

D. The NT and Investiture

1. 1 Corinthians 15:49

In speaking about the parousia, the time when the Lord returns to finally set the world aright, Paul tells us:

“And just as we have worn the image of the man of dust, we also will wear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Cor 15:49 – my translation)[8]

2. Galatians 3:26-29

²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. ²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:26-29, ESV)

V. Conclusion

So what do Adam and Eve, the nation of Israel, Moses, and the apostle Paul have in common? They all failed to live up to their created purpose. The all fell short of the glory of God that was to be their vestment, their clothing. Just like God does not lay us bear in our sin, but comes to us, taking the tattered fig leaves away that he might clothe us with robes of grace, with vestments of the very righteousness of God, Jesus Christ, who obtained the glorious raiment by means of a very different tree.

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[3] Wilder: 58-59.

[4] Wilder: 56.

[5] Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. D. J. Wiseman, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1967), 60.

[6] Bruce K. Waltke and Cathi J. Fredricks, Genesis : A Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001), 85.

[7] Wilder: 63.

[8] Wilder turned me on to the use of φορέω here.