Title: God's Comfort and Redemption
Contents
God's Comfort and Redemption
(Isa 52:3-10)
Isaiah 52:3-10 is divided into two passages. 1) 3-6: A statement of the fact that Jehovah God is speaking and its content. 2) 7-10: Explanation of the role of the messenger of the previous verse.
1) The characteristic of verses 3-6 is the fact that the sentence “Says the Lord” is repeated. repeated four times. It means that the absolute authority that determines the history of this world lies there. Karl Barth also said that knowing “Deus Dixit” is at the heart of faith. This has two meanings. One means that God is Lord of the world. He is the creator of the world. Only to him is true life, eternal life possible. The other is that we humans do not speak, only God speaks alone. Poets are those who hear the language speak. Artists also hear something from sound. It is not the poet who speaks or the artist himself creates. We must open our spiritual ears. Because only God speaks alone.
The word of God contains the content of redeeming Israel. Israel was sold free, captured without cause. It refers to two great sufferings that occurred in Israel's history. It refers to living as a minority in Egypt for hundreds of years and being taken captive to Babylon. Egypt and Babylon were the supreme empires of their time. The conduct of those empires is described by Isaiah as saying that they "defiled the name of the Lord all day and ever" (Isaiah 52:5). The forces that make themselves absolute are those who defile God's name. On the day God redeems Israel, those empires will know who God is. Isaiah expresses this fact with the sentence “Here I am” (Isaiah 52:6). It is a remarkable confession.
2) Verses 7-10 sublimate into literature by discussing more specifically what was declared in the previous verse. “How beautiful are the feet of those who say that your God reigns over the mountains” (52:7). God exists by word and government. His words are an act of government, and his reign is his word.
People at the time would not have realized this very much. They resented God for allowing their lives to be ruined. In reality, the fact that God reigns is a far-fetched statement. They could not understand why suffering was coming upon them. A lot of people still think that way these days. It is difficult to realistically recognize the word of God and the reign of God. That's why, nevertheless, the feet of those who deliver it are beautiful. Because they saw the reign of God that no one else could see.
Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God and lived absolutely dependent on it. He said that the kingdom of God is imminent. People didn't understand that. Because I couldn't see or hear it. People react in two ways. One is to build up religious achievements, and the other is to despair over the history of suffering. To those who experience the kingdom of God as an invisible reality, no matter how harsh life in this world may be, it will be accepted as a grace. All spiritual attention will be focused on the already imminent kingdom of God.
3) God's rule is specifically to “comfort his people” and “to redeem Jerusalem” (verse 9). What the desperate Israelites need is comfort. It is a consolation that they are given liberation and freedom. Jerusalem is the spiritual home of Israel. It is the land that will be liberated from Babylon. True comfort and redemption are salvation events that only the speaking God and the ruling God can perform alone. Isaiah testifies that “all to the ends of the earth” have seen the salvation of God (Isaiah 52:10). It is a wonderful spiritual vision.