Isaiah 51:1-6 - by Don Neuendorf
"My justice will become a light to the nations..."
Since the end of May we've been dipping into bits of Isaiah for many of our Old Testament lessons. We've been in chapter 49, 55, 44, 55, 56, 51, and we'll read from Isaiah 4 or 5 more times yet this year. And in nearly every case the prophet is talking about God reaching out to the nations, the gentiles... us.
Why is that?...
Growing up, I never noticed this. I had the stereotyped idea of the Old Testament that God's prophets talked to his people, the Jews. And it was all about their issues - their problems with the neighboring nations - their temptations toward idolatry - etc. The verses in Isaiah that I remember most were those in 7 and 9 talking about the coming of the Savior, and those in 51 and following talking about the Suffering Servant, how the Messiah would die for us. But I didn't realize just how much God talked to the Israelites about calling the rest of the world to himself.
Perhaps the Jews didn't see it much either. It's easy to not notice things that we don't want to notice. When God calls us to do uncomfortable things, like sharing our faith with people we don't know or who are different from us, it's easier to focus on some other Bible story. That's why in Isaiah 5 (our OT lesson for October 5) God tells them rather forcefully that they have been unfaithful, and he is going to break down the fence he had built around them. Jesus uses the same metaphor in Matthew 21:33 - but he extends it. Not only will the vineyard be taken away from those who were unfaithful, but it will be given to others.
That's us.
Or at least it WAS us. God first gave the blessings of his Gospel to the people of Asia Minor and Europe, and for many years that vineyard flourished. But many have rejected God's word there too, and it passed to us. For many years North America was a center of Christian growth and a powerhouse of Christian mission. Is that still true? Not so much.
How should we feel about the shifting and changing of God's mission field? If, as some have suggested, God removes his blessing from us because of our rampant immorality and even more evident indifference, will all be lost? We can begin to understand some of the disciples' mixed feelings when they realized that their own people, the Jews, would reject their Messiah - and yet that they would be called to bring the Good News to a whole new audience. They grieved. They kept asking if God would now restore the kingdom to Israel. They were quicker to ask if they could call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village who rejected Jesus - just as we find it easier to condemn "godless Communists" who persecute Christians. But they also found a new joy as those who were far away began to discover Jesus.
As the Acts of the Apostles records, the disciples watched with bewilderment the crowds of gentiles coming to faith. They didn't know how to respond at first. I pray that we have the same experience of joyful surprise.