LENT 2011, Day 17

It amused me to write the day of my journey. Lent excludes Sundays - but, to me, 40 days is 40 days, so it seems odd to have time outs in the journey....and my commitment to write daily isn't compromised - it's just not actually '40' days....

My chapter for today is Isaiah 61, which is an absolutely thrilling chapter of promise for the future of the nation of Israel. Even Isaiah found pure joy in proclaiming the prophetic news God gave him, for he begins this chapter with what can easily be viewed as a personal expostulation that was also prophetic of Jesus' ministry, and of a future time on the horizon, a layered promise:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor"

...and the litany of promises continues....

It is amazing to read this in the light of history. For those who first heard this promise, the promise was still a long way off. After all this was written more than 680 years before Jesus' birth.

What is thrilling in reading this is knowing that these were the very words Jesus read about 30 A D - over 700 years after Isaiah penned the words. The record of that event is recorded for us in Luke 4. Jesus had spent his 40 days in the desert in preparation for his ministry on earth - and had preached in the synagogues throughout Galilee, including Capernaum, which was his home base for his 3 years of ministry. Everyone everywhere he went praised him. Then he dropped by his hometown. Nazareth. He went to the synagogue - as was his custom - and he stood up to read. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to him, and he unrolled it until he came to this passage, which he read aloud:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Luke reports that all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips - but then somehow the tide turned. He had just proclaimed himself to them as the Messiah - and they couldn't get past their reality that he was Joseph's son.

His response to them seems a bit cutting - but I have to remember that he knew their hearts. In any event, their interaction culminated with their taking him to the brow of the hill to throw him off the cliff...but he walked through the crowd and went on his way.

Jesus would experience the pendulum-sway of the crowd's emotions more than once in his journey to the cross - and it started here.... I have to remember that. Adulation and contempt are bedfellows, and never far apart. I have to remember not to take either seriously. But - that is just an aside....

What is absolutely thrilling is seeing the layered promise. Isaiah was thrilled to get to be the one to report this. Jesus was the fulfillment of the primary promise, and the full meal deal fulfillment is yet to come, with the restoration of Israel and this tiny little nation taking her rightful place in God's design. Stay tuned!

As a little postscript - it is also absolutely wonderful to read this with the cities and the geography of the area so clearly in mind. I was just there! And believe me when I say, there is a palpable reality in being on that holy ground that Israel is the center of God's heart and in God's time all that he has promised will come to pass. Isaiah prophesied it +-2680 years ago. We are on the cusp of seeing it. As I said, stay tuned!