Isaiah of the Exile (chapters 40-55)

I read through Second Isaiah (40-55) this morning, so many insights and revelations were coming to me, despite the fact that this is not the first, second, or third time for me to read this book.  I see I have notes going back to 1982-82-83, etc., all the way through 2012 and beyond.  Whenever I read a promise or prophecy that applies to myself, my family, my friends, my parish, the nation, or the world, I usually make a note in the margin with the date. With repeated readings, I re-discover the things that were on my mind years earlier, and I often thank God for His answers to prayer in my own life and the lives of those I love.

As I was reading the book with my annotations this morning, I kept thinking about a question my pastor asked me about a year ago:  What do people need?  I was so conscious of the fact that no one needs my insights or commentary on Isaiah -- what they really need is their own insights and understanding, as given by the Holy Spirit.  What they really need is their own marginal notes --- then, and only then, do the words of Isaiah mean something.  Then, and only then, can we have a fruitful sharing of insights and meanings and themes. 

One reason I love reading Biblical commentaries is that I have already studied the books for myself, and the insights of others add depth and understanding to already-familiar texts.  Without previous study, another commentary has nothing to "hang onto," and means very little.

When I finished reading Second Isaiah, I just could not comment on the richness of what I had read -- where does one begin, after all?  But I picked up my daily devotional (Give Us This Day) and read today's entry of "Blessed Among Us."  I had to smile, thinking about how closely that reading matched my thoughts on Isaiah.  The reading was about George Fox (1624-1691), the Founder of the Puritan sect -- not sure he ever called it a 'religion,' but rather a 'society of Friends,' a very apt title. 

George Fox was born during the Puritan revival in England.  Yet he found no priests or preachers who "spoke to his condition."  Eventually, he received within himself an experience of the "Seed of God" present in his own soul.  From that time on, his mission was to attend to that seed, to heed the 'inner voice' and to awaken in others their own consciousness of God present to them.  His message was interpreted as a sweeping rebuke to the Christianity of his time-- as, indeed it was.  He was beaten, persecuted, thrown into a dungeon (all experiences of Jeremiah also).  Once, when he appeared before a judge, Fox urged the judge to 'tremble before the Lord."  It was that judge who coined the name "Quaker" for those who followed Fox's teachings.

The quote from Fox given in the reading:  Be patterns, be examples....wherever you go, so that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them.  Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that [which is] of God in every one.

Rather than my trying to explain what I see in Isaiah, I think I am content to give the advice that George Fox gave:  attend to the Seed of God within and heed the "inner voice" that speaks so powerfully when we read and heed the Scriptures.  Then, and only then, when "that which is of God" in you speaks to "that which is of God" in me, will our conversation be fruitful, according to the words of Malachi:

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.  A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.... (3:16)