Today’s Scripture Reading (December 1,
2013): Isaiah 28
After a
recent political victory for his party, Justin Trudeau (the oldest son of
former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau) stole a line from the
Jack Layton’s (the late leader of the Canadian left wing NDP Party) death bed
farewell to Canada. Jack Layton on his death bed wrote to Canada that “Love is
better than anger. Hope is better than fear.” So Trudeau, basking in the
improved position of his political party told the waiting Press that on this
night the Liberal Party (the party of both the elder and the younger Trudeau)
proved that “Hope is stronger than fear.” The move was definitely an attempt to
find a strength on which the federal Liberals can build on as they prepare to
move into the future, but the words were close enough to Layton’s to draw ire
from the NDP - a political party that
would like to believe that they are Canada’s political hope.
But the
problem for both parties is that the good night for the Liberals had more to do
with the misdeeds of the reigning Conservative party than it did in a renewed hope
in the Liberal party. In a nation that is searching for hope from any of its political
parties, it would seem that hope is the one thing that is lacking. Isaiah was
speaking to a nation that needed to find some source of hope – and often they
were looking to their political leaders in an effort to try to find it. And
sometimes, during the reign of Isaiah, the nation’s leaders came through, but
more often the leaders failed to provide the strength and hope that the people
needed. So it is maybe not surprising that the Isaiah tells the nation that
they are looking for hope in all the wrong places. Hope can only originate in
God. Even if it is found in a political leader, it is only because the leader
has found his hope in God.
So Isaiah
speaks of the cornerstone, the strength that God has placed in Zion – God has
placed hope in the political center of the nation. This passage of Isaiah has
long been thought of as a Messianic text – a prophecy of the time of Christ. For
in the days of Jesus, God placed his strength at the heart of the nation, even
though the nation missed the moment. Only in the day of the Messiah can true
hope and true strength be found. But it might not have been the Messiah that
Isaiah was thinking about as he wrote the words.
It is
possible that Isaiah had King Hezekiah in mind as he wrote the words. In the
early days of Hezekiah, Hezekiah did indeed provide a strength and hope that
Judah needed. And there is no doubt that Isaiah would have been pleased at the
King that was serving Judah from the throne of the nation. But Hezekiah’s
strength would be short lived. As the end of his reign neared, Hezekiah started
to fail the God that he served. As his life continued, Hezekiah began to depend
on his own strength instead of on the strength of God - a strength that he had
counted on during the early days of his reign. Hezekiah forgot that strength
and hope had never been located in him; he was just the one privileged enough
to reflect the hope that came from God.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah
29
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