Godgrown

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  Mark 8:01 am on December 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  A Show Down 

  And it happened.  Six years after Hezekiah, king of Judah came to the throne, the mighty king of the Assyrian Empire collapsed and died.  The thumb of this powerful empire was temporarily taken off the Judean people, and Hezekiah began restoring their long-neglected temple and even invited their northern counterparts to enjoy the Passover down in Jerusalem.  In conjunction with this wave of nationalism and hope, Judah joined many other nation-states in rebelling against the mighty Assyrians during their time of disorientation.  But empires don’t go for long without a king.

  Sennacherib came to power, and quickly unified his own country, then began heading southward toward the rebellious states, including Judah.  He re-conquered Lachish, which guarded access to Jerusalem and its rebellious king.  Hezekiah tried to appease the coming onslaught by paying a heavy tax to the Assyrians, and released some of his pro-Assyrian prisoners, but the gloves were already off – Sennacherib wanted revenge.

  In Isaiah 36, (and in 2 Kings 18-20) we read about the show down in Jerusalem.  Special Assyrian envoys speak with the leaders of Judah and dole out the terms – Assyrian forces will take siege of the city and destroy it – or Judah can join the ranks of the Assyrian army, and assimilate into their culture and religion.

  The Judaen leaders beg the Assyrian secretary of state not to speak in Hebrew, where the common people might hear and panic, but the secretary only speaks more boldly and faces the crowd.  No more running and hiding – the rebellion is over – wake up, reality finally caught up with you!  It is strangely like a tax man coming to collect after years of not paying tribute to Uncle Sam.

  Isn’t this common to human nature? Don’t most of us keep running and running, hoping no one will ever notice us or finally call us to task on what we fear everyone already knows – that we are frauds – that we are weak – that we can’t be the people we show ourselves to be to the public. Hezekiah had been living a lie for 15 years, and finally reality had caught up with him.  Chapter 36 ends with him weeping and and tearing his clothes in shame…

  …And yet, for God, being ‘at the end of our rope’ is right where he wants us to be.  That’s where we’re able to fully trust in God, and he is fully able to be and to do exactly what he wants.  Chapter 37 (tomorrow’s blog post) will shock and amaze you.

  
   

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  Mark 9:42 am on December 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  An Alliance of Reliance 

  Its hard not to look ahead in the story of Isaiah to see how it will all turn out.  For about a dozen chapters now, Isaiah has been warning Judah not to trust in Egypt.  King Hezekiah has sent an envoy down to the Nile to request aid from the mighty Cushite/Egyptian Empire in their fight against the impending Assyrian onslaught from the North.  Jump ahead to Ch 37 if you want to see what happens – or just read along with me (I’m doing a chapter a day) and watch the amazing story unfold!

  The way Isaiah goes about it in today’s chapter 31, it would almost sound as if he’s calling on his people to just surrender to the Assyrians.  Rather than make compromises and alliances with other countries – Isaiah is calling on an alliance with God (or should I say, reliance).

  We seem to have a choice in this life – to use our lives to garner as many alliances with others and things as possible.

  Ally with money that will buy your health in old age,

  …with powerful people who will give you approval and happy times that you’ll forget your pain,

  …or with weapons and security to give you a false sense of protection from the inevitable death that will just find another way to collect you.

  Not to put too fine a point on it – when we make an alliance, we make an agreement to rely on them for our provision.

  I think this is why Isaiah is so put off by alliances with other humans – he sees the frailty in even the most advanced military strengths and cooperative national partnerships on earth.  They are all just flesh, like we are.

  Isaiah gives his friends hope – that the LORD himself will take care of the oppressive Assyrian regime.  He calls on them to make an alliance of reliance with Yahweh God. Will they do it?  And will God come through? Stick around for the surprise ending!

  
   
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  Mark 10:20 am on December 11, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Walter Brueggemann   

  Why You Might Want to Take Up Gardening 

  If prophecy is like weather forecasting, then this chapter is Isaiah’s extended outlook. In this Isaiah looks toward a time beyond all nation names and kingly personalities, and focuses in on what he sees might just be the end of it all.  As in “roll credits!”

  The focus for the prophet is the destruction of the eretz or “earth.” Generalizing every part of the earth as rebellious and wicked and forgetting God’s everlasting covenant (possibly the one Yahweh made with Noah, the primogenitor of all the nations in Isaiah’s day).  He looks with specific accusation at the cities – at all human civilization — every concentration of human power that functions effectively but is rooted in disobedience and defiance to Yahweh.

  As Isaiah watches each city of the future earth being destroyed, he hears the celebration of the rural remnant “like the last olives on a picked tree” those outside of human civilization are happy to see these cities go.  The metaphysical powers (demons, etc) and the physical powers (kings, etc) are bound by God like prisoners in a dungeon!

  Are cities the problem?  Is it that humans just can’t get along?

  Yes and no.  This chapter ends strangely – the end of this apocalyptic chapter; the end of it all…God finishes with a hopeful beginning…

  23b for the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will rule on Mount Zion.
  He will rule in great glory in Jerusalem,
  in the sight of all the leaders of his people.

  There is a new city being built – where the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will rule as mayor. It will be a God-centered civilization. A place where the leaders of his people will keep God in their sights – and where anxiety and ambition and rebellion and more will cease.  Where nature and harmony will bring justice in everything.  Where crime and violence will disappear. This is a great urban center on a powerful green mountain.

  Some say that the setting of the Bible begins in a garden and ends in a city. (Gen 2 Rev 21)  And while that is true – it really is two sides of the same coin.

  God’s new city seems to be on a mountain, and the original garden was landscaped like a city.

  What is in view at the end of time is the same as what we see at the start of it – a real place where nature and humanity find balance, and where God is at the center of it all.

  This whole grand experiment – all of human striving and civilization – won’t end in anything but our own demise.  But out of that rubble God brings us to the deeper delight that is coming when people from the east and the west can celebrate when all the corruptions of human nature are washed away and a brand new culture is created -

  …where God is mayor of our new kind of city.