The Church by the Bridge - 100 Years of Good News
26th July 2024
Recently I had the opportunity to listen to an audio book whilst doing a monotonous physical chore. I settled on David Suchet’s reading of the biblical books which I found on YouTube. On the back of my positive experience of listening to the letter to the Romans recently, I chose the book of Isaiah.
What intrigued me was how particularly this book might come across in an audio reading, since listening to a biblical book is very different to reading it. I think the difference is that when reading from scripture we tend to concentrate on one chapter, or passage or verse, but rarely read through continuously, whole chapter after whole chapter. In that context I also had to think on how in Jewish synagogues congregations would have known scripture from listening to the text, like we have the in the example of Luke 4 where Jesus reads a text out aloud in the synagogue there.
It seems to be that when ‘reading’ a (biblical) book in this way one can get a good overall impression or understanding of the overarching narrative or message contained within.
So, as I was listening to Isaiah, I was struck again on how contemporary this book appears to be. Immediately from Chapter 1 onwards we are drawn into the society of the time, warts and all. From Isaiah’s description it would appear that society at the time did not look too dissimilar to what we are experiencing in our society today. Isaiah seems to describe a general lostness that manifests itself with huge differences between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, a quest of instant gratification and putting the importance of gold and silver above the importance of earnestly following God and His guidance.
God in Isaiah 2:7,8 says this about the country: ‘Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.'
The examples of how God’s people have deviated from following God, putting self on the pedestal rather than Him, stretches across vast portions of this book.
Yet, yet right from the beginning, there is also hope. It speaks there of God’s Grace, Love and Mercy and how the end times will look very different to society today: It says this as a foretaste of the ultimate hope in Chapter 2:2-4 2 ‘ In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'
This Love, Grace and Mercy will touch everyone on this planet as all nations will stream to the temple of God, God himself, as also described in Revelation.
We are blessed that God has given us promises like those contained in the book of Isaiah which we can hold on to as we digest – and live through - all the happenings in society and world around us. We know that our hope is solid, and eternal, worth more than all the silver and gold and treasures the world can offer us.
All praise and thanks to God for this hope!
Have a blessed week
Kai