The Book of Isaiah and God's Kingdom

Andrew Abernethy

• Editorial: Apollos
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781783594979
• Categoría: Theology & Religion
• Categoría: Biblical Studies

Andrew Abernethy employs the concept of 'kingdom' as an entry point for organizing Isaiah's major themes. Four features frame his study: God, the King; the lead agents of the King; the realm of the kingdom; the people of the King.

Chapter One

God, the king now and to come in Isaiah 1 – 39

After preaching from Isaiah 6, I vividly remember a very spiritual woman – the sort who raises her hands in praise, even in a reformed Anglican church – thanking me for my sermon. When I asked her what she found helpful, her answer surprised me. She said, ‘I don’t often think about God in his greatness. I usually think of God as a friend, which is true, but it is so helpful to step back and see God in his greatness, as the holy king.’ This godly woman’s honest comment captures my own experience, and also the reason why I have been attracted to the book of Isaiah. Since I naturally gravitate towards the comfort of God’s immanence in Christ, I have found that a regular diet of passages that speak of God’s transcendence expands my view of God and reminds me that the God who is near is also the holy king of the universe.

In the time of Isaiah, as well as in our own, orienting God’s people around God as king was vital. Without a king, there is no kingdom. If this king fails to capture the allegiance of the people, the kingdom disintegrates. The book of Isaiah endeavours to orient the allegiance of its readers around a king, namely YHWH. As we work our way through important passages (6, 24 – 25, 33, 36 – 37) pertaining to God’s kingship from Isaiah 1 – 39 in this chapter, and from 40 – 55 and 56 – 66 in subsequent chapters, we will find our view of God, and indeed our view of him as king, becoming more well rounded and nuanced. God’s kingship in Isaiah 1 – 39 takes on many different textures and temporal frames. Some passages depict God’s kingship through narrative (Isa. 6; 36 – 37), and others through poetry (24 – 25; 33). Some texts place more weight upon God as a king who judges (Isa. 6; 24), and others upon God as a king who saves (25; 33; 36 – 37). A variety of imagery – palatial (Isa. 6), banqueting (25:6–8) and political (36 – 37) – is utilized to portray YHWH as king. Some passages have more of an eighth-century outlook (Isa. 6; 36 – 37), and others are more eschatological in nature (24 – 25; 33). Just as a lawyer may use different lines of evidence to make a case, so Isaiah 1 – 39 argues for YHWH’s supreme sovereignty from a variety of angles to impress a wide-ranging sense of God’s kingship upon the hearts and minds of its readers.

The holy king in Isaiah 6

While other passages in Isaiah direct our gaze to YHWH’s future reign or assuage wounded souls with comforting assurances that YHWH will save, the vision of YHWH as king in Isaiah 6 is far more disconcerting, far more unsettling, a present reality that one cannot ignore. Since this terrifying and purifying vision of the holy king is set strategically at the heart of the opening section of the book (Isa. 1 – 12), it is not an overstatement to claim that the book of Isaiah wants to humble us before God’s throne from the start, establishing a gateway into the rest of the book through a recognition of the present reign of a holy king. Why is this important? The vision of YHWH as a holy king casts narrative light upon the five poetic chapters that open the book. The story of Isaiah’s vision enables readers to receive the book’s message of judgment and hope. How can an audience tolerate God’s depicting his people as being stupider than an ox or donkey (1:3), as a prostitute (1:21), enemies (1:24) or a vineyard producing putrid grapes (5:1–7)? How can they bear the thought of God’s starving his city amid a blockade (3:1), coming in such fury that people will try to hide in caves (2:19) or using a foreign empire like a rod to punish his own people (10:5)? The vision of the holy king in Isaiah 6 grants a glimpse of God, albeit terrifying with a lining of hope, that not only enables us to make (some) sense of God’s difficult words in the book, but also invites us to examine ourselves personally and corporately and to revere the holy king who stands behind the utterances in Isaiah 1 – 12 and the entire book.

A vision of the king

During a time when an earthly king, Uzziah, takes his final breath (6:1; 740 bc) and when a distant and ancient kingdom, Assyria, is again on the rise under Tiglath-pileser III,1 Isaiah reports, ‘I saw the Lord’ (6:1b).2 This verb of perception piques our interest, inviting us to join in perceiving what was seen, now through the written word. The first four verses attempt to portray this ineffable vision. The account begins with the ‘who’, the main focus of what Isaiah saw: ‘the Lord’. While those reading in English might quickly bypass ‘Lord’, the use of ‘Lord’ (’ădōnāy), not ‘Lord’ (yhwh), is telling. Having just set this vision during the death year of a ‘king’ (melek), the prophet uses the title ‘Lord’ to highlight God’s sovereignty.3 In fact, six of the seven titles for God in Isaiah 6 derive from the domain of dominion, indicating that the choice of ‘Lord’ in 6:1 is not incidental.4 This is a vision and a message about God, the sovereign Lord, during a time when a human king was dying or had died.

The ‘Lord’ is ‘sitting upon a throne’ (6:1). Sitting upon a throne is a common expression of royal authority.5 For example, when Zimri assassinates King Elah, son of Baasha, he ‘seated himself on his throne’ (1 Kgs 16:11) to signal his new-found power (cf. 2 Kgs 11:19). Another instance of this is when kings Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah meet together: they both sit on thrones while dressed in their royal garb to indicate that both kings remain equally in power (1 Kgs 22:10). Ironically, in that same chapter, a prophet named Micaiah has a vision very similar to Isaiah’s: ‘I saw the Lord sitting on his throne’ (1 Kgs 22:19). Similar to Isaiah’s contrast with King Uzziah, Micaiah’s vision of God sitting upon a throne rhetorically contrasts with the presumed authorities seated on their thrones (22:10) – Ahab and Jehoshaphat – who are destined for judgment. Unique to Isaiah, however, is the use of ‘Lord’ (’ădōnāy) rather than ‘Lord’ (yhwh; 1 Kgs 22:19) to name the one on the throne. This highlights the rhetorical emphasis of Isaiah 6 to capture YHWH’s sovereign kingship further. Referring to God as sitting upon the throne is not unique to Isaiah and 1 Kings, as the Psalms (47:8[9]; cf. 9:4[5], 7[8]) and Lamentations (5:19) do so as well.

‘Sitting upon a throne’ does more than indicate a king who is in power. The throne is the place for executing judgment. As Brettler puts it, ‘God’s throne is specifically associated with his role as judge.’6 On several occasions Psalms speaks of God’s ‘throne’ (kisē’) as a place of ‘judgment’ (mišpāṭ):7

you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.

(Ps. 9:4[5])8

But the Lord sits enthroned for ever,

he has established his throne for judgement.

(Ps. 9:7[8], nrsv)

The same intersection of the throne and judgment occurs in the realm of human kingship as well:

There thrones for judgement were set,

the thrones of the house of David.

(Ps. 122:5; cf. Prov. 20:8)

And he made the Hall of the Throne where he was to pronounce judgement, even the Hall of Judgement. (1 Kgs 7:7; cf. 1 Kgs 10:9; 2 Chr. 9:8)

Similarly, the book of Isaiah regularly associates the throne of the Davidic king with the role of executing justice (9:7[6]; 16:5; cf. Jer. 22:2).9 Sitting on a throne, then, can connote a context where the sovereign power is about to execute judgment. In this way, the throne signals the place from which the authority of the office of king is, or at least should be, carried out. Isaiah’s vision of the Lord sitting upon a throne is not a generic statement that YHWH is king; fundamental to this vision is that the king is about to exact judgment.

The descriptors ‘high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple’ (6:1b) heighten this royal portrait. In his extensive study on throne imagery in the ANE, Metzger (1985) details how tiered platforms were often built to elevate a throne to the highest point within a royal or temple dwelling. This conveyed the power of the ruler or deity. As Blenkinsopp notes, ‘Perhaps the author had in mind something similar to the depiction of Assyrian kings of gigantic proportions compared to those of pygmy size who attended them or the prisoners paraded before them.’10 With Isaiah’s seeing the hem of his robe filling the temple, which itself resembles a royal house,11 Metzger suggests that Isaiah 6 presents YHWH’s throne as towering even over the temple itself, with the tip of the robe filling it.12 While it is unclear if Isaiah 6 envisages the throne to be towering over the temple or if the throne is towering within the temple,13 the description of the throne as ‘high and lifted up’ conveys the supremacy of the one sitting upon it – the Lord.

Isaiah goes on to describe what was taking place around the throne: ‘Above him stood the seraphim.’ Three points about the seraphim are relevant here. First, the use of ‘seraph’ probably brings to mind judgment, which the verbal root śārap (to burn) may imply. In Numbers 21 seraphim were snake-like figures sent to bite the people of Israel, leading to the death of many (21:6, 8). Later in Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6, a seraph is also pictured as a snake bringing destruction; these snakes, however, are able to fly, just as in Isaiah 6:2. Since punishment accompanies every mention of seraphim in the OT, this vision of seraphim would send shivers down one’s spine: judgment is looming. Second, though seraphim are rare in the OT, the imagery of winged creatures around the throne of a deity or king is common throughout the ANE and surfaces with the cherubim in the OT.14 Metzger identifies three roles for these winged creatures in the ANE: (1) destroyers of enemies, (2) destroyers of the unsuspecting, and (3) protectors...