Week 7 - Isaiah 12-18 & John 6 (Feb. 12-18)
Notes
Babylon in Isaiah’s Time (Chapter 13)
In Isaiah 13, the prophet issues a prophecy against Babylon. This seems all well and good even to the adept Bible reader who knows that it is the Babylonians who will conquer Jerusalem and take Judah into captivity. However, this chapter is remarkably surprising given the state of Babylon at the time that Isaiah is writing. Isaiah is writing roughly 100 years before Babylon would be a world power. To anyone else in Isaiah’s time, Babylon would have just seemed like any other vasal-state of the Assyrian empire. Through Isaiah, God speaks against this nation for deeds they will accomplish long after the prophet dies. Here is a note about the timeline of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empire from the IVP Bible Background Commentary:
at the time that Isaiah functioned as a prophet (second half of the eighth century B.C.) the Neo-Assyrian empire, under the Sargonid rulers, Sargon II and Sennacherib, was the most powerful political network the world had ever seen. It stretched across the Near East and would eventually even include Egypt for a short time. During the period, Babylonia and its Chaldean rulers were subjugated, just like all other nation-states by the Assyrians. However they, like the Medes in western Iran, periodically tested the Assyrian hegemony with revolts or by attempting to subvert Assyria’s allies and vassal states. Particularly troublesome was Merodach-Baladan, who ousted the Assyrian rulers of Babylon on at least two occasions. Finally in 689 B.C. Sennacherib sacked the city and assumed the title of king of Babylon. Shortly after 660, as the Assyrian empire began to crumble, Babylonia and Media combined to put even greater pressure on the last of the great Assyrain kings, Ashurbanipal. His death in 627 marked the end of Assyrian World power and the emergence of Nebuchadnezzar and the Neo-Babylonian empire
The Nations of Isaiah 13-18
The Nations of Isaiah 13-23
The following is summarized from both The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, Walton, Matthews, & Chavalas, and An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books, Bullock.
Chapters 13-14a: Babylon - Babylon will come to play a huge role in the Old Testament. However, during the time of Isaiah's ministry, they are the conquered vassal state of the Assyrian empire, located just to the south of the Assyrian capital of Ninevah. Babylon will overtake Assyria as the dominant regional empire in 612 BC, 70 years after the last events recorded in Isaiah.
Chapter 14b: Philistia - At the beginning of Isaiah's ministry, Judah's neighbor to the west was controlled by Judah during the reign of Uzziah. However, they rebelled against Ahaz and became the aggressor ("the rod that struck you is broken" 14:29), attacking Judah. The Philistines would become a vassal state of the Assyrian empire before the end of Isaiah's ministry, and a century after Isaiah, they would be invaded and exiled by the Babylonians at the same time that fate befell Judah. Unlike Judah, the Philistines never regained their territory or kingdom.
Chapters 15-16: Moab - Moab was Judah's neighbor to the east. This oracle seems to be pronounced against them around the time that they formed an alliance with the Philistine city-state Ashdod to oppose the Assyrians in 714. That opposition was short-lived and Moab was a vassal state of both the Assyrian and later the Babylonian empires.
Chapter 17: Aram (Damascus) - Aram was an ally of Israel (the northern 10 tribes) and they, together, attacked Judah during the reign of Ahaz and opposed Assyria. This opposition to Assyria was a really bad idea for both of those nations. in 734-732 BC, the Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser III would conduct a brutal, punitive invasion of both of them and deported many of their people away from their homelands.
Chapter 18: Cush (Ethiopia) - This country is not located where the modern nation of Ethiopia is found on a map today. but immediately to the south of Egypt along the Nile in modern-day Sudan. This Oracle seems to coincide with an occasion in 714 BC when the nation of Cush sent emissaries to Jerusalem to invite Judah to join an Anti-Assyrian plot. Isaiah seems to tell these emissaries that the Lord will deliver Judah without their help and that Jerusalem's power is greater than theirs.
The feeding of the 5,000
Did you know that there is a parallel story to the feeding of the 5,000 in the Old Testament? 2nd Kings 4 is recording a time of famine in Israel and tells this story about the prophet Elisha:
42 A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43 “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” 44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
The feeding miracle would have been a familiar story to the disciples and even the crowd. Jesus, though, feeds more with less, showing his superiority to the prophets by his miraculous power.
Jesus Walks on the Water
“Squalls were frequent on the lake and can keep even modern boats on shore. Given where they are traveling (from the northeast to northwest shores), they were probably most of the way across the lake; turning back is no longer an option. That they had not arrived yet indicates the difficulty of the wind (6:18). Fishing boats were equipped with oars; the sail would be counterproductive in this storm. In the *Old Testament, only God is said to walk on the waves (see comment on 6:20).
“It is I” (v. 20) is literally “I am.” “It is I” is a legitimate way to translate the phrase, and no doubt how Jesus intends the disciples to understand it; but given the context of Jesus walking on water, the nuance of deity in “I am” (Ex 3:14; Is 41:4; 43:10, 13) is probably present. *Gentiles had some stories of miracleworkers walking on water, but these were not known to Palestinian Jewish tradition, echoed here. In the Old Testament, Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha all parted bodies of water, but only God trod upon the water (Job 9:8; cf. Ps 77:19, shortly before Ps 78:24, possibly used in Jn 6:31).
Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (p. 266). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.