Week 10 - Isaiah 32-37 & John 9 (March 5-11)
Notes
Isiah 34: the heavens rolled back like a scroll
God is expressing his anger with the nations in Isaiah 34, and his promise to punish them includes these words in verse 4:
4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved
and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
“more often the heavens are compared to a canopy (Isaiah 40:22) or a tent (Psalm 104:2) spread over the earth. this image in Isaiah of the whole panorama of the sky being rolled up like a parchment scroll is unique in the Hebrew Bible (See the New Testament parallel in Revelation 6:14 below). Additionally, the three major Babylonian gods are not represented by stars but by the sky itself. Anu is the sky god, and the horizon is divided into three pats (connected to Anu, Enlil, and Ea). Therefore, rolling up the sky is an act of judgment against the three main deities of the ancient world”
IVP Bible Background Commentary OT, 624
here is the parallel to this passage in Revelation 6
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Consider also this line from the Hymn It Is Well With My Soul that likely uses the imagery from these two passages to describe judgment day
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Isaiah 35: 4-5, Are You the One?
look at Isaiah 35:4-5's promise that God will come to deliver God's people and compare it to this conversation between John the Baptist ('s disciples) and Jesus in Luke 7:20-23. John was wondering if Jesus really was the Messiah, and It appears that Jesus refers to this passage in Isaiah 35, among others, to tell John the Baptist that indeed it is he.
Luke 7:20-23
When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Isaiah 35:4-5
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Isiah 36-37: Sennacherib’s Siege of Jerusalem
Annals of Sennacherib. Baked Clay. Assyria, Nineveh. Neo-Assyrian, 694 B.C. The Trustees of the British Museum, London (BM 103000)
We get quite a twist of Genre in the last two chapters of our reading this week. Isaiah shifts suddenly from the familiar poetic form of prophecy common to this section of the Bible to history. Here he details the events which occurred during king of Assyria, Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah.
Sennacherib’s conducted military campaigns primarily in two regions durring his reign (705-681 BC) He had at least one major compaign in Syro-Palestine which centered around jerusalem and Hezekiah’s Rebellion (701). He also campaigned vigourously in Babylonia, another major problem area durring his reign.
This is one of the rare moments in the Bible’s story for which we have contemporaneous notes. the Assyrians loved to write down the stories of their conquest. We have discovered annals of Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah that date to the decades that followed this event in history. Now - note - that these are *Assyrian* records, and if the Assyrian army really did go to the gates of Jerusalem only to be wiped out mysteriously by the power of the LORD and run home with their tails between their legs they are not going to say exactly that in their record. Instead, the Assyrian records focus on all the towns of Assyria that Sennacherib did conquer.
Our material for Sennacherib's reign is derived from various sources. The "annals" are not precisely annals as such, as they were not contemporary with the campaigns they described but are referred to in this way because they were in a formal chronological succession. Many of the inscriptions were deposited in the compartments of building foundations; some were even found in their original locations. The annals generally passed through a number of editions. One intriguing nonannalistic text is a fragment of a literary type called a "letter to God."
The account of the campaign against Jerusalem was probably composed several months after the campaign itself (c. 700 B.C.). In addition to depositing the texts in building foundations, the Assyrians displayed their inscriptions as bas reliefs illustrated on the palace walls. There are a number of copies of this campaign inscribed upon large barrel-shaped cylinders. There are also stone carved reliefs at Nineveh relating to the Assyrian siege of Lachish (an important fortified city of Judah), which were found in room 36 of Sennach-erib's palace. The annals describe the destruction of a wide area of Judah but do not mention the taking of Jerusalem, as drastic operations against the Judahite capital were never completed, although Sennacherib claims to have encircled Jerusalem with watchtowers. Forty-six cities of Judah were plundered, many of which were given over to their rival, Philistia. There is no statement about Sennacherib being magnanimous with Hezekiah as he was with the king of Tyre. Other rulers were replaced in this area (e.g., Sidra of Ashkelon). The testimony of the Assyrian sculptures is important; Lachish was exhibited, but not Jerusalem. The annals claimed that over two hundred thousand Judahites were taken captive (but not necessarily into cap-tivity), and a number of Philistine cities that rebelled were also identified as having been taken. Sennacheris placed responsibility for Judah's fate in the hands of Hezekiah (the Assyrians typically blamed the enemy monarch for the invasion). We are told that the Assyrians demanded from Hezekiah his daughters, weapons, women, gold and numerous other artifacts. The lists of tribute are the longest and most detailed of any of Sennacherib's inscriptions, suggesting that the author sought to draw attention away from the fact that Jerusalem had not been taken. Hezekiah, however, was subdued. This battle had been won, but Hezekia was still an Assyrian vassal, and he sent tribute to Sennacherib back at Nineveh.
IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary, (note on 2nd Chronicles 32) 454
For parallel accounts of Sennacherib and Hezekiah’s confrontation, see 2nd Kings 18-19 and 2nd Chronicles 32.
John 9: The Pool of Siloam
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
This is the Pool of Siloam. the bottom picture is just zoomed out and pointed a little more upwards toward the city.
This passage is fun for a couple of reasons.
First, it is fun that Jesus uses spittle and mud and instructs the man to wash when he absolutely does not have to. Jesus does not use these physical mediums for other healing miracles which he accomplishes. It reminds me of the healing that God provided for the Aramean Naaman in 2nd Kings 5. God often pairs the healing or other blessing which he provides with a physical element and a requirement of participation by the recipient, not because God needs these things, but - it seems - because he desires our participation and cooperation in the working of his provision.
Second, this passage is fun because we know right where the Pool of Siloam is, and this is a very recent development! Construction in 2005 unearthed ancient steps which led to a depression that could have been (and now is indeed) a pool. Here are some notes on the Pool of Siloam from the IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary
This Image shows an artists rendering of the pool of Siloam in the Second Temple Period (Jesus’ day)
The pool of Siloam (9:7), presumably not far from where this incident occurs, was also near the temple (which Jesus had just left, 8:59). Blind people could make a living only by public charity, and they could make it best near the temple, where many people passed and people would tend to think charitably (cf. Acts 3:2). The *disciples see this blind man as they are leaving the temple area (8:59).
It is not clear whether “Siloam” meant “sent,” but Greek teachers as well as Jewish teachers from *Philo to the *rabbis commonly made arguments based on wordplays, which were often based on fanciful etymologies. This pool was inside Jerusalem’s walls in Jesus’ day, with large masonry and four porches. Although Siloam was used as a water supply and for baptizing converts to Judaism, it has more direct significance here. This was probably still the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (7:2, 37; see comment on 7:53–8:11), and the water of Siloam was the sacred water used for this feast (see comment on 7:37-38). Here Jesus employs the ritual water (cf. 2:6; 3:5), but it works only because the man is “sent.”
Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (p. 276). InterVarsity Press.