Notes

Isaiah 48:22 - No Rest For the Wicked

Isaiah 48 ends with these words

22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Have you ever heard the phrase: “there’s no rest for the wicked”? It comes from this verse. Now, there is no translation of this verse that supplants “peace” here with “rest,” but the message is certainly conveyed - especially when you pair this passage with Isaiah 57:20. the saying “no rest for the wicked” was first recorded in a 16th Centry sermon by John Calvin, and then made its way into colloquial use by the 18th century and garnering the now slightly humorous, tongue-in-cheek meaning with which we may speak it to each other in the next 100 years. One of its earlier literary appearances was its use as the title of the comic strip, Little Orphan Annie pictured here (below) Since then, it has been the title of a 1998 Ozzy Osbourne album and a 2008 song by Cage the Elephant which might be running through your head at this very moment

Isaiah - Servant Songs

Our reading this week contains three of the four “servant songs” of Isaiah which seem to portray the work of the Messiah

42:1-9
49:1-13
50:4-11
52:13-53:12

All four songs (passages) show the messiah to be God’s meek and gentle servant. he is a royal figure, representing Israel in its ideal form; He is the high priest, atoning for the sins of the world. Isaiah had initially indicated that Israel was God’s servant, but Israel’s failure to be faithful to God and his mission for them leads to these prophecies about a servant who will instead do God’s will. Ultimately, these prophecies are fulfilled by Jesus

Isaiah 50:7 - “Set my face like a flint”

In the third servant song, the servant makes this proclamation

7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.

(stick with me a minute) the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) all portray Jesus as ministering exclusively in Galilee before deciding to go to Jerusalem around the time of the Passover festival for a dramatic and climactic scene of triumph and enthronement which - strangely enough - includes him being crucified.

Each of these gospel writers records the moment that Jesus turn towards Jerusalem and begins to approach this final destination. When luke records this moment, it looks as though he is drawing from this servant song in Isaiah 50 to describe what Jesus was doing

(Luke 9:51 - ESV) When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

John 12: Palm Branches

John 12:12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him

these coins from the Bar-Kochba revold (early 2nd Century AD) show how palm trees and branches were a nationalistic symbol for the Israelites of Judea

Branches were also waved to celebrate triumphs or in homage to rulers (cf. 1 Maccabees 13:51; 2 Maccabees 10:7). Large palm branches were used at the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall (cf. Lev 23:23, 40), often brought from lower-elevation Jericho; some pilgrims constructed temporary shelters for Passover (*Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 17.213, 217), for which they could have brought such branches; or local branches could be used. The branches described here are small enough for the colt to walk on.
Palm branches, which had been one of the nationalistic symbols of Judea since the days of the *Maccabees, were consistently used to celebrate military victories and probably stirred some political messianic hopes among the people. (Carrying branches was also part of the worship at the feast depicted in Ps 118:27.) Pilgrims to the feast were typically welcomed by crowds already there, so it is unlikely that the whole crowd recognized the significance of Jesus’ entry. Nevertheless, Jesus was well-known, especially among the Galileans who had come to the festival.
In view of the crowd’s acclamation in 12:13, the image that may have come most readily to the minds of John’s ancient hearers is probably that of a royal entrance procession. Hopes for the restoration of the Davidic *kingdom also ran high at this time of year. “Hosanna” means “Please save!” Although the expression could be appropriate for imploring a king for deliverance (cf. the Hebrew of 2 Sam 14:4; 2 Kings 6:26), it could also address God, which is how it functions in Psalm 118:25. This Hebrew term and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” come from Psalm 118:25-26. Psalms 113–118, called the Hallel, were regularly sung at Passover season, so these words would have been fresh in everyone’s minds.

Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (pp. 285-286). InterVarsity Press.

JOHN 12:16 and the Uniqueness of this Gospel

John is much different in form, style, and even content from the other three Gospels. One wonderful way in which this is true is how explicit John is about the nature of Jesus the Messiah throughout the Gospel story. The other three Gospels use their narrative to show you who Jesus is. John on the other hand is telling you the story of Jesus’ ministry while he is simultaneously interjecting with complete and full disclosures of who Jesus was and the cosmic significance of what He was doing. It is very likely that John had read and was familiar with the other three gospels, all of which were written more than a decade before his. John may very well have consciously written his Gospel in a contrasting style to the other three for the purpose of instruction and producing belief (as mentioned in chapter 20). The consciousness of this distinction may have led to the explainer that we get here in John 12:16:

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

John stipulates that these statements about Jesus’ identity and the cosmic significance of his work were not a part of his original experience of following Jesus (as shown more clearly by the mystery themes in other Gospels, especially Mark) but that he came to know them after Jesus was glorified (resurrected and ascended).

Check out this note on the distinctiveness of John’s gospel from The New Testament in Its World by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird:

“Matthew takes us into the synagogue, where the people of God are learning to recognize Jesus as their king, their Emmanuel. Mark writes a short tract, chal lenging his readers with the very idea of a crucified king and turning it into a handbook on discipleship for followers of the servant-king. Luke addresses the educated Greek world of his day and paints a big picture of God's purposes through Israel's Messiah for the whole world. John, by contrast, takes us up the mountain, and says quietly: 'Look-from here, on a clear day, you can see for ever. We beheld his glory, glory as of the father's only son, John does not include the story of Jesus' transfiguration, as the other evangelists do. But there is a sense in which John's whole story is about the transfiguration. He invites us to be still and know; to look again into thethe human face of Jesus of Nazareth, until the awesome knowledge comes over us, wave upon terrifing wave, that we are looking into the human face of the living God”

Week 13 - Isaiah 48-53 & John 12 (March 26-April 1)