Week 15 - Isaiah 61-66 & John 14 (April 9-15)
Notes
Isaiah 61: The Mission of Jesus
Isaiah 61 plays a major role in the Gospel of Luke. After Jesus is tested in the wilderness by the devil, he returns to Galilee "in the power of the Spirit." He enters a synagogue in Nazareth and reads Isaiah 61:1-2 (Luke 4:14-21).
(Luke 4) 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Quoted from LXX Isaiah 61:1-2)
This passage in the Gospel of Luke serves as a thesis statement for Jesus’ ministry; a self-declaration of his purpose. I don't think that only verses 1-2 of this chapter are being referenced by Jesus. As is often the case with New Testament citations of the Old Testament, the whole passage is at play. Jesus is announcing the arrival of God's Salvation for Zion in this proclamation, and we should understand Jesus' proclamation as declaring that Isaiah's promise of God's deliverance is fulfilled in the incarnation. At hand in Luke 4 is not just the first verses of chapter 61, but the final verse as well:
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations (Isaiah 61:11)
Isaiah 63:10-11: The Holy Spirit
Our reading this week brings us one of the most prominent references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. God's nature as a trinity was not revealed as fully to the Israelites and in the Old Testament scripture as it is through the New Testament. However, the Holy Spirit does not go unmentioned. This passage in Isaiah 63:10-14 depicts the Holy Spirit as the presence of God which is dwelling among the Israelites. It was the Spirit who guided them through the exodus and is the grieved party when Israel is unfaithful to God in the promised land. To have that presence removed or to be excluded from communion with God is the ultimate punishment imaginable. On a national scale, it would be the end of the covenant relationship and the total destruction of the people. For a reigning monarch, who is God's representative, being cut off from Yahweh's voice or presence would be the signal that his dynasty has been rejected and will come to an end.
We are promised the Holy Spirit upon our baptism. Consider the pleas for the continuance of the Holy Spirit's presence in these two passages in your own life and prayers.
Isaiah 65:21: Afterlife & Work
In much of the Old Testament, it seems that the common understanding of the afterlife was a netherworld that all the dead went to - often called “Sheol.” Here is a note about this place and the common understanding of the afterlife from the IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary
Sheol is the Hebrew word for the netherworld. Though it might have been considered an act of judgment for a person to be consigned to Sheol from life, it was not in itself a place of judgment to be contrasted to the reward of a heavenly destiny. The word was sometimes used as a synonym for "grave" because the grave was the portal through which one entered the netherworld. The Israelites believed that the spirits of the dead continued to exist in this shadowy world. They were not thought to have a pleasant existence, but Sheol is never associated with the torment of hellfire in the Old Testament (the imagery seen in Is 66:24 is not associated with Sheol). It is not clear that there were any alternatives to Sheol. People who were spared from Sheol were spared from it by being kept alive rather than by going somewhere else.
There was at least a vague idea of somewhere else to go seen in the examples of Enoch and Elijah, who avoided the grave and presumably did not go to Sheol. But those texts are very unclear about what the other alternative was. In the absence of specific revelation to the contrary, Israelite beliefs conformed genrally to those current among their Canaanite and Mesopotamian neighbors.
In Mesopotamian beliefs the dead needed to cross a desert, mountains and a river, and then descend through the seven gates of the netherworld. Though described in Mesopotamian literature as a place where there is darkness and the inhabitants are clothed in bird feathers and eat dust, kinder accounts were also current. The denizens of this shadow world were believed to be sustained by the offerings presented by those who were still alive. They enjoyed some light as the sun god passed through the netherworld when it was night in the land of the living so he could rise in the east again the next morning. The rulers of the netherworld, Nergal and Ereshkigal, were assisted by a group called the Anunnaki. Despite these depressing descriptions, no one wanted to be turned away from the gates because the alternative was to be a wandering spirit with no access to funerary offerings.
However, there is a passage that alludes to a more robust understanding of the afterlife in our reading this week.
The second half of Isaiah 65 seems to be referring to Heaven. There the theme of a new heaven and earth mentioned on a couple of occasions in the New Testament is introduced. One aspect of Isaiah 65 that I want to focus on, is the promise of meaningful work in God's new creation mentioned in verse 21. God created mankind to work and tend to his creation. This aspect of our existence is portrayed as a gift - a gift that we will be restored to in heaven. Popular conceptions of heaven as disembodied souls engaged in a never-ending song are not well-supported in Scripture. When we get there together I look forward to working next to you in the bounty and delight of God's presence.
JOHN 14: THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE SCRIPTURES
We’re really doubling down on the Holy Spirit in this week’s reading. Not only was He featured in Isiah 63, but also takes center stage here in Jesus’ upper-room conversation with his disciples in John 14. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “advocate” in this passage (verse 16.
The background for calling the Spirit “advocate” (NIV; NLT) or “Helper” (NASB, ESV) is debated; some suggest a courtroom image: one sense of the term is “advocate,” “defending attorney”; see comment on 16:8-11. Much more generally, it can mean “intercessor” or even simply “helper.” In Jewish depictions of God’s heavenly court, angels and divine attributes could serve as accusers or advocates, but *Satan is the primary prosecutor, and God (or his favored attribute of mercy, or Michael) defends Israel. Here the Spirit is “another” advocate like Jesus (cf. 9:35-41, where Jesus defends the man put out of the *synagogue and accuses his accusers); Judaism was also familiar with the idea of a “successor” who carries on a predecessor’s work. Although Judaism normally viewed the Spirit as an aspect of God rather than as a person, this passage goes beyond that perspective (cf. Rom 8:26).
Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (pp. 291-292). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
One key role of the Holy Spirit being discussed by Jesus here is the way that he would help the disciples remember and teach the truth about Jesus. By this function (filling and speaking through the apostles), the Holy Spirit provides God’s word to us in the Bible.
If you were raised in Sunday school classes where you were told (correctly) that the Bible is God’s word, it could be disorienting to focus on the fact that each world of the Bible was written by a human author who had a particular cultural/historical context, reasons for writing, and literary license to communicate in their preferred way. In John’s gospel, he gives us an inside-baseball look at how the truth of God’s word came to the apostles, and why we can trust it:
17 the Spirit of truth….
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14)
Jesus makes a similar remark about the Holy Spirit in John 16:
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
One clearly delineated role of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures was the revelation of the truth to the apostles, the same apostles who wrote the words of the New Testament. We can trust these words that we read in the Bible because John (as inspired by the Holy Spirit) recounts this promise of Jesus to send the Advocate who will teach them all things and remind them of everything that Jesus had said to them. Trusting God to have accurately provided and preserved his truthful Word (Scriptures) by the Holy Spirit working through human authors is an essential and basic element of the Christian faith. While archaeological research and study related to the text of the New Testament is essential and good, we may also trust that the same Advocate (Holy Spirit) who gave the words of truth to the disciples has taken care to ensure that God’s word has been correctly compiled, and preserved through the centuries of the Church.