This is a spin off from the ongoing 'I have a question directed towards Muslims' thread.
I want to thank LoAmmi for providing this link to a certain exposition of Isaiah chapters 52-54 to which I want to respond.
http://www.thehebrewcafe.com/articles/isaiah_52-54.pdf
Going through this study it's often felt like entering someone's living room for the first time, sitting down and looking around. I've been allowed to see into a world view and a theology which was previously unknown to me.
The writer's thesis is that the “My Servant” of Isaiah 53:13, and all references concerning this servant throughout Isaiah 52-54, speak only of the nation of Israel and not the Messiah. Straight away I'm wondering if the writer believes there
are mentions of the Messiah in other parts of Isaiah? For I assume that he believes that a Messiah is to come as foretold in his Bible.
The writer uses two principle lines of argument to establish his understanding of the text.
1- a contextual argument - that chapters 52 and 54 are all about the people of Israel, that Isaiah elsewhere clearly speaks of the people of Israel as being God's servant, so ipso facto everything between, referring to God's servant, is speaking only of the people of Israel as a collective.
2- linguistic arguments - principally that in Hebrew masculine singular pronouns, verbal forms and suffixes can quite properly be used to refer to a collective.
The contextual argument
On his first page the writer says of Isaiah 52:13-53:12,
“When placed within its proper context, however, it is clear that this passage is not talking about events that took place around the year 30 of the Common Era. It is rather, a prophecy of the end of the age and of the coming redemption of the Jewish people from their exile in the world.”
To the writer, “it is clear” but I find nothing in the context or the text or his explaining of it that makes it clear that this passage is
only about, “the coming redemption of the Jewish people”. Throughout Isaiah and all the other prophets God gives many prophecies. Some are clearer than others, some are so unclear that probably we will only properly understand them when 'all is revealed' and to God will be the glory. Sometimes The Lord gives more than one prophecy in a portion and sometimes one prophecy may have shadow fulfillments over the course of His Story before the complete fulfillment. Consider Jacob's words to his sons in Genesis 49. Here in the context of many different prophecies, mainly concerning the different tribes of Israel (collectives personified), are found at least two that can be taken to speak of an individual person that could be The Messiah (verses 10 and 24).
Although the prophecies in chapter 54 easily read as a natural progression from 52 and 53 there is nothing in them that would dictate that the previous prophecies could not be about an individual. Only in the last verse of 54 are servants, plural, mentioned. The logic of the contextual argument would be for this last verse to speak of servant in the singular. It is of interest to note that in Isaiah after 53:11 servant is never used again in the singular.
Chapter 52 is certainly part of the context of the disputed passage. Not least because the passage begins in this chapter. Also there is the first use (in 52 and 53) of singular, third person, masculine in verses 6 and 7. In verse 6 God speaks of Himself. In verse 7 a messenger bringing good news is spoken of.
The writer on page 5 of his exposition says of verse 7,
“Here the pronoun forms are unimportant in our investigation.”
How so, unimportant? His argument is that in the text being considered “the messenger” should always be understood as the people Israel. The mention of “a messenger” in Isaiah chapter 41:27 using the same third person, masculine, singular, construed word is clearly speaking of an individual person. The beginning of chapter 52 starts out addressing Zion, Jerusalem, My people but then awkwardly, according to the writers understanding, in verse 7 those being spoken to, the collective, are also the messenger who comes to them bringing good news.
The writer wants to use Isaiah 40:9 to support this interpretation of 52:7.
In Isaiah 40:9 there is no awkwardness or uncertainty. In the confines of one verse Zion and Jerusalem are told by God
to be messengers to the cities of Judah and are given the message to give, “Your God reigns”.
In 52:7 the messenger is unnamed but is said to be the one giving this same message
to Zion. Linking the messenger of verse 7 to Zion and Jerusalem in verse 1 in the context of this whole passage is strained and awkward.
There is a link between the 40:9, 41:27 and 52:7 on which it is very profitable to meditate but the link is not that Israel, the messenger people are the same as Israel (a Prince with God), the messenger sent by God to His people and from there to all the people of this world.
To close our examination of the contextual argument let us look at the occurrences of “My servant” in the whole book of Isaiah, which is the context for chapters 52-54. The first three occurrences of “My servant” refer to individuals; Isaiah in 20:3, Eliakim son of Hilkiah in 22:20, David in 37:35. Then in 41:8,9 “My servant” is - Israel, Jacob, descendants of Abraham. The meaning of all these names and how they link together helps illuminate our understanding of Isaiah's prophecies.
In chapters 43 to 48 all mentions of “My servant” clearly refer to the collective of Israel, Jacob.
But in chapter 42 (verses 1 and 9) no collective is specified and, as with 52:13, the exclamation, “Behold! My Servant” starts a descriptive passage which is much more easily read as referring to an individual than to a collective. Verses 18-20 is a wonderful portion, difficult to grasp, but seeming to be a meeting of, and an interplay between, the two Messenger Servants, The Messiah and his people.
Again the first seven verses of chapter 49 read much more naturally as speaking of an individual, an individual sent to bring back Jacob and Israel to God (verse5). The awkwardness of verse 3 referring to The Servant as Israel disappears if the name Israel is read in that verse as referring to The Messiah (a prince with God). We know that a play with names is often used throughout the holy scriptures.
The last use of 'servant' in the singular before the the passage under discussion is in chapter 50:10. In the majority of this chapter it is The Servant who speaks in the first person singular. Again, the natural reading of this is that an individual is speaking not a collective.
There is nothing in the context of Isaiah to establish that all mentions of “My Servant” refer
only to the people of Israel. However there is much in the context that would support that “My Servant” refers to
both the people of Israel
and The Messiah.
I conclude this post here.
God willing, I intend to do a second post on the linked exposition of Isaiah 52-54, addressing the writer's linguistic justifications of his argument
and what seems to be his theology concerning suffering, sacrifice and redemption.
I would ask that any responses to this thread keep as close as possible to the topic and that we avoid sidetracking.
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