Va’etchanan “ And I besought”
Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11 Isaiah 40:1-26
At chapter 40, the scroll of Isaiah begins with what Rabbi Ibn Ezra called, “the second part of the book.” Isaiah 40-66 contains a series of consolations in which the prophet offers a messianic vision of hope and renewal to the faithful remnant of Israel. Biblical scholars refer to these passages of Isaiah as Deutero-Isaiah, (Second Isaih). The collection is sometimes referred to as Isaiah’s book of Consolations.
The text of Isaiah does make a sudden, dramatic shift at the start of Chapter 40. The concluding chapters leading up to Isaiah 40 dealt with episodes near the end of Hezekiah’s reign such as the LORD’s miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib (701BCE), Hezekiah’s illness, and the visit of Babylonian envoys some years later. When the curtain rises on the second act (Isaiah 40-66), the prophet whisks the reader ahead in time by more than a century. Jerusalem is already in ruins; the people of Judah are already in captivity in Babylon.
Instead of withering rebukes and ominous portents of God’s chastisement, the prophet predicts the fall of Babylon, the rise of King Cyrus, the return from captivity and the hope of redemption. He unveils several visions of the messianic future. Isaiah did not address these prophecies to his contemporaries living in the days of King Hezekiah or King Messiah. Instead, the prophet spoke them ahead of time and left them behind to encourage future generations that would face the devastation of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and exile in Babylonia.
Anticipating the decree of King Cyrus of Persia, Isiah foresaw the return from Babylon and the rebuilding of the Temple. The “good news” proclaimed in Isaiah 44-60 originally referred to Cyrus’s decree to the end of the Babylonian exile.
Yet Isaiah saw even further into the future. He envisioned a day when God would restore the Davidic monarchy and initiate an age of world peace. In that day, all the scattered children will return to their land. Jerusalem will be the center of all nation, the Holy Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, the Torah will flow forth to all peoples, and the Davidic king will rule over all peoples. Therefore, the consoling prophecies of Deutero-Isaiah spoke directly to all generation, “looking for the consolation of Israel.”
The apostolic community regarded the prophecies contained in Isaiah’s Book of Consolations as especially pertinent to their messianic faith in Yeshua of Nazareth. They derived the proclamation of the gospel, (good news) of the kingdom of heaven directly from these latter chapters of Isaiah, and they identified Yeshua of Nazareth as Isiah’s predicted Servant of the LORD. Even when the apostolic writings do not directly quote from these Isaiah passages, the theology of Isaiah’s messianic expectation informs their world view and interpretation of events.
First Consolation (Va’etchanan): Isaiah 40:1-16
Second Consolation (Ekev) Isaiah 49:14-51:3
Third Consolation ( Re’eh): Isaiah 54:11-55:5
Fourth Consolation ( Shoftim): Isaiah 51:12-52:12
Fifth Consolation ( Ki Tete): Isaiah 54:1-10
Sixth Consolation (Ki Tov): Isaiah 60:1-22
Seventh Consolation (Nitzavim): Isaiah 61:10-63:9
From FFOZ’s Voice of the Prophets
FFOZ.org