Notice the tension underlying the passage, a tension that exists on into our time. God is king; yet, we don't always live like it.
Their ancestors had seen God act in their lives at the Red Sea. Was God absent during their captivity?
What holds us captive? What hides the presence of God from us?
Lectio Divina: Isaiah 52:7
Isaiah calls to the Judean people in exile, "Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem" (v.9).
Allen & Williamson's Preaching the Old Testament: point out that this instruction by Isaiah to celebrate their release from captivity and their return to Jerusalem comes at a time when they are still under the control of Babylon and Jerusalem is a devastated city. Allen & Williamson remind us:
Their ancestors had seen God act in their lives at the Red Sea. Was God absent during their captivity?
What holds us captive? What hides the presence of God from us?
Lectio Divina: Isaiah 52:7
Isaiah calls to the Judean people in exile, "Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem" (v.9).
Allen & Williamson's Preaching the Old Testament: point out that this instruction by Isaiah to celebrate their release from captivity and their return to Jerusalem comes at a time when they are still under the control of Babylon and Jerusalem is a devastated city. Allen & Williamson remind us:
In this context, Isaiah celebrates God's victory, much as at Christmas Christians celebrate the coming into the world of Jesus, of whom the angel and the heavenly host sing ....(Luke 2:14). Peace, God's peace, is that to which we witness, for which we work, of which we sing at Christmas, and for which we achingly long.
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