If you go into the Gallery of the Ancient Near East in the British Museum in London, you will find the famous Cylinder. The cylinder is covered with writing telling of the glories of the Persian Emperor Cyrus. It tells of his conquest of Babylon “without any battle” and of his policy of allowing captives to return to their homelands and rebuild their temple. One of these captive peoples were the Israelite Exiles in Babylon.
In these events, the prophet known to us as “Second Isaiah” saw God’s action in history for the good of his people, Israel, and the ultimate good of all people.
The Book of Isaiah is really a compilation of the prophecy of three prophets put together by an editor and united by certain recurring themes. The first prophet is Isaiah of Jerusalem who preached around 742 – 700 bc in the times that led up to the Assyrian Invasion of Judah and the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His message was mainly to the people of Jerusalem and was really like a wake-up call to a self-indulgent, materially prosperous, over-confident people.
Second Isaiah’s prophecy comes about 150 years after this. His message is for the people of the Exile in Babylon. Still later in the Book of Isaiah, we find the writings of a third prophet, “Third Isaiah” who is speaking to a later period when the Israelites have resettled in the land and have rebuilt the temple and are struggling with many problems and again in significant ways failing to live out their calling as we all sometimes do.
Advent is a time when we think about the theme of prophecy and we think about the church’s calling, i.e., our calling to be prophetic. So, it’s a good time to think about what that might mean for us.
We often think about prophecy as being about predicting the future but prophecy as it’s understood in the bible is wider than that. That’s not to say that they didn’t sometimes have messages that had a future fulfilment but more broadly, the prophets were messengers of God, forthtellers rather than foretellers, “seers” who could see what God was up to in the world. Their message varied; sometimes it was a message of warning and judgement, sometimes it was a message of hope. William Temple’s words that the gospel message “challenges the comfortable and comforts the comfortless” is also a good description of prophecy.
The message of Second Isaiah is one of hope. It is a gospel. It is good news. In the events of the fall of the Babylonian Empire, the prophet sees God at work. He sees God accomplishing a new Exodus. Things which seemed impossible were being accomplished with divine help. A new road was being made through the wilderness back to the promised land.
The people had been through a dreadful time of Exile; a time of wondering whether God had cast them off but God hasn’t cast them off. God is finding a way to rescue His people from the mess that they have got themselves into. Here is a new beginning.
To a demoralised people, the prophet brings a message of God’s continuing love and faithfulness. He gently leads the people back to the light of hope; showing them that obstacles that seemed insuperable are being overcome. There is a path across the wilderness and a warm welcome home is predicted.
That is where St Mark’s Gospel begins too. God is coming to the rescue of his people again and St Mark uses the images of the Old Testament to describe the ministry of John the Baptist: “a prophet and more than a prophet.” Who calls the people back to the wilderness to repentance and promises that God is coming soon to rescue his people.
I wonder what these things might say to us in this time where perhaps we are beginning to see new hope after a difficult time but there is still a difficult time to get through. Perhaps, the prophetic voice, can challenge us to see God at work in the world even if it may not always seem that way.
The prophetic message may change according to the situation but some things are always there; the faithful love of God and the sheer determination of God not to give up on God’s people.
We have a prophetic voice too; sometimes to challenge, sometimes to comfort. We are called to do both things because of the hope that is within us. We are called to to repentance so that we can live more faithfully to that calling.
Peter’s letter finally gives us a reminder of what the Advent call to us is as he says to his impatient listeners that they should live in such a way that they are “waiting for and hastening the coming Day of the Lord.”
Amen.