The Saturday Night Theologian is part of Progressive Theology
Exegesis of Word and World, based on readings from the Revised Common Lectionary
Epiphany 2: Isaiah 62:1-5
When the nation of Israel was established in 1948, many people around the world saw the events as the fulfillment of prophecy. Others believed that the Jewish people had been recompensed in some measure for the horrors they suffered under Adolf Hitler, and indeed under many other oppressors through the centuries. For the Palestinians whose land was confiscated and whose villages were destroyed, however, the state of Israel was an unmitigated disaster. Thus, the establishment of Israel as a nation was at best a mixed bag, with some positives (arguably) but even more negatives (indisputably).
How, then, can one interpret a passage such as today's reading from Isaiah, which begins, "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest"? The prophet (often called Trito-Isaiah, or Third Isaiah) speaks to Jewish returnees who are living in their traditional homeland, which continues to suffer neglect and poverty. He voices God's promise to restore the fortunes of God's people so that the other nations will see Israel's renewal as a sign of divine blessing. I would argue that this prophecy was in fact fulfilled in large measure in the years that followed the Jews' return from Babylonian exile. They rebuilt the temple and eventually the city of Jerusalem itself. Yes, they continued to be under Persian hegemony until the time of the Maccabees, but their lot was generally good during this period.
More important than determining whether or not this prophecy was literally fulfilled--I think such a question is a hermeneutical distraction from examining the meaning of the prophecy in its historical context and in its present application--we must examine the issue of how (or whether) it can be applied in our current situation. To attempt to apply this prophecy, or any other, to the present state of Israel is a mistake. Today's nation of Israel is not the Israel of the Bible, any more than the modern nation of Italy is the Roman Empire of the New Testament. Instead, we should ask the question, of whom is God speaking? God is speaking of God's chosen people, and God has promised not to rest "until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch." The people whom God loves, who are called by God's name (cf. Isaiah 43:7), are the entire community of humankind. Thinking of "God's people" in narrow religious terms, or (even worse) in modern nationalistic terms, has led to wars, injustice, and acts of atrocity over the millennia that we who live in the nuclear age must cast aside before it is too late.
In an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise called "Chosen Realm," the Enterprise is captured by a group of people intent on taking the ship back to their home planet and annihilating their enemies, to whom they refer as heretics. The point of theological dissent? Whether "the makers" created the universe in nine or ten days! Over this point of difference, the factions had been fighting for centuries, and when the Enterprise finally reaches the planet, it has been destroyed in the interim by the two factions (die-hard Trekkies will recognize this as a remake of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" from the original series, which focused on racism rather than religion).
Before maniacs with access to nuclear arsenals begin to use nuclear weapons again on their enemies in the name of "preemption," let us strive to make the world a place that can honestly be called "My Delight Is in Her" and replace those who would lead us down the path of Desolation with those who have a keener insight into God's nature and will.