That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. Perhaps this is why Matthew explicitly states the purpose of Jesus’ healing miracles (Matt 8:16-17): His message about the kingdom was more important than any physical healing he could offer (Mark 1:36-39). It’s striking, however, that Jesus didn’t heal everyone who came to him. And we are right to draw implications for ministry today: that the proclamation of the kingdom ought to be accompanied by improvements to societies and their quality of life. There’s no avoiding the fact that Jesus physically heals people during his earthly ministry. Though Isaiah makes use of the terminology of sickness (affliction, grief, affliction, etc.), these terms serve primarily as metaphors for the main issue: “Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6). The suffering servant is dealing instead with the sin problem. Cyrus was the appointed savior for that sphere. He will raise up his unnamed servant to bear iniquity, he will put his words into the people’s mouths, and he will reconstitute them to bear his name.Īs we follow Isaiah’s train of thought, we see that the suffering servant in chapter 53 is not raised up (or crushed or wounded) for the people’s physical well-being. Third, Is 49:1-55:13 describes how Yahweh will go about bringing the second announcement to pass. He will anoint Cyrus for the job, he will bring the people home, and he will wipe out Babylon once and for all. Second, Is 44:24-48:22 describes how Yahweh will go about bringing the first announcement to pass. And no idol can do a thing to pardon the people’s great iniquity toward God. No idols can end the warfare with Babylon to return the exiles. These two points are then expanded as: “that she has received from Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.” The following chapters expand on these two announcements.įirst, in chapters 40-44, Isaiah shows that Yahweh, and Yahweh alone, is both willing and able to do these things. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her: Isaiah 40:2 sets up two main announcements for the languishing exiles. So let’s limit our attention for now to chapters 40-55. Isaiah 56-66 presents yet another perspective, that of those who have returned from exile, now rebuilding the nation and city. And the chief hero is not Hezekiah (Is 36-39), but Cyrus, King of Persia (Is 44:24-45:7), along with the representative “servant” of Israel. The chief enemy is no longer Assyria but Babylon (Is 46:1-47:15). And the audience appears to be no longer in the land of Judah (Is 7:1), but in captivity in Babylon (Is 48:20-21). chapter 48), the focus lands far more heavily on proclamation of comfort (Is 40:1-2). While condemnation of Judah’s sin is not absent (e.g. Isaiah 40 presents such a sharp change of subject matter and implied audience that many scholars believe the second half of the book could not have been written by Isaiah son of Amoz in the 8th century B.C. The first is the larger train of thought of Isaiah 40-55. I’d like to address Isaiah 53:5 from three angles. Seattle Municipal Archives (1999), Creative Commons Isaiah’s Train of Thought
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