Dr. Cook: Bob, we're into the next division of Isaiah
this great trunk of the material
in Chapter 44 to 48
And pretty soon almost immediately we have several poems
about this figure Cyrus, King Cyrus, the Head of the Persian Empire
This Empire that's going to come in
and just reshape the whole known world
Israel has been captive of Babylonia
Babylon's gonna fall to Cyrus
And the language that God is using of Cyrus is quite striking
44:28 God calls him “my shepherd”
and 45:1 you've got this royal language
of the DAD taking the hand of the chosen King
Let me ask you about Cyrus, how is he one of God's agents?
What's going on here with him?
Dr. Wilson: He certainly is one of God's agents
And of all the agents
we've looked at a number of different agents so far in Isaiah
as the way in which the divine will gets worked in the world
this one's got to be one of the oddest ones
It's one thing to talk about the Assyrian King Sennacherib
as the agent of punishment on Israel it's quite another thing
not just to talk about Persian King Cyrus
as the agent of Israel's return to the land
that is the fulfillment of the promise to Israel
but to give Cyrus royal titles
The kinds of language that you referred to
calling Cyrus “my shepherd”
this is the language that God is using of Cyrus
Shepherd is a traditional royal title
It's one that is given to kings
And they have the responsibility to shepherd their people
to take care of the sheep
And it is Cyrus that is going to rebuild Jerusalem
it's not just capture Babylon
and punish Babylon
because of what they did to Israelites
but it's going to be...
Cyrus is going to be the agent of the people's return to land
He's going to enable this
and indeed historically this is exactly what happened
that's under Cyrus' rule that Israel
is allowed to go back and fulfill the promises
that we've already had given to Israel in Chapter 40
Dr. Cook: I would think that will a very hard pill for people to swallow...
how about having this new Moses within Israel
one that is member of Abraham's posterity...
not a foreign...
Dr. Wilson: You really like to see that as a sort of local agent
And indeed Chapter 40 envisions that
It envisions this group being someone to lead the people back
God is personally going to lead the people back
Jerusalem is being commissioned to be
an agent in the proclamation of its own salvation
These are all internal means of proclaiming and fulfilling the promise
What we have here is the idea that God has now chosen Cyrus
to be the active agent here
And not only that, God is going to do a lot of other things
for Cyrus in Chapter 45
He is actually called the Anointed of God
God has anointed him to be king
This is the language traditionally used for Davidic Rulers
Dr. Cook: Well the anointement in Hebrew is mâšîah
Dr. Wilson: ... and that is mâšîah
he is the messiah
this is really strange language
One worries a little immediately about whether
the Second Isaiah sees this as the fulfillment of a royal king to come
We've already looked in those early passages
and we saw that it might have to do may be with Hezekiah
but certainly a member of Davidic line
The Messiah is going to come from the line of David
This seems to be totally counter to all of this
God is going to do lots of things for Cyrus
Give Cyrus the Babylonia Empire together with all of its treasures
Not surprisingly this seems to have generated a good bit of opposition
even within the Second Isaiah's own community
And there is a lot of language that
seems to be responding to the objections
This is such a strange idea
Dr. Cook: Do you think it so strange
that even calling the question? ...
God's goodness...
I mean in Verse 7 speaks of God as one
who creates darkness or even creates evil
Dr. Wilson: I don't think that is meant to be a negative statement
It's probably the most troubling theological statement
in the Second Isaiah
And what it is saying is that first of all, as we've already seen this
that this is part of God's plan
Cyrus is somehow part of this plan that God has at work in the world
And for that reason we already know that there is no way
in which that plan is going to be thwarted
This is going to happen
So God says: I am God
There is no other
Besides me, there is no other God
God is now more or less explaining to Cyrus who it is
who is commissioning Cyrus to do this
So that even though you don't know me, they may know
That is everyone from the rising of the sun...in the west...
and to the west there is no one except me
And then this ultimate statement of a monotheism
I am God. There is no other
I form light and I create darkness
I make good and I create evil
That is the logical extension of a monotheism
and you don't get it anywhere else except right here
This is the first radical statement of
that kind of monotheism
And there is obviously a great deal of objection to this line
so much so that not only does God have to convince Cyrus
God apparently has to convince other people as well
In Verse 9 Woe to you who strive with your Maker
the earth and vessels with the potter
Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, What are you making?
Or Your work has no handles
Woe to anyone who says to a father: What are you begetting?
This all seems to be directed at challenges to this idea
which is so in difficult to live with
Can one accept Isaiah's theology here?
We know that people have difficulty with the idea
that the world is somehow totally determined
and that God is responsible for this in some way or another
That was not only a hard position to accept
in antiquity in the Isaiah community
it's a very hard idea to accept now
And whether or not we have any easier time with this
than the audience that Isaiah seems to be addressing
is an open question but...
Dr. Cook: I kept wondering that
if there is not also a positive spiritual insight here
If, if God is the one who seems to be almost amoral
certainly inscrutable
creating darkness, raising up Cyrus
who is not a logical candidate for a redeemer
One of the effects on human beings
is that one realizes that there is very clear limits
to human thought, to human ability
In some way it's pushing one back into a stance of vulnerability
and humanness
In some way it's a pathway to salvation
I mean it's not your normal thinking
about how God brings Salvation
but it is a possible way of thinking about salvation
Dr. Wilson: That may well be that it has to do with the arguments
that seem to be going on back and forth in this text
about the suitability of agents and God's power
and how these things relate to each other
and how the human community fits into God's plans and ...
Dr. Cook: Do you think of God and God's community
and how God saves them?
I do want to at least praise this language
that is used at the very beginning of this division
about God as a redeemer
cause that terminology comes up more than once
Dr. Wilson: It does indeed...
Dr. Cook: I'm talking about Verse 24, Chapter 44
Dr. Wilson: That says
Lord is a redeemer who formed you in the womb and so on
And this redeemer language
this is the favorite title that used of God in the Second Isaiah
The redeemer language is interesting
because the first thing that it points to is the orbit of the family
The concept of redemption is a legal concept
and it was set in place in order to allow things like property and people
to remain within the family, it's a way of preserving the family
And so when people redeem property they pay for it against the dead
in order to include it in the family, to keep it in the family
Similarly, if people are sold in the slavery they are redeemed
and there's an obligation of family members to redeem them
and bring them back so the family can again be whole
This in a way is an incredible statement
We've gone now from talking about God in covenant relationship
to an idea of God as family
and God is going to redeem Israel and Exile
in order to maintain the integrity of the family
And so the notion of the Group of Israelites that is going to
enjoy this concept of redemption is very much behind this term
And anytime you think about it you have to think about redemption
as God's efforts at maintaining the group of
which God is personally a member
And this sets into bold relief the way in which
subsequent groups of the people of God
churches, synagogues, and so on
think of themselves as family together
but also family in which God is an active participant