The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8 NASB Word – Western paradigms focus on answers. Experience is reduced to principles in order that we may predict and control. In fact, the entire enterprise of science, a principal characteristic of the Western mind, is an effort to…
How has the faithful town become a whore? Filled with justice where righteousness did lodge, and now—murderers. Isaiah 1:21 Robert Alter How – אֵיכָכָה (ʾêkākâh) how? There doesn’t appear to be anything remarkable about this, right? It’s just an interrogative. After all God’s pleading with Israel, it doesn’t seem strange to ask how all this…
If you assent and listen, the land’s bounty you shall eat. But if you refuse and rebel, by the sword you shall be eaten, for the Lord’s mouth has spoken. Isaiah 1:19-20 Robert Alter If – Now we know that the poetic context of Isaiah’s opening probably requires nuanced conditionals, not declarative absolutes. ʾim needs…
If you assent and listen, the land’s bounty you shall eat. But if you refuse and rebel, by the sword you shall be eaten, for the Lord’s mouth has spoken. Isaiah 1:19-20 Robert Alter If – Do you remember the examination of the previous verse? The conjunction ʾim? Remember that the NASB rendered ʾim as…
“Come now, and let us debate your case,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall become as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 NASB Though – The problem with Hebrew conjunctions is their implicit ambiguity. Unlike Greek (or English), Hebrew conjunctions cover a very…
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, Isaiah 1:18a NJKV Come now – You probably remember this verse in its King James version suggesting that God wants you to enter into a rational discussion with Him (“reason together”). I’ve often heard this phrase cited in classical apologetics, and, of course, the rest of the…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 NASB The Word – Richard Rubenstein’s book, When Jesus Became God, investigates the battle between Arius and Athanasius in the early centuries of the Church. That battle ended with Athanasius as the victor, and established the Latin Roman Church’s…
Learn to do good, seek justice. Make the oppressed happy, defend the orphan, argue the widow’s case. Isaiah 1:17 Robert Alter Justice – andralamousia. Do you remember that Greek word? It is a summary description of the Flood. And a terrifying prediction of situation. God doesn’t ask for individual purity alone. He is a communal…
Wash, become pure, remove your evil acts from My eyes. Cease doing evil. Learn to do good . . . Isaiah 1:16-17a Robert Alter Cease – Yesterday we learned that God rejects all religious acts if the underlying principle of compassion for others is missing in society. Oh, perhaps you need to read that sentence…
And when you spread your palms, I avert My eyes from you. Though you abundantly pray, I do not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Isaiah 1:15 Full of blood – If you read the context of this verse, you’ll discover that God rejects all the usual acts of worship. Sacrifices mean nothing to…
