From the trees a great parade,From the hills a band was made...

I guess I haven't mentioned that I've been helping to teach a Sunday school class on the book of Isaiah. I've tried to blog about it in the past but haven't felt like anything I've written is close to doing justice to what's been studied and learned. I have several fragments of writing still saved as drafts. Perhaps I'll focus on refining them in the coming months. It can be a summer project.

My co-teacher is the much-to-my-elder Carl, who asked me to teach with him. We are teaching in the room that is mostly claimed by those I endearingly refer to as The Oldheads, the class that I sort of described here a little while back. The change in teachers and the subject matter has drawn in a few Youngheads, and this has led to some funny overheard comments like when my sister overheard one lady mumble on a morning I was teaching, "I feel like I'm at a youth group meeting!"

I can't blame them really, as it must be quite a bit odd to be taught by someone most of them remember as the bratty 3-year-old that showed up in the sanctuary not too long ago. It's been a humbling experience for me, too, for that reason, but they've been gracious, receptive, and even quite encouraging.

If I had to sum up my challenging study of Isaiah, I would simply say that my view of God has increased dramatically. In seeing God's wrath and judgment side by side with his love and compassion, you can't help but admit our finite, natural, man-centered view of God is incredibly small. And in seeing this radical story of redemption unfold, and how it all ties together, you can't help but be astonished at the magnitude of it all. The many idols we set up for ourselves pale in comparison to this glory that's being revealed.

(And this is what happens when you read the Old Testament! My level of OT literacy, like many Christians, is pathetically low. I haven't recognized the depth of its importance until now.)

And now that we've been exploring chapters forty through fifty-five, this becomes all the more true. Just when the Israelites began to think that God had given up on them for good (and he had every right to do so by this point), he reminds them of who he is and tells of his plan for earthly deliverance. But this is only a shadow of what is to come. In the same way that the ark delivered Noah and the ram delivered Isaac and Moses delivered the people from Egypt and now like Cyrus has delivered the people from Babylon, there will be deliverance in a much greater magnitude. There is a Servant coming who, after taking up our infirmities, carrying our sorrows, being pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, will provide eternal deliverance and redemption.

This is what, I believe, leads to the two verses that are quite possibly the climax of all sixty-six chapters. They are verses of beautiful, intense rejoicing when everything will finally be right again. They are the verses that make my heart leap in joy and rest in comfort, knowing that one day all the earthly turmoil and confusion and wrestling we face here and now will--praise the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel!--be a distant memory.

Isaiah 55:12-13

You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of a thornbush will grow the pine tree
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord's renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed.

Come, Lord Jesus!