Rector’s Reflections
Tuesday 26th November 2024
Keeping Advent with the Prophet Isaiah
In a few day’s time, Advent will have begun. It’s such a wonderful season in the Church’s year – a time to prepare for the two Comings of Christ: His First Coming back in the 1st century AD, and His Second Coming, at some unknown date in the future, when He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
As a season in the Church’s year, Advent has its own special prayers, music, readings, and liturgical customs. However, these can so easily get squeezed out by the celebration of Christmas itself. Of course it’s lovely to celebrate Christmas, and for myself I’m happy to get into the Christmas mood anytime from the end of November onwards. But I still think there is considerable spiritual value in setting some time aside to engage with the season of Advent. Advent has much to teach us. It can be a wonderful time of spiritual refreshment and renewal.
In the days ahead, I am going to share some thoughts on the spiritual value of Advent, based on the teachings of the prophet Isaiah.
Who was the prophet Isaiah? He was a faithful Jew, who lived and worked in Jerusalem back in the 8th Century BC. For the sake of convenience, I will refer to him as Isaiah of Jerusalem. Isaiah of Jerusalem enjoyed an intimate relationship with God, and he believed that God was using him to give particular messages to his contemporaries – messages which dealt with a wide range of political, social and spiritual issues. Such messages are usually referred to as “prophecies”, meaning that they are considered to be God’s words spoken through a human intermediary, and the human intermediary in question is usually referred to as a “prophet”.
There seem to have been many prophets around in Old Testament times, and the vast majority have left no record at all. However, a few were considered to be particularly important. They were felt to be somehow different from the run of the mill prophet. Their words had real depth to them. People felt that God really was speaking through them, and that therefore their words should not be forgotten. And so a record was kept of what they said and what they did. Some of these records came to be included in the books which make up the collection of books we know as the Old Testament.
But this was a society which also valued the oral tradition. So the activities and teachings of a prophet might have been remembered orally for many years before someone felt it would be helpful to have a written record as well. Sometimes a particularly influential prophet might attract followers, and these followers might create a school to continue the prophet’s teachings down the centuries. It would only be natural for such a school to develop and elaborate their founder’s original teaching.
Isaiah of Jerusalem was one of the prophets who were considered to be particularly important – not just by his contemporaries, but also by subsequent generations. There may well have been a School of Isaiah who kept his memory alive. In due course , a book emerged recording his life and teaching, which we know today as the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.
As the Book appears in modern bibles, it is divided into 66 chapters. Scholars debate how much of these 66 chapters can be ascribed to Isaiah of Jerusalem himself. One view is that he was only responsible for the 1st 39 chapters, and that a later writer or group of writers, called ”Second Isaiah”, was responsible for chapters 40-66. It might be that “Second Isaiah” represents the teaching and interpretation promoted by the School of Isaiah, as it developed down the centuries. However, other scholars argue that “Second Isaiah” was in fact only responsible for chapters 40-55, and that a third writer or group of writers, referred to as “Trito-Isaiah”, was responsible for chapters 56-66. Again, “Trito-Isaiah” might also have been a product of the School of Isaiah.
The interpretation and application of Isaiah continued into New Testament times, as we can see from references in the gospels. It has continued to the present day, and doubtless will continue for centuries to come.
Enough by way of introduction. Suffice it to say that the Book of Isaiah is a long and complex work, which has generated much debate. But it is also full of spiritual challenge and insight, and in the days ahead we shall look at some of what it might have to say to us in our own day.