Hearing Isaiah.
We can all read biblical texts many times without hearing them. Jesus warned, quoting God’s words to Isaiah about the message he was to carry, “You will be ever hearing, but not understanding, ever seeing, but never perceiving.” So I have been reading, and feeding on Isaiah for sixty or so years, absorbing many of its themes, living with it, but then comes the time when you hear it all. Of course, not that, but merely my own ear open a bit more. The central perception is of the whole book and its focus on peace – peace as a deep structural argument centred on Christ, and including national government, world empires, justice, war, the meaning of history and the nature of God’s blessing. Everyone knows that Isaiah talks about peace, so this is nothing new, but the denseness and intenseness of Isaiah’s poetry makes it difficult to stay with his meaning, even as he was wrestling with it before God, and that meaning throughout is the requirements of peace in national and international politics. This commentary may be a plonking catching up; there are many fine commentaries on Isaiah by those more qualified in most areas. It has one thing going for it. They probably haven’t studied militarism so fully and are less tuned to this blitzkrieg on the world’s faith in militarism. Of course, many people do not believe in peace, except as a rosy sunset, but perhaps Isaiah helps us understand what full political peace is. So this study is not claiming special insights, except the sense of having heard and understood, perhaps as God intends, this great deconstruction of world militarism.

Questions of single or multiple authorship are not touched or those of background scholarship, valuable though they be. There is a sense that the whole book is coherent in its themes and understanding and also that the passing of time, even centuries, can be understood in God’s purposes and relation to us.

The Structural Theme of Peace and its Architecture.
It is surprising how simplistic much of the thinking about peace is today. Most people and the media seem to think of peace in terms of the either/or, of peace or war. You hope you have peace, but sometimes you have war, and the important thing is to be prepared (like Churchill) so that you are not defeated when war happens. So most of the states of the world are armed so that they are “defended” and cannot be defeated in war, and being defended will not face war, because they cannot easily be attacked and defeated. In daily news we consider whether Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, the United States, the UK, France and other countries are at war or not (peace). It is two dimensional, two sides of a gate and either side can open the gate. Peace is the safety of one’s own domain.
Isaiah is not so. Behind war and peace, blessing and judgement, lies God’s relationship with the state, rulers and groups in it, nations and empires, and more than this, with their structuration of human affairs. Peace is the possible outcome, the prophesized outcome, but it is the result of a number of crucial moves shaping nations and the whole world. When Jeremiah states, the prophets say, ‘Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” , he is similarly identifying false conceptions of what peace may be. We have no problem seeing what these may be when Chamberlain on 30th September, 1938 returned from Munich, saying “peace in our time” and waving a piece of paper which turned out to be useless. We therefore understand the structure of Isaiah which points to what leads to, and does not lead to peace.
Peace in some Christian traditions has been pushed out of politics into a blessed subjective state; this is partly because Christianity has allowed itself to be pushed out of politics in much of the west and elsewhere. Peace in Isaiah is political; it is God’s politics of peace. In every chapter that is so, and the book cannot be read apolitically. The Jewish political scene of Isaiah is fairly easy to describe. The Jewish state grew out of the return of the tribes under Moses c1400 BC. About 400 years later it became a coherent state under King David. Within a century it had divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah), centred on Jerusalem. Each had prophets who held the rulers and people to God’s laws and ways, often with persecution. Israel and Judah were surrounded by other quite powerful local states with the big powers in Egypt, Assyria and Babylon. Isaiah is prophesying around 740-680BC during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah in Judah. In the period 733-722BC Israel in the North, allied with Syria, fights against Tiglath-Pileser III the Assyrian ruler. They lose and Israelites are deported from Galilee and later Samaria, leaving Judah and Jerusalem isolated. Judah is not allied with Syria and remains independent for another century after Isaiah, and eventually falls in 586BC. Isaiah prophesies during this period of precarious independence.
It possibly helps to think of a European similarity. Switzerland and Hungary in the 20th century have been smaller states slightly precariously sitting among the bigger units of Russia, Germany, Italy and the Austrian empire and facing possible or actual control by these powers, especially the Nazis and the USSR. The issues of independence, colonial control and subjugation become key. Of course, normally the big boys write the history and smaller nations are mere pawns. Isaiah and the other Jewish prophets, though from small states, tell the mega-story of God’s perspective on the big and small guys. It is a history of the USSR and America coming out of Hungary or Switzerland. British-American history, full of its own self-importance, cannot easily see how we are challenged by this, especially in our views of peace and war.
The poetry of Isaiah is intricate, and themes are picked up and put down, perhaps so that their interrelationships cannot be ignored. Here we pick out those themes and locate the sections under headings, so that the power of the main arguments stands out. All the biblical text is in bold.

1. The Internationalist Perspective.
This is a book for all peoples, God’s perspective for the big and little peoples. Hear, O Heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken. (1:2) This internationalist perspective rings out from the first verse, strange from a small lost city state.
1A. Though Judah is a mere smudge on the map, Isaiah addresses the big picture in God’s Name. “Man will be brought low and mankind humbled…The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men will be humbled.” (ch2: 9, 17) The universal message is that all the idolatries and self-promotions of humankind will be brought low before God. We are to “Stop trusting in man, who has but breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” (2: 22) All nations are under God’s creation splendour. Immediately we see how different this understanding is from the tribal and nationalist idolatry of these times. This is not Athena, Dagon, Osis and Osiris, the gods of ethnic success and victory, but God who is both able to judge and discipline Israel and Judah, and also to hold in contempt the deities of the empires. Here is the impartiality of judgement which is lacking down to the present, where each nation worships its own self-created idols, is incapable of self-judgement and loses a sense of accountability, but the Lord will shake the earth….

2. The State of Judah, Law and Injustice.
This theme is the injustices in the state of Judah and the centrality of repentance before God in the health of the nation. Centrally, you cannot fight against God. Later it emerges as: It is no good seeking external alliances for “peace” when the problems are internal sin and evil.

2A. “Chapter One: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel.” (v2-5)
This probably refers to both Israel and Judah; the example of Israel is also brought home to Judah with its own failings. As a result of this, the argument goes, there is no soundness, only wounds, desolation and waste. You think the cause of your ills may be external, but they are internal and involve judgement, like Sodom and Gomorrah. The solution is not sacrifices so that you might win battles, but justice.
Then the chapter brings in the heart of the injustice issue: “Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow….” (v15-17) Bloodshed is at the heart of the issue, the most serious injustice.
This is pushed further. Repentance can follow. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (v18) but the text moves back to the injustice – bribes, dishonesty, stealing – and then in verse 24 is an astonishing section which is often ignored. “Therefore the Lord, the Lord Almighty, the mighty one of Israel, declares: ‘Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself on my enemies. I will turn my hand against YOU; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your judges….” God is “fighting” against his own people to get the justice back. That is the central reality, the need for internal reform.
2B. After the great vision of Chapter Two, the theme goes back to the failures of the House of Jacob, but with a slightly different emphasis. One focus is on the way Israel and Judah copy the superstitions of those around them. Three things are singled out. First the quest for gold and treasure. Second, the militarism – Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.” (ch2: v7) Third, they are idolators bowing down to the work of their own hands. This emphasis on man-made idols both addresses the practice of constructing idols to be worshipped, which later Isaiah will ridiculeThen follows a tirade against the arrogance of this worldview.
2C. The beginning of Chapter Three returns to the focus on Jerusalem and Judah. It is a strange chapter, because the process of judgement seems to be a generation of inadequates and posers who come to rule the nation. “I will make boys their officials; mere children will govern them. People will oppress each other…The young will rise up against the old, the base against the honourable.” (Ch3: 4-5) As this theme develops, it focuses on women, and looks at how they will change as their vanity and emptiness is revealed. What they have committed themselves to will become a stench and rottenness. It is an amazingly powerful section, not least because it echoes the catwalks and fashion industry of today.
16 The LORD says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips,
with ornaments jingling on their ankles.” Therefore, the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald. In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.
Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground. (Ch3: 16-26)
This passage is amazing. It is not about women per se, but women as the decoration and sexual reward of rich, powerful men. Its apogee is the faith in militarism. “Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.” It is a diatribe against trophy women, those who display the wealth of their owners and strut their own power. It is a sociology of Judah at this stage in its pattern of decay, and as Bob Dylan would say, “there’s a slow train acoming round the bend.” But also there is hope; there will be a remnant who will be different.

2D. Chapter Four suggests that remnant, the Branch of the Lord, who will remain in Jerusalem and assemble on Mount Zion. One reference might be missed. It talks about a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night, an obvious reference to Moses and the Exodus. But notice what the smoke and flame were. They were God’s protection against military attack and annihilation by the pursuing Egyptians. They evoke trusting in God and not in the attack/defence processes of militarism.

2E. Chapter Five is in two parts. The First is the parable of the Vineyard. The owner looked for good grapes, but it yielded only bad. Judge, you men of Israel and Judah, will the Vineyard not be destroyed? “But the vineyard is the House of Israel and the men of Judah are God’s garden of delight.” (ch5: 7) Then comes the hinge, before a vast torrent of woes arising from various forms of wickedness. The rest of Isaiah 5: 7 says, And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”Again, “bloodshed”, the business of war is at the centre of the critique of the internal evil of Judah. But the analysis is much fuller.It attacks accumulation, hedonism as

3. The Model Jerusalem.
Throughout Isaiah Jerusalem is presented as a world model. This is strange, given that it is portrayed as sinful and wicked, but Jerusalem is the place of God’s visiting, the locus of peace.
Isaiah 1 26 switches focus to Jerusalem. It will be the City of Righteousness, the faithful city. It will be redeemed and all the old points of reference will end. Key is the cult of militarism, as the narrative of peace builds. “The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark: both will burn together with no-one to quench them” (v31) The warrior and what the warrior does will burn up, disappear. This precedes the great prophecy about Judah and Jerusalem in Isaiah 2.
“In the last days.. the mountain of the Lord’s Temple will be … raised ..and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come let us go up… He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, and word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (v2-3) This is probably the root text for the idea of the rule of international law in world affairs – not imposed by a colonial power, but accepted by those who freely accept it. It is an awesome transition from the ruling military capital idea to the principle of lawful living, with roots back to Moses and with signposts to the League of Nations and the United Nations.
But then comes the great vision of international peace. “God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Ch2: 4-5) We can marvel at this understanding of the unnecessary nature of conflict set out in, say, 741BC and the possibility of peaceful normality based on submission to law. Swords into ploughshares is the metword of peace movements, quite rightly, for it shows the replacement of the destructive and murderous with the fruitful and useful, but the full structure of the argument – submission to God and God’s impartial laws of justice and the end of conflict – needs to stand. This is not wishful thinking, but the required structure of peace for all peoples.
The text, however, does not stop, but hurries back to the ways in which the House of Jacob has adopted the practices of the pagans and is under judgement. See 2B

4. History in Isaiah.
The understanding of history in Isaiah is one of the most complex in any writing anywhere. It has a deep understanding of causality, but not autonomous causality, for it is all in relation to God and subject to God’s law. Crucial is which way nations are travelling – towards God and God’s law with some humility, and therefore towards some blessing, or away from it and therefore towards judgement and war. War is consequence, formed over decades, and the structure of formation needs to be understood. Similarly, peace is vision, implemented in steady humility in national and world history, and that needs to be seen and lived by. In an era when we live in supposed instant peace or war choice, this long-term understanding is crucial and radical.

5. The Prophet and Prophecy.
The prophet Isaiah inhabits this book as an actor stands in the wings of a Shakespearian play. He is onlooker, participant, interpreter, but on the whole he is given the lines by the Great Playwright. He comes on and goes off. He is commissioned by God, is unworthy, needs to stick with his task through decades of events, and will not be heard. In Chapter Six

6. The State, God and the Nations.

7. The Empires and their Fallenness.
Empires write history from within. They focus on Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, the scope of the British Empire and the glory of Paris, Rome, Vienna, St Petersberg, London and Washington. Their symbol is L’Arc de Triomphe, the act of victory over the defeated powers. They validate slavery, loot, murder, impoverishing taxes and using people groups for war and labour in the name of their greatness. This dominant pattern, full of arrogance, is trashed by Isaiah. This is history from below, from one of the little powers, suffering this arrogance, but it is really God’s history, looking down on the pretentions of the supposed great. Isaiah addresses empire after empire and the way they are judged. Especially they are judged in their trust in weapons and their own might as military powers. Using Jesus’ later words, “Those who take the sword will perish by the sword.” This section looks at this long imperial failure and at God’s judgement of the world powers of the age.

8. The deconstruction of Militarism.

9. War and Punishment.

10. The Character of Peace.

11. Coming to awareness.

12. The Prince and Servant of Peace.

13. Worldwide Peace.