Alastair's Adversaria - Biblical Reading and Reflections: December 13th (Isaiah 56 & Luke 15:11-32)

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

The foreigner and eunuch who keep my Sabbath. The Parable of the Lost Son. My reflections are searchable by Bible chapter here: https://audio.alastairadversaria.com/explore/. If you are interested in supporting this project, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (https://bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or buying books for my research on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/36WVSWCK4X33O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035?mt=2.

Isaiah chapter 56. Thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness will be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people, and let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry, tree. For thus says the Lord, to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house, and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off,

and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love their name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant. These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. All you beasts of the field come to devour, all you beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind. They are all without, knowledge. They are all silent dogs. They cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

The dogs have a mighty appetite. They never have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding. They have all turned their own way, each to his own gain, one and all. Come, they say. Let me get wine. Let us fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure. As I. Isaiah chapter 55, conclude. the section of the book running from chapter 40 to 55. From chapter 56 to the end of the book in chapter 66, we have the books concluding unit. Those who question Izanic authorship of the entire book

typically divide these chapters from chapters 40 to 55, referring to them as third or trito Isaiah. They are frequently dated to the period after the return to the land from Babylon, following the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, and are often regarded as contemporaneous. with Haggai and Zachariah, with which biblical scholars often identify common themes, such as Sabbath, a temple that has been threatened by enemies of the Lord, but with sacrificial practice

still in operation, injustice and fasting. Advocates of an earlier dating for this material, attributing it to the authorship of Isaiah, can respond by pointing out that many of these issues were perennial ones within Israel's life, with plenty of references to them in the pre-exylic period. In addition to this, there are key differences, for instance, between the pagan foreigners among the people that we see in books like Nehemi and the proselytes who have joined themselves as faithful believers in the Lord, as we have here. The actual internal evidence that these chapters give us for dating the book is relatively thin. Like much other material in Isaiah, the dominant horizon in many passages of this unit is an eschatological one. Various structures have been suggested for this unit. Gary Smith and John Goldengay both present extended chiasms that have been proposed for the entire unit,

chasms that differ at several points, yet coincide at many others. Both of the chasms that they mention centre upon chapter 61. Smith, however, questions whether the chiasm is really as strong as it initially appears to be. The unity of this section is not merely internal. As Brother Charles notes, this section of Isaiah repeatedly returns to and picks up themes from chapters 40 to 55, so-called second or Deutero Isaiah, and that it also has several prominent themes in common with the opening 39 chapters of the book. It opens with a call to covenant faithfulness. It also picks up on the general invitation that is offered in the preceding chapter,

addressing the eunuch and the foreigner in particular. The work of the servant was as a witness to the nations. This chapter's discussion of foreigners joining themselves to the people of the Lord follows quite naturally on from that. Golden Gate argues that the opening statement could be read, among other things, as a summary of the book to this point. The keeping justice and doing righteousness to the first part, and then the salvation that is going to come and the righteousness to be revealed to chapter 40 to 55. The call here is to act in keeping with the Lord's act of salvation, and the beatitude that follows, blessed as the man who does this, might remind us of the beatitudes

of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we might see the beatitude here as playing a similar role. In addition to keeping his hand from doing evil and keeping justice and righteousness, the observance of the Sabbath is especially singled out. Some have seen this as evidence that this text most likely belongs to a post-exilic period, yet there are several such prophetic messages concerning the observance of the Sabbath in the pre-exilic period, for instance in places like Ezekiel chapter 20, or in Jeremiah chapter 17, verses 21 to 27. Thus says the Lord, take care for the sake of your lives and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the

Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your fathers. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffen their neck that they might not hear and receive instruction. But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it. Then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited forever. And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Sheffeler, from the hill country and from the Negeb, bringing

burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched. In Exodus chapter 31, the Sabbath is presented as the great sign of the covenant given at Sinai. It's a symbol of the people's liberation from slavery, but also a sign of their participation in the rest of the Lord from his creation. The Sabbath was the root from which all of the feasts of Israel were conjugated, the foundational feast. It was a day that was connected with solemn assemblies. It was a day

in which servants and members of households should be given rest. It was a day for memorializing God's great deeds in the past. In these and other ways, the Sabbath was a condensed symbol of all that the covenant represented. Observing the Sabbath properly involved entering into the rest that the Lord had given to his people, spreading that rest to others, memorialising the great deeds of the Lord, assembling with the people of God to worship, and many other such things that exemplify the marriage of the justice and righteousness of the people, and the revelation of the Lord's salvation and righteousness that is spoken of in verse 1. In verse 3, we are introduced to two key figures, the foreigner and the eunuch. Throughout scripture we have examples of foreigners who join

themselves to the people of God, perhaps most notably people like Rehab and Ruth. The eunuch is a figure that we do not encounter commonly. Ebed Melech, the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Jeremiah, is perhaps the most prominent, at least prior to Acts chapter 8. To any foreigner who might wonder whether they could ever be full members of the people of the Lord, and to any eunuch who might think that on account of their being a eunuch, their name, memory and legacy would be cut off. The Lord has words of encouragement and assurance. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 1 restricts those who have their testicles crushed from entering into the assembly of the Lord. Yet here the Lord assures such persons that they will have a monument within his house and that despite their inability to bring forth natural

offspring, they would have a name better than sons and daughters, an everlasting name that would not be cut off. In this phraseology we might see a callback to Isaiah chapter 55 verse 13, which spoke of an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. We might also think of ways in which the unit could be paralleled with the figure of the servant. The servant was cut off from the land of the living and seemed to have no generation, yet he ended up seeing his seed. A similar assurance is given to the foreigner. He would be made a full participant within the worship of the people, and his worship and sacrifice would be accepted. The Lord's house should be a house

of prayer for all peoples. At the time of the temple's first dedication in 1st Kings chapter 8, verses 41 to 43, King Solomon had prayed. Likewise when a foreigner who is not of your people Israel comes from a far country for your name's sake, for they shall hear

of your great name and your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm when he comes and prays toward this house, here in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name. Back in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 6, the Lord had declared his purpose to bring in the

nations through the work of the servant. It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. This expression of the Lord's purpose is reiterated in verse 8. In verse 9 to the end of the chapter we have a surprising shift in the tone. There are also some challenging questions of interpretation. Are the beasts of the field devouring the beasts in the forest, or are the beasts of the forest devouring something else?

Perhaps the flock of Israel. Is the Lord explicitly summoning these, or is the Lord just describing their arrival? Are these foreign nations, or are these foreign nations, are they literal wild beasts that are devouring slain bodies? I'm inclined to think of the beasts of the field as a broader reference to forces that would prey upon the flock of Israel. The watchmen of Israel are blind and as a result cannot provide proper warning to the people. They are like sleepy guard dogs that cannot bark. In a cultural context where dogs were seen as deeply unclean animals,

this characterises them as besides having no use being defiling presences among the people. and what is worse they are hungry creatures, constantly consuming rather than feeding the flock. From dogs we moved to shepherds in the second half of verse 11. Shepherds with no understanding who have rejected the true way, each turning after their own pleasure. They are described as decadent partygoers, rather than people that you would want to trust looking after the flock. There is no one awake, alert and sober enough to raise an alarm for the people. A question to consider. How might this passage help us to read the story? of the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Acts chapter 8 Luke chapter 15 verses 11 to 32

and he said there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the share of property that is coming to me and he divided his property between them not many days later the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country and there he squandered his property in reckless living and when he had spent everything a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here

with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him. And put a ring. on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate,

for this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. Now his oldest son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.

And he said to him, son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. The final part of Luke chapter 15 is devoted to the parable of the lost son. We ought to read this alongside the preceding two parables, the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. In verse three, these things are introduced with the statement, so he told them this parable. What this chapter contains is like three parables in one. The final parable in the cycle is that of the lost sun, and there's an escalating movement

as we go through. There's a movement from one out of a hundred sheep last, to one out of ten coins last, to one out of two sun's last. What might have been brushed off as an acceptable loss in the first case is seen to be far more. severe in the third. These parables are also together a response to the scribes and the Pharisees and their objection to the way that Jesus eats with sinners. In the older brother figure, at the end of this parable, something that has been in the background of all of the parables to this point, suddenly is thrust into the foreground and made explicit. Once again, Jesus is showing his rhetorical mastery and his ability to tell a story with greatest effect. The parable of the last

son raises a number of questions, not least that of who its central character is. Is it about the lost son? Is it about the father that welcomes him? Or is it about the brother who refuses to accept him upon his return? A case could be made for any of these, which might perhaps be an indication that the parable is rather more complicated than such a question supposes. The parable might be making several points at once. The actions of the youngest son with which the parable begins, are truly scandalous within that society. First of all, he asked the father to divide the inheritance between him and his brother, while the father is still alive. Then he presumably liquidates all that his father has given to him, and then takes that and goes into a far country.

He has disowned his parents, he's disowned his family and dishonoured them. And then, if that was not bad enough, he squanders all that has been entrusted into his hand by his father. It's important to see the themes of kinship that are playing out within the story, as the place of such themes within this parable represents a considerable and significant move beyond the two parables that preceded. Part of the point of this parable is to show that the stakes of what's taking place are the stakes of a family, of kinship, of the mutual recognition that should occur in a family between father and son, son and father, brother and brother. And for this reason, it is important that the parable begins with a despicable spurning of kinship.

The youngest son ends up in a very poor state indeed. He's in a far country and he ends up working with the pigs and even desiring their food. This is someone who has gone from the land of Israel, presumably, to a land of the Gentiles where they eat pigs, and now he wants to eat the pig's food. Having turned his back upon his father and his family, he has now fallen as low as he could fall. The youngest son is in a sort of exile, in a far country. among the unclean swine. And a number of people have identified

the youngest son as Jacob. I don't think that's quite correct. Even though the story does play off the Jacob's story. Jacob is the younger son and he does go into a far country, but he is a righteous son who flees on account of the threat of his older brother. While here the younger son seems to be Israel the nation, who are a poor parody of their forefather, they've willfully chosen the way of exile,

rebelling against the Lord and squandering the blessings of the covenant. Finally, in the state of exile, the son comes to his senses. He realizes that even if he were only a hired servant in his father's house, he would be better off than he is in his current condition. And so he decides to go back, rehearsing along the way this speech that he's going to deliver to his father, a speech which, when the time comes, he is not given the time to deliver in its entirety. Most people reading this parable presume that the father is God. A case can be made from this looking at other passages within the Book of Luke.

Luke chapter 11 verses 11 to 13 What father among you if his son asks for a fish Will instead of a fish give him a serpent Or if he asked for an egg will give him a scorpion If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him Or Luke chapter 12 verses 30 to 32 For all the nations of the world seek after these things

And your father knows that you need them Instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. But there is another way to read this parable and the identity of the father within it, and that is to pay attention to the many times

that father language has been used with reference to Abraham in the book of Luke, as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his offspring forever in chapter 1 verse 55, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us in chapter 1 verse 73 bear fruits in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves

we have Abraham as our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham Chapter 3 verse 8 And ought not this woman A daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day Chapter 13 verse 16

Or in chapter 13 verse 28 In that place there will be weeping a gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out. Chapter 19 verse 9, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham, and perhaps the greatest example of all in the chapter that follows this, where Lazarus has taken to the bosom of Father Abraham. Considering that this is within the same cycle of parables,

it is strong evidence that the father in this parable is Abraham. As the two sons recall characters in the Book of Jehabil, Genesis, the father could fairly naturally be associated with their patriarchal father. Perhaps stronger evidence still is the fact that the action of the father is that which is characteristic of Abraham. Abraham's very entry into fatherhood was related to his hospitality extended to the angels in Genesis chapter 18. In verses 2 to 8 of that chapter, he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said,

O Lord, if I have found favour in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant. So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, Quick, three seers of fine flour, kneaded it and make cakes, and Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good,

and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Abraham's action of running to greet the visitors, and also his preparation of the fattened calf, are things that stand out in this passage, much as they are elements that stand out in the parable of the lost sun. The younger son returns, expecting and hoping to be treated like a servant,

but rather than being welcomed like a hired servant, he is welcomed as a loved son. There are ways in which this story would remind the hearer of the story of Jacob and Esau, particularly the story of two sons and the older and the younger, and other details of the story point to that Old Testament narrative. But their details are all topsy-turvy. Israel hasn't followed the script. Notice the greeting of the father in verse 20 is precisely the same as the greeting given by Esau to the returning Jacob in Genesis chapter.

chapter 33 verses 3 to 4. He went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother, but Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. The parable plays off the story of Esau and Jacob in other ways. Genesis chapter 27 verse 30, something that comes earlier. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob has scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. In this case, there seems to be a close parallel between Esau and the older brother. The older brother comes in from the field and sees that his father has, to his mind, wrongfully blessed his younger brother, and he's angry, utterly disowning his younger brother.

So on the one hand, we have the positive action of Esau, when he restored his relationship with Jacob, when he greeted him as Jacob returned to the land. But we also have the negative action of Esau hanging in the background when he sought to kill his brother after he came in from the field to find that his father had blessed his brother instead of him. This characterization is subtle but important because the character that the Pharisees and the scribes would naturally associate with would be the older brother. They'd be scandalized by the action of the younger brother.

And yet there are these troubling indications in the characterization of the different figures in the narrative that the older brother is not the good guy. Just as the younger son has to come to his senses to come to himself, so the older brother has to come to himself to become like Esau in welcoming back the younger brother, who he feels has wronged him. But he has not yet done so. The older brother in this story shuts himself out of the feast,

rather than welcoming his returning brother. Note how he rhetorically disowns his brother, your son. Now in the beginning of the parable, it was the younger brother who disowned his family by his actions. Now the older brother is disowning his brother and implicitly disowning his father in the process. All these years I have served you. He thinks of himself as a servant. The younger brother sought to be welcomed back as a servant. And now the older brother has been thinking about himself as a servant all the way along.

We might be led to ask who indeed is the last son in this parable. We should also notice the father's insistent recognition of both of the sons as his sons, and his refusal to reduce them to the status of servants. Just as there is an inversion of the role of Jacob and Esau, there might be an inversion of the role of Moses too. Like Moses, the older brother returns to hear the sound of music and dancing, wondering what is taking place. There is also a calf involved,

Exodus chapter 32 verses 17 to 19. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot,

and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. The Pharisees and the scribes might feel anger that they would imagine makes them like Moses. They see themselves as the guardians of the covenant, that these people, these sinners, have broken. However, even in his anger, Moses sought to, intercede for the people to ensure that the lost son of Israel not be cast away by the father, but that he be restored and know the presence and fellowship of the father in his midst. By stark contrast, the anger of the scribes and the Pharisees is at the scandal of God's grace

in restoring such an idolatrous nation. These three parables speak of the value of those who have been lost, the need to go to lengths to find them, the incredible joy at their return, and the tragedy and loss in locking oneself out of this joy on account of one's resentment. The climax of this story, like the previous ones, is not the act of finding itself, but the joy of the feast that follows. And the key concern is that everyone join in this joy, that it be a common joy that people share in. The previous two parables have given this expectation of sharing in the joy, rejoice with me, for I have found what is lost. And then that expectation is broken in this final case, and we see the tragedy of the son who will not recognize his brother, will not

join in the joy of his father. The end of this parable leaves things hanging and unresolved. Think about the end of the Book of Jonah as a similar example of this. The resolution must take place within the actions and the response of the hearers of the parable. A question to consider, how do the themes of kinship that are at the heart of this parable help us to think better about the original situation that prompted Jesus' teaching in these parables, in his eating with sinners.