BibleProject - Isaiah’s Anointed One – Anointed E4

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

David was Israel’s greatest king, but even he failed to live as God’s anointed one. When Isaiah prophesied about the ultimate anointed one to come, he said that not only would this deliverer come from the line of David, but they would be a new David altogether. What does this mean? Learn more in this episode as Tim and Jon discuss the theme of the anointed in the Isaiah scroll.View more resources on our website →Timestamps Part one (00:00-11:57)Part two (11:58-30:00)Part three (30:00-46:20)Part four (46:20-1:06:16)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“Flashback,” “Toofpick,” and “Bloom” by Blue Wednesday & ShopanShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder, Lead Editor Dan Gummel, and Editors Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Mixed by Tyler Bailey. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

We're tracing the theme of the anointed in the story of the Bible. It's about people who are chosen by God to be a bridge between heaven and earth. The character who gets the most airtime as the anointed one in the Hebrew Bible is King David. But David isn't the final anointed one. In fact, in 2 Samuel 7 God promises David that the final anointed one will not be David, but will come from his family one. And how ultimately, the final anointed one will come and crush evil. What you learn here is that if any of the seed from the line of David violates this covenantal bond or blows it in some way, then God's going to correct them.

But his loyal love won't depart from the lineage. So this is setting you up for the whole story of David's sons, who rule in Jerusalem, starting with Solomon, and then he goes on to commit iniquity, just like Adam and Eve, or just like Saul. They forfeit the opportunity for themselves to be that ruler. But what God says is, my loyal love won't depart from your seed. It's just the opportunity it gets passed to the next generation. David's sons just keep on failing, and Israel gets more and more corrupt until God lets them get carried off into exile.

And so now, with no land and no kings, how will God be faithful to his promise to David? Well, the prophet Isaiah writes that God will bring a new David to a rule in a new way. What Isaiah believes we need is not just a new king from the line of David. We know what those guys are mostly like. What we need is another David. He won't look like a royal, glorious heir from the line of David, ruling in Jerusalem. That's not going to be like that.

Somehow that rule is going to look like somebody who is rejected, isn't honorable in the eyes of important people, and he identifies with people in their suffering and grief. The new David will bring justice and crush the serpent once and for all, but it won't be by brute force or military power. This anointed servant is going to accomplish justice for the nations, but like you wouldn't pick him out in a crowd. What's interesting is it uses what you would think would be like violent imagery, with a sword he will strike his enemies.

But what he's striking and slaying with are his words. His words will bring about order. His words will push back chaos and disorder and death in the land. Today Tim McE and I are talking about the portraits of the new David and the scroll of Isaiah. I'm John Collins and you're listening to Bobbill Project Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey John. Hey.

You beat me to it. I did. Normally you're the first one to say, hey, Tim. So I thought I'd beat you to the punch this morning. Wow. You're chipper this morning. No. You're just on it.

Yeah. Great. Hi. We're talking about the theme of the anointed. And if I remember correctly, we were talking about David. And that was what we talked about last because David, out of any character in the Hebrew Bible, who has called the anointed one.

Yeah. Well, he gets the most page time as an anointed figure. Yeah. And he's got some great stories Well, he gets the most page time as an anointed figure. And he's got some great stories that just showcase him as a guy who kind of gets it. Like he gets what it means to be courageous, to be faithful to God, to be kind of patient and wise. And he just kind of like makes all these great moves as the

anointed one. They just kind of root for him. You're like, yeah, this is the guy. You know, in the meantime, I realized that I have a rationale for why I focused in on David. It's pretty simple that I actually didn't say. So maybe I'll just say it here. The word anointed one where Messiah as a noun appears just to quick-search here 39 times in the Hebrew Bible, the noun anointed one, masjih. It occurs three times in Leviticus to refer to the high priest, and then if you're just looking for the distribution of those occurrences, it goes from three hits in Leviticus, excuse me, four, four hits in Leviticus, and then it just moves to first Samuel, one hit, two hits, three hits, four,

five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and then second Samuel, one, two, three, four, five, six. Oh, one or two is Saul, four, five, six. Oh, one or two is Saul. One or two refers to Saul. So Saul and David. Yeah. And then Chronicles, which is recycling the ones

that were in Samuel. Mm-hmm. And then the rest of them are in the Book of Psalms. Psalms grow. And the ones in the Psalms are all about David too. Or the Kings from the line of David. or some like maybe even some future David. Yeah or future David. Yeah exactly. So in other words the vast majority three quarters or even more of all of the occurrences of the word Messiah in the Hebrew Bible are somehow related to the story

of David as told in Samuel and then reflected upon within the Psalm scroll where David is a major figure. So if you want to talk about the anointed and Hebrew Bible, you've got to talk about the high priest, then you've got to talk about David, and then you've got to talk about the role that David plays within both the prophets and the writings in the Psalms. So that's what we're going to do. In these two episodes that lay ahead, we reflected on the Samuel story of David last episode. And you're right. The portrait is surprising. Israel wants a king. And so they get a king according to their own desires

in the person of Saul, who's the first anointed one, but he turns out to be like another Adam and Eve who does what's good in his eyes, and so he forfeits his opportunity to rule this God's image. And so Yahweh chooses another anointed one, and that's David. And the key portrait that I wanted to focus our attention on was the image of David being privately anointed as becoming the heaven on earth representative of God's rule in Israel. But he consistently, well, that private anointing slowly starts to become evident to others, especially to the reigning king Saul. And it becomes this long story

of God's real anointed one, waiting patiently through persecution and suffering from his own brothers, wandering in the wilderness, hiding in caves, waiting for God to exalt him. He's not going to take matters into his own hands. And that's where we left things last time. So that portrait of the suffering, patient, anointed one who waits for God to bring about his public exaltation, that's like crucial to this theme of the anointed one in the story of David the fact that he was privately anointed and had to patiently wait yeah for the realization Of his anointing yeah with everyone else. Yeah, and he was tempted to become impatient a couple times

but luckily he had either his conscience or prophet or his a wise woman like Abigail to speak wisdom and to encourage him to trusting God and not his sword or his own plans. Cool. I'm glad you highlighted that because I wasn't thinking about that and that seems really key and it's interesting that the way that Samuel, the Samuel Scroll would tell the story, really does focus on this in between state, where David's anointed, but he's not yet king, and how he deals with that. Yeah, 15 chapters from 1st Samuel, 16 to the end of the scroll in chapter 31, and Saul

dies in that last chapter. And then, oh, remember, first and second Samuel are divided up as separate books in our Bibles, but they are one continuous literary work. So second Samuel begins with David lamenting over the death of Saul, even though the guy was chasing him, trying to kill him, you know, for the last few years. And then the tribes come around him and make David King. So, what's up with that? Why is the narrative giving so much air time to this long period of suffering, waiting? There must be something about the way that God's heavenly rules brought to earth through that kind of anointed figure, must be really important to these authors. And as we're going to see, that same idea of this patient,

waiting, suffering, anointed one is the same idea brought forward in Isaiah scroll, which we'll look up in this conversation, and also in the portrait of David and his future seed in the Psalms scroll, which we'll look at in the next. And the reason, again, for doing this is when we turn to the New Testament, Christ, Messiah, anointed one, is the main title applied to Jesus by the New Testament authors, not by Jesus himself, You avoided the title, but people use it of him. And so the question is, what is that word supposed to conjure up in our imaginations? Like, what are the back stories that we're to see there? And so that's what I'm trying to help us fill in that the Hebrew Bible gives us a pretty robust back story around

someone who got the oil of God's heavenly oil in spirit poured upon them so they can represent him on earth. So with that I'm going to turn our attention to an important promise that God made to David that is going to be really important for understanding the theme of the anointed servant in David's story is after he patiently waits and he's exalted in God's time to become king over the tribes. In 2 Samuel, chapter 7, David has now established Jerusalem as the capital city. He brought the tabernacle that Moses oversaw the construction and the ark of the covenant. He brought it there, and that was a bumpy ride to get it there, but he eventually did. And 2 Samuel, chapter chapter seven begins with David,

expressing this desire to God, that he wants to make God a really nice palace. Like I've got a capital city, you know? Why should Yahweh still live in that old tent that wandered around the wilderness? Yeah. It's a couple centuries old now, maybe it's pretty tattered. You don't think they keep it up?

I know they do, but I guess there's so much that's not said about the tabernacle in the storyline. It's just kind of there, but not described. It's mentioned every once in a while. But the impulse here is, hey, I'm King now. We've got this nice city. We've got some resources. Let me make you a nice place. We've got some resources. Yeah.

Let me make you a nice place, God. That's right. Yep. And what God responds back to David is, I'm really happy with my tent. Thank you very much. It's cozy. It's yeah, it's my paraphrase. But he says, did I ever ask or tell any of the leaders of Israel to make me a house?

Like, I'm good with the tent. And then God flips it. And he says, I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to build you a house using the same word. So the word a house and he roots by it can refer to a physical building. It's the word for the temple, the house of Yahweh, but it also can refer to a household the way we would use that word in English, meaning the people, or family. So he says, I'm going to build you a house. And then these are key words that are going to be kind of like a launching pad for the development of the hoped for anointed servant, both in Isaiah and in the Psalms scroll. So this is 2nd Sam 7 verse 8. Now this is what you will say to my servant

David, God's talking to his prophet, Nathan saying, go say this to David. This is what Yahweh of hosts says. I took you from the pasture, from behind the sheep to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone. I've cut off all your enemies from before you. One of them was the king of Israel, Saul. I will make you a great name. Should we be suspicious of people having a great name? Oh, well, but remember, it's all about how you get it. Hmm. Having a name that people respect or recognize is a good thing.

It wasn't good when Imran wanted to do it. No, or the Babylonians. Right. Let us make a name for ourselves. So God scatters that project, but then what does he do in the next chapter? Tells Abraham he's gonna make his name great. No, he says he's gonna make, does he?

Yes. So what he says? Yes, he's in fact, what God says David here is exactly what he said, Abraham. Oh, okay. Yeah, David's like a new Abraham. Who's going to receive a promise for a similar Abraham's promise.

So I'll make you a great name. Meaning I'm gonna make you an important person. I'm gonna make you, but- I'm gonna do something with you and through you that will make it so that these two guys sitting on the west coast of the United States, nearly 3,000 years later are gonna be talking into microphones and retelling your story.

So a great name means becoming someone worthy of being known through history? Yeah, your name is your reputation. A reputation? Yeah, and the story attached to your name. There's also probably something very concrete in terms of the real life experience of someone with a great name, where you can just people respect you. Yeah, yeah. You can get into, where you can just people respect you. Yeah, yeah. You can get into places, you can do things.

Yeah, although within the Bible, it more has to do with longevity and your enduring legacy. Okay. It's equivalent to long life. Humans only live for so long, pretty short, 70, 80 years, according to Psalm 90. But then after that, you're gone. But if you have a great name, people will remember you. It's sort of like you live on through the perpetuation of the name. It's a form of life beyond death.

And that's part of notoriety. I didn't read the second half of the sentence. I'm so sorry. God says, I'll make you David a great name like the names of the great men who are in the land. The other kings? Yeah, other kings at the time. Yeah, okay. I mean, you know, think how many people live back then and how many we're talking about today? Small micro-fraction. Yep, and David's one of them. I will also appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them. That's Gardner-Viden language. Except now the people are the plants. I'm going to plant people that they can live in their own place, not be disturbed, nor will the wicked afflict them anymore. This is what Pharaoh did to the

Israelites in Egypt. In the book of Judges, a flexion is what all of the different oppressors do when Israel is handed over. Even from the day that I commanded Judges to be over my people Israel, I will give you rest from all your enemies. This is starting to sound like Eden. You're getting a garden like plantation of people. There's no more snakes and bad guys and you're given rest. No, it's no name as a verb in the land. Yahweh declares he will make a house for you when your days are complete. You will lie down with your fathers. I will raise up your seed after you

who will come out of your belly. I will establish his kingdom and he will build a house for my name. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Notice the house in the name come up again. So you want to build a house for me. I'll tell you something. I'm going to make a house for you

and give you a great name. And out of that house will come a seed. And then that seed will establish my name and my house. So it doesn't want David, so that's an interesting inversion. I've never quite noticed it's that direct. You want to build me a house. So it doesn't want David. So that's an interesting inversion. I've never quite noticed it's that direct. You want to build me a house. I'll give you a house in name so that you produce a seed who will build a house for my name. That's the program.

Yeah. And so there's kind of two levels of meaning in a way going on here because on one level David's gonna have a son Solomon who's gonna build a temple. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's coming. And you can go, oh cool, this is about David's son Solomon. He's gonna build a temple for God. Even though David wanted to do it God said no. Yeah, not you, but you're seed. Yep. But seems like But it seems like there's something even more interesting, perhaps, about... I mean, did Solomon make God's name great and establish his throne forever? Yeah, totally. In fact, Solomon, when he dedicates the temple, he quotes this line.

It says, yeah, it's me. It's me, I'm the one God told my dad that this would happen and here I am doing the thing that God said God goes on However and says I will be a father to him that is to that seed where you've jumped forward Yeah, this is the next verse. Okay. Yeah, I'll be a father to him that is to that future seed and he will be a son to me. Oh, sweet. So father son Relationship. This is all Adam Adam language really back in Genesis chapter 5 God made Adam

Mm-hmm in his image in the image of God he created them male and female then Adam knew his wife and had a son in his image. Okay. And he named him Seth. So Adam, being the image of God, is set on analogy to Seth, being the son and the image of Adam. So for God to call another human a son, you're saying is, I mean, all humanity are his sons in their way.

Yeah. So what does it mean more particularly for God to call someone His son? Yeah, here it's about the theme of selection or election. God called all Israel my firstborn son to challenge Pharaoh to let my firstborn son go. So when God chooses and selects a special covenant partner out of the many, one way of describing that intimate bond is the Father's Son language. So that's all the good stuff about this, King. So I'll be a father to him. He'll be a son to me. He'll be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with a human rod and with the strokes of the

sons of Adam. So when the seed that comes from you, if they blow it, then I'm going to let some other humans come and whoop them, strike them. And it'll be my allowing it to happen. It'll be God's correction. But he says, my loyal love will not depart from your seed. Like I took it away from Saul, who I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure before me forever, your throne established forever. Amen, amen.

So what you learn here is that if any of the seed from the line of David violates this Covenantal bond or blows it in some way, then they're God's going to correct them. But his loyal love won't depart from the lineage. So this is setting you up for the whole story of David's sons who rule in Jerusalem and starting with Solomon. And he's going to be like, yeah, it's me. And then he goes on to God says here, commit iniquity.

And so it's as if he just Adam and Eve or just like Saul, they forfeit the opportunity for themselves to be that ruler. But what God says is, my loyal love won't depart from your seed. It's just the opportunity gets passed to the next generation. And that's how the pattern of stories works through the book of kings. And that's very much. All this is like top of mind when you turn to the Isaiah scroll. So is this God saying I'm not going to give up on, well, because there's been this pattern of Adam and Eve, they blow it and God doesn't give up on them. But there's consequence. And then the resolution of the problem they created is pitched forward as a hope for the

next generation, the seed, the woman. I mean, it's exactly parallel, but there will be a seed coming who will resolve the problem that has been created by previous generations. Abraham's family, same thing I got promises, him a great name, his family will bless the nations. They don't always make the best decisions, but he kind of persists. Even to the point of what Abraham's grandson Jacob, like there's a straight-on wrestling match. Yeah. And like a wounding.

Yeah. What we're meditating on is the fact that for God to engage in a real partnership with humans, means that there are real, like there are real stakes, and the any given generation can truly blow it and take themselves out of the running, but that will not affect Yahweh's ultimate eternal long-term plan to raise up a seed from this line. And that's surely what is being referred to here. So, you know, it's pretty nasty though. Yeah, go ahead. What about Saul? Yeah, I know.

He kind of, like I was like, yeah, not that guy. Not that guy. And what he says to Saul is, listen, I raised you up for this purpose and you blew it. So, the content was torn from you. So, why does David, in his his line get all these second chances? Yeah, I know. But not all. It feels like unfair.

It feels. Well, I mean, I don't know if it feels unfair as much as this feel consistent. Yeah. It just, it makes you wonder like, yeah, yeah, I'm with you. I think we're here to the theme that we worked through with the first born. It's like, why able and not can. Why, you know, Isaac, but not Ishmael. There's something about Saul being the tall warrior king that the people wanted, that makes Saul's, you know, failure just disqualify him him But somehow the runt king who was persecuted that nobody wanted

When that guy is exalted and then usually the logic of the story is God never chose that first born or Like he always kind of was choosing. Yeah, that's right from the beginning choosing the least likely Yeah, that's right. This story got annoyed Saul least likely. Yeah, that's right. This story got a noise saw And I think it even says here in the passage like I well, I don't know Yeah, but remember the reason why Saul was chosen was because the people demanded a king so that we can be like the other nations and so God gives them what they want Or as it appears that what God wanted was a king like David.

Okay. Yeah, I'm not trying to tie a bow and need a bow on this. Also, we need to remember the narrator's viewpoint of this is centuries in the future, looking back. And what they can see is this pattern in their history that the only lineage that endured in terms of royalty was this family of David throughout the centuries, even though many of those kings were idolaters and unjust. And how do you explain that the kingdom lasted as long as it did?

I'm asking as if I'm in the mindset of the biblical authors, and they attribute it to Yahweh's protection and promise. But also, they attribute the downfall of this monarchy to Yahweh as well. And that's the storyline. The rod of men. Yeah, the human rod. So what this promise kind of sets up then is, as you read through the story of Solomon, and then the kings from the line of David after him It's sort of like each one Steps up to the plate to use the American baseball metaphor and you know some strike out all three just strike out at once

Some get a I'm going with baseball. Yeah, base base. They get the first base Solomon maybe gets the second maybe third he builds the temple but the only other kings who maybe get the second or third base is Josiah, Hezekiah and kind of a guy named Asa but Hezekiah in particular lived during the time of an Israelite prophet named Yisyaahu. Or Isaiah, that's what we call him. There's something about having Yahu at the end of your name and the English. My dad would call it was like kind of a name for somebody who's sillier ridiculous. A Yahu? Yeah. That Yahu. Is that where that goes from? I don't know. It doesn't come from my dad. No, sure.

Oh, I don't know. It doesn't come from... From Hebrew. His name. Yeah, I don't know. Yahoo! I think it comes from up to how to become a insult. Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah. So this promise of an enduring king from the line of David, who will be the fulfillment of the snake crushing hopes from Genesis. Like that's where the whole Hebrew Bible's teeing you up to this family, this guy, this lineage, and these kings. And King Hezekiah lived during the time of Isaiah the prophet, and in his days Jerusalem was spared from a huge juggernaut of an empire, a Syria. This is Hezekiah's Day.

This is Hezekiah's Day. Yeah. Hezekiah in the Skrull of Isaiah becomes an important, like a new David, a narrative image of that suffering and nointed servant who waits patiently for Yahweh to deliver him and the city. And so this starts to lay tracks for a whole thread of thought about the anointed one who will come in the future, who will be like a new David and like a new Hezekiah. So we don't have time to trace the whole theme through Isaiah, but I thought we could touch down and sample a few passages because they're awesome and because Jesus and the authors of history in the gospels definitely thought that

these texts were awesome. So, I'll begin with one text that we've read many times over the years. So I don't know how long this will take. I always say, let's just go briefly. This never brief. But this is in Isaiah chapter 11, the first main kind of block, literary movement in Isaiah is chapters 1 through 39, or 1 to 35, but 1 through 12 is kind of the first symphony movement, that's a word. And this poem, right here, we're going to read, is the culmination to one of the first major units in Isaiah. And in the paragraph, right before this, Yahweh is going to bring that human

rod in the form of Assyria to come, start chopping down the forests of Judah. That's the image here. So when all of Israel and Judah is getting laid low and cut down, What we learn in Isaiah 11 verse 1 is that a little shoot, a branch, will emerge out from the stump of Jesse. Father of David. There's the father of David, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit. So we're depicting a future fruit branch. Should I be thinking of a vine branch or a tree? Oh, it's from the stump of a tree. Stump of a tree. Yeah. So, when a tree gets cut down in the forest, and then give it three years, and there'll

be little mini trees coming out of it. Coming out of it. Yeah, that's the idea. It's a fruit tree. So the stump is Jesse. So that is what Isaiah believes we need is not just a new king from the line of David. We know what those guys are mostly like.

What we need is another David. Mm-hmm. And what did David come from? Yeah, Jesse. Jesse, yep. The spirit of Yahweh will rest on him. So just pause real quick. We haven't talked about the oil and the spirit yet in our recap of this episode. But in this whole series, what we saw is that the first anointing in the Bible is when liquid Yahweh provides liquid life for the dry land, when he plants the garden of Eden, and then he provides spirit life to the human,

and that liquid anointing and that spirit anointing are associated ideas. So here, the word anointing isn't used because the anointing is happening with the spirit, not with oil. It's like the ultimate anointing. Just like David, when you got the oil, the Spirit of God came on him. So here you get the Spirit, but without the oil.

Whereas in David, you got the oil and the Spirit, but in the Garden of Eden, you had the Spirit, but not the oil. Right. And this word rest keeps showing up. And you said it was Garden of Eden language, but it's Noah's name. Noah's name. Yeah. How is it connected to the Garden to rest? Oh, so it's supposed to work and keep the Garden. That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. So it goes back to the seventh day when Yahweh Shabbat's. Yeah. He ceases or he stops. Okay. But then after the flood, when Noah is floating in the little micro-floating eaten, where is that piece with the animals and there's plenty of food,

and then that little micro-edin rests on top of the mountain as the waters recede. Which is like a new garden. Yeah, and then it gets off, offers a sacrifice and plants a garden. And so, rest in the garden land is a key image. And then later passages about the Sabbath, both the word Shabbat and the word rest from Noah's name are connected to the Sabbath rest in the land. Yep. And so, and is it normal language for the spirit to rest? Or is this kind of a novel use of it? It's unique. Yeah, normally it's to come upon, to be poured out upon, to rush upon.

So yeah, for the spirit to rest on someone is not a common way to describe it. So it's very clearly bringing up the Eden associations with the word rest. The spirit that will implicitly anoint this royal new David is a sevenfold spirit. We've counted these before, but it's the spirit of the Lord, one, the spirit of wisdom, two, the spirit of understanding, three, the spirit of counsel, four, the spirit of strength, five, the spirit of knowledge, six, and the spirit of the fear of Yahweh. Number seven.

And his delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. You almost expected it to say his delight will be in the Torah, like in Psalm 1. Oh, yeah. But his delight is in the fear of the Lord, because you learned the fear of the Lord. It's beginning of what's was them when you read the Torah. He won't judge that is he won't make leadership decisions just based on what his eyes see. Nor will he make decisions by what his ears hear. So it's kind of like Solomon with the two women that come to him both claiming that there's one baby belongs to each of them and nobody can figure out how to solve the dispute. It's kind of like it's to sign a wisdom

that you can see through the surface and get to the heart of the matter. He's connected to another form of information. Yeah, yeah, because he lives by the fear of the Lord. So yeah, that's right. So with righteousness, he will bring justice to the poor and with fairness he will make decisions on behalf of the afflicted of the land. He will strike the land with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked.

So justice, advocacy for the most vulnerable in their communities, the poor, the afflicted ones. But then, yeah, this happens a lot in the profits where it's like someone's coming to bring justice and you think, cool, that's going to bring, that should be bring peace. But the act of justice is actually also this usually depicted as some form of... Yeah, well here what's interesting is it uses what you would think would be like violent imagery with a sword he will strike his enemies and with a spear he will slay the wicked. Oh, but what he's striking and slaying with are his words. He will strike the earth with the rod of his

mouth, which is like a metaphor for his words. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the breath of his lips, so his words, he will slay the wicked. Yeah. So I mean, this comes from a different time and place. But yeah, the idea is his words will bring about order. His words will push back agents of chaos and disorder and death in the land. He will declare them guilty. And then I think implicitly, make them face the consequences, kind of thing. Which, if you've... But his power is not in his like arm his arm or his strength is mouth

It's his mouth. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, it is an interesting image We go on skipping down a little bit then you get some real garden of Eden imagery about Predators predatory animals laying down and playing with prey animals, wolfs, hanging out with lambs, leopards, chilling with goats, the calf, and the young lion, and the really choice fat calf. That lion might be salivating, but he's not gonna bite. And then a little kid, a little boy, just leading them all around. All the animals?

Yeah. Yeah. Little shepherd boy. Yeah, totally. And then if the Eden imagery isn't striking the reader, then verse eight, and the nursing child will play by the whole of the cobra, and a toddler will just put his hand right into the viper's den.

Like here, a little viper, here viper viper. So it's the seed, a human seed, will have the snake will be so disarmed and made harmless that even this young seed of the woman can just take hold of the snake. There will be no hurting, no destroying, and all my holy mountain. That's both a new Jerusalem and Eden imagery, the high mountain garden. For the earth will be filled with knowing Yahweh like waters covered the sea. And in that day, the nations will seek out the root of Jesse, who will stand up like a banner for all the peoples and his resting place will be glory. So we've got Tabernacle,

glory of Yahweh, and the Tabernacle in Temple. Glory is signifying Tabernacle language. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. When you talk about glory appearing in a resting place, that's temple, Tabernacle language, which those are symbols of God's presence in Eden. So you have Yahweh's presence taking up residence on a holy mountain and everybody knows Yahweh, there's knowledge, and the nations are all going to be coming up to this holy mountain glory garden where there's rest, and they're going to find there as a beacon drawing them all in. This king from the line of David, the root of Jesse, will be drawing them all in. There you go. That's the poem. It's a creative vision that brings all the themes

of the Hebrew Bible together in one place. At least many of them. Yeah, there's a lot going on. Yeah, as I was reading the last few lines of this poem, you just had a very earnest look on your face and your eyes were closed. Oh really? Yeah, totally.

Oh, yeah. I think I started picturing the scene of the, well, at one point I was really picturing the scene of the child and the snake and the kid marching around with the, you know, leading this parade of animals. Some that we would consider dangerous. This was this kind of moment in my head where it felt very playful and and wonderful. But at the very end, yeah, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse. So we've read other parts of Isaiah together. So yeah, there's just the massive theme of the

nation's coming. And I don't know what, what do you want to focus on here? nations coming. I don't know what you want to focus on here. Oh, well, just this poem is setting up a bold hope. It's all going to get complicated and problematized. As you go, of course, throughout the scroll of Isaiah. But this is just the bold image of hope that's connected to a spirit, anointed, king from the line of David.

That's the image here. Yeah. So this becomes like the default in the book of what you're hoping for. Okay. Okay, so to tie it to the anointed theme. We've had David. We know that David's line has fallen apart.

There's this hope for this new David. And he's a king who's gonna be so anointed as a sevenfold anointing of his, in a way of the spirit. And it's so magnificent. It's like creation itself fundamentally is different. Yeah, it's a release is like the new creation blessing of God. There's a new, yes.

This is like, we're not talking about life as usual. We're talking about animals that want to destroy each other at peace, which is then in a way to think about two nations who usually want to destroy each other. Yes, totally. At peace. That's exactly right. And the peace is coming from this beacon of hope, this new mountain of God's resting place.

And from it is a signal where everyone can now know God and know the wisdom of God. So, yeah, this is new creation languages. I guess what's, if I'm living in this time, so now we're talking, we're an Iron Age, right? Mm-hmm. And like, I'm just like, I'm a normal guy, I'm living in and around Jerusalem. And to my north, like, the king of Assyria

is like just taking people out. They've come and they've tried to capture down Drew Slum, it didn't work out. But then, I guess these are my like, my grandfather's stories. And then like, I've seen Babylon come and take us out. And so what I understand of like life is like, when things are good, there's enough food,

we can enjoy each other, but in reality, there's always just some King some other nation just some violence around the corner. Mm-hmm And so I read something like this and am I supposed to think like yeah, actually maybe there will be a guy who comes and fundamentally change all of this where we never have to worry about that anymore. Like, is that a real hope, I guess, is what I'm wondering? Like, is this like, I mean, it seems like it in terms of, it's a real hope in as much as somebody wrote this poem and incorporated it into the scroll of Isaiah as like something that is to, yeah, capture your imagination and your hopes and help you channel your prayers

to the God of Israel. That this is something he desires to bring about in partnership with a human. Because if, you know, if you said to me like, hey, the wolf, I keep saying like, the wolf's gonna lay down with the lamb. I'd be like, well, that's beautiful image, but I know how wolves down with the lamb. Yeah. I'd be like, well, that's beautiful image. But I know how wolves, like wolves have to eat lamb.

Like they gotta eat something. Yeah. Right? So you're using this fantastic language to maybe just mean, I'm not gonna have to worry about a king killing me. Is that what you're saying? Like I can just enjoy my harvest and my family and like death is not around the corner.

Or are you actually saying there's gonna be an era where all the nations were just all at peace all the time and there's brotherly love across the whole known land. That's the hope. Yeah, I guess that's why the word that came to be attached to these types of poems is the language of revelation or apocalypse. It's a revealing of a kind of reality that's in continuity with our world, but also feels just fundamentally different, which is why by the end of the scroll of Isaiah,

this very picture right here will get called the new heavens and the new land. The New Jerusalem that I will create. That's what God says. But part of what makes it the bold hope that it is also is the poetic form. Poetry is a kind of language that evokes your imagination as much as it tries to communicate, you know, an idea or a body of information. So I think it is supposed to send our minds to high places up to the heavens. So what an iron age is relight living in Jerusalem

thought about this, I have no idea. But what Isaiah and all the Bible nerd scribes and prophets who treasured these poems and collected them into the scrolls that we have in the Hebrew Bible, they, this is what kept them going, man. And this is clearly the kind of imagery that energized Jesus and his first followers. So what's interesting about this portrait is that the only real conflict at work in the scene is that there's oppressed people and bad guys, and the king is going to rescue the oppressed and judge the bad guys,

and then it's just peace in the land. That's the image here. So this is the image attached to the king and to the people of Israel in the storyline of the Bible. Problem is, and Isaiah assumes that you've already read the whole story of the line of David in Samuel and then in the scroll of the kings. And what you know is that aside from a few bright spots like Hezekiah or Josiah, it all crashed and burned. And Yahweh handed over his people and his city and the temple to destruction and allowed Babylon to destroy it all and take many Israelites into exile.

And so how do you process and explain that with these bold promises on the table? Did Yahweh not mean what he said, or is there some other explanation. So what you get in the latter parts of the book of Isaiah is this reflection on what was the meaning of the downfall of Jerusalem and what about that promise that God made to David and what about the promise like right here in Isaiah 11. And so some interesting things start to happen in relationship to the anointed figure. And I'm just going to trace a few poems here in Isaiah. One is in chapter 42. And the poet introduces us to a figure called, this is all, sorry, this is all in the voice of Yahweh. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. We learned about that. Yeah, you're like, oh, yes, that is the guy from chapter 11 and a guy like David, who's like David.

He will bring forth justice to the nations. Yep, that sounds like the guy from chapter 11. He will not cry out or raise his voice, he won't make his voice heard in the streets. But isn't it his voice that's going to do all the work? Yeah, yeah, totally. If we try and harmonize all the poetic imagery between poems and Isaiah, it's going to be a really frustrating exercise. You can't have to let each poem exist in its own little story of world as it were. So here, we have a chosen servant who's anointed by the spirit, not with oil, but by the spirit, who's going to bring justice to the nations. You're like, oh yeah, chapter 11, slaying the wicked, all that. But this anointed servant is going to accomplish justice for the nations, but he's not like you wouldn't pick him out in a crowd. He's not like getting his name

out there and he's not. Yeah, he's quiet. He works in a quiet way. Even a bruised or a bent read of grass, he won't break it. So if there's like a read stock of grass that's bent, you know, like my kids use so many straws. Do your kids like to use straws? Mm. We don't use straws, I don't know why. I don't know, some how my youngest son is just attached to straw, every dinner.

Oh, he's a straw. He goes and gets a straw to drink his water. So, he doesn't want to drink the normal way. But, and he's so he chews on them and it just destroys all these straws. We started Jessica, started getting compostable bamboo straws because he's just destroying all these these straws. We started Jessica started getting compostable bamboo straws because he's just destroying all these plastic straws. So anyway, they're great until he bends it. And then it has this crease in it.

And then that's the image right here. A bruised or bent read. And he's so meek that he'll let that be. He could walk by it and he's so meek. Yeah, he like he'll let that be he could walk by it and he's so gentle He wouldn't like knock it over or brush it with his finger Not even the wind of him walking by would knock over bruise. It's a very favorite image And then the parallel line is even a dimly burning wick He wouldn't extinguish

He's gentle. Yeah, he will bring forth justice with trustworthiness, faithfulness. He will not be disheartened. He will not be crushed. So, apparently, he's going to be gentle. He's going to be patient. Persistent. He's going to be persistent even when there is opposition. So you're getting this picture here that, oh, the way that that scene in chapter 11 is going to be brought about isn't going to be straightforward. It's going to happen through this very quiet. Well, this brings us back to where you started this conversation with 15 chapters of David. Exactly right. Yes. He's anointed and he's patiently waiting. Yeah, that's exactly right. So now we're getting this that there's going to be a journey ahead for the anointed servant of humility or humiliation of discouragement, opposition, but he's going to continue with it until

he's established justice in the land and the coast lands wait for his Torah. Then you go down just a little bit. Verse 6, and Yahweh starts speaking to the servant directly, saying, I've called you, servant in righteousness. I will hold you by the hand, I will watch over you, I appoint you as a covenant for the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in the darkness darkness out of prison. So now this servant's being given this really amazing commission that he's going to be the covenant for the people. So interesting.

Which means. Yeah. Okay. He will be the covenant. Yeah, he'll be the covenant. I'll appoint you as the covenant for the people. So if you all I made a covenant with the people of Israel, that they would become a kingdom of priests.

Right. The covenant is an agreement. So the agreement usually goes, you guys follow my instruction and you live by it and I'm gonna bless you. And I'm gonna use you to bless the nations. Yep. And so, that's the covenant. Yep.

So you would not be a covenant, you would live by a covenant. Yeah, totally. No, it's a very, it's a intentionally loaded and odd turn of phrase. Hmm. So, the people of Israel failed to live faithfully to their covenant. That's what all the Torah and the prophets were trying to say. So here's a elect, anointed servant who will themselves become the covenant. They will be the covenant faithfulness that the people have failed to ever demonstrate. And in so doing, this figure will become that shining light to the nations.

And then all the imagery about opening blind eyes and bringing out prisoners. So light shining in the darkness, that's God's glory shining on day one from the seven-day creation story. Now this figure is going to become that glorious light shining in the darkness to release people out of prison and to become the covenant faithfulness of what God had purposed for Israel. So as you go through these poems in the latter part of Isaiah, you see that this anointing is about one figure being filled up with God's heavenly life, the liquid life of spirit, to become the vehicle of heavenly light and blessing on behalf of Israel, because Israel has like Saul or like different kings of David's lions, forfeited that right. And the depiction of his way, his means,

here, all of a sudden, it becomes not the kind of king you're used to, that's going to like raise the sword, build the army, charge, or just like demonstrate his power through his strength and ability to rally a crowd or he's going to be quiet and meek. Totally. Yep, and that idea gets developed even more in another poem about this anointed servant that we call Isaiah chapter 53. And we won't read the whole thing, but just watch how the images keep getting, it's like a snowball as you go through the scroll. And previous images from earlier poems get picked up and turned into new poems. So in Isaiah 53, 2, talking about this anointed servant, he, that is the servant, grew up before him, that is God, like a tender shoot, like a branch. You know, like, oh yeah, chapter 11 is the branch, like a root out of the parched ground, the root of Jesse.

ground, the root of Jesse. He had no form or majesty that we should pay any attention to him. He didn't have any kind of appearance that we would be attracted to him. In fact, it was just the opposite. He was despised. He was forsaken by people. He was actually a man of sorrows, and he knew grief. The knowledge that he had was a knowledge of grief and loss. He was like somebody from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we didn't honor him at all. So we really turned up the volume on this rejection, rejection from his own. That's a new development from the last poem,

is a sense of rejection. We knew that the anointed servant might have reason for being disheartened or feeling crushed. And that's the theme that we're turning up now. Yeah, because you can imagine that would just be because of his enemies, but here it's even his friends seem to are like, you know, his brothers seem to like avoid them. Yeah. So he won't look like a royal, glorious heir from the line of David, ruling in Jerusalem.

It's not going to be like that. Somehow that rule is going to look like somebody who is rejected, isn't honorable in the eyes of important people, and he identifies with people in their suffering and grief. That's the picture here. So that's Isaiah 53. And eventually this guy goes to his death like they described that this guy who we thought was abandoned by God. The speaking voice says we thought that he was cursed by God. Like that's what we thought about this guy. And then in verse 5 it pivots and the voice says but in reality he was pierced and killed and crushed and suffered for our, that is Israel's transgressions, for our iniquities, and the punishment that brought us Shalom fell upon him, and it's by his wounds that we have found healing. So this speaking group is identifying that this anointed figure is actually going to experience

on Israel's behalf, all of the disasters and the suffering and hardship that Israel has experienced and was destined for by failing to live as God's covenant partners and that this figure would become the covenant for the people. So he would both embody the covenant faithfulness of the people while at the same time, shouldering all of the consequences for the failure of the covenant people. And that's again, the role of this anointed one, which is a lot like David. It's as if David soldered Saul's failures.

Really? And what way? Well, David allowed himself to be exiled. He had to leave his family and the people who cared about running like a fugitive in the wilderness. Why? Because a deranged king, you know, thought that David was out to kill him when he wasn't.

And he could have taken Saul out multiple times in the wilderness. So what we talked about in the last episode, but instead he just suffers Saul's folly and whatever insanity for a little years. So it's like he's suffering for Saul's sins. That's the portrait of David and Samuel. And those are the ideas that are getting picked up and developed here, but now of the future seed from the line of David. So where this poem ends, I mean, we could spend. And one day we should spend many episodes in the scroll of Isaiah.

You think that this anointed servant is just gone, dead and gone. But all of a sudden, down in verse 10 of chapter 53, after he's given his life as a guilt offering, he all of a sudden is going to look upon his seed. He's going to have offspring and he will see them and he will prolong his days. And the good pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in his hand. You're like, what? I guess that usually happens to a girl offering. No, it's like if somebody's dead,

you don't normally live to see your family and live long days and have always good pleasure prosper in your hand. But that's it. That's exactly like this servant somehow goes through the suffering that leads to death and is brought out to see the light of life again. And now by his knowledge, he used to know suffering and grief. Now, verse 11, by his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will declare the many to be

righteous while he bears their iniquities. So he suffers on behalf of Israel's failures and then reconstitutes a group of people called the seed to be the righteous covenant partners that they have never been, but that the servant was on their behalf. So that's where the portrait of the suffering annoyed to the servant goes in the scroll of Isaiah, and we could look at many more poems, but you get the idea. So what's truly remarkable is that when you turn to the Psalms scroll in the Hebrew Bible, it's this exact same portrait of David as an image

of a suffering vindicated, anointed one of Yahweh, who suffers, but also brings light and life to the nations. It's the same exact portrait. You can see why Jesus was really into these texts. The Isaiah texts and the Psalms. Yeah, I'll be in particular. Yeah, there's something about Isaiah and the Psalms that were like a ground zero for Jesus and his earliest followers.

And it's not hard to see why once you spend enough time here. Cool. So next into the Psalms. Yeah, into the Psalms. That's where we're gonna go. So this is Dan, come on with the podcast team. And I'm back here with a friend of mine. You wanna go ahead and introduce yourself?

My name is Harkine Bradley, allegedly. Allegedly what you're real in there? Hey man, I don't know, that's just what they've been telling me all my life. Well, it's on your verse of TV. How can you brag? I guess that's probably your real man. That's very important. So we're gonna read the credits. But before we do that, I came on to tell us a little bit about your role at Bile Project. I am a research company here on the team. I get to research company here on the team. I get to nerd out. Open up the scriptures. We seek to be formed by them into the likeness of Jesus through meditating on the wisdom

that these authors are trying to articulate. And that's a nerdy way of saying, I study the Bible for a living. Yes. So basically, you're on a team of scholars to tell my obviously the Lisa team. And you all basically just come up with different research projects that you're working on, right?

Yeah, so eventually turning to podcast some videos. Yeah, so 10 is more upstream of like him and John, you know, session out and they go like, okay, here are some themes that we can kind of work through. And then it kind of goes downstream to Rinsy of my, okay, here's how we can kind of deviate. Who's doing what when it comes to working on this theme, whether that be scripts or something that'll contribute to some type of media here at the project, and then downstream, the rest of us on the team.

All right, well, I'll take this, I'll do that. I'll do this week, and then you'll do that. I'll leave this, you'll leave that. That's the just. And you're hoping the students start your own doctrinal program, doctoral. Doctoral. I think doctrine is like a church.

Holly. What's that? I'll be a logical man. Well, you can tell where I stopped in school. Oh. Ha. Ha. Yeah, hoping to get my doctorate in new testing

and studies, focusing on the Epistle of James. Yeah, dude. Yeah, you were just telling me about it. It sounded so cool. I hope so. It seemed to be to me. Tell me a little bit about your life outside of work. I am married to my wife. Jasmine, almost six years in. We have two kids, Ezekiel, who was trying to three-meximate, and Remy, who just got here 11 weeks ago.

And she is the joy of all of our lives. What I remember about when Ezekiel was born, wasn't he born March of 2020? Yeah, he was born a week before Kogis. Yeah. And because I remember like we've been talking and then Brian, my wife had been one that go out and see y'all and then basically like, Shut down.

Everything got shut down. Yeah. And thinking and praying about Jasmine and about y'all, like during that time, so I was like, man, like can you imagine having a baby like literally right now? There was insight. Yeah you're like trying to figure out how to be a parent and you need community to do so but you can't be in community because you're afraid of everybody. It's it's a lot dog but somehow some way we made it through. Well will you read credits for us? I will.

Today's show came from our podcast team included producer Cooper Peltz and associate producer Lindsay Pond. Our lead editor is Dan Gummel, additional editors are Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza, Tyler Bailey, aka Tyler the Creator, also mixed his episode, and Hannah Wu did our annotations for the Bobo Project app. Bobo Project is a crowd-funded nonprofit, everything we make is free because of your generous support. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Alright. You feel good about that? Yeah, man. Hey, dawg, I got it done.

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