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Scripture

When I was a youngster, I remember an ultra-conservative fundamentalist publication called The Sword of the Lord that came (unsolicited) in the mail.  The Sword of the Lord was totally off the right-wing hook.  Their legalistic dogma branded a litany of practices as sinful, including playing cards, mixed-gender swimming, women wearing pants, reading any bible translation other than King James, dancing, and so on.  These people were just anti-social.

The publication also printed sermons by prominent fundamentalist preachers.  As a 15 year old, I read parts of those harsh sermons and wondered why a preacher would yell such mean-spirited threats at a congregation.  The tone of their preaching was imitative of the apocalyptic tone of Isaiah 32-34, as they railed angrily against any aspect of society or culture at odds with their dogma.

They obviously based their style and doctrine on biblical prophetic/apocalyptic literature, such as Isaiah and Isaiah’s New Testament cousin, Revelations.   These preachers seemed assured that hellfire and brimstone was the essential message for the church, even for the redeemed.

But these extremists misread Isaiah.  Certainly, Isaiah’s message is powerful, it predicts judgment, and it drips with bloody and destructive imagery.  But we recognize also that these are features of apocalyptic literature.  I like how the Enter the Bible website explains why Isaiah incorporated such imagery in his writing, including his use of the Canaanite mythological Divine warrior.  In Hebrew thought, this Divine Warrior is a fitting representation of Yahweh (God) as the conquering hero of salvation.  But we should note that the foe that God destroys at the end of time will not be Christians who play cards or read modern bible translations.  The enemy destroyed will be Satan and Satan’s allies. 

So how do we read Isaiah’s grim passages?  I suggest the same way we read an action-adventure story or watch an action movie.   We can read the apocalyptic depictions of judgment as God’s children, happy that the gloom and doom portended is not our own!  We also remember that Isaiah, for all of its bleakness regarding Judah’s destruction, is one of the richest and most hopeful sources of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament.  

Yes, there is judgment; but even greater, there is hope.  We are the children of that hope!

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