posted
As a lot of you know, I work for a small, liberal Catholic college. One of the perks, for me, is that I get to have some very interesting discussions about spirituality and theology with a number of people from a wide variety of backgrounds. I've been asked this year to write a couple reflections for the Advent calendar, and am honored to have the opportunity.
I wisely specified, right off the bat, that I would not accept any passages from Numbers. But the Sisters have a wry sense of humor, and have given me Isaiah 41 instead.
This is a tricky passage for me, because I want to keep the reflection positive without ignoring or warping the underlying literal meaning of the text. And a literal interpretation of the text, from my perspective, casts God as something akin to an abusive husband: "Look, you worm! People suck, but I am great!"
I've maybe got an angle on the sharpening qualities of hardship, but I'm not sure that's really where the passage takes us; after all, we aren't being hardened into sledges by our hardships, but by the direct intervention of God.
Anyway, this passage is a really difficult one for me to get my head around, and I'd appreciate help. Here's the text:
quote: Isaiah 41:13-20
I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.” Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the LORD; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged, To thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff. When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water. I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine, That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.
posted
It might help to consider "O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel" as not so much a statement of worthlessness but of mortal weakness, an inability to accomplish great things, but that God lends the power. One might also consider "I will make of you a threshing sledge" (capable of threshing mountains and hills like grain) not so much as a literal "hardening" but of a making useful, a gift of opportunity and direction. "When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel" might also be seen as a sort of promise: "even as great and seemingly eternal mountains fall, so will you persist."
My thoughts, for the moment.
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posted
First, the context of the chapter relates to a period AFTER destruction and exile. So immediately we have a fortelling of someone coming from the sunrise (the east) to bring deliverance to Israel and a return from captivity and the scattering to even the islands. He has not rejected them. All of this is very positive and reassuring.
Now, look at the relation between vs 13 and vs 14. Verse 13 carries this reassurance to new level- God will grasp them by the hand and guide them home; he will help them. Then 14, he calls Israel (Jacob) a 'worm' and 'maggot'. Thematically, we still are dealing with God's rescuing his helpless people and reassuring them of his love, if we realize that the 'worm' and 'maggot' comment refer to Israel's utter helplessness. They are weak, as though a worm squirming in the dust. And so he will protect and deliver them and bring them home.
And so, it goes on in vss 15 and 16, they will become a threshing instrument to the mountans and hills, which will be treaded down and be blown away like chaff. And Israel will prosper. All mountain like obstacles will be removed completely.
Finally, in vss 17-20, God blesses his people, nourishes and succors them, giving them water to drink and causing their land to flourish.
The whole chapter is one of comfort and reassurance, a restatement of his covenant with them and how he will bring them home to blessings. When viewed in that thematic context, Verse 14 takes on a different meaning, not one of condescension or disapproval, but of contrasting Israel's helplessness and God's desire to help.
posted
Most of my resources are at home, but I should have some stuff. I'll look when I get home tonight.
ETA: If I recall correctly (and I may not) the later chapters of Isaiah (and I think that 41 falls into that category were written considerably later than the earlier chapters. They may have been written during the Babylonian exile.
What my first impression is when I read your passage is a promise that "this isn't all". We are a work in progress and that God will do good with us. Advent is a time of preparation. What are we being prepared to do? How do hardships make us more able to do good? How are we doing the work of bringing about the world that God is promising? That should be pretty easy to make relevant to current events.
posted
I think an underlying theme of Isaiah is that God will take care of his people unless they become too proud to acknowledge his hand in all their blessings. In this passage God is reminding Israel to stay humble, rely on him, and he will make them great like he has done before. It's both a call to humility for God's people and a charge not to worship other (false) gods that have no power to bless them.
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The word being translated as "worm" is tola'ah, which can mean either "thread" or "worm"; in either case, the metaphor is clearly of fragility, not lowliness. The word being translated as "maggot" doesn't mean that at all. It actually means "number/count" (as a noun) -- i.e., it alludes to how few remain.
posted
It makes me so happy when so many lines in the Bible freak me out and then just turn out to be poor translations.
My observations totally out of context with the surrounding passages:
I like the first half better than the second half. The stuff about God providing is pretty typical. I'm much more intrigued and inspired by the idea of God not simply providing for man, but transforming him with renewed strength. I also find it interesting that both man and God are depicted as a force which can reshape and change the physical world. So in the second half, it is God "opens the rivers" directly or can we interpret from the first half that man is the tool by which God acts in the world?
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The word being translated as "worm" is tola'ah, which can mean either "thread" or "worm"; in either case, the metaphor is clearly of fragility, not lowliness. The word being translated as "maggot" doesn't mean that at all. It actually means "number/count" (as a noun) -- i.e., it alludes to how few remain.
[/nitpick]
[nitpick]Those aren't just nitpicks.[/nitpick]
Tom, I am not envious. Good luck with it.
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posted
After more reading, I have pretty much the same impression as before. God's people were in pretty bad shape; this is a prophecy of hope. The nation will be restored. This is not the end. There will be peace and prosperity again.
Could be a campaign speech.
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posted
As IanO mentioned, the whole chapter is one of reassurance. I think it's particularly worth considering the previous two verses: "But thou, Israel, art my servant. . . . I have chosen thee, and have not cast thee away." Rivka's translation comments help tie in these two verses with those you were asked to comment on.
Will you share your final product with us?
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