The book of Isaiah—Theses and Hypotheses - Critical Essay

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2003 by J. Clinton McCann, Jr.

Israel/Judah's hope lay not in receiving partial treatment from God, but rather in receiving God's grace, God's willingness to forgive sinners and to remain committed to them despite their disobedience (see Isa 40:1-2). Given the necessity on God's part to pursue justice finally by way of forgiveness, there is no reason given in Isaiah to think that God's forgiveness is not also extended to Assyrian sinners and to any human sinners. Indeed, as we have seen, there is much to suggest that God wills justice, righteousness, and peace on a world-encompassing scale. Even the oracle against Egypt in Isaiah 19 concludes with the astounding vision of a day when "Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, 'Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage'"(vv 24-25). The language of blessing, of course, echoes the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants will be blessed, but they are also somehow to effect blessing for "all the families of the earth" (v 3). If God is partial, it is partiality to justice, righteousness, and peace among all nations. In Quinn-Miscall's words again, "A society, a people, who live justly and righteously will experience deliverance and triumph in all aspects of their lives" (209).

To be sure, to follow this "direction of meaning" in our world does not give us a blueprint for the future nor a neat set of policies for the present. But for those of us who seek to appropriate the book of Isaiah faithfully as a living tradition, there is much to consider and to test. Right now, for instance, we are experiencing and participating in a world-encompassing phenomenon known as "globalization." On the surface, it may sound like something of which the book of Isaiah would whole-heartedly approve; and indeed, it may harbor great potential for justice, righteousness, and peace on a global scale. But, as Joseph Stiglitz (winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics) points out in his GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS, globalization is primarily taking the form of economic imperialism on the part of the few wealthiest countries in the world (the so-called G-7 nations, or now with Russia, the G-8); and the result "has all too often been to benefit the few at the expense of the many, the well-off at the expense of the poor" (20). The widening gap between rich and poor is breeding discontent, which almost certainly is contributing to a disturbing resurgence of tribalism and terrorism throughout the world. Over against the current form of globalization, perhaps those faithful to the living tradition of Isaiah can insist upon and work toward an alternative form of globalization--an Isaianic, biblical form of globalization--that articulates God's claim on all nations, that refuses to demonize any nation, that proclaims God's opposition to injustice wherever and by whomever it occurs, and that thereby contributes to the world-encompassing peace that God wills. As Hypothesis 2 (below) suggests, the people of God are invited to this calling.