Tag: Isaiah

Music Monday: Honest Questions From Isaiah

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My wife and I are trying to finish reading through the Bible in a year. At the moment, our Old Testament reading is coming from Isaiah and it put me in mind of this song from my youth by Daniel Bedingfield:

Can you see
The honest questions in my heart this hour?
I’m opening like a flower to the rain
And do you know
The silent sorrows of a
Never ending journey through the pain

Do you see a brighter day for me?
Another day?
A day?
Do you wonder what’s in store for me?
The cure for me?
The way?

Oh look down and see the tears I’ve cried
The lives I’ve lived
The deaths I’ve died
But you died them too
And all for me
And you say:

“I will pour my water down
Upon a thirsty barren land
And streams will flow from the dust of
Your bruised and broken soul
You will grow like the grass
Upon the the fertile plains of Asia
By the streams of living water
You will grow
You will grow”

Do you know
My story from the start?
And do you know me
Like you’ve always told me?

Do you see
The whispers in my heart against your kindness
My eternal blindness
Do you see?

My faith came alive around the time this song came out and I remember that, as I listened to the album, when I came to this song, something seemed very familiar:

I will pour my water down

Upon a thirsty barren land

And streams will flow from the dust of

Your bruised and broken soul

You will grow like the grass

Upon the the fertile plains of Asia

By the streams of living water

You will grow

You will grow”

Daniel Bedingfield, Honest Questions (Chorus)

…and it finally clicked:

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by flowing streams

Isaiah 44:3-4

…which is itself alluded to by Jesus in John’s Gospel:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as[a] the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

John 7:37-38

Prophecy of Gentile Priests?!

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This post isn’t going to be a thoroughly formed article, but I need to get over my writer’s block and get into the habit of writing again…

Priest

I didn’t go to Divine Liturgy this week and instead went to a Roman Mass. During the Readings, something jumped out at me. The passage in question was the First Reading from Isaiah:

Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations…
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD…
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.
– Isaiah 66:18-21

It does sound like the Prophet Isaiah is foretelling a situation whereby the Children of Israel will go out to the nations to proclaim the Lord’s glory and, as a result, bring these Gentiles into relationship with the God of Abraham. Christians obviously find a fulfillment of this in the mission of the Church.

I haven’t done much research on it, but the bit which peaked my interest was the final sentence. The language is a little ambiguous but Isaiah appears to say that, of those Gentiles who believe, the Lord will choose a subset to be “priests and levites”, Gentile priests! This fits very well with the Coptic, Catholic and Orthodox Church’s understanding that, although like Israel we have a priesthood of all believers (Exodus 19:6), some members of that people are set aside for ministerial priesthood…

Sunday Lectionary: The deaf will hear

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Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 9th, 2012

In our First Reading this week Isaiah consoles Israel, promising a time will come when wrongs will be made right, when “the ears of the deaf [will] be cleared” and the dry lands be refreshed. From the very beginning of the Bible, a Saviour was promised, a Messiah who would heal the rupture between man and God. Isaiah’s words find their fulfillment in this Sunday’s Gospel Reading as Jesus restores a man’s hearing, a sign that the long awaited Messiah had finally come…

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Sunday Lectionary: Called, sanctified and sent

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Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist: 24th June, 2012

After being “fearfully, wonderfully made…knit…in [his] mother’s womb”, we read in this week’s Gospel of how Elizabeth gave birth to a son and how he was named “John”.  It’s a solemnity again! This week we celebrate the birth (“nativity”) of the one who would be the herald of the coming Messiah, John the Baptist:

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. – Matthew 3:1-6

As we celebrate Mass this week, let us pray for courage to step out boldly as prophets, to speak truth to our world and to prepare the way of the Lord.

The baptized have become “living stones” to be “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission… “[They] must profess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church” and participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the People of God. – Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraphs 1268 and 1270 

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Sunday Lectionary: King of kings

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Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 16th, 2011

This week’s Readings focus on the distinction between the kings of this world and the LORD. The Gospel asks us the question: what do we owe to our rulers and what do we owe to our God?

In the First Reading we learn that it is the Lord, and not the King of Persia, who is subduing the nations. In the Psalm we are told repeatedly to give the Lord the praise which He is owed. In the Second Reading we hear the response of the Thessalonians to God’s great grace. Finally, in the Gospel we are told in no uncertain terms – give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God…

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Sunday Lectionary: Jehovah Jireh

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Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 9th, 2011

The Gospel passage this week is a continuation from last week’s Gospel Reading. It takes place the Wednesday before Good Friday and, oh dear, the Jewish leaders are in trouble again with Jesus! For the last few weeks we have heard Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven using the image of a vineyard. This week, Jesus uses an alternative image, that of a banquet…

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