The imagery portrayed here of what Jerusalem will be like sounds excellent: men of ripe old age sitting in the streets, boys and girls playing, great harvests and joyful festivals. I am sure this came as a welcome prophesy to the people of Judah - even the Lord knows it (verse 6)!
The Remnant
This phrase is used throughout this chapter and relates closely to what Isaiah was speaking about in Isaiah 10:20-22. While the Lord is going to be merciful to the people of Judah and restore their city, it is not everyone who will be around to see it. Just as only two of the original Israelite exiles made it to the promised land, only part of the current people of Judah will live to see the restoration of Jerusalem as God’s Holy city.
It is interesting also to note the language the the Lord uses when the days of ‘doom and gloom’. Check this out in verse 10:
It is worth reminding ourselves here that it is God who used other peoples (such as the Philistines and the Babylonians) to discipline His people by turning everyone against each other. There are many trains of thought that suggest that God was ‘like that’ in the Old Testament but He is not in that business any more because the ultimate sacrifice has been paid. But don’t we still need disciplining? Don’t we still need reminding that God desires and pursues us through ways that we cannot ignore? I’d be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on this.
Men from all languages
Verse 23 says:
I think this is awesome - this is the true effect of God living and breathing with us that other people will come up to us and say “We need to be around you, because being near you is being near to God”. That is a true challenge to each of us today. Are we living the kind of life that makes people turn their heads and say “there is something different about this person that I want”?
6:16 pm
This question of “Does God use such aggressive methods of discipline today?” is really hard. In our youth cell we have recently been studying Exodus and have just done the 10 plagues. Now, I know that this is slightly different as it was more of a punishment than a disciplining but it still posed this really uncomfortable question.
Does God use these methods today?
I, like most, am going to sit on the fence. The reason I think that we tend to be non committal on this is because we know that if God does still work in this way then we, as a nation, are due. Whether it is discipline or punishment I guess would be open to interpretation.
As an aside, what do folk think it means when it says that the Israelites were God’s chosen people? Are they still? What does that mean for the current world situation? (bit political, sorry *smile*)