The fullness of the earth is God’s glory: God clothes Himself with creation. Mike Bull writes to remind me that this also fits into Isaiah 6. The woman is the glory of man: Therefore, creation as God’s glory is also God’s bride. The triune God has freely determined that He will not be God except as Husband of His Bride, that He will not be God without His Brid=al Glory. (Plug in everything you’ve learned from Barth and Jenson here.)... Read more

Mike Bull reminds me that the coals from the altar fire were used to ignite the fire that destroyed a rebellious city, turning it into an ascension offering (Deuteronomy 13; cf. Ezekiel 10). After being touched with a coal, Isaiah becomes a fiery coal, cast down to burn the rebellious harlot Jerusalem (cf. Leviticus 21:9). Read more

Isaiah enters the presence of King Yahweh, who is surrounded by burning ones. One burning one takes a coal and touches Isaiah’s lips. Toby Sumpter points out that this lights Isaiah on fire. He becomes a burning one. He becomes a fire-breather, whose words destroy and purge Judah. He is the fire from the King of heaven poured out on a Jerusalem that has become Sodom and a Judah that has become a Gomorrah. Even the tithe that’s left, the... Read more

Isaiah says that the “fullness of all the earth is [Yahweh’s] glory.” Or, Yahweh’s glory is the fullness of the earth. Or, the fullness of God’s glory is the earth. My colleague Toby Sumpter suggests glossing this as: “Yahweh’s glory-robe is the fullness of the earth.” The Triune God freely determined to be God-of, God-for, God-clothed, not naked divinity, but God clothed with creation, God clothed with you . And in the fullness of time . . . . Happy... Read more

In an essay on Isaiah 6, R. W. L. Moberly notes that the cleansing of Isaiah’s lips and his commission as a prophet binds him with God in a way that is different from most of Israel. As a result, “his life takes a different course from that of Israel generally.” A purged man in an unclean people, a prophet with clean lips, is bound to be on a collision course with Israel. Read more

Isaiah enters a temple filled with smoke, and sees Yahweh enthroned. He must be in the Most Holy Place, the throne room of the temple. When the seraph cleanses his lips, he says that Isaiah’s sin is “covered,” using kaphar , as in Yom Kippur . Is Isaiah (in vision, if not reality) in the Most Holy Place on the day of atonement? Read more

At the end of his prophecy against Babylon and Assyria (chs. 13-14), Isaiah gives a warning to Philistia “in the year that King Ahaz died” (14:28). Philistia should not rejoice at the death of Ahaz, because the “rod” that has struck Philistia is broken. Ahaz is the rod who has been beating the Philistines, but now that rod is gone. That does not mean relief for Philistia, however. As verse 29 goes on, the image turns from rods to serpents.... Read more

In a long article on mouth-purification in the ANE and Isaiah, Victor Hurowitz says that Isaiah has presented three, even four, lawsuits in the first six chapters of his prophecy: “The first ‘lawsuit’ is found in Isaiah 1:2—20 . . . The second ‘lawsuit’ is found in 3:1-15, but in this instance the elements characteristic of the rib pattern appear in reverse order from that expected. Vss 1-7 contain threat of punishment, vss 8-9, the testimony, vs 10 offers the... Read more

In a long article on mouth-purification in the ANE and Isaiah, Victor Hurowitz says that Isaiah has presented three, even four, lawsuits in the first six chapters of his prophecy: “The first ‘lawsuit’ is found in Isaiah 1:2—20 . . . The second ‘lawsuit’ is found in 3:1-15, but in this instance the elements characteristic of the rib pattern appear in reverse order from that expected. Vss 1-7 contain threat of punishment, vss 8-9, the testimony, vs 10 offers the... Read more