Things are not as they should be, and Judah calls for Yahweh to descend to help. Rip the heavens, shake the earth, boil the sea; tear the three-story house of the universe apart brick by brick, but come down to help! (Isaiah 64).<\/p>\n
Judah has come to acknowledge that she\u2019s to blame for her own condition. She has not only sinned, but sinned for a long time, sinned so often that her sin has become habitual, a second nature, a clothing that fits as closely as her own skin. She has become repulsive, an unclean thing. Her righteousness is supposed to be a garment, but one of glorious luminosity. Instead, her righteousness is a defiled garment, as polluted as a menstrual cloth, one of the most intensively defiled and defiling things an Israelite can image. Her bloody garments don\u2019t cover her impurity but display it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(N.B. Isaiah\u2019s description of Judah\u2019s righteousness in these revolting terms is not a statement about human depravity generally. Humans are depraved, infected with sin in every respect. But the actions of sinful human beings as such<\/em> aren\u2019t tampons. They become defiled by long persistent impenitence.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s the garden all over again. Judah is like leaves, fig leaves, withered fig leaves that will be blown away by the Spirit-wind of the day. Her leaves don\u2019t hide her, rather Yahweh hides from her, and she cannot find or take hold of Him. The city and the house, once beautiful as a garden, has become a wilderness.<\/p>\n Still she has hope. No matter she\u2019s withered; no matter she\u2019s impure; no matter she\u2019s ruined and trampled and shattered; no matter how hidden Yahweh has become, she can still call to Him, and she has a trump card: She can call to Him as Father. For Yahweh has made Israel, Yahweh has made Israel His, identified Himself with Israel by taking her name (God of Israel) and finally by taking her flesh. The God who formed Judah as a potter forms a pot, as Yahweh made Adam, can remake Judah. The Father who made Judah can remake her, mold her again into a vessel, breathe again the breath of life, robe her yet again in robes of righteousness and glory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Things are not as they should be, and Judah calls for Yahweh to descend to help. Rip the heavens, shake the earth, boil the sea; tear the three-story house of the universe apart brick by brick, but come down to help! (Isaiah 64). Judah has come to acknowledge that she\u2019s to blame for her own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-isaiah"],"yoast_head":"\n