NOTES for Isa 54:1-17
Today's reading again returns us to the theme of the new Israel. Here the prophet uses an image that first appeared in Hosea: a wife abandoned by her husband for unfaithfulness, whom the husband takes back after her repentance (vv. 1-7; Hos 2:1-23). This image becomes the key to understanding today's passage: it explains the very possibility of what happened to the people. The point is the unchangeability of the covenant-union, to which God remains faithful even when there is no way to count on the people's faithfulness (vv. 9-10).
At first sight, such an approach is quite far from any ideas of justice. In this case one can speak of love that forgives everything, but such blind and all-forgiving love belongs rather to fallen man than to God: His love is always demanding. It does not make peace with the imperfection of the beloved, whom God always strives to make as perfect as possible.
The matter, apparently, is different. In characterizing relations between God and the human being, the biblical authors most often turn to such a concept as faithfulness. In the Russian Synodal translation the corresponding Hebrew word is usually translated as "faith." And the measure of faithfulness, as is easy to guess, is determined by the measure of spiritual depth and wholeness in the one who keeps faith. Therefore human faithfulness is limited and finite by definition, while God's faithfulness is absolute. And such absolute faithfulness cannot disappear even when the other side forgets about faithfulness.
For God to stop keeping faith with His people would mean betraying Himself, and this naturally cannot happen, because God is not a human being. And so God has to work long and persistently with His people, reminding them of the covenant-union that was made, of the obligations they took upon themselves and later forgot, and of the fact that the very existence of the people depends on their relationship with God. He has to make utterly incredible efforts in order to make His people truly His again, to purify and sanctify them again and again, and to lead them after Himself, trying at last to teach them to walk more or less on their own.
Such pedagogy requires infinite strength and infinite patience, and God has both. If everything were otherwise, if God wished to renounce the covenant once made, the fate of His people would be completely different. But, fortunately for all of us, the God of love cannot act otherwise.