NOTES for Isa 59:1-21

Today, in chapter 59 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we read things of exceptional importance; this chapter is a kind of quintessence of prophetic revelation. Answering people's unspoken question about why God does not hear our suffering and help us, the prophet says that the Lord hears our cry and would like to come to our aid: ‘The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.’ But, the prophet continues, ‘your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.’ This is the whole reason for the terrible condition in which we all find ourselves. Our natural and social catastrophes, our defencelessness against the violence and hatred reigning in the world, the blind, all-devouring tide of suffering that overwhelms the innocent and the guilty alike—all this happens because our iniquities have separated us from God. It is vitally important for us to recognise this: if we shift the blame onto others, there is no possibility of putting anything right.

Speaking of the sins that eat away at the entire fabric of human life, the prophet points to things familiar to absolutely everyone. Lies and violence against people, cowardly silence in the face of wrongdoing, the thirst for gain at others' expense, and blindness, endless blindness... ‘We grope for the wall like the blind’—these are the terrible words the prophet speaks of people who do not know the way of peace. Where truth lies and where falsehood lies, where the path of life leads and where the path of death leads, how we can escape destruction—all this is hidden from us because we are unfaithful to the will of the Almighty. We thirst for life, for deliverance, for happiness and eternity; we ‘roar like bears’ at life's injustice and cruelty, ‘we wait for salvation... but it is far from us.’ All this happens not because someone cruel and bloodthirsty is persecuting us, but solely because our ways are crooked.

The prophet concludes this part of the chapter with bitter words about how, as a result of our blindness and betrayal of God, ‘whoever turns away from evil is subjected to abuse.’ These words are both a prophecy of the mockery and humiliation of the Son of God, who committed no sin, and an answer to humanity's age-old question of why good people suffer.

But the most important thing in this chapter is what the prophet says next. He proclaims the great revelation that the Lord sees all the horror and injustice of this world, and ‘it displeased Him that there was no justice.’ When calling Moses, the Lord told him that He had heard His people's cry of suffering and was coming to deliver them. Now, through Deutero-Isaiah, the same thing is said to the whole world, exhausted by the evil that reigns within it. And the Lord reveals to the prophet that He Himself will rise to do battle with evil, put on righteousness as armour, and place the helmet of salvation on His head.

The apostle Paul quotes this passage, broadening its meaning, in chapter 6 of the Letter to the Ephesians, calling on all the faithful to put on ‘the whole armour of God’, because the battle against evil takes place in everyone's life. When we read and speak of the Lord's host, when we call the Lord ‘Sabaoth, God of hosts’, this name carries more than the meaning originally intended by the prophet Amos, who loved it so much. God not only leads the heavenly legions of angels, not only governs the movement of the planets. His host, which He leads into battle against evil, consists of people clad in the armour of His righteousness.

But those who choose faithfulness to God's righteousness gain something far greater than His protection and care: they gain God's victory over evil and death. In this campaign against evil and death, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection, the Redeemer comes to us and makes a New Covenant with us. And in this covenant of the Redeemer, the Spirit of God, who rests upon Him, becomes a source of life for people here and now.