Scripture Daily

Context No. 1690 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 52:1-15: in context

1Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city, for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you. 2Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion! 3For the LORD says, “You were sold for nothing; and you will be redeemed without money.” 4For the Lord GOD says: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there; and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. 5“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says the LORD, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says the LORD, “and my name is blasphemed continually all day long. 6Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold, it is I.” 7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 8Your watchmen lift up their voice. Together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the LORD returns to Zion. 9Break out into joy! Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. 10The LORD has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 11Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry the LORD’s vessels. 12For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight; for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. 13Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. 14Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men— 15so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for they will see that which had not been told them, and they will understand that which they had not heard.

Isaiah calls the captive city to wake and rise. Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; shake yourself from the dust. You were sold for nothing, God says, and you will be redeemed without money. Then comes the announcement that rings down the ages: how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns. The watchmen sing; the waste places break into joy; for the LORD has comforted his people, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

The heart of the passage is a piece of good news and the beauty of those who carry it. How beautiful are the feet of the one who brings good news, who runs over the mountains to announce that the long trouble is over, that peace has come, that God has acted to save. And the news itself is summed up in three words: Your God reigns. To a people ground down under foreign rule, mocked, seemingly abandoned, the message comes that their God is not defeated or absent but reigning, and has bared his arm to save them. That is the good news, and the feet that carry it are called beautiful, for there is a dignity and a beauty in being the bearer of such tidings. There is a calling here for us who have heard this good news. The message that God reigns and has acted to save is not meant to be kept; it is news to be carried, published, proclaimed, run over the mountains to those who have not heard. And the feet that carry it, our feet, ordinary as they are, are made beautiful in the carrying. To be a bearer of the good news, to bring to someone weighed down the word that their God reigns and has come to save, is among the good and beautiful things a life can do. The passage lifts our eyes from the good news received to the good news carried, and dignifies the carrying: beautiful are the feet that bring it. We are not only meant to hear that God reigns; we are meant to be the ones who tell it.

Have I received the good news that God reigns and has acted to save, only to keep it, or will I be a bearer of it, carrying to those weighed down the word that their God reigns, trusting that even my ordinary feet are made beautiful in bringing such tidings to others?

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