Jesus and Israel on the Way to God - Reflections on Is. 61:1-4, 8-11, 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year B
by John C. Holbert on Friday, November 6, 2026
As we experience Advent, the celebration of the anticipation of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, two texts from the Hebrew Bible’s book of Isaiah provide for us a basic and crucial look at precisely why God has entered our world, that is, what God’s desire for the world ultimately is. In fact, two contradictory answers are given to this important question of the purpose of God, who in the Hebrew Bible is said to interact with the world in various but continual ways, and in the New Testament is said to enter the world in the person of the Christ child. How we answer this basic question will determine for us what we imagine God has in mind for the world God has created—it is as crucial as that.
In Is.40:2, the prophet we know as 2-Isaiah announces that the time of Israel’s punishment has ended; its exilic punishment for its sins is over, because it has received in the exile “double for all its sins.” Later in 2-Isaiah, in the famous 4th servant song (Is.52:13-53:12), that suffering was said to be endured for the benefit of the nations. That is, in a remarkable theological notion, the suffering of Israel in Babylonian exile was in the end of benefit to all the nations of the world. Israel suffered to benefit all. It is in reality a fulfillment of the promise made long before to YHWH’s choice of Abram who was told, “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen.12:3). Also, the same promise may be found in Is.49:6 in the 3rd Servant Song, where the mysterious Servant of YHWH, named as Israel at 49:3, is sent as “a light to the nations, so that YHWH’s salvation might reach the ends of the earth.” Thus, in these crucial verses, YHWH’s goal for the earth is a universal one, and Israel/Judah’s very existence hinges on that astonishing claim that it is the fulcrum of YHWH’s promise to all.
In contrast, now in Is.61:7, the suffering of exile is said to benefit only Israelites. The poet of these later passages, written sometime in the post-exilic period, during that time of Judah’s history when our knowledge of the struggling community, either in a Jerusalem in ruins, or in the foreign land of Babylon, remains sketchy at best. I would suggest that the scope of YHWH’s work in the world is seen by this poet as narrower, more focused on an Israel striving to survive, rather than on the wider theological hopes of 2-Isaiah. Is.61:5-7 portrays an Israel concerned primarily with self, rather than others. In this picture, Israel will be served by foreigners, who will “till the land and tend the vines,” while Israel shall be “priests of YHWH, ministers of our God, who enjoy the wealth of the nations,” glorying “in their riches” (Is.61:5-6). “Because their shame was double, dishonor proclaimed as their lot, they shall possess a double portion; everlasting joy shall be theirs” (Is.61:7). Here, the “double shame” of Is.40:2, which was endured for the nations, now is endured for the benefit of Israel itself. The gift of YHWH’s punishment and forgiveness, earlier said to be for the nations, is now for Israel’s benefit alone.
How easy it has been for later readers of these texts to focus on one or the other of them, to decide that YHWH’s concern is for Israel only, that Israel’s unique choice by their God gives them a status in the world unlike any other. It is this idea of Israel’s uniqueness among the nations that has caused no end of simplistic readings of what it means for Israel to be “the apple of God’s eye.” I would say that the modern nation of Israel still struggles with this enormous and dangerous problem.
Without taking with great seriousness the texts from Is.40 and 49, along with the ancient text from Genesis 12, it is all too easy to imagine that God’s choice of Israel among the nations makes them somehow unique, set apart for special privilege, made God’s unparalleled people, and thus beyond and above any possible criticism. The Bible is of two minds here, as it so often is: in what way is Israel unique? Though it is the early choice of God, how is it to be viewed as God’s agent in the world?
Israel is clearly unique in God’s theological history; it plays a central role in God’s plan and will for the world. And because that is true, our Advent anticipation of the birth of Jesus wrestles with this same question: how precisely is Jesus to be seen with respect to his role in the plan of God for the world? Is he finally so unique that only those who have faith in him can find fulfillment in God’s world, or is he, like Israel in 2-Isaiah, like Abram in Genesis, one bridge that can lead all nations to the wonders of the rule and reign of God? I stand with the latter view. Jesus, like Israel, is unique, but he, like Israel, is not the exclusive way to find God. There are many other ways that our God has chosen to join in God’s rule, Jesus and Israel are only one of those ways. However, it must be said that both Israel and Jesus should be seen as avenues toward all the world, not merely as limited roads for Israel alone or Christians solely. God’s will for the world is surely for all, not a privileged few.