Passing Through Water and Fire - Reflections on Isaiah 43:1-7, Baptism of the Lord, Year C

by John Holbert on Wednesday, December 25, 2024

The unknown prophet, called for our convenience 2-Isaiah, was a superb poet. His oracles and declarations are among the Bible’s finest literary creations, and his unique historical context adds to their significance. Nearly all scholars agree that this second person of the Isaianic school composed his work during the final days of the Babylonian exile of Judah. That would set the work sometime around the fourth decade of the 6th century BCE. For fuller understanding, a brief review of the history of the time is important. 

         Nebuchadnezzar, the warrior-king of Babylon, had humbled Jerusalem in 597BCE, removing some Judean officials to Babylon, among whom may have been the prophet Ezekiel, and leaving his hand-picked puppet, Zedekiah, on the throne of Judah. In the intervening ten years, Zedekiah was convinced, by some ill-informed and frankly foolish advisors, to rebel against Babylon, which, not surprisingly, brought down the full wrath of Nebuchadnezzar on Judah, bringing about the destruction of the city, the sacking of the temple and palace, the murder of Zedekiah’s family in front of his very eyes, after which those eyes were put out, and the king dragged off to exile in Babylon with many of the courtiers, sages, and leaders of the community. The year was 587BCE, a fateful one for the future of Judaism. For the next 50 years, many Judeans lived in Babylon, not as slaves, but as foreign citizens of the empire. Some of these new denizens of the great city found much to like in their surroundings, and became in effect neo-Babylonians, divesting themselves of their former Judean practices and beliefs. But not all. Some resolved to maintain their connections to YHWH, and to what they understood YHWH to stand for. Surely, 2-Isaiah was among that group.

         The prophet witnessed the formerly Judean community struggle to remain true to what the past had promised, namely the certain divine conviction that YHWH’s promises remained valid, that the nation of Judah had not ended in 587, and that a return to Jerusalem was assured. But those 50 years must have been very difficult indeed. Most were born in Babylon, and had never seen Jerusalem. They were at all times engulfed in the trappings of the Babylonian empire, its state religion of the high god, Marduk, its festivals, its ways of life, its food, its language. 2-Isaiah remained true to YHWH, and, in what appeared to him nothing less than a miracle, the Persian king Cyrus came to Babylon, entered the city and deposed the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus, and swallowed the empire into the Persian maw. Not only that, Cyrus, allowed, even urged, the many captive people to return to their homelands, and offered to help them with money to do so! Little wonder that 2-Isaiah named Cyrus the “Messiah” of  YHWH (Is.45:1), though the Persian of course knew precisely nothing of YHWH at all. 

         But before that amazing event, 2-Isaiah spent his prophetic time shoring up the sagging spirits of those who clung to YHWH, but who by all appearances had little hope of staying connected to that YHWH, and all that YHWH represented. Is.43 is a parade example of how the poetry of 2-Isaiah buoyed those exiled Judeans in their desperate plight. The first lines of this poem make the technique of the prophet plain.

         "And now, thus says YHWH, 

                  who created you, Jacob,

                  and formed you, Israel.

         ‘Do not be afraid, because I have rescued you;

                  I have called you by your name;

                  You are mine!’”

There is a vast amount of astonishing linguistic memory in these few words. The poet uses two words of God’s creative activity: “create” (bara’) and “formed” (yatsar). These are the two verbs that describe the creative work of God in Gen.1:1 and Gen. 2:7, a summary of the achievement of YHWH God in both accounts of creation. 2-Isaiah also names Judah by its more ancient designations: Jacob and Israel, grounding his appellations in the rich history of Israel before their apparent recent end. 

         Then, they hear what they so eagerly need to hear from their God: “Do not be afraid, because I have rescued you.” Here is language from the Exodus, a memory of standing before the mighty waters of the Sea of Reeds and threatened by pharaoh’s chariots behind them. Moses it was who shouted, “Do not be afraid” (Ex.14:13), and raising his staff parted the waters. Just as then, so now YHWH has and will rescue you. Furthermore, “I have called you by your name,” meaning that I still know well who you are: “you are mine,” still my chosen ones, though you are far from your promised home. With ringing words, 2-Isaiah proclaims the unbreakable connection of YHWH with this people, exiled or not.

         I have a deeply personal connection to this poem. My wife of now 55 years, Diana, had a very serious back surgery some years ago, a surgery that involved the moving aside of the body’s major nerves to get at the fractured spinal column that needed repair. She was in the hospital for three long nights, and then spent several months in bed at home, barely able to go to the bathroom slowly with help, finally well enough after some further months to go outside for brief walks with me. All through those long days, especially those nights in the hospital, Diana asked me to read Is.43 to her. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned” (Is.43:2). Over and over I read those words to her, and each time I could see her relax a bit as she heard the words directed to her, words of vast comfort and relief. Diana felt something of how those ancient Judeans must have felt when 2-Isaiah reminded them of YHWH’s constant care and rescue of them. Is.43 remains for her and for me one of the most important biblical passages that we still treasure. May it serve you and your people in similar ways this day.