This is a short chapter in Isaiah but still significant. Yet, much like the hope of Isaiah 2 balanced out the brokenness of Isaiah 1, Isaiah 4 balances out the pain of Isaiah 3. We start to see a rhythm that is reminiscent of Charles Dicken's beginning line in A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." For Isaiah that was true. Isaiah lived at a time when the kingdom had been divided in half. There was a Northern Kingdom called Israel and a Southern Kingdom called Judah. We know all too well today what can happen living in a place that is suppose to be "United" but is divided. We hear constantly about 'red states' and 'blue states'. We see our Congressional leaders caught in a vicious and seemingly endless cycle of partisan politics. We know what it is like to live in a divided land...to put it quite simply, it hurts. We want better.
Eventually, the Northern Kingdom will be conquered and then the Southern Kingdom too will fall. Hence, it was the worst of times. But Isaiah also wants to point out the traces of God's grace, the places where God's presence, like a weak force, is still affecting and effecting lives even in the midst of being ruled by a foreign country. Isaiah in this passage points out how women, who did not enjoy much social status in Isaiah's day, take charge and control. Women claim their right as equally created in God's image (Genesis 1:27).
Perhaps that Genesis passage reminds us that even from the beginning there has been a division within humanity. We are two separate genders, we are different. Those differences can be a blessing, they can remind us of our limitations and that in God's vastness God claims both females and males as reflecting God's image. Yet, differences can also make us feel vulnerable or like we need to defend our way and our ideas as better.
So many religious fights today, and even the fights recorded in the Bible, are often about a difference that people felt they had to defend their way as better. Isaiah says even in the midst of such brokenness, there is a remnant of hope, or what I call a trace of grace. The remnant left in Israel and Judah after it fell to Babylon were not the rich and powerful, they were not the righteous or influential. The remnant were the people who Babylon did not really care about and certainly did not feel threatened by. They were left behind because they did not pose a threat to Babylon's power.
Yet in God's upside down, inside out world, Isaiah proclaims it is the remnant who show God's presence most gloriously and beautifully. I encourage you to think about this image of the remnant over the coming weeks, especially as we listen to four sermons from the beginning of Luke's gospel in church. So often in Luke, Jesus proclaims that God is concerned about the least and lowly and lost. Or to use the image from Isaiah, the remnant. God has always been concerned with the remnant, even from the moment God called Moses to lead a rag-tag group of indentured servants out of Egypt. And Isaiah picks up on that image of wandering in the wilderness when he writes about the "cloud of smoke by day and the fire by night" which is from Exodus 13:21.
Isaiah reminds us that God cares about the remnant, those who fill left out and left behind. God cares about the rag tag people who feel like they are living in the midst of division and brokenness. And because God cares we are called to care too. Called to care for those outside the church who feel broken and forgotten, called to care for each other because we can feel that way too. So may the traces of God's grace be felt and seen in our midst this day in ways that are beautiful and glorious.
Blessings and peace!
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