Okay, so I am good for the first verse. The image of Israel and other nations coming together, it is all so "love your enemies" that Jesus taught us. But then it turns out not to be so kum ba yah, when the People of God end up oppressing the very people who oppressed them. This seems to contradict what we read when Jesus tells his disciples (and us today who follow him) to love your enemies.
In some ways Isaiah 14 even feels like gloating. I was raised in the Midwest where gloating was not just frowned upon, it could get you in trouble. I remember my brother lost his dessert for a week for gloating after he and his friends won a kickball game against me and my friends. Talk about sending a powerful message about gloating!
So, I will be honest, that I don't have some magical formula to make sense of this. Like many of the previous passages, it is a reality of what we do as humans. When suddenly the shoe is on the other foot from someone who used to oppress us, we find it hard to live the Golden Rule , to do unto others as we would want them to do to us. Notice, Jesus did not say AS they DID to us. Maybe Jesus knew all too well that people tend to be reactive. If someone is mean to me...I find it tough to be nice. My ego gets bruised and all subsequent interactions with that person bumps up against that bruise. It takes time and energy. And honestly, it takes the wisdom of Jesus to objects to my wisdom.
The tension is good. It gets me thinking faithfully about who is right: Isaiah or Jesus? Maybe it is not an either/or at all. Maybe we need to keep reading Isaiah to see if we are truly understanding what he is saying, because I think chapter 15 might shift our perspective just a bit.
For now, may we see the traces of God's grace in our lives and may we see that grace in the ways we treat others.
Blessings and peace
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