When you're still waiting for the snow to fall, Doesn't really feel like Christmas at all Being an Australian, I'm never waiting for the snow to fall, but I think the sentiment behind Coldplay's lyrics is what I'm feeling this December first. Definitely not channelling It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas yet. But …
Jewish poetry loves a good simile. That was one of my comments on Isaiah 51. It also doesn’t mind a solid use of imagery and metaphor. Across chapters 50-59 there’s a significant amount of it. I find these final chapters full of so much imagery that it’s easy to miss the thematic elements. So, like …
And so, in my reading, Isaiah reaches the famous opening line of chapter 40: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem… As I read the chapter through, I felt like there was an expression of a variety of ideas: sins paid for, a voice calling out, good tidings for Zion, the nations, idols, …
Continue reading #204 Attempting to tie the threads together
Isaiah’s days of being a prophet was during the reign of four kings in ancient Israel: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. In chapters 38 and 39 of Isaiah we come across an interesting incident with King Hezekiah, who is gravely ill at the time. He receives a message from God through Isaiah, telling him that …