Haftara fo Par’shah Ytro, Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-6 (6 & 7)

[alon]

Haftara fo Par’shah Ytro, Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-6 (6 & 7 in Christian Bibles)

There are many similarities in this text to others telling of the commissioning of prophets. (Ex 3 & 4, Ex 6, Jer 1, Ezek 1-3). Yet Isaiah has already begun to prophesy. Now, however, he is to be given his main calling. The first five chapters of the book of Isaiah call on the Judeans to repent. But oddly now the prophet is no longer supposed bring the people to an understanding of the dangers to which they expose themselves in their sinfulness. Even more odd since the name Isaiah in Hebrew means “the Lord Saves.”

Romans 10:14-16 (ESV) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”

Isaiah 6:9-10 (ESV) And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

The heart is considered to be the seat of rational thought, understanding and knowledge by early Hebrews.

Compare the above passage with Isaiah 29:9-12 (YLT) Tarry and wonder, look ye, yea, look, Be drunk, and not with wine, Stagger, and not with strong drink. For poured out on you hath Jehovah a spirit of deep sleep, And He closeth your eyes -- the prophets, And your heads -- the seers -- He covered. And the vision of the whole is to you, As words of the sealed book [scroll], That they give unto one knowing books, Saying, `Read this, we pray thee,' And he hath said, `I am not able, for it [is] sealed;' And the book [scroll] is given to him who hath not known books [scrolls], Saying, `Read this, we pray thee,' And he hath said, `I have not known books. [scrolls]'

The plain text reading is God is Himself making these men blind so they can be punished later. However some of the Rabbinic commentators were unable to contemplate such an interpretation on its own. They see a deeper meaning to the text. Imperative verbs can be taken as future-tense verbs, so God is not ordering Isaiah to mislead people; rather He is predicting they will not understand in spite of Isaiah’s remonstrations. People too often do not want to acknowledge truth; and each refusal of God’s grace hardens their hearts more.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (NASB) But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling [corrupting] the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

This is very similar to what happened to Pharaoh when his heart was hardened. Paraphrasing Dr. M Youssef on this incident “Pharaohs heart was already hardened, and he refused to yield. God just said “OK, here’s a little more.”’ And these are not the only instances where men refuse to listen:

Acts 22:17-18 (ESV) “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

Isaiah now receives a vision of the divine court, which starts a new stage in his career. This is a life changing vision of the glory of the Lord Yeshua on His throne with His cherubim attendants.

John 12:41 (ESV) Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him [Yeshua].

Isaiah 6:1-4 (ESV) In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train [hem] of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” [may His glory fill the earth] And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Some have used this passage (and others) to say God is a physical being, who has a body and can be seen. I think a more accurate interpretation is that he can manifest Himself in any way He wishes. But God is spirit.

John 4:24 (KJV) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Isaiah 6:5-7 (ESV) And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

The prophet now truly sees himself for the first time, and he fears death because he is not worthy to see God. He had pronounced six woes against others, but now he cried “woe is me!” His seventh and most poignant woe is for himself. He confessed his sins, and a seraph symbolically purifies him with fire, reassuring him he is not in peril.

Always the order in a call to divine service- a vision of God, then of self; then we answer the call.

Isaiah 6:8 (ESV) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Real worship leads to service. We hear God’s call, and we respond with obedience.

Isaiah is now told his mission. In verses 9-10 above, we see this commission includes a hardening and blinding judgement on the people.

Isaiah 6:11-12 (KJV) Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

Judgment will involve exile of most of the nation.

Isaiah 6:13 (JPS) “But while a tenth part yet remains in it, it shall repent. It shall be ravaged like the terabinth and the oak, of which stumps are left even when they are felled: its stump shall be a holy seed.”

Some Jewish commentators see this as saying the nation will be renewed by a tenth part of the nation which will remain in the land; however this disagrees with prophecy in Ezekiel, Jeramiah, and later in Isaiah himself. Others see it as a tenth of the people will be returned from exile, and they will be further reduced. They also wonder that it should reference the fact that new life can grow form an old stump. But it does, as a holy remnant would survive in whom the hope of Israel would rest and the covenants and promises would come to fruition.

Jeremiah 23:5 (KJV) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

Romans 15:12 (NKJV) And again, Isaiah says: “ There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”

The analogy is further prophetically completed when Yeshua was raised from the dead:

2 Timothy 2:8 (NKJV) Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,

Chapter seven contains prophesies made during Syrio-Ephraimite crises. In 735 BCE leaders of the kingdoms of Aram in Syria (Damascus) and of the northern kingdom (Ephriam) tried to create a coalition of small states in opposition to the Assyrian Empire. King Ahaz of Judah did not join the conspiracy, and the Aramians and Ephriamites marched against Judah. Their intention was to depose Ahaz and replace him with their own ally, the son of Tabeel. His name is not given, a slight and an insult.

Ahaz appealed for help to Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria , and the Arameans and Ephraimites were not successful. Damascus was conquered in 732 BCE, and Israel lost a lot of territory to Assyria. Judah was saved, but it became dependent on Assyria. This was because of the faithless act of making a treaty with Tiglath-Pileser instead of depending on the God of his people. Isaiah’s mission is to reassure the faithless Ahaz that the Syrio-Ephraimite threat will not succeed.

Isaiah 7:3 (ESV) And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.

Shear-jashub means “A remnant shall return.” So we see that even many years ago Isaiah was acting prophetically when he named his son.

2 Chronicles 28:5 (NASB) Wherefore, the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Aram; and they]defeated [smote] him and carried away from him a great number of captives and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who inflicted him with heavy casualties [lit ‘smote him with a great smiting].

And so it was as Isaiah prophesied.

Isaiah 9:6-7 (KJV) For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Here we see foretold the humanity- a child is born, as well as the deity of Yeshua. “And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” This long sentence fragment is the throne name of the royal child. Semitic names often consist of sentences describing God, however this name will allegorically describe hamoshiach , and is not His real name.

This haftarah is heavy with messianic references/prophecies. Further the refusal of the people to listen to truth could be seen as a parallel to this age, when our message of truth in scriptural exegesis is so vehemently opposed by Christians and the world.

The Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7:8-17) will come to fruition in the Kingdom Age.

Dan C

Sources: JPS Study TNK, Unger's Bible Handbook, W Wiersby, EB Meyer, my father and others

[Elizabeth]

In regards to G-d making people deaf and blind, I think He just cuts to the chase so to speak sometimes. I think human nature requires He get to that point with us. I would say Pharaoh never submitted himself to G-d even in his choice to let Israel go. He didn't repent. He ultimately was only submitting to his own fear and pain. G-d knows the heart and He will walk with a truly repentant person no matter how far they have fallen, but He won't be mocked. True repentance is rooted in and results in humility, but even unrepentant people have to submit to the will of G-d on some level. I think like Pharaoh, some people do only in a way that serves themselves. I think G-d knows how to distinguish the truly repentant from those who try to play self-serving games with Him, and He won't allow them to undermine His will for the sake of the rest of us.

[alon]

Bump- this weeks haftara.

Dan C