Isaiah 45:1-7
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him—and the gates shall not be closed.
I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.
This was one of those difficult weeks—hard to choose among the four readings offered in the lectionary. Each one had something I could have shared here, but the Isaiah reading struck me the most—so here we are.
But first, we need some a bit of history lesson. In this reading, God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah, to Cyrus, King of Persia, who was God’s agent in releasing the Jews held in exile in Babylon. The Jews had been conquered and brought into exile during the reign of the Babylonian Empire which was eventually conquered and absorbed by the Persians under the king who is known to history as Cyrus the Great.
Cyrus was, for his time, a relatively benevolent ruler and he respected the religions and customs of the various lands he conquered. When Cyrus became king, he sent the Jewish exiles home and was instrumental in helping them rebuild the Temple, and their shattered homeland, returning many of the Temple vessels that had been taken when they were first conquered. So God is telling us that while it may appear to the world that Cyrus is doing these great things, it is truly God, working in and through Cyrus. God’s people need to know that “from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.” Remember, the Jews have been living, forcibly, for a long time now, in a land of other gods, and maybe some of them need reminding just who is their God.
It is the last line of the scripture as I quoted it, that truly reached out and grabbed my attention: “I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.” You probably know, but just in case you don’t, the word weal used here is an old English word meaning well-being. It’s rarely used now except in scripture and occasionally in poetry.
So God creates both light and darkness, and God creates both well-being and woe, because God creates all that is and therefore all things come to being and exist within God. God allowed the dark years of exile because there was a lesson to be learned. It was a case of “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” The loss of what they had before being taken from home and community and hauled miles away from everything they’d known, made the Jews see what God had given them and what they had come to take for granted. Light has no meaning without darkness to set it apart. Well-being means nothing if we have never endured grief and woe.
It is in the contrast between light and dark that we can begin to see the light. Both are God, and both present God to us in ways we can start to understand. We grow from dark to light, but we need the darkness where we, like seeds, can break through our hard shells in order to see the light.
“The thing about light is that it really isn't yours; it's what you gather and shine back. And it gets more power from reflectiveness; if you sit still and take it in, it fills your cup, and then you can give it off yourself."
These words are not not mine, they come from the writer, Anne Lamott, and she is reminding us that the light is always God’s, not ours. But we can take it in and reflect it back out into the world around us.
So grow and learn in the dark and then let your light shine out.
But first, we need some a bit of history lesson. In this reading, God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah, to Cyrus, King of Persia, who was God’s agent in releasing the Jews held in exile in Babylon. The Jews had been conquered and brought into exile during the reign of the Babylonian Empire which was eventually conquered and absorbed by the Persians under the king who is known to history as Cyrus the Great.
Cyrus was, for his time, a relatively benevolent ruler and he respected the religions and customs of the various lands he conquered. When Cyrus became king, he sent the Jewish exiles home and was instrumental in helping them rebuild the Temple, and their shattered homeland, returning many of the Temple vessels that had been taken when they were first conquered. So God is telling us that while it may appear to the world that Cyrus is doing these great things, it is truly God, working in and through Cyrus. God’s people need to know that “from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.” Remember, the Jews have been living, forcibly, for a long time now, in a land of other gods, and maybe some of them need reminding just who is their God.
It is the last line of the scripture as I quoted it, that truly reached out and grabbed my attention: “I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.” You probably know, but just in case you don’t, the word weal used here is an old English word meaning well-being. It’s rarely used now except in scripture and occasionally in poetry.
So God creates both light and darkness, and God creates both well-being and woe, because God creates all that is and therefore all things come to being and exist within God. God allowed the dark years of exile because there was a lesson to be learned. It was a case of “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” The loss of what they had before being taken from home and community and hauled miles away from everything they’d known, made the Jews see what God had given them and what they had come to take for granted. Light has no meaning without darkness to set it apart. Well-being means nothing if we have never endured grief and woe.
It is in the contrast between light and dark that we can begin to see the light. Both are God, and both present God to us in ways we can start to understand. We grow from dark to light, but we need the darkness where we, like seeds, can break through our hard shells in order to see the light.
“The thing about light is that it really isn't yours; it's what you gather and shine back. And it gets more power from reflectiveness; if you sit still and take it in, it fills your cup, and then you can give it off yourself."
These words are not not mine, they come from the writer, Anne Lamott, and she is reminding us that the light is always God’s, not ours. But we can take it in and reflect it back out into the world around us.
So grow and learn in the dark and then let your light shine out.
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