The Divine Lamp

Unless note otherwise, the text of Isaiah quoted here is my own translation.

In chapter 1 we saw God issue an indictment against his people for covenant infidelity. This infidelity was a rebellion against God (1:2-3). This rebellion manifested itself in two ways. 1) It manifested itself in hypocritical worship (1:10-15) and idolatry (1:29-31); and 2), it also manifested itself in sins against other men (1:15-16, 21-23). In other words, the people were disregarding the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt 22:37-40)

In chapter 2, the prophet took a brief look into the future and saw a time when God would once again be worshipped and served rightly (2:2-5). This was then followed by an announcement of judgement against the people for their idolatry, which is an affront to the “greatest and first commandment” (2:6-22). Now, in the section we are about to begin examining (3:1-4:1) we will see an announcement of God’s judgement against the people for violating the second command, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

3:1-7 GOD WILL TAKE AWAY THE (real and imagined) THINGS THAT MAKE FOR A STABLE SOCIETY

3:1-3 Behold! The Lord, the Yahweh of hosts removes the stay and the staff from Jerusalem and from Judah; all the stay which is bread and all the staff which is water; Also the mighty man and the warrior; the judge and the prophet; the diviner and the elder; the commander of fifty and the man of noble birth; the counselor, the expert craftsman, and the who is expert in giving incantations.

Behold! Expresses suddenness or surprise. So out of touch with God are the people that they will be caught off guard, this in spite of the fact that they had the warnings of the law (Deut 28) and of prophets like Isaiah and his later contemporary, Micah, who also preached to the southern kingdom of Judah. Those who will not hear God’s saving word are, by that very choice, going to experience God’s judging word (see Isa 30:12-15 and Micah 2).

Stay and staff two forms of the same word. “Stay” reflects the masculine Hebrew word mish’an, while staff reflects the feminine mish’enah. They are derived from the Hebrew root sha’an, which means “to support.”

In essence, the only thing that held the kingdom in existence was God. But he had been forsaken by the people who chose to trust in material prosperity (bread/water), military might (warrior/commander of fifty), rebels against God (mighty man), pagan practices (diviner, expert craftsman, experts at incantations).

The text does make reference to what appears to be positive Jewish institutions. Prophets were supposed to make God’s will known. Judges were supposed to apply God’s law in legal decisions. Elders were supposed to share the God given wisdom they had received with others. Many in the kingdom were not doing this (see Isa 1:23-26; Micah 3:5-12; and 7:3) and even if some were still faithful to God, like Isaiah and Micah, they were simply not listened to.

Vs 4 I will give them little boys to be rulers, and capriciousness shall rule over them.

Little boys. As we saw, those who were supposed to exhibit wisdom; the elder, the judge, the counselor, have perverted their position and will be swept away by God. In ther place God will give them little boys. Sometimes scholars take this as referring to the reign of Ahaz, who ascended the throne at the age of twenty and whose reign was truly abysmal (2 Kings 16). I think that the term “little boys” should be taken figuratively. The Hebrew word designates a child between infancy and adolescence and therefore is not applicable to any of the Judean kings of the Isaian age or later. For the Jews, wisdom comes with age, but, since wisdom had become such a rare commodity in Isaiah’s time, adults were no better off than children. The wisdom to rule would be no more, thus:

Capriciousness shall rule over them. Fickleness and erratic behaviour will mark the rule of these kings. The Hebrew word translated as capriciousness can also have the sense of “to act tyrannically.” The people themselves will become tyrants:

Vs 5 And the people will crush upon one another, man against man; each against his neighbor. The child will be haughty against the elder, the low-born against the high-born.

The social order in both the family (child/elder) and society in general (low-born/high-born) will begin to unravel.

Vss 6-7 When a man shall grab hold of his brother in the house of their father, saying, “you own a cloak! Come, and be our ruler; take control of this ruin!’- Then, in that day, he shall swear, saying, “I am not the one to bind up; for for no bread and no cloak is found in my house; you shall not appoint me a ruler of this people.”

“These verses describe what might be called a retreat from responsibility. All the leaders having been removed, only the young and inexperienced are left (vs 4). But the pattern of human society, in which some have the responsibility of leadership and others are more or less content to be governed, is so dominant and long-established that even in the lawless situation just described there must be brought into being some appearance of order, however farcical it may be. In the poverty-stricken community one man is found who still possesses his outer garment and is, therefore presentable; an attempt is made to thrust the leadership upon him. At once he declines, saying that his household is as poverty-stricken as the rest; he will be neither butt nor scapegoat.” (John Mauchline, Isaiah 1-39. SCM Press LTD 1962)