Isaiah is far from presenting the story of Israel in chronological order, but it still makes it possible to restore some of the most important moments from the history of Israel and the people who lived there. This poem, above all, reflects the Jewish continuity and the fact that the Jews are the only nation who, for 3,000 years of their existence, managed to stay on the same land and retain the same language and religious traditions that they originally had for they have been blessed by their God: “Their descendants will be known among the nations/and their offspring among the peoples./All who see them will acknowledge /that they are a people the LORD has blessed” (Isaiah 61:9).
The Jewish people once came to the Land of Israel under the leadership of Moses “who brought them through the sea,/with the shepherd of his flock” (Isaiah 63:11). They are the descendants of Abraham who established their belief in God, the God who made a proclamation about the end of the world and gave a word to save people who will have firm faith in him: “They will be called the Holy People,/the Redeemed of the LORD;/and you will be called Sought After,/the City No Longer Deserted” (Isaiah 62:12). However, on the way to their happiness, the Jewish people had to suffer a number of misfortunes.
The poem reflects one of the turning points in the history of Israel. Starting from 587 BC, Jerusalem was captured by several superpowers. Life-changing for the Jews was the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire which was accompanied by the devastation of the city and the destruction of the Temple: “Your sacred cities have become a desert;/even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation./Our holy and glorious temple, where our fathers praised you,/has been burned with fire,/and all that we treasured lies in ruins” (Isaiah 64:10-11).
This, however, was not the end of their sufferings yet. Further, the Jewish people were exiled from their land; they settled in different world countries where the people had the religions of their own and where the Jews were foreigners: “We all shrivel up like a leaf,/and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Meanwhile, each of them bore an utmost desire to return to the Land of Israel which was occupied by people who did not share their religion and did not wish to accept their faith: “I have held out my hands/to an obstinate people/…a people who continually provoke me/to my very face,/ …who eat the flesh of pigs,/and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat” (Isaiah 65:2-4). Ins several decades, the Jewish people returned their right to get back to their homeland and managed to defend it from several subsequent wars earning their happy living: “They will build houses and dwell in them;/they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (Isaiah 65:21). Since then, the Land of Israel has belonged to Jewish people who pray to their God and to whose prays God responds: “They will rejoice in their inheritance;/and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,/and everlasting joy will be theirs” (Isaiah 61: 7).
In this way, Isaiah presents the story of Israel and its people who once settled on their land and were exiled from it and returned to it after many years of suffering that still did not manage to take away the faith in their God from their hearts.
Work Cited
BibleGateway.com. Isaiah. BibleGateway.com, 2010.