Isaiah 27
Can chaos be undone? The legend of Leviathan is an ancient story which pre-dates the Bible. It was first written down in the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria, at least 1,000 years before the prophecies of Isaiah were assembled. It tells how God, or in the Ugarit version one of the gods, slew the chaos monster Leviathan, who lived in the primordial sea, so that the earth and the oceans could be separated and an ordered creation set in motion.
Isaiah imagines a world where the chaos monster got away somehow. It wasn’t slain after all, it only went into hiding, lurking in the depths, waiting for a chance to re-emerge. And re-emerge it did, which is why the prophet thinks the world is in such chaos now.
That’s why the ancient kingdom of Israel was broken up and its people dispersed. Chaos was at work. But a day will come when chaos will at last be banished. ‘The sea monster will squirm and try to escape, but the Lord will kill him.’
Isaiah uses another ancient story, in which Israel was depicted as a vineyard planted by God. He built a wall around it and a watch tower. He watered the young vines, and they might have flourished, but chaos Israel disobeyed God, and all his good work was undone. Instead of vines, the vineyard produced thorns. And then the wall was broken down and the watch tower abandoned. Wild animals roamed across the vineyard. It was a mess. Chaos reigned supreme. It’s a picturesque way of describing how Israel was defeated and destroyed, and her people marched away into exile.
But Isaiah subverts the story. He imagines chaos being undone. Now the Lord is no longer angry. He will protect the vineyard and always keep it watered. He will guard it day and night to keep it from harm. If it continues to depend on him for protection, instead of going its own way, he will become the vineyard’s friend and be at peace with it.
This time Israel will take root so strongly that her blossom and fruit shall no longer be confined to the vineyard but will spill out over the retaining wall and cover the earth, Scorching heat will chase away her troublesome enemies, the wild animals that might have eaten her tender shoots.
Meanwhile, the world as it is now is still ruled by chaos, and Isaiah describes what it looks like. Israel’s fortress cities have been left abandoned. Cattle walk through the ruins stripping the trees bare of their remaining leaves. Women gather the broken branches for firewood, but they are just the remnant of a once proud nation, collaborators and marginal people, semi-nomads perhaps, who the conquerors were happy to leave behind. Isaiah calls them stupid or ‘without understanding’. They’re not the antidote to chaos, they’re a symptom of it.
But the time is coming when the Lord will shake things down and as a result of the shaking, or sifting, his scattered people will be brought together again. It will be like threshing grain to separate the wheat from the chaff. The people of Israel, who were dragged away in chains, will return and worship God on his holy mountain - the visible proof that chaos has finally been banished.
It’s a pious hope, but of course the story never came true. Chaos cannot be undone, except by a Cross. It’s Jesus’ death which finally vanquishes Leviathan, and not with a cruel, sharp sword, but with the power of love.
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