{"id":65130,"date":"2019-11-03T22:32:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T20:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65130"},"modified":"2023-05-28T18:44:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T15:44:42","slug":"the-hiding-of-gods-face-brings-heartbreak-then-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hiding-of-gods-face-brings-heartbreak-then-comfort\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hiding Of God\u2019s Face Brings Heartbreak, Then Comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[607,940,506,463],"acf":{"old_id":"65130","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"342","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Isaiah\u2019s words will be stored away for future generations who will recognize their truth","content":"

We\u2019ve all been there (or think we have): the only voice of reason in a room, the only one who can see the truth, surrounded and pressured by a world that persists frustratingly in wrongness.<\/span><\/p>\n

But no one knows that isolation and frustration \u2013 maybe even the temptation to give up and give in \u2013 better than a prophet of God, the truest of the true, who simply cannot make himself heard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amos Hakham, in the <\/span>Daat Mikra<\/span><\/em> commentary on Isaiah, sees a brief soliloquy reacting to that experience in chapter 8. God \u201ctook me by the hand and charged me not to walk in the path of that people\u201d (v. 11); Hakham explains the imagery of a \u201chand\u201d as portraying the power of the prophetic experience through which God cautioned Isaiah not to be swayed by the [much lesser] power of naysayers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which naysayers might he have been tempted or bullied into following? Perhaps rebels against the Davidic dynasty? Alternatively, God is warning the prophet to stand strong against more general opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n

How powerful Isaiah\u2019s opposition must have been, if he needed the bolstering of God\u2019s own \u201cmighty hand\u201d to withstand it.<\/span><\/p>\n

One can imagine it would be easier to go along blindly with whatever the people say \u2013 and so God continues, \u201cDon\u2019t think everything this people decides is right and good; don\u2019t agree at the outset to join them in their deeds\u201d (paraphrasing according to Hakham).<\/span><\/p>\n

One can imagine the value of even a few allies in one\u2019s countercultural stand \u2013 and Hakham goes on to point out that God\u2019s admonishment shifts from singular, addressing the prophet alone, to plural, addressing the followers he did have.<\/span><\/p>\n

And one can imagine the prophet\u2019s heartbreak, when God then instructs him to seal up his prophecy (v. 16). Earlier, God had said to \u201cget a large sheet and write on it in common script\u201d (v. 1) \u2013 publicly \u2013 but now, the people have demonstrated they\u2019re not listening, and so he wraps up his words and puts them away for safekeeping.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, there is comfort there, too. The prophet still has students who do pay attention, students who will faithfully guard his words \u2013 \u201cthough in this generation, his words were not accepted, his words are necessary for future generations\u201d (Hakham\u2019s comment on v. 16).<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite all the frustrations, despite the pressure to step down from his soapbox, despite the necessity of packing his words away for another time \u2013 the prophet is inspired by packing them away rather than throwing them away, and proclaims in verse 17, \u201cSo I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the House of Jacob, and I will trust [hope] in Him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With his students and his children, whose names transform them to living symbols of God\u2019s faithfulness to His nation (v. 18) \u2013 Isaiah will wait, and hope, for the day his words will be recognized as the lone voice of truth they always were.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65133,"id":65133,"title":"is8-heartbreak","filename":"is8-heartbreak.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-heartbreak.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hiding-of-gods-face-brings-heartbreak-then-comfort\/is8-heartbreak\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is8-heartbreak","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65130,"date":"2019-11-03 20:32:29","modified":"2019-11-03 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