{"id":65437,"date":"2019-11-07T13:25:32","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T11:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65437"},"modified":"2023-06-04T14:46:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T11:46:07","slug":"sing-to-the-lord-an-old-new-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/sing-to-the-lord-an-old-new-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Sing To The Lord An Old-New Song"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Certain important philosophers and historians of religion once claimed that the Bible marked a radical break with the dominant ancient conception of time. For most ancient civilizations, the theory went, time was cyclical\u2014a perpetual circle of order giving way to chaos giving way again to order, life yielding to death yielding again to life. But ancient Israel was supposed to be different: as monotheists, they conceived of time linearly. The God who was above time itself could act without precedent, once and for all. Abraham\u2019s call, the exodus, Sinai\u2014all of these were radically unique events.<\/span><\/p>\n

This theory has fallen on hard times, and rightfully so. It is a misleadingly simplistic (if not outright inaccurate) characterization of both ancient civilizations in general and the Bible in particular. Linear conceptions of time appear outside of Israel, and the Bible is no stranger to cyclicality. One particularly vivid example may be found in Isaiah 12.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stage is set in the previous chapter. Isaiah 11 depicts God\u2019s restoration of subjugated Israel as nothing less than a second exodus: \u201cIn that day, my Lord will apply His hand again to redeeming the other part of His people from Assyria\u201d (Isa 11:11). Once God has made a path \u201csuch as there was for Israel when it left the land of Egypt\u201d (Isa 11:15), the prophet informs the people that, on that day, they will sing to their redeemer, \u201cBehold the God who gives me triumph! I am confident, unafraid; For Yah the LORD is my strength and might, And He has been my deliverance. \u2026 Hymn the LORD, For He has done gloriously\u201d (Isa 12:2, 5).<\/span><\/p>\n

If this sounds familiar, you are not imagining things. It both quotes and alludes to the so-called \u201cSong at the Sea\u201d (Exod 15:1\u201318), which Moses and Israel sang to God after the original exodus from Egypt. Now, in the age foreseen by Isaiah, the new exodus will culminate with the same song. Returning to their land from the clutches of Assyria, Israel will effectively stand once again on the shores of the Sea of Reeds and proclaim God\u2019s glorious kingship\u2014this time, forever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A well-known rabbinic adage goes, \u201cThe stories of the ancestors are paradigms for the descendants.\u201d Long before the rabbis, however, Isaiah already affirmed this ideal. Jewish history is not simply a forward-facing march. Divine actions that seem discrete and linear in isolation might ultimately constitute a historical cycle so vast in scale that it takes a prophet to perceive it. The songs of a storied past may yet be those of a redeemed future.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Sing To The Lord An Old-New Song","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Divine actions that seem isolated might ultimately constitute a historical cycle so vast in scale that it takes a prophet to perceive it. The songs of a storied past may yet be those of a redeemed future","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65438,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65437\/revisions\/65438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}