Deutero-Isaiah

Deutero-Isaiah is the second part of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 55, which is called the book of consolation. It addresses Judah deported to Babylon: Jerusalem has fallen, the Temple is destroyed, and the people live far from their land, tempted to believe that their God has abandoned them or that the gods of Babylon have defeated him. To this downcast people, God announces forgiveness, the return, and the salvation he is preparing through his Servant.

The book of consolation

The book opens on an order of consolation, repeated to mark its force. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her service is accomplished, that her fault is expiated.” Isaiah 40:1-2 The time of judgment is past: the exile has paid the debt, and God comes back to his own as a consoler. All the rest of the book unfolds this word: God remains faithful to his people, he redeems them and brings them back.

A voice in the wilderness

A voice rises to prepare the coming of God. “A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make level in the steppe a road for our God.” Isaiah 40:3 As one levels the road before an advancing king, the hearts must be prepared for the arrival of the Lord who comes to save. Then comes the messenger of good news, whose very feet are hailed. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news.” Isaiah 52:7 The Gospels will recognise this voice in John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of Christ.

The one God, creator

Deutero-Isaiah affirms the one true God, without equal and without rival. “I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.” Isaiah 44:6 This God is the creator of all, who holds the universe and leads the stars like an army, calling each one by its name. “Lift up your eyes and see: who created all this? He who brings out their army in good order, who calls them all by name.” Isaiah 40:26 Before him, the idols are nothing. The prophet mocks the man who fells a tree, burns half of it to warm himself and bake his bread, then carves the other half into a god before which he bows down. “He burns half of it in the fire, and of the rest he makes a god before which he bows down.” Isaiah 44:16-17 The idol comes from the same log as the hearth fire, and saves no one.

The redeemer of Israel

God makes himself the redeemer of his people. The Hebrew word rendered as “redeemer”, go'el (גֹּאֵל), designates the near kinsman who, in the law of Israel, redeems the member of his family fallen into slavery or debt and recovers his alienated property. God names himself that kinsman for Israel: he holds it as his own and pays to deliver it. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1 This belonging has worth in God's eyes, who stakes everything on it. “You have worth in my eyes, you count for much, and I love you.” Isaiah 43:4 By this title, God takes upon himself to pay the price of the return and to bring his own back.

The new Exodus

To bring back his people, God does again what he had accomplished at the going out of Egypt, and greater still. Of old he had opened the sea and led Israel out of servitude; now he opens a road through the desert that separates Babylon from Jerusalem. “Behold, I do a new thing: already it appears, do you not see it? Yes, I will put a way in the desert, rivers in the steppe.” Isaiah 43:19 Water springs up for the people on the march, the road is levelled, and the return becomes a second exodus in which God walks before his own.

Cyrus, the instrument of God

God names the man through whom he will bring back his people, long before he appears: Cyrus, king of the Persians, who will overthrow Babylon and let the exiles return. God calls him his shepherd, charged to raise up Jerusalem. “I say of Cyrus: He is my shepherd, he will accomplish all my will; he will say of Jerusalem: Let her be rebuilt, and of the Temple: Let it be founded.” Isaiah 44:28 More astonishing still, God gives him the title he reserved for his kings and his priests. The Hebrew word rendered as “anointed”, mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ), from which comes “messiah”, designated the one whom God consecrated for a mission. God applies it here to a pagan king who does not know him. “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom I have grasped by the right hand. I call you by your name, though you do not know me.” Isaiah 45:1-4 The master of history uses a stranger to save his own: no power escapes his design.

The Servant of the Lord

As the book unfolds, a mysterious figure rises, whom God calls his Servant. The Hebrew word rendered as “servant”, ebed (עֶבֶד), says the one who belongs to a master and accomplishes his work. Four songs describe him. In the first, God presents his chosen one, on whom his Spirit rests, and who will bring justice to the nations with infinite gentleness, without finishing off what is already broken. “He will not break the bruised reed, he will not quench the failing wick; he will proclaim justice according to truth.” Isaiah 42:3 In the second, the Servant speaks: called from his mother's womb, he receives a mission that overflows Israel and extends to the whole earth. “It is too little that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob: I make you the light of the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6 In the third, he shows himself an obedient disciple, who listens to God each morning and holds firm under outrage. “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spittle.” Isaiah 50:6 This Servant bears two faces. God first names his servant “Israel”, by the same name as his people, whom he had chosen to know him, to adore him and to carry his light to the nations. This people having failed in that vocation, a distinct Servant rises in the songs, faithful where Israel fell short, and who bears the mission in the name of all.

The suffering Servant

The fourth song brings the figure to its summit. The Servant there suffers and dies, and his suffering saves others. Despised, disfigured, he bears an evil that is not his own. “It was our sufferings that he bore. He was pierced because of our sins; the chastisement that brings us peace is upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5 He does not defend himself; he lets himself be led to death in silence. “Ill-treated, he humbles himself, he does not open his mouth, like the lamb that is led to the slaughter.” Isaiah 53:7 In dying, he offers his life in sacrifice for the sin of the multitude, and God raises him up and fills him with good. “After the trials of his soul, he will see the light. My servant will justify the multitudes, he who will bear their faults.” Isaiah 53:11 The Church reads in this song the Passion of Christ, the just one delivered for sinners, who bears on the cross the sin of the world and gives life by his death. It is this text that the Ethiopian was reading, to whom Philip announced Jesus.

The efficacious Word and the invitation

The book ends on an invitation and a promise. God invites all the thirsty to come to him freely, as to a feast offered without price. “All you who thirst, come to the waters; you who have no money, come, buy and eat.” Isaiah 55:1 He urges them to seek him while he lets himself be found, and to return to him, for he pardons abundantly. “Seek the Lord while he lets himself be found. Let the wicked forsake his way, let him return to the Lord, who will have mercy on him.” Isaiah 55:6-7 And he guarantees that his word accomplishes that for which he sends it. Like a messenger he dispatches, it goes out to do its work and returns to him only once the mission is fulfilled. “As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return there without having watered the earth and made it sprout, so my word, which goes out from my mouth, does not return to me empty, without having accomplished what I will.” Isaiah 55:10-11 The consolation promised at the threshold of the book thus ends in a covenant offered to all, sealed by a word that nothing halts.