Friday, 12/6/13
In the first reading
Isaiah said, “But a very little while, and Lebanon will be changed into an
orchard.” He went on to say that the deaf would hear, and the “lowly will ever
find joy in the Lord.”
He spoke those words
over twenty-seven hundred years ago, and I might be wrong in finding their
meanings. I am not a learned scholar. I just do my best at following the directives
for understanding the Scriptures that the Church gave us at the Second Vatican
Council.
So, for better or
worse, here is how I understand Isaiah’s promise of good days being ahead for
Lebanon. In 722 B.C. the Assyrian Empire, from what is now the northern part of
Iraq, brought cruel destruction to Lebanon and the northern part of Israel.
Their forces dragged into exile and oblivion the people of Israel’s ten
northern tribes.
Isaiah here was
speaking perhaps ten years after the Assyrian conquest, and the bright picture
he foresaw was far from being a
detailed prophecy that would be fulfilled word for word.
Isaiah was a man who
had completely given himself to God, and in exchange, he had received assurance
that in the end God’s love would conquer all. In his prophecies Isaiah, a
highly lyrical poet, found joyful imagery that would give shape to the certainty
he felt that God would take care of his people.
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