Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
Isaiah 62
January 19, 2025
At the beginning of worship:
The first book I read this year was Delila Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing. Some of you may have read it. It was a best seller a few years ago. I’m not sure why it took me this long to get around to it. After all, the book is set in the North Carolina salt marsh, something I’m familiar with from my childhood.
In the book, Kya, the Marsh Girl, is shunned by “polite society.” Everyone abandons her, but because of Tate, one of the town kids, she learns to read and draw. Over time she becomes knowledgeable about the salt marsh. She even publishes books on the marsh, which is impressive for a girl who only went to school for one day.
I got to thinking about how, in a way, this story could be a variation of Cinderella. The forsaken child becomes incredibly blessed and, in the end, marries well. I never spent much time pondering Cinderella; I always thought it to be a girl’s story. I did, however, do a google search and discovered there are variations of the Cinderella which goes back to the ancient Greeks. Adaptations of the story are found over Europe and Asia.[1] While each story has differences, they’re essentially about a forsaken girl marrying royalty. Isn’t that what fairytales are all about? Someone down and out ending up in a position of honor.[2]
And there’s a part of such fairytale stories which applies to the Christian faith. God lifts us when we’re down and out, adopts us through Christ, and lead us into an enviable position of joy.
Before the reading of Scripture:
Today we’re exploring the 62nd chapter of Isaiah. Chapters 60 to 62 are individual oracles which focus on the release from exile and the return of the Hebrew people to Zion. God removes the shame of his people and restores them to position of glory.
Mostly, this chapter involves God speaking through the prophet, but in verse 8 and 11, instead of God speaking, the prophet recalls God’s promises from the past.[3] I want us to consider this passage in its original context, then ponder what it might me to us today.
Read Isaiah 62
Do you remember the song by Paul McCarthy and Wings, titled “Silly Love Songs?” It was number one of the billboard charts for several weeks in 1976 and written by Paul for his wife at the time, Linda. The opening line went “You think that people would have had enough of silly love songs, but I look around and see it’s not so.” Then he sang repeatedly, “I love you” before going on to other verses.
In a way, it’s too bad we’re not looking at this text on a Sunday around Valentine’s Day. This passage is God’s silly love song to the Hebrew people.
But the people don’t feel loved. They’re down and out. A generation earlier, their armies were decimated by the Babylonians. Jerusalem was laid to waste. The magnificent temple, built by Solomon 400 years earlier, had been destroyed. The people find themselves exiled 800 or so miles from home.
For many ancient nations, such an experience would result in their disappearance as a nation. But not Israel, for their identity wasn’t primarily to the land, but to Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.
God, in this love letter, expresses his affection for the Hebrew people and encourages them not to give up hope. Instead, they are to prepare to receive back all who have been in exile.
Think for a moment, have you ever done anything foolish for love? Maybe you sang an off-key love song to woo another? Tried your hand at poetry? Written a sappy letter? Or made a fool out of yourself as you yelled into a crowd, proclaiming your devotion to your beloved.[4]
In a way that’s what God does. Others may despised these people. But God risks looking foolish to proclaim his love for them.
“For Zion’s sake, I will no keep silent,” God shouts at the beginning of the passage. Another translation has it, “I can’t keep my mouth shut.”[5]
No one, watching this rag-tag group of people making their way back to Jerusalem from Babylon would have considered them valuable or important. They were just another conquered people by the Babylonians, struggling to cross the desert to make their way back to their ancestorial home. But God sees value in them.
Furthermore, God wants other nations to see their glory. God will give them a new name. Naming, in the Old Testament implied ownership. God claims these people as his own. They’ll be a crown in his hand, a delight for all to see.
Verse 5 describes God’s faithfulness as a marriage. God claims his people as his bride. God, who refers to himself as the builder (and as the Creator, God is the ultimate builder), plans to marry and rejoice over his bride.
In verse 6, we learn God posted guards upon the walls of Zion, to be on duty day and night. Oddly, these guards are not to call out an alarm about the approaching of a hostile army. Instead, God sets them up as his alarm clock. They remind God of the wedding vows he made and keep doing this until God completes his task of restoring Jerusalem.
Verses 8 and 9 brings up a frequent concern in the Old Testament. None of us like the thought of working hard and not being able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. But it happens. For Israel it may be the result of disobedience, as when foreign armies strip the fields of all the produce or command the houses of the people to serve as barracks.[6] Or, as Solomon mumbles in Ecclesiastes, because of aging.[7] We all know someone who worked hard and had a heart attack a month after retirement. But God promises this will not continue. In the restored Jerusalem, the people can enjoy the fruit of their labors. No more will their enemies take what they’ve worked hard to produce.
But while much of this promise involves God’s actions, God also calls the people to action. In verse 10, with a series of imperatives (go, prepare, build, clear, and lift), God commands the people to get ready for those returning from exile. They’re to clear and build up highways. They’re to raise flags over the gates as a sign of welcome. While God works for us, we also to do God’s work. It’s to be a team effort.
As this next group of exiles return, they’re to proclaim God’s work. In my previous two sermons from the prophets, we saw how God pays the ramson for the people’s freedom.[8] Again, that’s a theme here as God provides the recompense needed to free and compensate the people.
Our passage ends with the giving of a new name which had been promised in verse 2. This name refers to Israel’s relationship to God. A “Holy People,” can also be translated as “people who belong to the Holy One.”[9] As the “Holy People,” they’re also known as “The Redeemed of the Lord.” Again, this new name indicates Zion’s dependence upon God. Because of this transformation, the city which was desolate will now be sought out and no longer seen as forsaken.
As I said earlier, this all applied to Jerusalem coming out of exile. But how might this be applied today to our lives? While Isaiah speaks to the community of Jerusalem, can we apply the meaning of this text to our own individual lives?
I think so. This chapter encapsulates the gospel. When we are down and out, without any hope, we’re not abandoned. God still loves us and wants to lift us up and restore us into a community where people will marvel at our transformation. We see this with alcoholics and drug addicts who go through recovery. People who make bad choices in life, and while they must deal the consequences (as did Jerusalem in exile), they turn their lives around and become model citizens are another example.
We worship a powerful God who loves us. As Paul McCarthy sings later in the song I referred to earlier, “when I’m in love, it isn’t silly at all.” Our God through this silly love poem gives hope to the down and out. And that’s not silly. And as a church, we need to clear the way for such people to enter. We should raise banners. Our task is to welcome them into the fellowship. After all, we are all indebted to the triune God, our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sustainer. Amen.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella
[2] Fredrick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairytale (1977). This little book describes fairytale as I use the term. The book consist of Buechner lectures at Yale’s Beecher Lectures.
[3] Walter Brueggermann, Westminster Bible Companion: Isaiah 40-66 (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1998), 219.
[4] For the idea of reading this passage as a love song see Meg Jenista, “Isaiah 62:1-5 Commentary” https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2025-01-13/Isaiah-621-5-4/ .
[5] The Message translation.
[6] Deuteronomy 28:30, Amos 5:11, and Isaiah 65:21-22.
[7] Ecclesiastes 2:18-23.
[8] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2025/01/12/is-gods-punishment-and-grace-a-package-deal/ and https://fromarockyhillside.com/2025/01/05/god-helps-those-who-cant-help-themselvs/
[9] Brueggemann, 224.
Sir Paul… not my favorite song of his but I like the way you incorporate it here.
Be well, Rev.