This is what I had to say about Isaiah 66, nine years ago when I had just begun hearing Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi, Fr. Marc Boulos, and Dr. Richard Benton of the Ephesus School and OCABS. Fr. Paul berated me, and a few others, for about an hour this morning, for perhaps the last time before his 80th Birthday; when he says he will ride off into the sunset on his high horse in silence.
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Proverbs 13:24 RSV)
He tells us Psalms, Job, and Proverbs are very important scrolls amongst the wisdom literature, or the ketubim (literally the writings). The Masoretic Hebrew and the Septuagint Greek disagree about which comes first canonically, Job or Psalms. But it doesn’t matter. Neither are the original consonantal Biblical Hebrew. And it is more important that you hear these texts read aloud, whether by yourself, or a celebrity recording (i.e. James Earl Jones, Johnny Cash, Chance the Rapper, DMX), or even better your enemy whom you have paid $20 or more to read aloud to you.
Fr. Paul does not hate me. That’s why he did not spare the rod. And the rod is not a physical stick that you beat a criminal with, or a recalcitrant child. Although… hats off to the sikh vigilantes. Instead, the rod is the word of yahweh; a judgement decided upon and delivered to juniors from a senior, on a mountain in the wilderness. Thank God.
Mothers tell their children, as they feed them, “open wide!”
Hear, heavens,
and listen, earth,
for Yahweh has spoken:
“I reared children
and I brought them up,
but they rebelled against me.
An ox knows its owner
and a donkey the manger of its master.
Israel does not know;
my people do not understand.
Ah, sinful nation,
a people heavy with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly.
They have forsaken Yahweh;
they have despised the holy one of Israel.
They are estranged and gone backward.
Why do you want to be beaten again?
You continue in rebellion.
The whole of the head is sick,
and the whole of the heart is faint.
From the sole of the foot and up to the head
there is no health in it;
bruise and sore and bleeding wound have not been cleansed,
and they have not been bound up
and not softened with the oil.
Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire;
As for your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence,
and it is desolate, like devastation by foreigners.
And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
like a shelter in a cucumber field,
like a city that is besieged.
If Yahweh of hosts had not left us survivors,
we would have been as few as Sodom,
we would have become like Gomorrah.
Hear the word of Yahweh, rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God, people of Gomorrah!
What is the abundance of your sacrifices to me? says Yahweh.
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fattened animals
and I do not delight in the blood of bulls
and ram-lambs and goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who asked for this from your hand:
you trampling my courts?
You must not continue to bring offerings of futility,
incense—it is an abomination to me;
new moon and Sabbath, the calling of a convocation—
I cannot endure iniquity with solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates;
they have become to me like a burden,
I am not able to bear them.
And when you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not be listening.
Your hands are full of blood. Wash! Make yourselves clean!
Remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes!
Cease to do evil! Learn to do good!
Seek justice! Rescue the oppressed!
Defend the orphan! Plead for the widow!
“Come now, and let us argue,” says Yahweh.
“Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow;
even though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and you are obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land.
But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.” (Isaiah 1:1-20 LEB)
Whether we are talking about Athens or Jerusalem, Rome or Washington D.C., humankind always has an intelligentsia. This commentariat and chattering class, these clerics, these nerds, vainglory in how smart they are compared to other people. Imagine their horror at hearing that they are not greater than or equal to, but less than beasts-of-burden. For at least the beasts-of-burden know their place, stay in their lane, and obey their master.
“Why do you want to be beaten again?” Place that on your Christmas cards this year, and tell me how the hearer(s) receive scripture. The whole groups of insiders (The Church), not just a couple of bad seeds, are sick. There are just a couple of good seeds. Without whom we would all be food for the flames that ate Sodom and Gomorrah. Until his final judgment of the living and the dead, we will have survivors. There will be a remnant. It is their task to hear and do what he says and teaches.
In the context of Isaiah, cult or temple corporate worship led by priests was the norm. Today, we do not make animal and grain offerings, but we have the eucharistic liturgy which is functionally the same. We still have incense, like they did then and there. And our new moons and Sabbaths are our regular Sunday attendance, minor holidays and major holidays. God accepts not these things, nor our private prayers, if we are not living lives in accordance with his teachings; which always look after the orphan and the widow. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes, their sexual immorality was a problem, and no historic church will tell you otherwise. But also
Look! This was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister: Pride, abundance of food, and prosperous ease was to her and to her daughters, and she did not grasp the hand of the needy and the poor. (Ezekiel 16:49 LEB)
Obey and live. Or disobey and die. Cheers.
P.S.
Fr. Paul gives Ezekiel 16 & 20 and Hosea 1 as reading assignments to his spiritual children that seek the mystery of repentance with him. They show us the relationship between God and The Church, but not in the rose-tinted glasses of Ephesians 5 and the Song of Songs.