Epiphany

January 14, 2020

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 49:1-7

And now the Lord says,
   who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
   and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
   and my God has become my strength—
he says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob
   and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
   that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ –Isaiah 49:5-6

In my opinion one of the shortfalls of the English language is that the same word can mean different things and different spellings of words can sound the same. A case in point, when I read the phrase above ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob my mind processed the adverb too as the preposition to which did not make any sense as I completed the phrase.  I reread it and experience an aha moment that what Isaiah is quoting God saying is that it is to small a thing for God’s people to only raise up or restore the tribes of Jacob. I wonder why the NRSV translators did not use some of the words defining the Hebrew word used here Qalal: to be slight, swift or trifling It is too small a thing. In the next phrase the same word light (a different Hebrew word Or*) is used to describe God’s empowerment of God’s people to show the way for all nations to be restored. I wonder if the translators were trying to illuminate that God did not just give enough light to restore Jacob but the whole world.

We in the USA are struggling with this concept right now. What role does our nation play in restoring itself and all the other nations of the world? Do we perceive of other nations as our siblings in God or do we see them as sources of wealth for ourselves or do we see them as competitors for wealth or do we see them as enemies to fear and to conquer? Just as words matter perceptions matter. We need to carefully explore our perceptions about other nations and bring them into alignment with God’s perception of the wholeness of God’s world.

Prayer: Lord, give us the gift of your light so we can better see the perception you have of your world. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7043.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.