Isaiah’s Anointed One • The Anointed Ep. 4

[Music] We're tracing the theme of the anointed In the story of the Bible it's about People who are chosen by God to be a Bridge between Heaven and Earth the Character who gets the most air time as The anointed one in the Hebrew Bible is King David but David isn't the final Anointed one in fact in second Samuel 7 God promises David that the final Anointed one will not be David but will Come from his family life and how Ultimately a final anointed one will Come and Crush evil what you learn here Is that if any of the seed from the line Of David violates this covenantal Bond Or blows it in some way then God's going To correct them but his loyal love won't Depart from the lineage so this is Setting you up for the whole story of David's sons who ruled in Jerusalem Starting with Solomon and then he goes On to commit iniquity just like Adam and Eve or just like Saul they forfeit Opportunities for themselves to be that Ruler but what God says is my loyal love Won't depart from your seed it's just The opportunity gets passed to the Next Generation David's Sons just keep on Failing and Israel gets more and more Corrupt until God lets them get carried Off into Exile and so now with no land And no Kings how will God be faithful to His promise to David well the prophet

Isaiah writes that God will bring a new David who will rule in a new way what Isaiah believes we need is not just a New king from the line of David we know What those guys are mostly like what we Need is another David he won't look like A royal glorious Heir from the line of David ruling in Jerusalem that's not Going to be like that somehow that rule Is going to look like somebody who is Rejected isn't Honorable in the eyes of Important people and he identifies with People in their suffering and grief the New David will bring Justice and crush The serpent once and for all but it Won't be by brute force or military Power this anointed servant is going to Accomplish Justice for the Nations but Like you wouldn't pick him out in a Crowd what's interesting is it uses what You would think would be like violent Imagery with a sword he will strike his Enemies but what he's striking and Slaying with are his words his words Will bring about order his words will Push back chaos and disorder and death In the land today Tim Mackey and I are Talking about the portraits of the new David and the scroll of Isaiah I'm John Collins and you're listening to Bible Project podcast thanks for joining us Here we go [Music] Hey John

Hey you beat me to it I did Um normally you're the first one to say Hey Tim so I thought it'd be to the Punch this morning wow yeah chipper this Morning no You're just on it yeah great hi we're Talking about the theme of the anointed And Um if I remember correctly We were talking about David and that was What we talked about last because David Out of any character in the Hebrew Bible Who has called the anointed one yeah Well he gets the most page time as an Anointed figure yeah and he's got some Great stories that just showcase him as A guy who kind of gets it like he gets What it means to be Courageous to be faithful to God to be Kind of patient and wise and he just Kind of like makes all these great moves As the anointed one they just kind of Root for him you're like yeah this is The guy you know in the meantime I Realized that I have a rationale for why I focused in on David that's pretty Simple that I actually didn't say so Maybe I'll just say it here the word Anointed one or Messiah As a noun appears uh just a quick search Here 39 times in the Hebrew Bible the Noun Anointed one mashiach it occurs three Times in Leviticus to refer to the high

Priest And then if you're just looking for the Distribution of those occurrences it Goes from three hits in Leviticus excuse Me four four hits in Leviticus And then it just moves to first Samuel One hit two hits three hits four five Six seven eight nine ten eleven And then second Samuel one two these are All referring to David four five six oh One one or two is Saul one or two refers To Saul so Saul and David yeah and then Chronicles which is recycling the ones That were in Samuel and then the rest of Them are in the Book of Psalms Psalm Scroll and the ones in the Psalms are All about David too or the Kings from The line of David or some like maybe Even some future David yeah or a future David yeah yeah exactly so in other Words the vast majority three quarters Or even more of all of the occurrences Of the word messiah in the Hebrew Bible Are somehow related to the story of David As Told in Samuel and then Reflected upon within the psalm scroll Where David is a major figure so if you Want to talk about the anointed in Hebrew Bible you gotta talk about the High priest Then you gotta talk about David and then You got to talk about the role that David plays within both the prophets and The writings in the Psalms so that's

What we're going to do in these two Episodes that lay ahead we reflected on The Samuel story of David last episode And you're right the portrait is Surprising Israel wants a king and so They get a king according to their own Desires In the person of Saul it was the first Anointed one But he turns out to be like Another Adam and Eve who does what's Good in his eyes and so he forfeits his Opportunity to rule us God's image and So Yahweh chooses another anointed one And that's David and the key portrait That I wanted to focus our attention on Was the image of David being privately Anointed as becoming the heaven on Earth Representative of God's rule in Israel But he consistently well that private Anointing slowly starts to become Evident to others especially to the Reigning King Saul and it becomes this Long story of God's real anointed one Waiting patiently through persecution And suffering from His own Brothers Wandering in the wilderness hiding in Caves Waiting for God to exalt him he's Not going to take matters into his own Hands and that's where we kind of left Things last time so that portrait of the Suffering Patient anointed one who waits for God

To bring about his public exaltation That's like crucial to this theme of the Anointed one in the story of David the Fact that he was privately anointed and Had to patiently wait yeah for the Realization Of his anointing yeah with everyone else Yeah and he was tempted to become Impatient a couple times but luckily he Had either his conscience Or a prophet or his Um a wise woman like Abigail to speak Wisdom and to encourage him to trust in God and not his sword or his own plans Cool I'm glad you highlighted that Because I wasn't thinking about that and That seems really key and it's Interesting that the yeah the way that Samuel the Samuel scroll would tell the Story really does Focus yeah on this in Between state where David's anointed but He's not yet King and how he deals with That yeah 15 chapters from first Samuel 16 to the end of the scroll in chapter 31. And Saul dies In that last chapter and then oh Remember first and second Samuel are Divided up as separate books in our Bibles but they are one continuous Literary work So second Samuel begins with David Lamenting over the death of Saul even Though the guy was chasing him trying to

Kill him you know for the last few years And then the tribes come around him and Make David King So what's up with that why is the Narrative giving so much air time to This long period of suffering waiting There must be something about the way That God's Heavenly rule is brought to Earth through that kind of anointed Figure it must be really important to These authors and as we're going to see That same idea of this patient waiting Suffering anointed one is the same idea Brought forward in the Isaiah scroll Which we'll look at in this conversation And also in the portrait of David and His future seed in the Psalms scroll Which we'll look at in the next and the Reason again for doing this is when we Turn to the New Testament Christ Messiah anointed one is the main Title applied to Jesus By the New Testament authors not by Jesus himself he avoided the title but People used it of him and so the Question is what is that word supposed To conjure up in our imaginations like What are the backstories That we are to see there and so that's What I'm trying to help us fill in that The Hebrew Bible gives us a pretty Robust backstory around Someone who got the oil of God's Heavenly oil and spirit poured upon them

So they can represent him on Earth So with that I'm going to turn our Attention to an important promise that God made to David That is gonna be really important for Understanding the theme of the anointed Servant in the scroll of Isaiah [Music] Thank you Foreign Important moment in David's story is After he patiently Waits and he's Exalted in God's time to become king Over the tribes In second Samuel chapter 7. David has now established Jerusalem as The capital city He brought the Tabernacle the Moses you Know oversaw the construction the Ark of The Covenant he brought it there and That was a bumpy ride to get it there But he eventually did and second Samuel Chapter 7 begins with David expressing This desire to God that he wants to make God a really nice palace like I've got a Capital city you know um why should Yahweh still live in that old tent that Wandered around the wilderness yeah it's A couple centuries old now maybe it's Pretty tattered you don't think they Keep it up I know they do but I guess There's so much that's not said about The Tabernacle hmm in the storyline it's Just it's just kind of there but yeah

Not described it's mentioned every once In a while but the impulse here is hey I'm King now we've got this nice city Yeah we've got some resources yeah like Let me let me make you a nice place guys That's right yep and what God responds Back to David is I'm really happy with My tent thank you very much It's cozy yeah that's my paraphrase but He says did I ever ask or tell any of The leaders of Israel to make me a house Like I'm good with the tent And then God flips it and he says I'll Tell you what I'm gonna do for you I'm Gonna build you a house using the same Word so the word a house in Hebrews buy It can refer to a physical building it's The word for the temple the house of Yahweh but it also can refer to a Household the way we you would use that Word in English right meaning the people Or family so he says I'm gonna build you A house and then these are key words That are gonna be kind of like a Launching pad For the development Of the hoped for anointed servant both In Isaiah and in the psalm scroll So this is the second Samuel 7 verse 8. Now this is what you will say to my Servant David God's talking to his Prophet Nathan saying go say this to David This is what Yahweh of hosts says I took

You from the pasture From behind the Sheep to be ruler Over My People Israel I have been with you Wherever you have gone I've cut off all your enemies from Before you one of them was the king of Israel Saul I will make you a great name Should we be suspicious of People having a great name oh wow but Remember it's all about uh how you get It hmm having a name that people respect Or recognize is a good thing It wasn't good when Nimrod wanted to do It no or the Babylonians right let us Make a name for ourselves So God scatters that project but then What does he do in the next chapter Tells Abraham he's going to make his Name great no he says he's gonna make Does he yes what he says yes in fact What God says to David here is exactly What he said to Abraham oh okay yeah David's like a new Abraham who's going To receive a promise very similar Dave Rams promise So I'll make you a great name meaning I'm gonna make you an important person I'm gonna make you I'm gonna do Something with you and through you That will make it so that these two guys Sitting on the west coast of the United States Nearly 3 000 years later are going to be Talking into microphones and retelling

Your story so a great name means Becoming Someone worthy of Being known through history yeah your Name is your reputation a reputation Yeah and the story attached to your name There's also probably something very Concrete in terms of the real life Experience of someone with a great name Where you can Just people respect you yeah yeah you Can get into places you can do things Yeah although within the Bible it more Has to do with longevity and your Enduring Legacy okay it's equivalent to Long life humans only live for so long Pretty short 70 80 years according to Psalm 90 but then after that you're gone But if you have a great name people will Remember you it's sort of like you live On through the perpetuation of the name It's a form of life beyond death And that's part of notoriety I didn't Read the second half of the sentence I'm So sorry God says I'll make you David a Great name like the names of the Great Men who are in the land the other kings Yeah other kings of the time yeah okay Yeah I mean you know I think how many People live back then and how many we're Talking about today small micro fraction Okay yep and David's one of them I will Also appoint a place for My People Israel and I will plant them that's

Garden of Eden language yeah except now The people are are the plants I'm gonna plant people That they can live in their own place Not be disturbed nor will the wicked Afflict them anymore This is what Pharaoh did to the Israelites in Egypt In the Book of Judges Affliction is what All of the different oppressors do When Israel is handed over Even from the day that I commanded Judges to be over My People Israel I will give you rest from all your Enemies this is starting to sound like Eden you're getting a garden like Plantation Of people there's no more snakes and bad Guys And you're given rest no it's no name is A verb in the land Yahweh declares he Will make a house for you when your days Are complete you will lie down with your Fathers I will raise up your seed after You who will come out of your belly I will establish his kingdom and he will Build a house for my name And I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom forever notice the house and the Name come up again so you want to build A house for me I'll tell you something I'm gonna make a house for you and give You a great name And out of that house will come a seed

And then that seed will establish my Name And my house so he doesn't want David so That's interesting inversion I've never Quite noticed it's that direct you want To build me a house I'll give you a House and a name so that you produce a Seed who will build a house for my name That's the program yeah and so there's Kind of two levels of meaning in a way Going on here because on one level David's gonna have a son Solomon who's Going to build a temple yeah yeah that's Right that's coming and you can go oh Cool this is about David's son Solomon He's going to build the temple for God Even though David wanted to do it God Said no yep not you but yeah your seed Yep but it seems like there's another There's something even more interesting Perhaps about I mean did Solomon make God's name great yeah and establish his Throne forever yeah totally in fact Solomon when he dedicates the temple he Quotes this line and says yeah it's me It's me I'm the one God told my dad that This would happen and here I am doing The thing that God said God goes on however and says I will be a Father to him that is to that Seed where You've jumped forward oh this is the Next verse okay yeah I'll be a father to Him that is to that future seed and he Will be a son to me oh sweet so

Father-son relationship This is all Adam Adam language really Back in Genesis chapter five God made Adam In His Image in the image Of God he created them male and female Then Adam knew his wife and had a son in His image okay and he named him Seth So Adam being the image of God set on Analogy to Seth being the Son and the Image of Adam so for God to cause Another human a son you're saying is I Mean all humanity is are his sons in a Way yeah yeah so what does it mean more Particularly for God to call someone his Son yeah here it's about the theme of Selection or election God called all Israel my firstborn son to challenge Pharaoh to let my firstborn son go so When God chooses and selects special Covenant partner out of the many One way of describing that intimate bond Is the father-son language okay so That's all the good stuff about this King so I'll be a father to him he'll be A son to me when he commits iniquity I Will correct him with a human rod and With The Strokes of the sons of Adam Foreign so when the seed that comes from You if they blow it Then I'm gonna let some other humans Come and whoop them strike them and It'll be my allowing it to happen There'll be God's correction but he says My loyal love will not depart from your

Seed Like I took it away from Saul who I Removed from before you your house and Your kingdom will endure before me Forever your throne established forever Amen and amen So what you learn here is that if Any of the seed from the line of David Violates This covenantal Bond Or blows it in some way then the God's Going to correct them but his loyal love Won't depart from the lineage So this is setting you up for the whole Story of David's sons who rule in Jerusalem and starting with Solomon and He's gonna be like yeah it's me and then He goes on to God says here commit Iniquity and so it's as if just like Adam and Eve or just like Saul they Forfeit the opportunity for themselves To be that ruler but what God says is my Loyal love won't depart from your seed It's just the opportunity gets passed to The Next Generation and that's how the Pattern of stories Works through the Book of kings and that's very much all This is like top of mind when you turn To the Isaiah scroll so is this God Saying I'm not going to give up on well Because there's been this pattern of With Adam and Eve they blow it and God doesn't give up on them yeah but That's right but there's consequence

Yeah and then the resolution of the Problem they created Is pitched forward as a hope for the Next Generation the seed is a woman I Mean it's just exactly parallel that There will be a seed coming who will Resolve The problem that has been created by Previous generations Abraham's family Same thing like God promises him a great Name his family will bless the Nations They don't always make the best Decisions but he kind of persists yeah Even to the point of with Abraham's Grandson Jacob like there's a straight On wrestling match yeah and like a Wounding yeah what we're meditating on Is the fact that for God to engage in a Real partnership with humans Means that there are real Like there are real stakes and the any Given generation can truly blow it and Take themselves out of the running But that will not affect yahweh's Ultimate Eternal long-term plan to raise Up a seed from this line And that's surely what is being referred To here so you know it's gonna ask Though yeah go ahead What about us all yeah I know he kind of Yeah like I was like yeah no not that Guy not that guy and what he says to Saul is listen I raised you up for this

Purpose and you blew it so yeah it was Torn from you so why does David in his Line get all these Second Chances yeah I Know and that's all it feels like unfair Feels well I mean I don't know if it Feels unfair as much as it doesn't feel Consistent yeah it does all right and it Makes you wonder like yeah yeah I'm with You I think we're here to the theme that We worked through with the firstborn It's like why able and not Kane Why You know Isaac but not Ishmael there's Something about Saul being the tall warrior king that The people wanted hmm that makes Saul's You know failure just disqualify him but Somehow the runt King who was persecuted That nobody wanted When that guy is exalted and then but Usually the logic of the story is God Never chose that firstborn or like he Always kind of was choosing yeah that's Right from the beginning choosing the The least likely yeah and this story got Annoyed Saul and yeah I think it even Says here in this message like well I Don't know yeah but remember the reason Why Saul was chosen was because the People demanded a king so that we can be Like the other nations and so God gives them what they want Or as it appears that what God wanted Was a king like David okay

Yeah I'm not trying to tie a bow and Neither boa on this also we need to Remember the narrator's Viewpoint of This is centuries in the future looking Back and what they can see is this Pattern in their history that the only Lineage that endured in terms of royalty Was this family of David throughout the Centuries even though many of those Kings were idolaters and unjust And how do you explain That the kingdom lasted as long as it Did I'm asking as if I'm in the mindset Of biblical authors and they attribute It to yahweh's protection and promise But also the attribute the downfall of This monarchy to Yahweh as well and That's you know the storyline the rod of Men yeah the human rod So what this promise kind of sets up Then is as you read through the story of Solomon and then the Kings from the line Of David after him it's sort of like Each one steps up to the plate to use a American baseball metaphor and you know Some strike out all three just strike Out at once some get a I'm going with Baseball yeah base base it they get to First base Solomon maybe gets a second Maybe third he builds the temple but the Only other kings who maybe get the Second or third base is Josiah Hezekiah and kind of a guy named Asa

But Hezekiah in particular Lived during the time of an Israelite Prophet named yishyahu Or Isaiah that's what we call him There's something about having Yahoo at The end of your name and the English my Dad would call it was like kind of a Name for somebody who's silly or Ridiculous a Yahoo yeah yeah Yahoo Is that where that comes from I don't Know it doesn't come from my dad no sure Oh I don't no it doesn't come from From Hebrew hezekiah's name yeah I don't Know Yahoo I think it comes from but how Did they come in yeah [Music] Yeah so This Promise of an enduring King From the line of David who will be The Fulfillment of the snake crushing Hopes from Genesis like that's where the Whole Hebrew Bible's teeing you up to This family this guy this lineage and These Kings and King Hezekiah lived During the time of Isaiah the prophet And in his days Jerusalem was spared From a huge Juggernaut of an Empire Assyria this is hezekiah's day this is Hezekiah's day yeah and Hezekiah in the Squirrel of Isaiah becomes an important Like a new David a narrative image of That suffering anointed servant who Waits patiently for Yahweh to deliver Him and the City And so this starts to lay tracks for a

Whole thread of thought about the Anointed one Who will come in the future who will be Like a new David and like a new Hezekiah So we don't have time to trace the whole Theme through Isaiah but I thought we Could touch down and Sample a few Passages because they're awesome and Because Jesus and the authors of his Story in the gospels definitely thought That these texts were awesome [Music] Thank you Just [Music] So I'll begin with one text we've read Many times over the years So I don't know how long this will take I always say let's just go briefly it's Never brief but this is in Isaiah Chapter 11. the first main kind of block Uh literary movement in Isaiah is Chapters 1 through 39 or 1 to 35 but 1 Through 12 is kind of the First Symphony Movement as it were okay and this poem Right here that we're going to read is The culmination to one of the first Major units in Isaiah and in the Paragraph right before this Yahweh is Going to bring that human rod In the form of Assyria to come start Chopping down the forests of Judah That's the image here so when all of Israel and Judas getting laid low and

Cut down What we learned in Isaiah 11 verse 1 is That a little shoot a branch Will emerge out from the stump of Jesse Father of David is the father of David And a branch from its roots will bear Fruit so we're depicting a future fruit Branch should I be thinking of like a a Vine kind of Branch or like a tree Oh it's from the stump of a tree stump Of a tree yeah so this is you know when The tree gets cut down in the forest Yeah and then give it three years and There'll be little mini trees coming out Of it coming out of it yeah that's kind Of that's the idea it's a fruit tree so The stump is Jesse so that is what Isaiah believes we need is not just a New king from the line of David we know What those guys are mostly like what we Need is another David Um and where did David come from yeah Justin Jesse yep The spirit of Yahweh will rest on him So just pause real quick we haven't Talked about the oil and the spirit yet In our recap of this episode but in this Whole series what we saw is that the First anointing in the Bible is when Liquid Yahweh provides liquid life For the dry land when he plants the Garden of Eden and then he provides Spirit life to the human and that liquid Anointing and that Spirit anointing or

Associated ideas So here the word anointing isn't used Because the anointing is happening with The spirit not with oil it's like the Ultimate anointing just like David when You got the oil the spirit of God came On him so here you get Spirit but Without the oil Hmm whereas in David you got the oil and The spirit but in the Garden of Eden you Had the spirit but not the oil right Yeah and um this word rest keeps showing Up and you you said it was Garden of Eden language but it's Noah's name Noah's name yeah how is it connected to The Garden to rest oh so it's supposed To work and keep the garden that's right Yeah that's exactly right so it goes Back to the seventh day okay when Yahweh Shabbat yes he ceases or he stops okay But then after the flood when Noah is Floating in the little micro floating Eden where's the peace with the animals And there's plenty of food and then that Little micro Eden rests on top of the Mountain hmm as the waters recede which Is like a new Garden yeah and then it Gets off offers a sacrifice and plants a Garden and so rest in the garden land is The key image and then in later passages About the Sabbath both the word Shabbat And the word rest from Noah's name okay Are connected to the Sabbath rest in the Land yep and so and is it normal

Language for the spirit to rest or is This kind of a novel yeah use of it it's Unique yeah normally it's to come upon To be poured out upon to rush upon so Yeah for the spirit to rest on someone Is not a common way to describe it so It's very clearly bringing up the Eden Okay associations with the word rest The spirit that will implicitly anoint This Royal new David is a seven-fold Spirit we've counted these before but It's the spirit of the Lord one the Spirit of wisdom two Spirit of understanding three Spirit of Counsel four Spirit of strength five the Spirit of knowledge six and the spirit Of the fear of Yahweh number seven and His Delight will be in the fear of Yahweh You almost expected to say his Delight Will be in the Torah like in Psalm 1. oh Yeah but his Delight is in the fear of The Lord because you learn the fear of The Lord in the beginning of wisdom when You read the Torah He won't judge that is he won't make Leadership decisions just based on what His eyes see nor will he make decisions By what his ears hear so this is kind of Like Solomon with the two women that Come to him both claiming that their one Baby belongs to each of them and nobody Can figure out how to solve the dispute It's kind of like it's a sign of wisdom

That you can like see through the Surface and get to the heart of the Matter he's connected to another form of Information yeah yeah because he lives By the fear of the Lord and so yeah That's right okay so with righteousness He will bring Justice to the poor and With fairness he will make decisions on Behalf of The Afflicted of the land he Will strike the land with the rod of his Mouth And with the breath of his lips he will Slay the wicked Hmm so Justice Advocacy for the most vulnerable in Their communities the poor the afflicted Ones but then yeah this happens a lot in The prophets where it's like someone's Coming to bring Justice and you think Cool that's going to bring that should Be bring peace The act of justice is actually also this Usually depicted as some form of um yeah Well here what's interesting is it uses What you would think would be like Violent imagery with a sword he will Strike his enemies And with a spear he will slay the wicked Oh but what he's striking and slaying With are his words oh he will strike the Earth with the rod of his mouth which is Like a metaphor for his words yeah yeah Exactly okay yeah yeah and the breath of His lips so his his words he will slay

The wicked yeah so I mean this from Comes from a different time and place Okay but yeah the idea is his words will Bring about order his words will push Back agents of chaos and disorder and Death in the land He will declare them guilty and then I Think implicitly you know make them face The consequences kind of thing Which you know if you've but his power's Not in his like arm his arm or his or His strength it's his mouth it's his Mouth yeah interesting yeah it is an Interesting image We go on skipping down a little bit then You get some real Garden of Eden imagery About Predators predatory animals laying down And playing with Prey animals wolves Hanging out with Lambs leopards chilling With goats The calf and the Young Lion and the Really Choice fat calf that lion might Be salivating but he's not gonna bite And then a little kid a little boy just Leading them all around all the animals Yeah hmm yeah a little Shepherd boy yeah Totally and then if the Eden imagery Isn't you know striking the reader then Verse 8 and the nursing child will play By the whole of the Cobra and a toddler Will just put his hand right into the Viper's Den like here little Viper your

Viper Viper So it's the seed a human seed will have The snake will be sowed like disarmed And made harmless That even this young seed of the woman Can just take hold of the snake There will be no hurting no destroying In all my Holy Mountain that's both a New Jerusalem and Eden imagery the high Mountain Garden For the Earth will be filled with Knowing Yahweh like Waters covered the Sea and in that day the Nations will Seek out the root of Jesse Who will stand up like a banner for all The peoples and his resting place will Be glory so we've got Tabernacle Glory Of Yahweh in the Tabernacle and Temple Glory is signifying Tabernacle language Yeah yeah when you talk about Glory Appearing in a resting place that's Temple Tabernacle language which those Are symbols of God's presence in Eden So you have yahweh's presence taking up Residence on a holy mountain and Everybody knows Yahweh there's knowledge And the nations are all going to be Coming Up to this Holy Mountain Glory Garden Where there's rest and they're going to Find there as a beacon drawing them all In This king from the line of David the Root of Jesse will be drawing them all

In there you go that's the poem It's A Creative Vision that brings all The themes of the Hebrew Bible together In one place At least many of them yeah there's a lot Going on yeah as I was reading the last Few lines of this poem you just had a Very Earnest look on your face and your eyes Were closed oh really yeah totally so Yeah I think I started picturing the Scene of the Well at one point I was really picturing The scene of the child and the and the Snake yeah and the kid marching around With the you know leading this parade of Animals some that we would consider Dangerous this was this kind of Moment In My Head where I felt very playful and Yeah and wonderful but at the very end Yeah the Nations will resort to the root Of Jesse so we've read other parts of Isaiah together yep so yeah there's the The massive theme of the Nations coming And yeah I don't know what do you want To focus on here oh well just this poem Is setting up a bold hope it's all gonna Get complicated and problematized as you Go of course throughout the Scroll of Isaiah but this is just the Bold image Of hope that's connected to a spirit Anointed King from the land of David that's the Image here yeah so this becomes like the

Default in the book of what you're Hoping for okay okay so to tie it to the Anointed theme We've had David We know that David's line has fallen Apart There's this hope for this new David And he's a king who's gonna be so Anointed as a seven-fold anointing of His in a way of the spirit And it's so magnificent it's like Creation itself fundamentally is Different yeah it's a release is like The new creation blessing of God there's A new yes this is like yeah we're not Talking about life as usual we're Talking about animals that want to Destroy each other at peace Which is then in a way to think about Two Nations who usually want to destroy Each other yes totally that piece yeah That's exactly right and the peace is Coming from This Beacon of Hope this new Mountain of God's resting place yeah and from it is A signal Where everyone can now know God and know The wisdom of God so yeah this is this Is New Creation languages yeah I guess What's If I'm Living in this time so now we're talking We're an Iron Age right and like I'm Just like I'm a normal guy

I'm living in and around Jerusalem And to my North like the king of Assyria Is like just taking people out they've Come and they've tried to capture down Jerusalem it didn't work out but then I Guess these are my like my grandfather's Stories yeah and then like I've seen Babylon come and and take us out and so What I understand of like life is like When things are good There's enough food we can enjoy each Other but in reality there's always just Some King some other Nation just some Violence around the corner and so I read Something like this and am I supposed to Think like yeah actually maybe there Will be a guy who comes and Fundamentally change all of this where We never have to worry about that Anymore like is that a real hope I guess Is what I'm wondering like is this like I mean it seems like it in terms of it's A real hope and as much as somebody Wrote this poem and Incorporated it into The scroll of Isaiah As like something that is to yeah Capture your imagination and your hopes And Help you Channel your prayers to the god Of Israel that this is something you Desires to bring about in partnership With a human because if you know if you Said to me like hey the line or the wolf I keep saying lying the wolf's gonna lay

Down with the lamb yeah I'd be like well That's beautiful image but I know how Wolves yeah sure like wolves have to eat Lamb like they gotta eat something yeah Right so you're using this fantastic Language to maybe just mean I'm not Gonna have to worry about a king killing Me is that what you're saying like I can Just enjoy my Harvest and my family and Like death is not around the corner or Are you actually saying like there's Gonna be an era where like all the Nations we're just all at peace all the Time and like there's Brotherly Love Across the whole known land like That's the Hope yeah I guess that's why The word that came to be attached to These Types of poems is the language of Revelation or apocalypse it's a Revealing Of A kind of reality the thing continuity With our world but also feels just Fundamentally different which is why by The end of the scroll of Isaiah This very picture right here will get Called the new heavens and the new land Yes the New Jerusalem that I will create That's what God says but you know part Of what makes it the Bold hope that it Is also is the poetic form because Poetry is a kind of language that evokes Your imagination as much as it tries to

Communicate you know an idea or a body Of information so I think it is supposed To send our minds To high places Up to the heavens So what an Iron Age Israelite living in Jerusalem thought about this I have no Idea but what Isaiah and all the Bible Nerd scribes and Prophets who treasured These poems and collected them into the Scrolls that we have in the Hebrew Bible They This is what kept them going man and This is clearly the kind of imagery that Energized Jesus and his first followers [Music] So what's interesting about this Portrait is that the only real Conflict At work in the scene is that there's Oppressed people and bad guys and the King is going to rescue the oppressed And judge the bad guys and then it's Just peace in the land that's the image Here So this is the image attached to the King and to the people of Israel in the Storyline of the Bible Problem is and Isaiah assumes that You've already read the whole story of The line of David in Samuel and then in The scroll of the Kings and what you Know is that aside from a few bright Spots like Hezekiah or Josiah It all crashed and burned and Yahweh

Handed over his people and his City and The temple to destruction and allowed Babylon to destroy it all and take many Israelites into exile And so how do you process and explain That With these bold promises on the table Did Yahweh not mean what he said Or is there some other explanation So what you get in the latter part of The book of Isaiah is this reflection on What was the meaning of the downfall of Jerusalem and what about that promise That God made to David and what about The promise like right here in Isaiah 11. and so some interesting things start To happen In relationship to the anointed figure And I'm just going to trace a few poems Here in Isaiah one is in chapter 42 and The poet introduces us to a figure Called this is all sorry this is all in The voice of Yahweh Behold my servant Whom I uphold My Chosen One in whom my soul Delights I have put my spirit upon him Yeah we learned about that yeah you're Like oh yes that it's the guy from Chapter 11 and a guy like David who's Like David He will bring forth Justice to the Nations yep that sounds like the guy From chapter 11.

He will not cry out or raise his voice He won't make his voice heard in the Streets but isn't it his voice that's Gonna yeah do all the work yeah yeah Totally if we try and harmonize all the Poetic imagery between poems and Isaiah It's gonna be a really frustrating Exercise you kind of have to let each Poem exist in its own little story world As it were So here we have a chosen servant who's Anointed by the spirit not with oil but By the spirit who's going to bring Justice to the Nations you're like oh Yeah chapter 11 slaying the wicked all That But this anointed servant is going to Accomplish Justice for the Nations but He's not Like you wouldn't pick him out in a Crowd he's not like getting his name out There and Yeah he's quiet he works in a quiet way Even a bruised or a bent Reed of grass He won't break it So if there's like a reed stock of grass That's bent you know like my kids use so Many straws do kids like to use straws Hmm Uh we don't we don't use those Trails I Don't know why I don't know how my Youngest son is just attached to straw Every every dinner oh he's a straw he Goes and gets a straw okay like drink

His water so he doesn't want to drink The normal way but some and he's so he Chews on them it just like destroys all These straws we started Jessica started Getting like compostable like bamboo Straws yeah because he just destroying All these plastic straws so anyway They're great until he bends it and then It has this crease in it yeah and then It so that's what that's the image right Here right a bruised or a bent Reed And he's so Meek yeah that he like he'll Let that be he could walk by it and he's So gentle he wouldn't like knock it over Or brush it with his finger not even the Wind of him walking by would knock over A Bruce it's a very Vivid image and then The parallel line is even a dimly Burning Wick he wouldn't extinguish okay He's a gentle guy yeah he will bring Forth Justice with trustworthiness Faithfulness He will not be disheartened hmm He will not be crushed So apparently he's going to be gentle He's going to be patient Persistent he's going to be persistent Even when there is opposition Hmm So you're getting this picture here that Oh the way that that scene in chapter 11 Is going to be brought about Isn't going to be straightforward it's Going to happen through this very

Quiet Well this brings us back to where you Started this conversation with 15 Chapters of David exactly right yes he's Anointed and he's patiently yeah waiting Yeah that's exactly right so now we're Getting this that there's going to be a Journey ahead for the anointed servant Of humility or humiliation of Discouragement opposition But he's going to continue with it until He's established Justice in the land in The coastlands wait for his Torah then You go down just a little bit verse 6 And Yahweh starts speaking to the Servant directly saying I've called you Servant in righteousness I will hold you By the hand I will watch over you I appoint you as a covenant for the People as a light to the Nations To open blind eyes To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in the darkness out Of prison so now this servants being Given this really amazing commission That he's going to be the Covenant for The people [Laughter] Yeah he'll be the Covenant I'll appoint You as the Covenant for the people so if Yahweh made a covenant with the people Of Israel that they would become a Kingdom of priests right the Covenant is An agreement

So the agreement usually goes you guys Follow my instruction yeah and you live By it and I'm gonna bless you yeah and I'm gonna use you to bless the Nations Yep and so that's the Covenant yep so You would not be a covenant you would Live by a covenant yeah totally no it's A very it's a intentionally Loaded and odd turn to phrase so the People of Israel failed to live Faithfully to their Covenant that's what All the Torah and the prophets we're Trying to say So here's a elect anointed servant Who will themselves become the Covenant They will be the Covenant faithfulness That the people have failed to ever Demonstrate and in so doing This figure will become that Shining Light to the Nations And then all the imagery about opening Blind eyes and bringing out prisoners so Light shining in the darkness that's God's glory shining in gen on day one From the seven day creation story Now this figure is going to become that Glorious light shining in the Darkness To release people out of prison and to Become the Covenant faithfulness of what God had purposed for Israel So as you go through these poems in the Latter part of Isaiah you see that this Anointing Is about one figure

Being filled up with God's Heavenly life Liquid life of spirit to become the Vehicle of heavenly light and blessing On behalf of Israel because Israel has Like Saul or like different Kings of David's lion forfeited forfeited that Right And the depiction of his way his means Here all of a sudden it becomes not the Kind of King you're used to right that's Gonna like raise the sword yeah build The Army charge or just like demonstrate His power through his strength and Ability to Rally a crowd or yeah he's Gonna be quiet and meek totally gentle Yep and that idea gets developed even More in another poem about this anointed Servant that we call Isaiah chapter 53 And we won't read the whole thing but Just watch how the images keep getting Like a snowball as you go through the Scroll in previous images from earlier Poems get picked up and turned into new Poems so in Isaiah 53 2 talking about This anointed servant he that is the Servant grew up before him that is God Like a tender shoot like a branch you're Like oh yeah chapter 11. is the branch Like a root out of the parched ground The root of Jesse He had no form or Majesty That we should pay any attention to him He didn't have any kind of appearance That we would be attracted to him in

Fact it was just the opposite he was Despised He was forsaken by people he was Actually a Man of Sorrows and he knew Grief the knowledge that he had was a Knowledge of grief and loss He was like somebody from whom people Hide their faces he was despised and we Didn't honor him at all it really turn Up the volume on this rejection Rejection that's a new development from The last poem yeah is this sense of Rejection yeah we knew that the anointed Servant might have reason for being Disheartened or feeling crushed right And that's the theme that we're turning Up now yeah cause you can imagine that Would just be because of his um his Enemies but here it's even his friends Seem to or like you know his brothers Seem to like avoid him yeah So he won't look like a royal glorious Heir from the line of David ruling in Jerusalem that's not going to be like That somehow that rule is going to look Like somebody who is rejected isn't Honorable in the eyes of important People And he identifies with people in their Suffering and grief that's the picture Here So that's Isaiah 53 and eventually this Guy goes to his death like they Described that this guy who we thought

Was abandoned by God the speaking voice Says we thought that he was cursed by God Like that's what we thought about this Guy and then in verse 5 it pivots and The voice says but in reality he was Pierced and killed and crushed and Suffered for our that is Israel's Transgressions for our iniquities And the punishment that brought us Shalom fell upon him And it's by his wounds that we have Found healing So this speaking group is identifying That this anointed figure is actually Going To experience on Israel's behalf all of The disasters and the suffering and Hardship that Israel has experienced and Was destined for by failing to live as God's covenant partners and that this Figure would become the Covenant for the People so he would both embody the Covenant faithfulness of the people While at the same time shouldering all Of the consequences for the failure of The Covenant people and that's again the Role of this anointed one which is a lot Like David he it's as if David Shouldered Saul's failures really in What way well David allowed himself to Be exiled he had to leave his family and The people he cared about running like a Fugitive in the wilderness

Why because it deranged King you know Thought that David was out to kill him When he wasn't and he could have taken Saul out multiple times in the Wilderness so we talked about in the Last episode but instead he just suffers Saul's Folly and whatever insanity for Years so it's like he's suffering for Saul's sins that's the portrait I see of David and Samuel and those are the ideas That are getting picked up and developed Here but now of the future seed from the Line of David So where this poem ends I mean we could Spend and one day we should spend many Episodes in the scroll of Isaiah you Think that this anointed servant is just Gone Dead and Gone But all of a sudden Down in verse 10 of chapter 53 After he's given his life As a guilt offering He all of a sudden is going to look upon His seed he's going to have like Offspring And he will see them and he will prolong His death And the good pleasure of Yahweh will Prosper in his hand Like what I I guess that usually what Happens to a girl offering no it's like If somebody's dead you don't normally Live to see your family and live long Days and have yahweh's good pleasure

Prosper in your hand but that's it That's exactly like this servant somehow Goes through the suffering that leads to Death and is brought out to see the Light of life again And now by his knowledge he used to know Suffering and grief now verse 11 by his Knowledge the righteous one my servant Will declare the many to be righteous While he Bears their iniquities So he suffers on behalf of Israel's Failures and then reconstitutes A group of people called the seed to be The righteous Covenant partners That they have never been but that the Servant was on their behalf so that's Where the portrait of the suffering Anointed servant goes in the scroll of Isaiah And we could look at many more poems but You get the idea So what's truly remarkable is that when You turn to the Psalms scroll in the Hebrew Bible it's this exact same Portrait of David as an image of a Suffering Vindicated Anointed one of Yahweh who suffers But also brings light and life to the Nations It's the same exact portrait you can see Why Jesus was really in to these texts The Isaiah texts and the Psalms yeah all In particular yeah there's something About Isaiah and the Psalms that were

Like a ground zero for Jesus and his Earliest followers and not it's not hard To see why once you once you spend Enough time here cool so next into the Psalms yeah into the Psalms that's where We're gonna go So this is Dan come up with the podcast Team and I'm back here with a friend of Mine you wanna go ahead and introduce Yourself my name is Hakeem Bradley Allegedly allegedly what's your real Name hey man I don't know dog that's Just what they've been telling me all my Life what's on your birth certificate How can you Bradley I guess that's I think that's probably Your real name that's very important uh So we're gonna read the credits but Before we do that Hakeem why don't you Tell us a little about your role at Bible project I am a research Scrambler Here on the team I get to nerd out open Up the scriptures we seek to be formed By them into the likeness of Jesus Through meditating on the wisdom that These authors are trying to articulate And that's a nerdy way of saying I study The Bible for a living yes so basically You're on a team of Scholars Tim Obviously leads a team yeah and you all Basically just come up with different You know research projects that you're Working on right yeah So eventually turn Into podcasts and videos you yeah so Tim

Is more Upstream of like him and John You know session out and go like okay Here's some themes that we can kind of Work through and then it kind of goes Downstream Serenity of like okay here's How we can kind of deviate who's doing What when it comes to working on the Steam whether that be scripts or Something that'll contribute to some Type of media here at the project and Then Downstream the rest of us on the Team are like all right well I'll check This I'll do that I'll do this week and Then you'll do that I'll leave this You'll need that that's the gist and uh You're hoping to soon start your own Doctrinal program doctoral doctoral I Think doctrina was like a like a church Oh you can tell where I stopped in School Yeah hoping to get my doctorate in New Testament studies uh focusing on the Epistle of James yeah dude yeah you were Just telling me about it it sounds so Cool I hope so seemed to be to me tell Me a little bit about your life outside Of work I am married to my wife Um Jasmine almost six years in we have Two kids Ezekiel who's turning three Next month and Remy who just got here 11 Weeks ago She is the joy of all of our Lives what I remember about when Ezekiel was born Wasn't he born March of 2020 yeah he was

Born a week before Kobe yeah and because I remember like we've been talking and Brian my wife had been wanting to go out And see y'all and then basically like Shut down everything got shut down yeah And thinking and praying about Jasmine And about you all like during that time Because I was like man like can you Imagine having a baby like literally Right now it was insane yeah you're like Trying to figure out how to be a parent And you need Community to do so but you Can't be in community because you're Afraid of everybody it's it's a lot dog But somehow some way we made it through Well will you read credits for us I will Today's show came from our podcast team Including producer Cooper Peltz an Associate producer Lindsey Ponder our Lead editor is Dan gummel additional Editors are Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza Tyler Bailey AKA Tyler the Creator also Makes this episode and Hannah Wu did our Annotations for the Bible project at Bible project crowd from the non-profit Everything we make is free because of Your generous support thank you so much For being a part of this with us all Right do you feel good about that yeah Man hey [Music] Foreign [Music]

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