Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 246

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;

    my Lord has forgotten me.”

Can a mother forget her infant,

    be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

    I will never forget you.

Isaiah 49 was written by a prophet known as "Second Isaiah." He captured the spirit of the first Isaiah but lived many years later and in a far distant place. Isaiah was a priest in Jerusalem's temple, in the eighth century before Christ. Second Isaiah wrote and prophesied in Babylon, after the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE. 

Second Isaiah sought to comfort and reassure the stricken exiles. When a people are driven from their homes by natural or human catastrophes they struggle to survive, usually by adapting the language, customs, law, religion, food, and expectations of their new country. Inevitably their children and grandchildren forget the old country and its old ways. 

Many Americans don't even know where their surnames came from; their ancestors might have been English, Irish, or Spanish but the Smiths, O'Brians, and Garcias give it little thought. Often their ancestors suffered the shame of exile and poverty and never told their children their stories. 

By an extraordinary and unprecedented grace, Jews in the diaspora following 597 clung to their religious customs, scriptures, history, and language. God went with them into exile, as Ezekiel realized when he saw the Lord in the sky riding on a fiery chariot. 

In today's passage from Isaiah 49, we hear encouraging words of Second Isaiah, 

Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,

    break forth into song, you mountains.

For the LORD comforts his people

    and shows mercy to his afflicted.

But the exiles, (called by their city's alternate name Zion), are disconsolate: 

“The LORD has forsaken me;

    my Lord has forgotten me.”

God speaks again through the prophet, 

Can a mother forget her infant,

    be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

    I will never forget you.

The prophets had warned from ancient times that horror and destruction would fall on Israel and Judah if they were not faithful. They must rely on God for their economic and political well being; they must care for the poor, widowed, and aliens as God had cared for them from ancient times. 

The prophets did not alter that doctrine as the land and people were wasted by Assyrian and Babylonian armies, but they did insist, the Lord would never forget his people. In fact, the punishment guaranteed his presence. It didn't feel good but it was good news. 

The crucifixion, a most horrifying death, followed by the Easter Gospel of Resurrection, demonstrates again God's favor to Jesus (first of all) and to everyone who clings to Jesus. The Innocent One took our guilt, shame, grief, and suffering upon himself and died. Except for the Word of God, there was no reasonable hope for his suffering to be justified. His death seemed to prove God had abandoned his people finally and forever. 

Like the Jews in Babylon, we will experience the desolation of exile and crucifixion as we observe Holy Week. And we will wait with only a Word to reassure us: "I will never forget you."