Thursday, March 22, 2018
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a
"The LORD God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to
shame." (Isaiah 50:7)
The Hebrew
scriptures do not generally use specific words for emotions, but rather use
descriptive words related to the effects on the human body, especially the
face. When Jesus overthrew the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple, Psalm
69:9 was quoted: "Zeal for your house has consumed me." The word for
"zeal" actually means "intensively red", as "to be red
in the face". The word generally translated as anger is to be "short
of nose", for the way the nose crinkles short and the nostrils flare in
anger. In the Ash Wednesday reading Joel 2:13, where God is said to be
"slow to anger" (KJV "longsuffering"), the Hebrew says God
is "long of nose", that is, calm and not riled up with a face
scrunched in wrath. In this third song of the suffering servant from the
prophet Isaiah, which is often associated by Christians with Jesus the Christ,
God's servant sets his "face like flint", that is, with absolute confidence
and resolve (see Ezekiel 3:8-9) for, "my vindicator is near". God is there, God is present. God is not a
God far-off. As followers of the Incarnate Christ, this we know to be true.
And we can set our faces like flint.
Help us, O God, and may we always
know that you are near. Amen
- • Make a drawing, painting, or poem in your journal.
