Old Testament Lection, Trinity 4

I've been pretty inactive with this blog for a while, so something I would like to start doing is sharing some of my thoughts on the readings for the week. The Revised Common Lectionary is what I'll be using, and I will reflect from time to time on the different passages from the Sunday that starts the week.

This last Sunday was the 4th Sunday after Trinity Sunday, and the Old Testament reading was from Isaiah 55:10-13 (ESV here):

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² “For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

 There is a connection here between the natural order of things and the spiritual order of things. Verses 10 and 11 compare the two - the natural order provides an illustration for the spiritual, but this isn't because there is some necessity that the spiritual conform to the natural, or because the natural order objectively reveals something about the spiritual order, but rather because the spiritual order is prior to and foundational for the natural order. Nature looks the way it does because the model set for it is based on who God is.

What difference does that make? In verse 11, the Word of God has efficacy. Everything that is the Word achieves the purpose set by God - and we know of whom we speak when we talk about God's Word. The divine origin, divine commision, and divine power of the Word presuppose here (in personification) the divine nature of the Word. The deliverance from exile in verses 12-13 are also a type of our deliverance from subjection that the Word unfailingly brings. This is an anticipation of salvation offered in Christ.

The natural order shows us God, when we have the eyes to see, because if we know the One who sets the standard, we can see the echoes in nature.