Pondering the Word
The feast of Lent
By Daniel Hertzler
As a literary document, the Bible makes regular use of metaphor. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Isaiah 55 regarding “the feast of the Lord.”
David Noel Freedman writes in The Unity of the Hebrew Bible that in contrast to The Iliad, which was written about the same time to celebrate Greece’s victory over Troy, the “biblical account is told from the point of view of the losers, i.e. the people who fought a losing battle and lost everything. The pervasive note of tragedy all through the Hebrew Bible reflects this fundamental difference.” (10)
We do well to read the Hebrew Bible as a cautionary tale with less emphasis on military heroics and more on the lessons to be learned. As Freedman observes, much of the Old Testament is the story of leaving Babylon to returning to Babylon: Abraham left it, and maybe 1000 years later, his descendants are back as exiles. If Lent is a time to be pensive, there is background for reflection in these texts.
In the Genesis 15 vision, Abraham is promised descendants and land. By Isaiah 40-55, the descendants are plentiful yet the land is lost. Abraham’s descendents had returned to Babylon. These chapters in Isaiah are focused on rebuilding the people and getting them back to the land, for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Yet, their experience will be distinct from Abraham’s experience. Theirs will be something new.
The point is made in Isaiah 43:19, “I am about to do a new thing / Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Already a new beginning has been described in Isaiah 40:4, “Every valley shall be lifted up / and every hill be made low.” God is preparing a way for the exiles to return to Jerusalem and it will be a new thing.
Terence Fretheim observes in God and World in the New Testament that “sheer force” or military triumphalism is not how power will be used to return the exiles to their home. Rather, “The basic understanding of God in Isaiah 40-55 will finally be shown in 53:1. Who would have believed that the arm (power) of God would be revealed in such a one as this (the suffering servant)?”
… the feast of Lent becomes an occasion for us to scrub our souls and consider our peace with God and others and make adjustments as needed.
This new perspective of power undergirds the invitation to the banquet in Isaiah 55. This is a royal banquet provided by the Lord. Here the prophet means more than a literal meal as implied by the “altar call” in verses 6 and 7. The use of the Hebrew word for “repent” is a clue. The feast becomes a metaphor for the new way home.
When we review the postexilic history, we find that a significant number of exiles did return to Jerusalem. One such return is described in Ezra 7 and 8, and a “feast” of the word of God is found in Nehemiah 8. I am inspired by the scene described in Nehemiah 8:1-12, where Ezra read from the book of the law all morning and Levites interpreted, evidently for those who could no longer understand Hebrew. People were so impressed by the reading of the law that they wept. But they were urged instead to rejoice and to literally have a party and to share food with any who had failed to bring their own.
As with the banquet of Isaiah 55, the feast of Lent includes an altar call, an invitation to all who are open to the moving of the Spirit. Lent becomes an occasion for each of us to reflect on our walk with the Lord and make corrections as needed. In the church where I grew up, the Lord’s Supper was preceded a week earlier by a counsel meeting of the congregation. For this meeting we were expected to scrub our souls and be ready to testify that we were at peace with God and our fellow members. Today I find that the Supper is more a celebration than an occasion for self-examination.
The feast of Lent can become an occasion for us to scrub our souls and consider our peace with God and others and make adjustments as needed. All are expected to bring something, not food for the feast, but an openness to God and one another. As described in Isaiah 55:3a— “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live”—we are invited to repent as well as to feast on the words of God in order to live in the new way God has promised to us.
Daniel Hertzler is an editor and writer. He lives in Scottdale, Pennyslvania.