Peace! Yes! but what’s the price tag for today - or tomorrow?
Today’s chapter wraps up the relationship between the prophet and the king. The harsh words they exchange here are their last, and the chapter’s placement here, although historically much earlier than the events described in previous chapters, is not accidental. In the dialogue between the power of the prophet and the role of the ruler, religion and state, eternal and temporal - tensions will always rise. They echo many of the issues we still struggle with today including the big question - can we take care of what’s needed to ensure our own survival - as well as plan ahead for our descendants?
Echoing the same story told in Kings II, this chapter begins with a diplomatic delegation. Merodach-Baladan, the King of Babylon comes to visit Hezekiah in Jerusalem. It isn’t just a social visit. Baladan (his real is name is Marduk Apla Iddina, which means ‘The God Marduk Gave me an Heir’) is a rebel leader of the Babylonians, who are trying to overthrow their Assyrian rulers. He comes to invite Hezekiah to join the rebels. Flattered, and guilty, according to Isaiah and others, of arrogance and excessive reliance on other local forces, Hezekiah shows the Babylonians everything he’s got to be worthy of an alliance: “his treasure house... all his armory, and everything that was to be found in his storehouses….”
Once the delegation departs Isaiah confronts the king with fury, and predicts the terrible consequences of such an alliance. The blow will not come immediately, he tells the king - but will impact the future generations:
וּמִבָּנֶ֜יךָ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יֵצְא֧וּ מִמְּךָ֛ אֲשֶׁ֥ר תּוֹלִ֖יד יִקָּ֑חוּ וְהָיוּ֙ סָרִיסִ֔ים בְּהֵיכַ֖ל מֶ֥לֶךְ בָּבֶֽל׃
“Some of your sons, your own issue, whom you will have fathered, will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
Hezekiah’s response is puzzling, and includes both what he said - and what he thought:
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר חִזְקִיָּ֙הוּ֙ אֶֽל־יְשַׁעְיָ֔הוּ ט֥וֹב דְּבַר־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר דִּבַּ֑רְתָּ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר כִּ֥י יִהְיֶ֛ה שָׁל֥וֹם וֶאֱמֶ֖ת בְּיָמָֽי׃
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of YHWH that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “It means that a true peace is assured for my time.”
Isaiah 39:7-8
How could Hezekiah be so glib and short sited regarding the fate of his descendants? Isaiah’s criticism is consistent - walls and weapons, foreign treaties, and alliances are not needed to protect against the Assyrians. All you need is love of God. The deal with Babylon against Assyria will end up badly and is a betrayal of faith and strength, disregarding the steep price tag of the future.
But the king, perhaps as many leaders who worry about their own crown or election cycle, is pragmatic with regard to the present moment only, not as interested in what will happen next.
His political maneuver and response remind one of the famous speech in 1938 - "Peace for our time" was the declaration made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London, on his return from meeting Hitler, concerning the Munich Agreement and the subsequent Anglo-German Declaration.
We know how that went, no matter his intentions.
Perhaps we each echo these voices within us - now and next, instant gratification and planning well ahead - irreconcilable at times, trying to find compromise when possible.
But why is this chapter showing up here?
This is the final chapter of what scholars claim is ‘The First Isaiah’ - the one we name Isaiah, son of Amotz, working in 8th century Jerusalem, living through the reigns of four kings. Chapter 40 takes us to another tone and time, where we encounter the voice of the author or authors known as “the Second Isaiah” - already writing in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s demise by Babylon - hinted at in this chapter, as a future threat.
Robert Alter unpacks this literary moment:
“This response by Hezekiah to the grim prophecy of Isaiah is astonishing. On the surface, he seems to be saying to Isaiah that he accepts the word of the Lord, that it must be good because it is God’s will. In the next sentence, however, he thinks to himself that what is good about it is that the disaster will not happen in his lifetime—something that in fact Isaiah has not clearly told him. This self-centered view of national catastrophe puts the virtuous Hezekiah in a somewhat questionable light. The narrative material taken from 2 Kings breaks off abruptly at this point, and the book resumes with the soaring poetry of an anonymous prophet of the Babylonian exile called by scholars Second Isaiah. The editorial placement of chapter 39 serves as a bridge to Second Isaiah because it involves a prophecy of the Babylonian conquest: after the devastating conquest and the exile of a large part of the Judahite population, the comforting words of Second Isaiah announces a glorious return from exile.”
So this is where we leave our heroes - king and prophet, along with many people living in Judea, struggling between the present and the future, loyalties to their old ways or new alliances, torn between allegiances and priorities, struggling with forces so much bigger than what they - or we - know anything about.
We continue tomorrow with Isaiah’s voice - perhaps those of his students, or someone pretending to be him, a century or so later. But the perennial transcends political polemics. Will we, like Isaiah, dare to look into the future so that we can focus on how to live better now? Or, like the king, put our trust in what we can for the present moment, regardless of what the unknown holds in store? What will assist us in trying to live every day with trust and good will, hope and presence - as so many dangers and destructions peek beyond our door?
Image: Neville Chamberlain showing the Anglo-German Declaration to commit to peaceful methods signed by both Hitler and himself, on his return from Munich on 30 September 1938
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