Isaiah 55 is a chapter that has always been special to us. In part this is because of its rich content and imagery. It starts with a generous and bountiful invitation. It uses rain and snow as images for God’s word always and inevitably producing fruit. It portrays ecstatic mountains and jubilant trees joyfully celebrating a new exodus. And it speaks of replacing thorns and thistles with pleasant trees.
With the latter two images Isaiah clearly plays with two major biblical themes:
- Exodus, the Old Testament event that defined God more than anything else until Christ came.
- New creation. After all, the Fall came with thorns and thistles in its wings. Replacing these with lovely trees therefore speaks of renewal and restoration.
The other reason Isaiah 55 is special to us is that it has accompanied us over the years in various ways as a special word and promise. When I graduated from the U of N with an MA in Christian Ministries in 1991, this passage was given to me as a word to go to Germany and start the SBS there. In 1997 we took our wedding text from this chapter. In 2010 it became God’s word to us again, especially verse 12 and 13, as we were contemplating an involvement in Spain:
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. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.
On our first arrival here, this promise of transformation and restoration took on a new meaning once again: we felt it was to be not just for us, but for others as well: those who come and stay with us. So we decided to symbolically plant a tree. No, it is not a myrtle or cypress, but a quince tree. We preferred something more substantial than pleasantness; we are hoping to make jam.
Things are looking good for the harvest this autumn. In the mean time, it regularly joins the other trees in our garden clapping its hands to celebrate an ongoing exodus and an emerging new creation!