all things cbl

WED 1350
Isaiah
David Bokovoy

… showed up late …..

“It is typical for gods in the ancient Near East to have at their disposal specific, lower-ranking deities who do their bidding in running errands and relaying messages.”

A prophet becomes a member of the council, he becomes a messenger..

A messenger is one who is sent. That is what an angel does.

Psalm 103:20-21
“the angels..” (or the messengers) are parallel to ‘the hosts’.

Malachi 4:5-6 .. prophets as messengers or angels.. are SENT.
in Malachi a prophet is ‘messenger’ AND a ‘mediator’. Two traditional roles that prophets fulfills.

Malachi 3:1 — I will SEND my messenger.

Mosiah 3:13 -> God hath ’sent’ his holy ‘prophets’… ‘to declare’..
Genesis 32:3 -> And Jacob ’sent messengers’ before him to Esau… the preface to a direct speech given by a messenger — is the messenger formula.

“thus sayeth the Lord”— a messenger formula example.

Isaiah 6:8-9 — Isaiah will assume the role of Messenger and Mediator. — “Whom shall I ’send’.. and ‘who will go for us?’.. ” (us = the divine council … ) Isaiah has become part of the ‘us’.. he is at this stage a member of the council..and can go as a messenger and mediator.

Given the significance of winged seraphim in connection with seals from the 8th century in Judah, and given the presence of a (winged) serpent in Nu. 21:6,8; Det. 8:15; Isa 14:29; 30:6, one can probably assume that this is the intended notion in Isa 6:2 as well… -> A Stiglmair, “vp,” theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol X (Grand Rapids Eerdmans Publishing… )
- a sarap is a snake
- the him ending in hebrew is the plural form.. cheribhim, Elohim, seraphim..

not just ’snakes’..but firey snakes with wings that fly.

Isaiah 6: A Retribution — Taunt Against Idolatry
“Expressions describing Israel as ‘having ears but not hearing’ (6:9-10) and ‘like a burning tree’ (6:13) are best understood as metaphors of idolatry which are applied to the disobedient nation in order to emphasize that they will be punished for their idol worship by being judged in the same manner as their idols” G. K. Beale, “Isaiah VI 9-13: A Retributive Taunt against Idolatry,” Vetus Testamentum 41/3 (1991): 272.

v9 -> “go” and “tell” — emphasize that he is to be a messenger
v11 -> then said I.. Lord, how long? — This is soo powerful in Hebrew.
“how long oh Lord will you hear my lament.. ” .. “how long..” powerful expression of pain and anguish. “Until the cities shall be wasted without inhabitants”.. That’s how long. from chapter 1 thru 39 the theme is “yell at my people.. yell at them..

“A large potion of the [Mesopotamian] sources raise the possibility that the washing of the mouth or the purity of the mouth has independent significance as a characteristic granting or symbolizing special divine or quasi-divine status to the person or object so designated. The pure mouth enables the person or object to stand before the gods or to enter the divine realm, or symbolizes a divine status” Victor Horowitz, “Isaiah’s Impure Lips and Their Purification in Light of Akkadian Sources”

The Bridling of the tongue, Gregory Yuri Glazov .. pp122-123:
“Ethical purity of the mouth, as a prerequisite for entry into the divine assembly, the ‘holy [qadosh] hill of the Lord’, is well attested in the Psalms which stipulate that such entry belongs to the man: ‘walks blamelessly, and does what is right and speaks truth from his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor (Ps. 15:2)”

Genesis 5: .. enoch v22 .. who walked with God. The idea of walking in unison with God… v26 – righteous man. He was perfect in his generation.. means tamim = blameless. Blemishfree sacrifices offered in the temple.. they’re tamim. Noah walked with God.

Alma 5 .. draws upon Psalms 22, 23, 24. Temple literagy.. for temple entrance. Alma 5:27 –> have you ‘walked’… keeping yourself ‘blameless’ before God.

Cleansing of the mouth makes the idol divine. Because of that, priests in the temple would cleanse the mouth.. and through the cleansing of the mouth..with a clean mouth.. the priest is made ‘quasi-divine’.. and can enter into the divine assembly.. or council of the gods.

Isa 56:4-5 .. “will I give in my house and within my walls A HAND and a name better ..”