Isaiah (3 of 5): Monotheism

 This week in Come Follow Me we read Isaiah 40-49. One of the main themes of this section is that idols are powerless, while the Lord is all powerful.  This section articulates a shift that occurs in Israelite worship because of the Babylonian captivity.  Up until this time, there seems to be a tacit acknowledgement that the God of Israel is greater than the gods of their neighbors. The first of the Ten Commandments states, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) It doesn't say, "I am the only God." It presupposes other gods, and commands the Israelites to put their clan God first.   When Elijah challenges the priests of Baal, it is a God vs god smack-down, meant to prove that the God of Israel is the more powerful god. I think there has always been an underlying idea that Jehovah is the only actual divine being, but it is never really overtly stated until Isaiah. 

In the chapters this week, Isaiah not only clearly states that Jehovah is the only divine being, he spends quite a bit of time mocking the worship of idols and comparing the impotence of idols to the omnipotence of God. My favorite example of this is in Isaiah 46:1-4 where Isaiah describes a cart full of idols that are bobbing and bowing as they go down the road.  They are a burden to the beasts who pull the wagon.  In contrast, the Lord bears the children of Israel from the time they are born, and carries them even when their hair turns gray.

So why is this shift in emphasis connected with the Babylonian captivity?  If Jehovah were a regional god, then when the children of Israel were carried into captivity they would have been taken out of the range of God's power to save.  They might as well adopt the worship of the local gods.  This is what Isaiah does not want to happen.  All these chapters are meant to convince the House of Israel that, not only is their God able to follow them into Babylon and ultimately free them from captivity, he is, in fact, the only real God.  All the gods of their neighbors are no more than mere idols, statues formed by men that represent gods that have no power because they do not exist.  

The chapters this week represent origin of the idea that Jews are truly monotheistic. This was very rare in the ancient world.  I believe it is this shift to monotheism that helped the Jews to maintain their cultural identity during their captivity and continue to exist as a cohesive nation after a remnant returned to Jerusalem under Cyrus' rule.