QUIVER.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow and concealed me in his QUIVER.
During the course of Lent and Holy Week we read from the parts of Isaiah which are known as the Servant Songs. The identity of the servant isn’t clear. Some say that it could be Isaiah himself, others Israel and others Cyrus, the Persian King whom God will use to liberate Israel. This uncertainty gives us a certain freedom when we come to interpret the text. When the Church uses these texts in Lent and Holy week we can hear them as foreshadowing Jesus. Handel’s Messiah has done much to plant this understanding in our collective biblical memory.
Isaiah 49 speaks powerfully of the servant’s preparation for service. The servant spends time concealed, away from the public gaze. We can imagine this as an intense time of testing and strengthening. His mouth is being made like a sharp sword and his whole being a sharpened arrow that is honed to perfection. The hidden years which Jesus spent in Galilee prepare him for his public ministry. We can imagine this as protected time where family life and ordinary tasks all contribute to who he is.
Lockdown gave some of us a sense of concealment. For some it meant flourishing but for many it drained rather than built up.
How do you hear this text today? Do you have a sense of God concealing you and preparing you for something this Lent?
(Isaiah 49:1-6, Tuesday, Holy Week)