Year 2, Day 365: Isaiah 15

Isaiah 15 is a very short but complex passage.  It – along with chapter 16 – deals with Moab.  Moab is the land to the east of the Dead Sea.  Much of the settled land of the Moabites is on a large plateau.

God’s Compassion Through Isaiah

The confusing part about this passage is just how much compassion and concern that Isaiah seems to display for Moab.  Remember that with Babylon, Assyria, and Philistia there was almost a sense of rejoicing as we read the pronouncements of judgment against those nations.  But here in this passage it almost seems as though Isaiah is mourning with Moab.

Now, it might not seem to out of the ordinary for a person of God to mourn as they carry out the message that God had asked them to bear.  In fact, we hope that our spiritual leaders do indeed show a little compassion as they go about their work!  So the compassion isn’t particularly troublesome.  What is troublesome is the people with whom Isaiah seems to be commiserating.

After all, what has Moab’s influence been with respect to the Hebrew people?  When the Hebrew people were coming out of the desert and entering the Promised Land, Moab harassed them and wouldn’t give them safe passage.  In fact, remember Balaam and his talking donkey?  It was Moab who had paid Balaam to curse the Hebrew people as they passed by – although three times Balaam ended up blessing the Hebrew people.  Or perhaps you remember the stories in the Judges where the Moabites were often a thorn in the side of the Hebrew people.  Or perhaps you remember the times during the period of the kings that the Moabites would form a rebellion or join a foreign enemy coming to fight against the Hebrew people.  The reality is that Moab didn’t have the greatest reputation for being friendly towards the Hebrew people.  So why would Isaiah seem to join them in wailing over their destruction?

Perhaps we need to dig a bit more deeply into the history of the Hebrew people and the Moabites.  Remember that the Moabites were not native to the land as the rest of the Canaanites were.  The Moabites are the descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew.  From that perspective, the Moabites are kin.  They are people who came into the land as Abraham did.  This might teach us a first clue as to Isaiah’s mourning.  He mourns the hardship of kin even though there might be a history of tension between them.

The second piece of history that we need to retain is found in the story of Ruth.  Remember that there was famine in the land so Naomi (Ruth’s mother-in-law) and her husband went to Moab to find relief.  In Moab, Naomi’s boys find women to marry: Orpah and Ruth.  When the men of the family die, Naomi vows to return.  Ruth comes with her.  Ruth meets Boaz, and their child becomes one of the grandparents of King David.  Yes, remember that the greatest king of the Hebrew people has a part of his family line in Moab.  Here we see that there is a political tie to Moab in spite of some of the bad blood between the nations.

The Moabites were from the same “cut” as the Hebrew people (Abraham’s kin).  The Moabites had played an important part in bringing David to the throne.  As Isaiah looks forward to the prophecy of the coming Messiah, he cannot deny that the Moabites have had some influence in God’s hand at work.  The relationship may not have always been one of pleasure, joy, and friendship.  But a man of God does not always see the world through the eyes of the world.  A man of God strives to see the world through the work of the hand of the Lord.

Thus, it can make sense to feel Isaiah’s mourning with Moab.  He knows they are guilty.  Very quickly after Lot and Abraham separated the Moabites turned away from God.  They have seldom done God’s bidding.  Isaiah knows that they are deserving of God’s judgment – as we are all deserving.  But just because Isaiah knows they deserve it doesn’t mean that Isaiah can’t mourn with them.  The Moabites are kin to the Hebrew people and willingly or unwillingly they have played an important role in God’s hand.

We can learn much through Isaiah’s perspective on Moab.  They are helpless in the face of the coming Assyrians.  Even their own soldiers cry at their inability to protect themselves.  Moab is to be rightfully judged.  But it need not bring pleasure to Isaiah.  Sometimes it is right to mourn with people – even when they are suffering righteously earned consequences of their own actions.

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