Isaiah's Message

Q&A by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor

Question: You preach a message of optimism and self-esteem. But how do you account for biblical messages like the one in Isaiah, chapter 64 that says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”?

Answer: There are at least three contributors to the Book of Isaiah. They each speak from their own perspective. The second contributor to Isaiah, for example, believes that a day of healing from Yahweh is on the way. The third contributor, however, is sometimes hopeful and other times desperate. “Third Isaiah” (the last ten chapters of the book) is the writer of the passage you mention, and he has a hard time maintaining a positive outlook. His gift to us is his honesty about his struggle. That doesn’t mean we should emulate his despair.

The writer believes that God has been unfairly harsh in punishing people for their mistakes and the harshness of God’s punishments cause the people to doubt God’s goodness, and their doubt leads to more mistakes. What a vicious cycle! I don’t believe God punishes people for their mistakes (though choices have consequences… we may be punished “by” our mistakes, but nor “for” them), and even Third Isaiah knows that. He says, “Yet, O God, you are our Parent; we are the clay and you the potter — we are all the work of your hands” (v.8). When he’s thinking clearly, he knows that God is good. When he focuses only on the hardships of life, he blames God for those hardships, saying things like, “No other god would treat its servants in such a way!” (v. 4).

Yes, one of the three writers of Isaiah during a moment of crisis believes that God isn’t terribly fair. But he shows us how such defeatist thinking doesn’t serve him, and how his natural bent is to hope anyway. In a weak moment, Third Isaiah may have imagined God was treating him like dirty rags, but that isn’t the big picture of Isaiah, or of the bible.

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If you have questions about faith, the bible, the church, or sexuality & spirituality, you can email your questions to durrell@sunshinecathedral.org, or go to the Ask the Reverend Durrell Watkins page and click on the link there. Rev. Durrell Watkins will answer your questions and publish the answers here and in the weekly SunBurst. Your name will always be withheld, so only the actual question and the response will be published.