Handel’s Messiah – Advent -Part 1 -COMFORT, COMFORT MY PEOPLE
Discussion of George F. Handel
#1 Background
Under David and Solomon the
In 721 B.C.E.,1 the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians, the dominant power of the day. In accordance with a sinister Assyrian policy designed to discourage subsequent uprisings, the inhabitants of
The southern
Many people believed that the reason
Ultimately, however, the city of
#2 The Prophets
The Bible preserves the words of several prophets who spoke and wrote during this tumultuous period. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah, for instance, were spoken by one "Isaiah of Jerusalem" during the years just before and after the fall of the northern kingdom. Not surprisingly, the political situation of the day had a distinct effect on both the tone and the content of his prophecies. With the lion of
Isaiah 1:21-23
1:21 | How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her- but now murderers!
1:22 | Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water.
1:23 | Your rulers are rebels,
partners with thieves;
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.
They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
the widow’s case does not come before them
Isaiah 29:13-14
29:13 | The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;
29:14 | so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.
As is painfully obvious from these passages, Isaiah of Jerusalem did not mince words. Imagine standing up in your congregation and making accusations like these! It is easy to see why the prophets did not win many popularity contests.
When push came to shove, however, Isaiah did not believe that God would allow
Even this modified version of
Isaiah 1:24-31
1:24 | Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies, and avenge myself on my foes!
1:25 | I will turn my hand against you; I will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
1:26 | And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.
1:27 |
1:28 | But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
1:29 | For you shall be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen.
1:30 | For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.
1:31 | The strong shall become like tinder, and their work like a spark; they and their work shall burn together, with no one to quench them.
Even this modified version of
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of
when we remembered
2 There on the poplars we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of
4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
#3 Comfort Ye
For Isaiah and his followers, the silence lasted for 48 years-48 years before they could muster so much as a word. And then, suddenly, out across the desert of their disillusionment comes Isaiah 40
Isaiah 40:1-3
40:1 | Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
40:2 | Speak tenderly to
that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins
40:3 | A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Messiah
->Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people"
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to
The voice of him that crieth in the wilder ness: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)
#4 Every Valley
What, we may well ask, was the occasion for this sudden message of comfort? Simply a political reality which no one could have predicted;
It was good news-great news! But, there was one more practical detail to be worked out before Isaiah 40’s comfort could be complete. It’s one thing to say "you can go home again," but it’s quite another to explain how the people were going to get there. For those among the exiled community who were old enough to remember the original trip, there must have been an indelible memory of hardship and suffering as the captives endured the long trek up and around the
As if to anticipate and allay the people’s concerns, the prophet moves immediately to talk of a level and obstacle-free highway across the barren wilderness.
If the journey east had been one of hardship and shame, then the journey west would be one of ease and triumph
There is another interpretation of these "highway" verses which suggests that the highway is described as being not so much for the people as for God (see 40:3). This interpretation takes into account certain Babylonian hymns which describe the triumphal highways on which a king or a god might enter a city. Perhaps the picture here is designed to depict the triumphal re-entry of God into
Isaiah 40:3-4
40:3 | A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
40:4 | Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Messiah
->Air for Tenor ("Every valley shall be exalted")
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low: the crooked straight and the rough places plain.
(Isaiah 40:4)
#5 And the Glory of the Lord
The return of the exiles to their homeland also vindicates God’s reputation among the nations. The salvation of God’s people serves to silence all those who had erroneously concluded that the exile was a sign of God’s abandonment or weakness. "All people shall see it together," announces Isaiah 40:5. In that moment of truth, the taunts of the nations are rendered moot
How could Yahweh3 have let this happen to the covenant people? That’s what the "neighbors" were saying about the exile. What kind of a God, after all, would let the
40:5 | Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken
Messiah
->Chorus ("And the glory of the Lord")
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
(Isaiah 40:5)
#6 Go Tell It On the Mountain
Nations and kingdoms may pass away, but God’s word is utterly reliable and will stand forever. God is victorious! That is the affirmation made by Isaiah 40:6-9. Isaiah 40:6-9.
40:6 | A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.
40:7 | The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.
40:8 | The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
40:9 | Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"
They build on the motif of the ”nations" in the previous passage and contrast their short-lived glory with God’s reliability. That sense of God’s constancy and permanence is underscored by the focus on God’s "word."
The ancient world had much more of a sense that a person’s spoken word was binding than we do. This is why we so often hear references to how God’s word will not "return empty." In this passage we get the sense that there was some uncertainty about whether God would indeed make good on previous promises. Yet, Cyrus’s edict provides evidence that God’s word is indeed "good." What wonderful news! Verse 9 admonishes the prophet to "go, tell it on the mountain."
#7 God as Good Shepherd
The depiction of God in Isaiah 40 is one of both strength and gentleness. Both of these characteristics are captured in the metaphor of the good shepherd.
In Isaiah 40:10-11 the prophet returns to the matter of the journey home. Verse 10 emphasizes that God is indeed powerful enough to bring this about, but verse 11 reminds us that God can be gentle as well as powerful. The imagery shifts from God as mighty warrior to God as good shepherd.
40:10 | See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
40:11 | He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young
While this section of Isaiah 40 ends with the image of God as the good shepherd, Handel and Jennens save verse 11 and its comforting imagery for the end of Part I. We will spend more time analyzing this verse in Session Four. For now, however, take note of the way in which this imagery is "recycled" to apply to Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. This follows the lead of early Christian tradition, which understood Jesus in precisely this way. Read John 10:1-18.
10:1 | "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.
10:2 | The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
10:3 | The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
10:4 | When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
10:5 | They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers."
10:6 | Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
10:7 | So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
10:8 | All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.
10:9 | I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
10:10 | The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
10:11 | "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
10:12 | The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
10:13 | The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.
10:14 | I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
10:15 | just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
10:16 | I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
10:17 | For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
10:18 | No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."
Early Christians knew the Jesus that John had described-the Good Shepherd who had laid down his life for the sheep. Ancient exiles also looked to a God who would "gather the lambs in his arms … and gently lead the mother sheep." Surely we can trust this same God to lead us home, even if our way be through "the valley of the shadow of death" (recall Psalm 23).
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Messiah
->Air for Alto and Chorus ("O thou that tellest good tidings to
O thou that tellest good tidings to
say unto the cities of
(Isaiah 40:9)
Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
(Isaiah 60:1)