The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel by Walter Jr. Wangerin

Author:Walter Jr. Wangerin [Wangerin, Walter Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Spirituality, Fiction, Christianity, American Literature, Religion
ISBN: 9780310871552
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 1996-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

III

ISAIAH HAD CEASED to prophesy when King Ahaz refused to obey the commands of God. He wrote in a scroll all the prophecies he had uttered as a young man, then he retired from public places and was not seen again for seventeen years.

By the wealth and heritage of his family, Isaiah had access to the royal courts. His was noble blood. No one questioned his presence where rich men gathered or his participation in the counsel given to kings. At the invitation of the high priest, he joined the most sacred processions of the temple.

Though his prophecy condemned injustice in the kingdom, yet Isaiah himself was not a brooding fellow. He was educated, polished, articulate, and generally pleasant in the company of others.

People did not, then, understand his sudden withdrawal. Was there some offense they were unaware of?

But Ahaz died, and suddenly the Lord roused Isaiah with a tingling sense of hope. The Lord sent the prophet forth again in deliberate joy.

He was fifty. His hair had not turned grey. His body was healthy, his mind was stout—and one morning, under pressure of the deity, Isaiah rose early, trimmed his beard, washed and oiled himself, dressed in his finest raiment, and went out into the streets of Jerusalem to fulfill a command of God.

In his left hand he carried a ram’s horn, in his right a timbrel. Swiftly he ascended the temple hill, then took a stand at the southern gate between the courtyard of the Lord and the private quarters of the king, Solomon’s palace.

“Hezekiah!” he cried. “Hezekiah, come out! Let’s make your coronation more joyful than it was, so that your reign may become more blessed than it is!”

The prophet raised the ram’s horn to his lips and blew on it. He sent a thrilling blast through Jerusalem. He blew till the people began to fill the entire area between the temple and the palace.

And when the young king leaned out of an upper window, Isaiah began to sing. He beat the timbrel and raised his left hand and danced as if he were at a wedding:

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light!

Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness,

upon them the light has shined!

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