Breaking Dawn

If Judah keeps Yahweh’s fast, a new day will dawn (Isaiah 58:8). In the Hebrew, the promise is announced in two tiny chiasms:

A. then shall break out

B. as dawn

C. your light

C’. and your recovery

B’. speedily

A’. shall spring

And then:

A. and will walk

B. before you

C. your righteousness

C’. glory

B’. of Yahweh

A’. your rear guard

Two observations: First, the verse continues the exodus themes that are already evident in verses 6-7. Yahweh broke Israel’s bonds, tore off the yoke of Egypt, and He calls His people to do the same. And if they do, He promises a new exodus: light in the darkness, a new day. The specific language of verse 8 echoes accounts of the exodus: Dawn “bursts” or “splits” ( baqa’ ) as the fountains of the deep were split at the flood, as the sea was split at the exodus (Isaiah 35:6; 63:12), as rocks were split in the wilderness (Psalm 78:13, 15). Yahweh promises a leader and a rear guard, like the pillars of fire and cloud that led and followed Israel in the wilderness.

Second the second chiasm suggests an interesting twist on this exodus imagery. Instead of pillars of fire and smoke leading and following, we have “righteousness” and “glory.” Glory makes sense in the exodus context; the fiery pillar of cloud is a traveling form of Yahweh’s glory that appeared on the mountain, and it is the glory that Paul identifies with Christ in 1 Corinthians 10: “the Rock that followed them was Christ.”

Righteousness is odd, though: Odd as something that would go before Israel, and odd because of the chiastic parallel with the glory of Yahweh. It makes more sense if we personalize it: As the glory that follows and guards Israel from the rear is Yahweh Himself in glory, so the “righteousness” that leads them is the Righteous One. We might gloss this, Paulinely, as “the Righteousness that led them was Christ.”

The connection of righteousness and glory also makes sense in the immediate context: Yahweh demands righteousness from Israel, the righteousness of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. When this righteousness leads Israel, then glory follows. That is just what the passage as a whole says: If you keep My fast, I will make your glory-light shine.

Finally, the notion of righteousness as a guide for Israel perhaps has something to say to our understanding of justification. C.G. Berkhouwer ( Studies in Dogmatics: Faith and Justification ) makes much of the fact that the Christ in whom we trust for justification is the “Way.” That adds a note of movement to our understanding of justification, and links Jesus’ call to discipleship with Paul’s emphasis on justification by faith. Instead of a static status, justification is a path, and we are right before God in Christ who is the Way as we trustingly follow that Way. Isaiah 58:8 might serve as a proof text: We are righteous as we follow the Righteousness that God is, the Righteousness that is Jesus Christ, the Righteousness that follows us as the glory of His Father.