When Zion sees her sons and daughters returning home in the arms of the nations, she is stunned (Isaiah 60:5). Her heart trembles (pachad; cf. Deuteronomy 28:66-67) and grows large (rachab; cf. Isaiah 54:2). In short, she has a heart attack, and a flushed face to prove it (“you will see and be radiant”).
Zion rejoices, but her joy is anything but frothy. It’s mixed with fear and awe at what Yahweh has done; it’s colored by amazement at the depth and wisdom of a God who redeems through suffering. She is in shock when she glimpses the pattern in her own history, and the history of the nations.
Zion experiences the dreadful joy that is the deepest joy.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Slow Death of England: New and Notable Books
The fate of England is much in the news as popular resistance to mass immigration grows, limits…
Ethics of Rhetoric in Times of War
What we say matters. And the way we say it matters. This is especially true in times…
How the State Failed Noelia Castillo
On March 26, Noelia Castillo, a twenty-five-year-old Spanish woman, was killed by her doctors at her own…
