Isaiah and Tolkein
I've been on holiday, and instead of reading Isaiah I read Lord of the Rings. Maybe because Isaiah was on my mind, there seemed to be a lot of parallels. As I picked up Isaiah again and came to chapter 4 v.2-6, it sounds just like something Tolkein might have written. It's not that long, so here it is in full:
In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.
Why did both Isaiah and Tolkein write this type of thing? With Tolkein, we know that it's a story- but it has real power and truth, and can stir us emotionally. With Isaiah, we're not sure how to read it- is it also story, a pretty picture to inspire us but without any ground in reality? What is truth, anyway? Can myth and narrative be just as valid vehicles for truth as facts? Is Isaiah helping us to look beyond the observable world, to an equally real world which is normally hidden from us- but which humans have always yearned for, and our best artists have also shown us glimpses of? Is it just pious escapism, to dream and sing of beauty and glory? How does this make a difference to how we face going to work, paying the bills, facing bad news or making decisions? Does it tell us something about being human, that we not only survive, ensuring we have food and shelter for each day, but we dream, we aspire, we hope....?
In "The Return of the King", Ioreth, a peasant woman of Gondor, dimly remembers a folk rhyme about a king who could heal. When Aragorn comes to Gondor after the battle of Pelennor fields and heals the wounded, she cannot contain herself-
'King! Did you hear that? What did I say? The hands of a healer, I said.' And soon the word had gone out from the House that the king was indeed come among them, and after war he brought healing; and the news ran through the city.
In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.
Why did both Isaiah and Tolkein write this type of thing? With Tolkein, we know that it's a story- but it has real power and truth, and can stir us emotionally. With Isaiah, we're not sure how to read it- is it also story, a pretty picture to inspire us but without any ground in reality? What is truth, anyway? Can myth and narrative be just as valid vehicles for truth as facts? Is Isaiah helping us to look beyond the observable world, to an equally real world which is normally hidden from us- but which humans have always yearned for, and our best artists have also shown us glimpses of? Is it just pious escapism, to dream and sing of beauty and glory? How does this make a difference to how we face going to work, paying the bills, facing bad news or making decisions? Does it tell us something about being human, that we not only survive, ensuring we have food and shelter for each day, but we dream, we aspire, we hope....?
In "The Return of the King", Ioreth, a peasant woman of Gondor, dimly remembers a folk rhyme about a king who could heal. When Aragorn comes to Gondor after the battle of Pelennor fields and heals the wounded, she cannot contain herself-
'King! Did you hear that? What did I say? The hands of a healer, I said.' And soon the word had gone out from the House that the king was indeed come among them, and after war he brought healing; and the news ran through the city.
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