I walked to church this morning. it’s about a half an hour walk, and on the way I was thinking about stuff that’s going on in the world, especially Israel and Gaza. I had noted down this phrase few days ago that came into my mind. – ‘stories that no one should have known’ – there are so many stories that we’ve heard that no one should ever have to hear.

Then, in church, we had this reading from Isaiah chapter 41

¹⁴ Do not fear, you worm Jacob,
you insect Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ Now, I will make of you a threshing-sledge,
sharp, new, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff.
¹⁶ You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
Then you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

¹⁷ When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹ I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
²⁰ so that all may see and know,
all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

I looked at these words. And God’s word to Israel where God says “you shall thresh the mountains and crush them … you shall make the hills like chaff … and the wind shall carry them away.”

It brought to mind the intent of the state of Israel, that their aim is to do away with Hamas completely, and similarly, the aim of Hamas to do away with the state of Israel completely. (I will make of you a threshing sledge)

Reading scripture is a dangerous business. I fear that there are those who might see justification in holy scripture for acts that are unholy.

I wonder if some might be tempted to see in these verses an encouragement to continue in acts of terror, or in raining down bombs on Gaza – and to see that as God‘s work ? I trust not.

The thing about the Bible, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament is that they are written by and to people on the margins. These verses in Isaiah are written to the people of Israel who have been in captivity in Babylon. They are the ones without power. Context is – well, if not everything, then almost everything.

These words – all of them – are addressed to the poor and needy, those parched with thirst. And who are those people ? Not Hamas, and not the State of Israel, but citizens of Israel and Gaza and everywhere else where the might of military power is at work to terrorise and subdue.

The violence in the language is utterly human and borne out of powerlessness and suffering. But in the end, the aim is not destruction, which is easy to understand and all around us, but something that always seems out of our reach and yet is held out to us as hope.

These words, from earlier in the Isaiah prophecy give us a sense of what that might be – The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. (Isaiah 11 verse 6)

God is God of the poor and the suffering. Hear our prayer for them.