If you are a regular churchgoer, the lessons that we heard tonight are not unfamiliar. The first lesson is one of four songs from what scholars call Second Isaiah, chapters 40 through 55 of Isaiah—the first 39 chapters are known as “First Isaiah” and there’s a “Third Isaiah,” too: chapters 56 through 66—three books, or should I say, three scrolls in one. First Isaiah is dated to the period before the exile from Jerusalem, the second to the period of exile in Babylon, and the third to the period of restoration under the Persians.[1] Tonight’s Old Testament lesson, again, the first of these four songs, is known as the Song of the Suffering Servant. It’s heard every year at the Eucharist on the First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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