A New Day
If the foreign enemies are to be brought under control in the interests of Yahweh’s minority but faithful people (‘the people of the land’) the other outstanding item on the agenda is their own civil rulers, who oppress those they are intended to care for, and their religious leaders, who pervert their calling in Jerusalem itself. They let the people down. They never listen. When they see what happens to the surrounding nations they take no notice (v 1). Warnings go unheeded. Judges are ineffective, prophets and priests are faithless. Repentance is not on their agenda. Overall there is a smug sense of satisfaction that everything will be all right (vv 2-7). Their suffering and rejection can hardly bring much satisfaction to the people of the land because their homes too are being laid waste, but by a strange irony the prophet sees their rejection as a prerequisite to release and healing for the rest.
V 8 heralds the dawn of a new day. Kingdoms are to be reconstructed. If we began with the reversal of creation we end with the reversal of Babel as we are promised a common language (v 9. Cf Genesis 11:1-9). Nor are the benefits to be confined to those immediately ‘on stage’; the faithful, wherever they are, are also to be the beneficiaries (v 10). The offenders will be removed, the faithful will remain, but they are likely to be fewer — a Remnant. A faithful few, the ‘humble and lowly’, by whose righteousness the nation will be saved from judgement and whose vicarious repentance will lead to peace and bliss. (vv 11-13). Their task is to build a new world with God at the centre, dependent on him for their security, reflecting his moral character and fulfilling the covenant.
Insofar as he is writing of ‘putting down the mighty from their seats’ and ‘exalting them of low degree’ what we have here is no less than a forerunner of the Magnificat (Luke 2: 46-56), the beginning of a Creed or a statement about life.