Joe Biden and Isaiah 6

Caveat

I am not in any way, shape, or form an expert on politics, let alone the state of affairs in Afghanistan. As such, I won't pronounce judgment on whether or not the United States military should have left Afghanistan in the manner that they did. I thought the entire war was evil. I believe war is an evil. I believe there is always a better solution to killing people. The cost of innocent lives, not only on civilians, but on the veterans and soldiers, outweighs the negligible gain found in war.

The Background

On Thursday, 26 August 2021, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 American soldiers and over 60 Afghanis. People started blaming and defending the Biden Administration over what happened. I tried to take a more measured approach and listened to the speech President Biden gave to the American people.

Being a former pastor, the following line that President Biden said jumped out at me and made me pause:

"Those who have served through the ages have drawn inspiration from the Book of Isaiah. When the Lord says, 'Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us?' The American military has been answering for a long time:  'Here I am. Send me.' Each one of these women and men of our armed roles are the heirs of that tradition and sacrifice, and of volunteering to go in a harms way to risk everything, not for glory, not for profit, but to defend what we love and the people we love."

President Biden quoted a very famous Scripture passage, describing the great call of the prophet Isaiah to give a special message to the people of Judah. I love this Scripture passage. It is one of my favorites. When I studied Hebrew, this is one that I would repeat over and over again. The majesty and splendor of this passage is awe-inspiring for me.

This is that passage of Scripture, taken from Isaiah, chapter 6 (Common English Bible):

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, the edges of his robe filling the temple. Winged creatures were stationed around him. Each had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew about. They shouted to each other, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heavenly forces!
All the earth is filled with God’s glory!”

The doorframe shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.

I said, “Mourn for me; I’m ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. Yet I’ve seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!”

Then one of the winged creatures flew to me, holding a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has departed, and your sin is removed.”

Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?”

I said, “I’m here; send me.”

God said, “Go and say to this people:

Listen intently, but don’t understand;
    look carefully, but don’t comprehend.
Make the minds of this people dull.
    Make their ears deaf and their eyes blind,
    so they can’t see with their eyes
    or hear with their ears,
    or understand with their minds,
    and turn, and be healed.”

I said, “How long, Lord?”

And God said, “Until cities lie ruined with no one living in them, until there are houses without people and the land is left devastated.” The Lord will send the people far away, and the land will be completely abandoned. Even if one-tenth remain there, they will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, which when it is cut down leaves a stump. Its stump is a holy seed.

My Reaction

I was disgusted by this misappropriation of Holy Scripture. Politicians tend to do this all the time, but I'll get to that a little bit later. It is not the first time, nor is it the last time, that a politician uses religion to influence his or her audience.

A bit of context for the scripture passage:

Uzziah was, for the most part, a righteous king, but near the end of his reign, he was struck with leprosy (or some other infectious skin ailment). The Bible remarks that this was due to the fact that Uzziah attempted to burn incense in the Temple, a task reserved only for priests and Levites (2 Chronicles 26:18). He never recovered from this disease and the year of his death was also the time that Isaiah received this great vision.

Isaiah sees this great image of God and these fiery winged creatures, called seraphim in Hebrew, were flying around, announcing the greatness of God, stating that the whole cosmos was filled with the glory of God. The Hebrew term for this glory implies something tangible and weighty that could be felt.

Isaiah, struck with terror and awe at this mighty vision feels unworthy to be in this presence. One of the seraphim symbolically cleanses Isaiah with one of the burning hot coals from the altar. I always tend to laugh at this part when this fiery creature said: "See, this has touch your lips." Duh. A burning hot coal touched Isaiah's lips. I think he might have noticed that.

And then God asks for a volunteer:

"Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" [I always got a kick that the Hebrew says "us" and not "me." This implies that God was speaking for all the heavenly beings, too. It does not imply (as many Christians might maintain) that God was speaking as a Trinity.]

Isaiah volunteers. "Here am I! Send me!"

THE END

Um.

Maybe not.

I have been to numerous youth events. Growing up in The Salvation Army, we had these youth weekend, called "Youth Councils." Invariably this scripture passage was used to inspire us to become ordained pastors/officers in The Salvation Army. Dozens of officers were waiting at the front of the stage where young people prayed and signed their life away, pledging to become officers in The Salvation Army. I did it one time, too. I remember crying as I prayed to God, wanting to dedicate my life in God's service. An officer was right at my side, getting my name, address, and phone number to contact me at a later date and make sure I was serious about becoming an officer.

Nobody kept on reading the Scripture passage.

Basically, God told Isaiah:  "Go and bring my message to the people . . . BUT, they will not listen to you. It will be futile. They will act like you're not even there.

Biden's Misappropriation of Scripture

So here we are. President Biden has the unenviable task of informing the American public that not only has the Taliban taken over Afghanistan after the United States' futile 20-year war, but another terrorist group, called ISIS-K, has killed innocent people along with American soldiers.

To make it palatable, the President invoked the Scripture passage from Isaiah, saying by comparison that the military sacrificed their lives, being called by God for this higher purpose.

There is a term for this.

Bovine Scatology.

In theological terms, this is called eisegesis, reading into Scripture your own personal meaning to justify your views.

I find it ironic, then, that Biden unintentionally brought a greater truth to this tragedy:  the whole war in Afghanistan was futile and useless. Americans killed more civilians and soldiers (241,000) than were killed in the attacks on September 11, 2001, which prompted this war.

What is the result? Before the war, the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. After the war, the Taliban control Afghanistan.

Eisegesis by Other US Presidents

President Bill Clinton on 26 October 1994 gave a speech at the peace agreement between the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel.  He misquoted Jesus when he stated:  "Blessed are the peacemakers - for they shall inherit the Earth." Jesus actually didn't say this. This is from the great Beatitudes, found in Matthew 5. What Jesus actually is recorded saying was:  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9 NRSV). I don't know if Clinton did this intentionally or not, but the Christian view of being called a child of God is problematic for Muslims and Jews, who do not have a view of God being a parent.

President Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech before becoming president, when he was selected by the Republicans to become their nominee for Senator from Illinois. To stave off the possibility of people supporting Stephen Douglas, Lincoln famously quoted Jesus by saying:  "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Lincoln quoted Mark 3:24, but infamously this Scripture passage was dealing with religious leaders, accusing Jesus of performing miracles and casting out demons in the name of Beelzebub, a demon.

Where does that leave me politically?

Believe it or not, I didn't vote for Biden. That caused a lot of tension among my friends who are Democrats. I voted for Mark Charles, who best represented my own personal beliefs. I had several friends block me on social media because of that, which made me realize that extremism lies both among the political liberals, just as it does among the political conservatives. Room for differences does not exist and people tend to go to polar opposites.

I saw a meme, that adequately expresses my views of voting for Biden:

I am disappointed in the misuse of Scripture. I mourn that this war has been unnecessary. As Kohelet, the writer of Ecclesiastes, so eloquently states:  "But when I surveyed all that my hands had done, and what I had worked so hard to achieve, I realized that it was pointless - a chasing after the wind. Nothing is to be gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:11 CEB).