36 Reading Isaiah in Asia

“Reading Isaiah in Asia”¹ is far too broad a topic to cover in just one chapter, given the plethora of ethnicities and religions in this region, so I write only as a Chinese Singaporean Christian living in a city-state where there is a confluence of Eastern and Western values. Although Singapore is a pluralistic society, made up of Malays, Indians, and other minorities, Chinese make up almost three-quarters of the population. Among the Chinese, about one-third are Buddhist and one-tenth are Taoist. Confucianism is not identified as a religion in our census, and even though we do not study Confucianism in a formal way, we imbibe its ethics through our upbringings in Chinese households. Charlene Tan writes that together with other Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Singapore shares a number of Confucian values, including group identity, duty consciousness, personal discipline, consensus formation, the priority of collective interests, emphasis on education and pragmatism.²

Regarding a cultural reading of the Bible, Cheryl Exum and Steven Moore state that “Biblical Studies/Cultural Studies is not just the Bible influencing culture or culture re-appropriating the Bible, but a process of unceasing mutual redefinition in which cultural appropriations constantly reinvent the Bible, which in turn constantly impels new appropriations.”³ Although I agree that there is a two-way influence between the Bible and culture, the question is, Which has priority? Simon Chan argues that because culture is part of fallen humanity, privileging context blinds one to its faults. So, on the one hand, I read with my cultural lens to identify facets of the text that resonate with my context and that might uncover meanings that would be overlooked from a Western or androcentric perspective, and, on the other hand, I use the biblical lens to evaluate my culture so that we can better reflect the image of God in our own context.⁴

As a Chinese Singaporean woman, I see four aspects of the message of Isaiah that can be both enriched by and enriching for my background. First, the Asian emphasis on the family helps us to appreciate the fatherhood of God, and Isaiah’s depiction of God’s fatherliness is a model for the Asian family. Secondly, Isaiah’s maternal imagery of God provides a corrective to Confucian patriarchy, and the prophet’s juxtaposition of female and male metaphors points toward a complementary feminism rather than a combative feminism, which makes it more acceptable in Asia. Thirdly, Isaiah’s favorite title for God, “the Holy One,” is at home in Asia’s religious context, though the relational aspect of the Holy One “of Israel” helps to tame our authoritarian tendency. Fourthly, the universal sovereignty of this Holy One challenges the pluralistic context of Singapore, but at the same time, Isaiah’s universalism crosses boundaries through the model of the Suffering Servant.⁵

The first words God spoke through the prophet Isaiah were:

Children I have reared and I have brought up,

and they, they rebelled against me. (1:2)⁶

This anguished expostulation by a father resonates with Chinese Asians. Confucianism is ordered by five relationships: ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother, and friend and friend. Julia Ching points out that three of these are family relationships and that the other two are conceived in terms of the family. Confucian morality is based on the belief that the family is the basic unit of human community and that harmonious family relationships will inevitably lead to a peaceful society and state.⁷

Regarding relationship with the Divine, Xinzhong Yao writes that the religious aspect of Confucian humanism can be seen in its faith in heaven (tian) and the Mandate of Heaven (tian ming). One must fulfill the mandate of heaven by the self-cultivation of virtues.⁸ Besides being understood as Nature or a set of moral principles, “Heaven” is also regarded as a supreme divine being who is creator and ancestor, the great-grandfather of all humans.⁹

Hence, when Yhwh the Father indicts his rebellious children for abandoning him, a Chinese parent can identify with God’s lament that such children are worse than animals:

An ox knows its owner,

and the donkey its master’s crib;

but Israel does not know,

my people do not understand. (Isa 1:3)

To prevent the erosion of such familial duty, the Maintenance of Parents Act was enacted in Singapore in 1996 to make it a legal duty (under certain conditions) to support one’s aged parent.¹⁰ Chan writes, “Within the family context, sin is … an act that dishonors the family name.”¹¹ The Hebrew root for rebel or transgress is pasha‘, which occurs most frequently in the book of Isaiah (20 of a total of 134 times in the Hebrew Bible). This primal act of rebellion against God leads to social injustice, for example, the oppression of the fatherless and the widow in 1:17. God’s threats and punishment are therefore abundantly justified. Katherine Pfisterer Darr traces the imagery of rebellious children through the book of Isaiah (1:4; 30:9). Paradoxically, however, familial metaphors also hold out the hope of reconciliation.¹²

This hope is announced in Deutero-Isaiah when God declares:

I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins. (Isa 43:25)

Darr notes that expiation is offered, not because the transgressors have repented or because they can justify their actions, but simply because of God’s initiative. Trito-Isaiah develops this hope, with Yhwh’s children addressing God as Father.

You, O LORD, are our father;

our Redeemer from of old is your name. (Isa 63:16)

Appealing to paternal intimacy, says Darr, is a rhetorical strategy to evoke parental compassion, and so God responds in 64:1–2, saying, “Here I am, Here I am,” for he is a God who has always taken the initiative to reunite with his stubborn children.¹³

This Isaianic portrayal of a God who takes the first step toward reconciliation challenges the Asian worldview. Ching admits that “in the Confucian social order, human relationships tended to become hierarchically fixed and rigid—with the superior partners, the fathers, husbands, rulers, exercising more right and privilege, and the inferior partners performing more duty and submission.” Similarly, Yao writes, “it is the children’s responsibility to seek reconciliation by apology and self-criticism.” Although Confucian teaching stresses unconditional reciprocity in relationships, the reality in many Chinese families is that elders cannot “lose face” (honor) by being the first to reach out. What is it that makes the Confucian and Isaianic concepts of fatherhood so different?¹⁴

The answer lies in the anthropocentric worldview of Confucianism compared to theocentric biblical faith. As noted, Confucianism is built on the family, and so the human father and his natural paternal feelings determine the father/children relationship. Although Confucians believe that Heaven sets up the moral pattern and generates the moral power in human beings, it “relies on self-cultivation to enhance personal virtues to resolve all kinds of conflicts, [and] this renders the Confucian Way of Harmony quite weak in creating peace and harmony out of conflict and disorder.” Yao admits that the emphasis on harmony was thus frequently used to strengthen hierarchically fixed and rigid human relationships and to maintain the status quo.¹⁵

In Isaiah’s theocentric framework however, Yhwh is a father who both disciplines and accepts unconditionally. God’s initiative in seeking out his people is especially emphasized in the word “redeem.” The Hebrew root, ga’al, occurs again most frequently in the book of Isaiah (25 out of 115 times in the Hebrew Bible). Yhwh declares ten times in Deutero-Isaiah that he is Israel’s Redeemer (41:14; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5, 8), who will save his helpless people from exile. Thus Isaiah’s model for fatherhood is not one of an imperfect human but one of the perfect divine father. This is a model that is needed by Chinese parents, who usually demand that children live up to high expectations of academic success and good behavior but often fail to attend to their children’s emotional needs with unconditional affirmation.

God is perceived not only as a father but also as a mother in Isaiah:

As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you;

you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (Isa 66:13)

Despite the Asian belief in goddesses, to portray the Supreme as a female jolts our patriarchal conditioning. Confucius held a low opinion of women, saying, “In one’s household, it is the women and morally inferior men (xiao ren) that are difficult to deal with.”¹⁶ Certainly, there are women in Chinese history who are held up as paragons. The mother of Mengzi (Confucius’s successor) moved her home three times for the sake of getting her son a better education. Hua Mulan dressed up as a male warrior to take the place of her aged father during a conscription. And Mu Guiying, of the Yang Family Generals, saved her country in a war. However, all these heroic acts centered on a male figure—a son, a father, or a husband.

The Taoist yin-yang, or female-male, understanding of human relationship offers more hope of a complementary model. The yin element is feminine and yielding, whereas the yang element is masculine and strong. However, as Nam-Soon Kang laments, this cosmology was soon arranged into hierarchical relationships of superiority and inferiority, goodness and evil: “In time, yin elements came to stand for all that was negative and inferior in the universe.” Further, Lee Young Jung points out that in our modern society, masculine characteristics are seen as more desirable, even by women themselves.¹⁷

In Buddhism, the Pure Land Buddhist School has a female bodhisattva, Kuan-yin, the Goddess of Mercy, who is especially popular with the masses. Originally a male, she responds to people’s needs, especially to women who are praying to conceive. Nonetheless, she is a bodhisattva (a human being who has achieved enlightenment but not yet entered into Nirvana), who assists the male Buddha Amitabha in paradise. This latter God figure (Omitofo in Chinese) was originally a king and then became a monk, and then by his merit, called the Pure Land paradise into being.¹⁸

Even progressive Asians are wary of the term “feminist” because of its “Western, bourgeois connotations.” It is seen as an aggressive battle of the sexes: “a politically-based oppositional feminism, a battle for women’s rights.”¹⁹ In Asia, communal harmony is highly valued, and so ecclesial feminist leaders have advocated for this quality/virtue. Cao Shengjie from China, for example, writes that women and men should cooperate and complement each other; and Henriette Hutabarat Lebang, from Indonesia, encourages men and women to labor together for “a paradigm shift from patriarchy to partnership.”²⁰ The greater goal is not just women’s rights but the communal good of church and society.

Chinese patriarchy parallels that of ancient Israel, which makes Deutero-Isaiah’s repeated use of feminine imagery for God highly unusual (42:14; 46:3–4; 49:14–26). The prophet juxtaposes maternal metaphors with those of a male warrior in a yin-yang way. In Isa 42:14, Yhwh says,

I have kept silent for a long time,

keeping still, restraining myself.

Like a woman in labor I will cry out,

I will gasp and pant all at once.

This laboring mother metaphor, usually used in contexts of fear and pain, needs to be read in the light of the preceding verse 13:

Yhwh like a mighty man will go forth,

like a man of wars he will rouse his zeal;

He will yell a battle cry, yea he will roar,

upon his enemies he will show himself mighty.

Darr points out that the laboring mother’s “gasp” and “pant” are Hebrew puns for “destroy” and “crush” respectively, thus subverting the travailing woman metaphor from one of frailty into one of potency like that of a delivering warrior. The element of power highlights the strength that a woman in labor must exert to safely birth her child; and at the same time, the compassion of a travailing mother underscores the warrior’s sacrificial zeal. A similar juxtaposition recurs in 49:14–26.²¹

No one metaphor will do justice in representing Yhwh, but a multiplicity of metaphors, both masculine and feminine, are needed to portray the Divine.²² The maternal efforts of pregnancy, labor, and nursing demonstrate divine compassion to a degree greater than other creation metaphors, even of that of a father. It is the maternal metaphor that gives Israel the assurance it desperately needs in the face of its divine abandonment in the exile.²³

Therefore, God, who is spirit and not human, and neither male nor female, is best represented by metaphors of both genders. Chan emphasizes that this precludes blurring the distinction between men and women, for equality does not abrogate the differences in roles and functions in the church or the family. While Chan argues for a vertically ordered hierarchical relationship that is mutually supportive rather than oppressive, Gen 1 and 2 present an egalitarian creation of man and woman.²⁴ The image of God is multidimensional, as is seen in the use of the imago dei for both the complementary man-woman (Gen 1:27) and hierarchical father-son relationships (Gen 5:3). Asian feminists therefore seek to collaborate with men in order to present God’s image holistically to the world, whether in the family, church, or public square.²⁵ God is beyond gender. We will now turn to consider the holy and transcendent nature of God.

The most common term for God in the book of Isaiah is “the Holy One of Israel.” Out of thirty occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, it is used twenty-four times in the book of Isaiah, half of them in Proto-Isaiah. Scholars agree that Isaiah’s inaugural vision of Yhwh in Isa 6 lies behind this epithet. Goldingay explains that “holiness” is not a moral category but a metaphysical one, and the angelic thrice-holy calls exult Yhwh as the “ultimate in the supernatural, extraordinary, uncreated, heavenly.” In other words, Yhwh alone is God.²⁶ At the same time, the holiness of Yhwh manifests itself in justice and righteousness: “The Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness” (Isa 5:16). Isa 1:10–17 makes it clear that rites of sacrifices, offerings, and festivals will be rejected if justice is not done for the oppressed.

J. J. M. Roberts traces the development of the idea of “the Holy One of Israel” throughout the three parts of Isaiah. He points out that Deutero-Isaiah expands on Yhwh’s sole exaltation through the doctrine of creation:

To whom then will you compare me,

or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

Lift high your eyes and see:

Who created these? (Isa 40:25–26)

Trito-Isaiah also describes Yhwh as the “high and lofty One” (Isa 57:15) and, like Proto-Isaiah, denounces cultic performances that neglect righteousness for the needy (Isa 58).²⁷

For the Asian readers, the idea of God and his holiness can almost be taken for granted among common folks. Chinese religions are rich in rituals and sacrifices and, not uncommonly, associated with divination and the consultation of mediums. Gods and spirits are worshipped and sought after for general protection and prosperity. Chan states that in most religious traditions, God’s existence is presupposed, although there may be differences regarding God’s identity and nature.²⁸ A belief in the transcendent is also integral to morality. While Confucianism is largely perceived today as an ethical rather than a religious system, modern Confucian scholars, such as Tu Wei-Ming, recognize that if Confucian ethics is to be effective, it needs to be a “response to the transcendent.”²⁹ As for Taoism, Hans Küng sees a parallel between the Tao and God as the ultimate transcendent reality.³⁰ Buddhism is more complex, but Küng proposes that God can be identified with “the primal Buddha, insofar as he is the origin of everything that exists.” Küng challenges the West to learn from the Eastern attitude of “more respect in the face of the Ineffable, more reverence toward the Mystery, in brief more awe in the presence of that Absolute.”³¹ With the pervasive Western influence in our English-speaking, youth-oriented congregations, Singapore churches also need to hallow the Holy One of Isaiah’s vision, lest spiritual intimacy is hollowed into mere sentimentalism.

Rituals (li) are important to the Confucianist as part of the spiritual and moral order.³² Jiang Haijun demonstrates that Confucius’s concept of yi (righteousness) is a manifestation of both the inner moral thoughts of ren (humaneness) and the external practices of li (rituals).³³ My student Achsah Ang notes the parallel in Isaiah, especially in Isa 56: foreigners and eunuchs will be accepted if they perform the rituals (li) of keeping the Sabbath and fasting, and this is counted as righteousness (yi). However li must go together with ren—that is, concern for the weak—so that it will result in social justice as is demanded in Isa 2 and 58. This is the ideal in Chinese religions and Isaiah, but just as the Israelites failed God, so, too, the Chinese system can degenerate into a ritualistic bargaining for blessings. In Singapore, people often offer prayers at temples to help them win lotteries, and even gangsters burn joss sticks for protection when embarking on crimes!

One reason for the disconnect between spirituality and ethics among the Chinese has to do with an impersonal concept of the transcendent. Küng challenges the East to consider that the Absolute is not separate from the world and humanity. It is the prophetic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), he says, that tell of a people addressed and claimed by its God who can be heard and spoken to. Being addressed by the divine “Thou” allows human beings to “experience their own ‘I’ and be raised to a dignity that is hardly ever seen in the East and that no Western secular humanism, no technological progress, and no cosmic piety can guarantee.”³⁴ Such a dignity implies that one is held accountable by the divine Thou for how one treat another person.

In comparison, Isaiah’s God is both transcendent and immanently personal; the latter quality is expounded in the second part of the title “the Holy One of Israel.” Roberts explains that this title reflects an indissoluble relationship between God and his chosen people, based on the Zion tradition. In an oracle of salvation, God says,

Do not fear, you worm Jacob,

you insect Israel!

I will help you, says the Lord;

your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. (Isa 41:14, emphasis mine)

Further, Deutero-Isaiah buttresses the relationship by appealing to the creation, exodus, and patriarchal traditions (especially in Isa 51), all of which explicate God’s direct, personal, and historical involvement with the people.³⁵

In the face of such a holy and personal God, there can be no place for arrogance; instead, there must be an awareness of accountability. Although the Confucian goal is to become a sage through self-cultivation,³⁶ such humanist confidence contributes to the “aristocratic tendency and the authoritarian character rooted in the tradition.” To counteract these tendencies, Ching sees the need to also emphasize human freedom, equality, and responsibility. However, even with these democratic and meritocratic values, elitism raises its ugly head in Singapore, as achievers acquire the resources to bolster their children’s success, thus widening the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”³⁷

Humanism finds its proper place only in a relationship with the divine Thou, so that one is elevated without exalting oneself, which is what we see in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah’s vision of God as “high and lifted up” (6:1) counters everything else that is falsely “high and lifted up” (2:12–17).³⁸ Such a relationship with the Divine will have ethical implications, for paradoxically, humaneness (ren) needs to be rooted not in humanity but in God. When discussing righteousness (yi) and rituals (li) in Isa 56, Yhwh’s followers are not called to be humanitarians but to be worshippers first. God says to the eunuchs that they are to “choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant” (56:4), and foreigners who join themselves to God are “to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants” (56:6). It is knowing God’s character that enables God’s servants to reflect the same likeness.

As Chan states, “In the Confucian context, the main challenge is to show that the ethical ultimate must ultimately be grounded in divine personality.”³⁹ In fact, it is this aspect of a divine personality that draws people to Pure Land Buddhism. The adherent simply needs to invoke the name of the Buddha Amitabha to obtain salvation into paradise. Ching writes that Pure Land Buddhism appealed especially to masses seeking not only ultimate salvation but also a power that responds to their ordinary needs.⁴⁰ Chan writes that, similarly, Chinese pragmatism draws many to the Pentecostal belief that finds practical expression in healing, exorcism, and material provisions.⁴¹ What is the assurance that God hears these prayers? According to Isaiah, he is the Holy God of Israel—that is, a God who has acted in history for a people. (Küng points out that the historical aspect is what makes biblical faith different from faith in Amitabha.⁴²) And what is to prevent these personal requests from degenerating into selfish materialistic pursuits? It is because Yhwh is the Holy God of Israel who refined and restored them. Isaiah also presents the Holy God as the only deity (especially in Isa 40), which raises the question of what this means for a pluralistic society like Singapore.

The book of Isaiah contains paradoxical universalistic and nationalistic texts. Those who argue for a universalistic message point to the Servant in Isaiah as a light to the nations (Isa 42:6; 49:6), to peoples waiting for salvation through God’s teaching and justice (Isa 42:4, 23; 49:6; 51:4–6), and to nations running voluntarily to Israel (Isa 55:4, 5). Nationalists, on the other hand, argue that these others are but a ransom for Israel (Isa 43:3–4), that they come to Zion in chains (45:14), licking the dust of her feet and even eating their own flesh (49:23, 26). There is, however, a crucial distinction between these two groups of texts: the nationalistic texts revolve around Zion, whereas the universalistic texts are related to the Servant. I have argued elsewhere that Zion the city is a cognitive metaphor for Zion theology that presents God as the creator of the cosmos and the victorious defender of his people. Thus, the nations come in submission to Zion the city, not to Israel the people; that is, they come in obeisance to the sovereignty of Yhwh, not the superiority of Israel. While the Servant extends Yhwh’s salvation to the nations, Zion affirms Yhwh’s sovereignty over the nations.⁴³ Though this removes the nationalistic issue, Yhwh’s sovereignty still poses problems in a multiracial and multireligious society.

In Singapore, there is much emphasis on interreligious dialogue. The goal is not to uncover theological commonalities and downplay the distinctive teachings of each religion but to work together in areas of overlapping concerns for the good of the society.⁴⁴ How does Isaiah contribute to a universal ethics and to a communication of a biblical monotheistic faith?

The Isaianic Servant, representing God’s faithful people, is to establish justice among the nations (Isa 42:1). Such universalism actually goes beyond the Confucian value of familial relationships: Küng notes that Confucius had no reservations about the domination of the Chinese over the barbarian tribes, and Martin Lu writes, more critically, that many Chinese restrict their love only to family and, possibly, friends. Küng contrasts this with the Christian teaching that every human being can become my neighbor, thus overcoming social, religious, and racial boundaries. This love is extended even to the enemy, and he attributes this to the theocentric biblical faith as opposed to Confucian anthropocentrism.⁴⁵ My student Evangeline Khoo points out that within the Oracles Against the Nations in Isa 13–27, former enemies, such as Egypt and Assyria, are blessed (Isa 19:18–25), showing that both Israel and foreign nations are accepted by grace. The grand eschatological vision in Isa 2:2–4 is of nations streaming eagerly to Zion to learn God’s way and to abandon war.

Nonetheless, Zion still stands out like a sore thumb with the claim that Yhwh is the only cosmic king. How can this exclusive claim be communicated universally? Deutero-Isaiah asserts his message, not by military might, triumphalistic behavior, or even loud insistence, but through the model of the Suffering Servant in Isa 52:13–53:12. The Servant’s message of judgment on Babylon at the hands of the Persian would be political treason, while his critique of his own Israelites would be socially offensive.⁴⁶ However, the Suffering One was willing to pay the price for ministering to “many”—a group that includes his own people (53:8) as well as other nations (52:15).

The Servant preached an unpopular message humbly and sacrificially for the good of the community, whether composed of the same or different peoples and faiths. It is not a way of weakness, because he has been empowered by the Spirit to carry out his mission (Isa 61:1). In the New Testament, this mission was fulfilled by Christ and continued by his church. So, while we are to preach respectfully and boldly (as opposed to arrogantly), the Singaporean church also needs to serve our diverse communities sacrificially. New converts who face parental opposition are exhorted to be even more filial sons or daughters, and many family members have been won by such testimonies.

Küng compares the icon of the crucified Christ with that of the smiling Buddha. If the Buddha sought to transcend suffering, Christ, as the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant, embraced it instead.⁴⁷ Thus the universal God is one who offers his immanent embrace to all, especially to those who suffer. Likewise, Asian and Singaporean servants of the holy God are to serve all peoples in humility and righteousness, both men and women in equal partnership, as children of a gracious Father.