Peace and Joy
Posted by Adam Desmond on June 28, 2010
This summer, CrossLand is studying joy, and the first passage we looked at was was Isaiah 55:12.
For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
This is an example of Hebrew poetry, as well as parallelism. Hebrew poetry frequently uses this parallelism to link two similar thoughts or ideas. You can see it in most of the psalms and proverbs, and I believe that’s what we have here, two sets of two statements, saying similar things, in slightly different ways, to highlight the meaning of the passage. The first set (“you will go out with joy” and “be led forth with peace”) seem to be saying the same thing two different ways. To me, that means that the author saw peace and joy as very similar and related. So how are they the same?
I believe that joy and peace are both related to our possession of that which our hearts deeply desire. Joy is an intense and usually short-lived expression of emotion related to either the initial possession of the object of our heart’s desire, or a re-acquainting with that object. Peace, then, is the ongoing emotional state related to the continued possession of the object of our heart’s desire. I kind of liken it to being warm. If you’ve just walked through a blizzard into a warm room, the emotional release at feeling the warmth of the room is very different than someone who has been sitting in the room and continues to feel and appreciate the warmth in comparison to the cold outside, but it can’t and won’t be as intense an emotion. This reliance on external stimuli isn’t always necessary for joy to exist, though, as the man who had been in the blizzard can always recall that feeling, and the corresponding emotional response is just as real. But I do believe experiencing the absence of that desire intensifies our joy when we finally possess it.
I also think that the next two lines relate to our grasping of the joy (initial reaction) and peace (ongoing reaction) that God provides his children through the methods described earlier in the chapter (Come and listen, receive grace and forgiveness, understand our relationship and dependence on God, etc). To me, the natural world would have been the pinnacle of beauty and God’s crowning achievement to Isaiah and his audience. The majesty of a mountain, likely the largest object in their collective consciousness, stood for power and strength beyond the abilities of man to fully grasp. The tree, and how a mighty oak grows from a single acorn, showed the ability of God to create something truly amazing out of something seemingly insignificant. For these objects of man’s awe and appreciation to be pictured viewing man’s peace and joy as worthy of praise would have held deep significance for the reader. To see their own worth in comparison to the most amazing objects in their world would have captured their imagination and helped them to grasp the deep love God showed in providing them with these gifts. They would see that these gifts were not just special for the man experiencing them, but intrinsically special, valued and coveted and praised by all of creation. Because in the end, joy and peace are both dependent on our understanding and appreciation of that which is possessed.
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