Canter Bridge

In Isaiah 56, YHWH comes as close as Hebrew grammar allows to naming himself with a new name.

The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, ‘I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.’ (Isaiah 56:8 ESV)

Indeed, one could almost read the preface to YHWH’s declaration as …

YHWH, the Gatherer of the outcasts of Israel, declares …

Two things stand out. First, on my reading, this gathering impulse is not reported as one registers an event that happened once and may or may not recur. Rather, it seems that the syntax presents this gathering of Israel’s wandering daughters and sons as nearly intrinsic to YHWH’s persona. He not only gathers them. He is their Gatherer. Time and again.

Second, the passage’s poetry itself gathers up the surprising element, the unexpectedly generous nature of YHWH’s gathering, that is found throughout Scripture. When YHWH has finished that gathering that might almost be expected of Israel’s ambitously loving deity, there will be still further work to be accomplished and, so, additional wonders to be reported. That is, YHWH will surprise his people yet again with those he rescues and retrieves. The community of the redeemed will be populated with new faces and unfamiliar accents.

One thinks here of that later prophet of Israel, one who to his peril declared himself to be king of YHWH’s kingdom. He, too, had outlandish thoughts about his gathering vocation:

So (Jesus) told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’ (Luke 15:3–7 ESV)

The Gatherer’s arm is long, his legs sturdy, his purpose more unbounded than we know.