Non-Human Creation as Prophets for God’s People: An Exegetico-Ecological Reading of Isaiah 18

Abstract

 In the year 2019, the Society of Jesus inaugurated four universal apostolic preferences aimed at directing its modus operandi for the next ten years. This invitation includes the “care of our Common Home.”1 Inspired by this milieu, this paper uses an exegetico-ecological lens in approaching Isaiah 18. By focusing on the non-human creations, the paper contends that all God’s creations are interrelated and interconnected, and none is superfluous. This is seen in the way the non-human creations alert (v.3), pronounce (vv.4-5) and effect God’s judgement upon his people (v.6), a reality that spurs the human characters into worship by taking their gifts to Mount Zion, the place of the name of YHWH (v.7). Thus, the paper highlights the magnificence of all elements of nature collaborating with their creator to communicate to humanity the place of all God’s creatures. In this regard, the chapter affirms the message that every creature is valuable in and of itself for it fulfils a particular critical role in the mission of YHWH.