My Joy is In You
11. ‘My Joy is In You’
11. "나의 기쁨이 너에게 있다."
-Commemorating the Independence Day - August 2001
- 2001년 8월 – 광복절을 기념하며....
- ‘Hephzibah’ and ‘Beulah’ in Isaiah 62:1~5
- Meanings of ‘Hephzibah’ and ‘Beulah’ in Isaiah 62
Isaiah 62: 1~5
1. For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.
2. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
3. You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah ; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married.
5. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
The Middle East nicknamed ‘the Powder Magazine of the World’ is the area that raises attentions and tensions of the concerned countries and all the other parts of the world. Even the countries that have nothing to do with local wars in the Middle East have been reluctantly interested in the situations in the Middle East, because of ‘importing crude oil and the relevant repercussions in the world economy.’ The most frequently conflictive nations in the Middle East are Israel and the Palestine National Authority(P.N.A.). Israel and the P.N.A. both insist that the West Bank of Jordan River is their own land transmitted from their ancestors.
The arguments are both not wrong.
The present territory of the Palestine Authority used to be the ‘land of Israel,’ since entry through the Exodus and wilderness into Canaan, through Judges’ period, through the united Kingdom and divided Kingdoms, through the years as prisoners in Babylon, through reestablishment of Jewish religion by homecoming citizens, through a colony of Hellas by Alexander and his descendants, up until the colony of Rom.
After 70 A.D., Jerusalem Temple and castle walls were trampled by Titus the Roman general commander. Israelis were once again dispersed in all directions within the Sovereignty of Rom. In long time and tide, the places Israelis left have been occupied by folks after folks. This is the Palestine National Authority.
In 1945, Israel gathered to Jerusalem ‘under the banner of Zionism.’ Under the military reign of the Allied Forces 1948, the nation of the present Israel was founded in about 2500 years. At last in about 2500 years, they flagged their own national flag of Israel on top of the history of hardships and humiliations.
It is after 1948 that Israel of the present had its birth. The star in the middle of their national flag on the surface of white is called ‘the Star of David,’ the symbolism of which is to revive the long-lost glory of David the King.
It is after 1948 that Israel of the present had its birth. The star in the middle of their national flag on the surface of white is called ‘the Star of David,’ the symbolism of which is to revive the long-lost glory of David the King.
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Under the project of actualizing the glory of David, when the present Israel’s nationality was attained and its territory confirmed around 1948, there were residents who had lived for about 2000 years. Not being able to follow only the command “Destroy any breathing” as in books of Deuteronomy and Joshua is the ethics of war and the ethics of international society in the contemporary times as well as modern. Although Israel put up the Star-of-David flag in their dreaming the glory of David or a new Israel at 1948, there was still an unsettled issue of ownership of the land between them and Palestine folks already occupying, when they returned to their motherland from all over the world.
Folks in the Palestine Authority as well have their say.
Folks in the Palestine Authority as well have their say.
If any period or any country loses their sovereignty and its people disperse in all directions, other folks naturally get to occupy the land. The people as well have settled and inhabited the place from generation to generation in nearly 2000 years.
Yet abruptly on a certain day a certain people come and say to drive them out, “The land is ours who are the descendants of old Israel. So you go another place.” Not 20 years or so, they have lived nearly 2000 years.… Who is the owner of the land?
Reading the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, two of the most frequent words are descendants and land.
Yet abruptly on a certain day a certain people come and say to drive them out, “The land is ours who are the descendants of old Israel. So you go another place.” Not 20 years or so, they have lived nearly 2000 years.… Who is the owner of the land?
Reading the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, two of the most frequent words are descendants and land.
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Genesis 12:1 Go to the land I will show you.
Genesis 50:24 God will surely take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Leviticus 20:24 I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Exodus 23:30 Until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
Deuteronomy 19:14 Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Deuteronomy 28:11 in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.
Joshua 1:4 Your territory will extend from the wilderness and this Lebanon ~.
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Genesis 12:1 Go to the land I will show you.
Genesis 50:24 God will surely take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Leviticus 20:24 I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Exodus 23:30 Until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
Deuteronomy 19:14 Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Deuteronomy 28:11 in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.
Joshua 1:4 Your territory will extend from the wilderness and this Lebanon ~.
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Other than this, there are promises about the land on many parts of the Bible.
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For people in Israel and the Palestine National Authority, land is not the concept of that as investment value and property. It is ‘the concept of land’ as ‘the foundation of life and the root’ that they have to hand down to their offspring. In modern world, because of wars decreased, the concepts of land 100 or 200 years ago has much disappeared.
Our country as well has been not much different.
Our country as well has been not much different.
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In the Japanese Annexation of Korea, the Colonial Period by Japan, the 1945 Liberation of Korea, the subsequent Division into South and North Koreas, and the Korean War, numerous youths or patriots on the land burned themselves to only keep their own land, devoting all of themselves and leaving all behind. Not only for life of their own but also for the foundation of their ancestors and descendants, they have kept this land where we are standing, dedicating their fields, patches, forests and even their lives. What would have been the results? It might have been a medal from the nation. It might have been just three name characters on the tombstone. Or, much more folks might have been dead under any nameless hills, fields, or any locations in the Southeast Asia.
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Yet, many of the descendants of these have suffered hardships of life.
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When they gave away all their wealth they had and even burned their bodies to keep this very motherland safe, it was impossible for them to be faithful to both their family and their country. The motherland for which they so burned themselves finally saw liberation and the war stopped. Yet, what met them in reality was ‘problems of life.’
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It is evident that they don’t have any left because they give theirs all away.
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To those, not only their sacrifice buried behind the glory of their country but also their ‘descendants’ hardships’ were their shares returned, but when they die, they might not have even thought that amount. Men who were quick adapting to the reality flattered Japan under the Japanese colonial period, ingratiated American Military Administration under the same period, and after the year 1948 had connections with members of the Liberal Party that was the main force of power. On account of this, not theirs taken away, rather they increased their wealth. On account of having the sagacious(?) ancestors, the descendants live comfortably afterwards, which is often the case.
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What on earth is the land?
One group is, not enough that they sacrificed themselves, they even had to leave their children, struggling so hard to keep this land safe. Another group is, they just looked the other way towards the world around as if it were none of their own. Still another is, swiftly finding their way around for their interests whenever their existent vested interests changed, they devoted themselves to the accumulation of capital so even their descendants might live comfortably generation after generation.
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They are each different courses of life according to whether they looked upon the land as the foundation of the nation or whether they look upon it as the value for their own private wealth.
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Today, grandmothers of forced comfort women are being discussed.
A story of a grandmother says, when she was 16 years old, a Japanese policeman and his minions came to drag her father along. Her mother first hid her husband and pointed to her daughter, saying “Is it possible to bring my daughter instead of my husband?” At that, the minions deceitfully said, “If so, she will be served with shiny-white rice and a good pair of rubber shoes.” And then the girl was tagged along to the detachment of forced comfort women. To live with her 8 children, the girl’s mother hid her husband and had to point to his oldest daughter, to be sad.
It was the painfully poor reality of the countryside at the time.
It was the painfully poor reality of the countryside at the time.
Though this lady is over 80 and not far from dying, she speaks out mixed words of ‘love and hatred’ that she still doesn’t want to see her father and mother. Thousands or 10 thousands members of usually 15-to-20-year-old flowerlike virgins on the Chosun Peninsula were forcedly dragged away to battlefields and become victims under the pretence(?) of heightening Japanese troops’ fighting spirit who were at war.
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And then came the liberation.
In the ferry homeward bound from Japan, there were full of so many persons with so many stories in their heart. Across the blue sea of the Korea Straits, they endured seasickness longing for their home in the motherland and their beloved family. Soil-bared hillsides, ragged roofs of straw-thatched cottages, famished young children and his siblings... The long-cherished homeland back before them in years, there was yet nothing changed.
In the ferry homeward bound from Japan, there were full of so many persons with so many stories in their heart. Across the blue sea of the Korea Straits, they endured seasickness longing for their home in the motherland and their beloved family. Soil-bared hillsides, ragged roofs of straw-thatched cottages, famished young children and his siblings... The long-cherished homeland back before them in years, there was yet nothing changed.
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However, even if forced to be drafted into slave work to be injured, or into battlefields to get their legs lost, no matter what other people might think, men could somehow manage to return home in their family’s hospitality in their motherland’s bosom, but then women was in a different situation. Since trodden after trodden by soldier after soldier enough to get their body demolished, their situation was hard to be accepted by the Chosunese folks who were under the influence of Confucianism. Because of who and because of what was of little matter in their eyes. They were just sources of family shame and humiliation for fear others might know, although the women were actually so pitiable.
‘If dead in battlefields without coming back,’ they might have been not less than forgotten entities in their families’ minds. Rather, in front of the eyes, the ladies remained as if ambiguous leftovers that couldn’t be killed or saved.
The situation the former comfort women suffered was, the land of home they returned with yearning so much at the bow of homecoming boat now turned into a “bitter land of gall ” that disserts them.
You might be disinterested as this matter is others,’ but please suppose it be yours. If they had been a member or an aunt in your family, you would have kept it a secret for fear neighbors should know. It is former comfort women who were in their situation desolate with their dream of life broken because of the motherland, and had to be once again deserted by even his home village and family.
‘If dead in battlefields without coming back,’ they might have been not less than forgotten entities in their families’ minds. Rather, in front of the eyes, the ladies remained as if ambiguous leftovers that couldn’t be killed or saved.
The situation the former comfort women suffered was, the land of home they returned with yearning so much at the bow of homecoming boat now turned into a “bitter land of gall ” that disserts them.
You might be disinterested as this matter is others,’ but please suppose it be yours. If they had been a member or an aunt in your family, you would have kept it a secret for fear neighbors should know. It is former comfort women who were in their situation desolate with their dream of life broken because of the motherland, and had to be once again deserted by even his home village and family.
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Failing to keep this land
the virgins of this land
trodden on the other land
came back to this land.
But this land again looked away from them.
the virgins of this land
trodden on the other land
came back to this land.
But this land again looked away from them.
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Now they are 70~90 years old.
Nothing has rewarded them.
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Words and deeds of Prime Minister Koizumi (Abe Premier as of 2007) as well as Japanese Textbooks that have tried to deny even the entities of the comfort women who was forcedly victimized in the Greater East Asia War that Japan was the culprit of... They are the infamous offences that maliciously hinder anywhere the vestiges of former comfort women who are still alive in Korea China Philippines as well and testify the history of indescribable disgrace in the past days.
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Despite even now confessing the past sin and apologizing for it on the national level is the least reward they could offer for these forced comfort women (grandmothers by now) victimized by the Japanese Government’s wrong policy the politicians committed during the past days, yet even this is what they disregarded. So even till they breathed their last, their ‘bitter sorrowful lives’ have not been acknowledged.
To add a remark, ‘Itaewon’ as well is a place and name that began this way.
Just, what is different is it traces back to the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592.
To add a remark, ‘Itaewon’ as well is a place and name that began this way.
Just, what is different is it traces back to the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592.
It is said, Itaewon had the ‘Unjongsa Temple,’ where only nuns dwelt in religious austerities. During the aggression, Japanese invaders came all the way to Old Seoul and were stationed at Yongsan, randomly raping the ‘Buddhist nuns of Unjongsa Temple’
Other ladies, who were raped, either killed themselves, or tried to abort every way possible, or discarded their newly born before others knew, or otherwise let their new-born babies overturned to death. Yet the life-loving nuns could not dare to, so they had to give birth to their babies and bring up.
Other ladies, who were raped, either killed themselves, or tried to abort every way possible, or discarded their newly born before others knew, or otherwise let their new-born babies overturned to death. Yet the life-loving nuns could not dare to, so they had to give birth to their babies and bring up.
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As Japanese invaders are run away from Old Seoul, the returned Royal Court had to agonize over the issue of the babies born due to the raping by the Japanese invaders. Subsequently, the Royal Court decided not to punish the women including ‘Unjongsa’ nuns who had to be delivered of babies of Japanese invaders, and to build a nursery to nurse the babies, it is known.
After war, it is said people called this dwelling place of nuns ‘It-ae-won’ by using I of different, Tae of pregnant and Won of temple.
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That is, the beginning of the place-name ‘Itaewon’ is from the dumbfounding(?) word origin that means ‘a temple impregnated by alien cusses.’ Itaewon itself is the name which left women ‘a biggest bitter sadness.’
By and by at the time of King Hyojong, a pear farms settles in. Because they built a ‘post-town inn’ where passengers stopped in at the area raising many pears, they changed it into a different Chinese character set of I-tae-won by using I of pear, Tae of big and Won of temple. Thus, the present name ‘Itaewon,’ holding the connotation of a pear growing temple, is what was changed midway.
By and by at the time of King Hyojong, a pear farms settles in. Because they built a ‘post-town inn’ where passengers stopped in at the area raising many pears, they changed it into a different Chinese character set of I-tae-won by using I of pear, Tae of big and Won of temple. Thus, the present name ‘Itaewon,’ holding the connotation of a pear growing temple, is what was changed midway.
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What the history on this land is...
Man’s history is the history of the land as well.
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Man’s history is the history of the land as well.
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Isaiah 62:1~5 the likening of Israel’s history to the land, and by ‘giving comfort to the land,’ is proclamation of the message giving hope to the homecoming citizens who are in discouragement.
B.C. 586, sovereignty being snatched away to Babylon, the king and influential leaders were draggled to Babylon as captives. 538 B.C. when Babylon’s sovereignty was turned to Persia, part of the Israelite prisoners come to return home 537 B.C.
Though these returned citizens started to build a new Temple(Ezra 5:14~16), yet for some reason, building the temple stopped to move forward. To consult Haggai, building the Temple is resumed around 520 B.C.(Haggai 1:12~14). At length, they consecrate the Temple 515 B.C., which the returned citizens had begun to build since 537 or 536 B.C.
The situation of about this 20 years between 537 and 512 B.C. is not written elaborately in the Bible. But guessing is possible that during the period, the returned citizens suffered troubles of lives with various issues around (see Nehemiah). The returned citizens in the situation needed something that might encourage and comfort them. By proclaiming salvation of Isaiah 62:1~5, the Prophet encourages the returned citizens in such situation.
Though these returned citizens started to build a new Temple(Ezra 5:14~16), yet for some reason, building the temple stopped to move forward. To consult Haggai, building the Temple is resumed around 520 B.C.(Haggai 1:12~14). At length, they consecrate the Temple 515 B.C., which the returned citizens had begun to build since 537 or 536 B.C.
The situation of about this 20 years between 537 and 512 B.C. is not written elaborately in the Bible. But guessing is possible that during the period, the returned citizens suffered troubles of lives with various issues around (see Nehemiah). The returned citizens in the situation needed something that might encourage and comfort them. By proclaiming salvation of Isaiah 62:1~5, the Prophet encourages the returned citizens in such situation.
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The consolation of Isaiah 62:1~5 has hope inside, on and about the content that it encourages the homecoming of the people still in foreign lands, not only the citizens returned to the land of Palestine. This promise of salvation is towards all Israelites as well as the returned citizens. In our country likewise, such as ‘To The Land Of Hope’ and ‘The Spring Of My Young Home’ were the public songs with such character, in the subsequent periods of disturbance across 8.15 Liberation of Korea, the Korean War, and the early 60ies.
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Under the Japanese colony and in the Korean War, our country as well had many people see their land of motherland not as value for investment but as the foundation for national life, and give theirs all away to redeem this land, it is said.
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Israel in the Bible saw the land as absolutely that which belongs to their God of Yahweh (see Leviticus 25:23(exp.), Deuteronomy 19:14, 1 Kings 21:3). There are many times that God and Israel are represented as if husband and wife or father and son.
A step further, today’s text Isaiah 62:1~5 depicts ‘God who marries the land.’ The condition of its sovereignty lost to and trodden by another country is likened to ‘a spinster,’ ‘a deserted woman’ or ‘a woman left behind abandoned’ as in the verse 4. But this is the past Israel. For the present returned Israel, it is the proclamation of God that He will call the land ‘Hephzibah - My Joy is In Her,’ or ‘Beulah – a Married Woman’ (see Hosea Chapter 1). It is the proclamation that God’s mercy and compassion will embrace not only people but also the silent land.
A step further, today’s text Isaiah 62:1~5 depicts ‘God who marries the land.’ The condition of its sovereignty lost to and trodden by another country is likened to ‘a spinster,’ ‘a deserted woman’ or ‘a woman left behind abandoned’ as in the verse 4. But this is the past Israel. For the present returned Israel, it is the proclamation of God that He will call the land ‘Hephzibah - My Joy is In Her,’ or ‘Beulah – a Married Woman’ (see Hosea Chapter 1). It is the proclamation that God’s mercy and compassion will embrace not only people but also the silent land.
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‘Hephzibah’ and ‘Beulah’ have such meanings as follows: For the citizens who returned 537 B.C., the meaning is, God of Yahweh will look after and care for the land that they are to truly have feet on. And for Israelites who are hesitating still in foreign lands, the meaning is, “The past disasters no more exist. Hereafter, Zion will be downtrodden no more. Rather, Like a torch shining in the darkness, I will look after and lead Jerusalem so that it may stand out brilliantly all over the world. So don’t wave or hesitate about returning home” (Isaiah 62:11).
Today’s text has, rather than in the words proclaiming, but has a more significance in that it proclaimed a new promise in times of complete lack of common objective and thought in deep discouragement after the Exile period.
Today’s text has, rather than in the words proclaiming, but has a more significance in that it proclaimed a new promise in times of complete lack of common objective and thought in deep discouragement after the Exile period.
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Conclusion now comes.
In the eyes of God’s people, the Exile period had gone. But the period of salvation didn’t dawn yet.
The promise of salvation written in Isaiah(40~) did not certainly materialized. Especially, the details described of the salvation period to come still didn’t come to pass.
However, faith is like this; “The Israelites groaned and cried out in their hardships, and God of Yahweh bestowed salvation upon them. Faith is that one acknowledges and is patient that God is alive and acting in the history indeed in the process of bestowing the salvation” (see Exodus 2:23~25).
Isaiah 61:1~3 is reinterpreted and proclaimed at Luke 4:16.
In the eyes of God’s people, the Exile period had gone. But the period of salvation didn’t dawn yet.
The promise of salvation written in Isaiah(40~) did not certainly materialized. Especially, the details described of the salvation period to come still didn’t come to pass.
However, faith is like this; “The Israelites groaned and cried out in their hardships, and God of Yahweh bestowed salvation upon them. Faith is that one acknowledges and is patient that God is alive and acting in the history indeed in the process of bestowing the salvation” (see Exodus 2:23~25).
Isaiah 61:1~3 is reinterpreted and proclaimed at Luke 4:16.
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Here one can see that, even though the proclamation of the book of Isaiah was not fulfilled in the ,Prophets’ period, yet with persevering vitality, it somehow gets more and more fulfilled. The reason why we repeat to a boredom to study the history of Israel in sermons is so that we may learn their ‘persevering vitality’ through the history of hardships Israel underwent. It is because we can learn that, only in the process of Israel’s keeping the persevering vitality, the living God are acting in the history in His words.
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The bible is working amid the principles of dynamics and paradox.
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What is important is, today’s text affects us contemporary people ‘through the history of ‘reinterpretation.’ In the event that the words of a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a chosen people (compare Exodus 19:6 and 1 Peter 2:9~10) are applied to you one by one, “Hephzibah” in today’s text Isaiah 62:1~5 can be interpreted into “My Joy is In You.”
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Dear believers, you are a chosen member of people. Let us be a member of the country with pride.
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posted by Minister Youm @ 1:37 AM
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