Freedom is such a lovely word, a compelling image. What is freedom? How would you define it? What does it mean to you? Webster’s New World Dictionary defines freedom as being exempt from control or from arbitrary restrictions. Freedom is said to be the ability to choose or determine one’s own actions.

That was the sort of freedom, escape from foreign intrusion, which the Hebrews sought when our First Lesson was written. There is a lot of debate among Old Testament scholars about the circumstances of its composition. Most scholars agree that the book of Isaiah was written by at least two different authors, with only the book’s first 39 chapters written by the historical Isaiah in the late eighth century B.C. The question is whether chapters 56 to the end of the book were written by a third…