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Hello, my dearest readers,

This is Bro. Angello Forero, and welcome to another article for the Autism Bible Study (ABS). First, I wish you a New Year 2025. I hope some of your projects become a reality if you persecute them. I know many of you, as church brethren with a disability, tend to think: What are God’s purposes in my life? Why do I have this invisible disability? These are good questions to ask because my own family asks these questions frequently.

My grandmother often tells me, “Who will listen to you when I die?” Nobody is going to listen to my hyper-fixations; I understand that perfectly. But in some cases, I wish to listen to other people. The matter is that they haven’t appeared yet.

Even worse, some people harm you without intending to do that. I remember my math teacher having confessed through Facebook that he never had the intention to harm me. Well, the fact is that many Christians tend to harm as well (he was supposedly a Christian), but forgave me, but I ignored him. Furthermore, I made a video a year after the Christian school I attended was denounced before the National Prosecutor’s Office, expressing my discontent with the hypocrisy of the plaintiffs and the respondents in many issues. However, I haven’t made it public due to my fear of getting into judgment and getting my family in trouble. Instead, it is hidden, just in case the legal issue towards the Christian school advances for a certain period this year, maybe.

Amidst that suffering, there is something I want to tell you. Now that we are beginning the 2025 year, I want to get straight about your hope for our Savior.

The following Autism Study is related to the Prophetic Book of Isaiah. We will analyze autistically vs.1-13 of the 54^th chapter.

Let’s get started!

What is the main idea of the selected text?

The following text is about Israel’s prosperity and future glory (Beyond Suffering Bible,2016). It begins with the encouragement of the childless women who have never had a child, as well as to Jerusalem (Israel’s capital city) will do a lot of labor than ever before (v.1). The Prophet immediately encourages all the people of Israel to enlarge a house and fill on an addition to spread out their home without any expense to spare given that they would be soon bursting at the seams, and their descendants would occupy other nations, making them prosper via resettling their ruined cities(vs.2-3).

Something refreshing will be heard next: Jerusalem will no longer be fearful of their obscure past, forgetting thus the shame of their youth and the sorrows of what widowhood is, with the mere benefit of not feeling the disgraceful paths they were taking before by being afraid not of anything. So, why all this? Because the creator [the Lord] will be their husband (vs.4-5).

The following verses spark about the Lord had mercy upon His people (Israel) by assuming they would soon be woken up from their grief, and hence the pronoun of “them” changes to “her”, because Israel was like a woman living in a distressful home by her husband, but the Lord Himself would appear on her to repeal the abusive husband and restore the woman, and that woman would be the Land of Israel. He assures this statement by saying that for a brief moment, He had abandoned her, but with great compassion, He will take her back (vs. 6-7). The Lord also confessed His anger and assumed that He turned his face away for a little while, but with everlasting love, He will come back and have compassion for her (v.8). He further states that just as He had said that he wouldn’t let floods in times of Noah, He promised not to be angry of her anymore, without punishing, letting Israel know that His faithful love for her won’t disappear and will remain forever, giving His mercy toward her (vs. 9-10).

In summary, this passage is evidence of God’s mercy and faithfulness toward the People of Israel despite her rebellion, instilling that He will restore and rebuild her capital city (Jerusalem), as described in vs.11-13.

What is the meaning of this passage?

Perhaps this is an evident prophecy about the Messiah, as all the Book of Isaiah is about it.

“The figure of the Servant appears throughout the last several chapters of Isaiah and has been the subject of so much discussion. Who is this Servant? At times the Servant is identified with Israel as a whole (41:8; 44:1; 49:3), but ancient Israel failed to carry out the Servant’s mission to witness to God’s glory and shine light in the darkened pagan world. Elsewhere, the figure sounds like Isaiah himself (53:1), but Isaiah’s suffering never seems to have reached the level described in Isaiah 53. The Suffering Servant would paradoxically reveal God: through suffering and humiliation, sacrificing his life to rescue the People of God” (Beyond Suffering Bible, 2016)

“The Fruit of Messiah’s Sufferings, and of Israel’s Final Penitence at her past Unbelief (Isaiah 53:6): Her Joyful Restoration and Enlargement by Jehovah, whose wrath was momentary, but His Kindness everlasting.

Converted Israel is compared to a wife (Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 62:5) put away for unfaithfulness, but now forgiven and taken home again. The converted Gentiles are represented as a new progeny of the long-forsaken but now restored wife. The pre-eminence of the Hebrew Church as the mother Church of Christendom is the leading idea; the conversion of the Gentiles is mentioned only as part of her felicity [Horseley].” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, n.d)

Autistic analysis of what this passage means in terms of suffering

As this passage has so much to do with the suffering issue, I will put the points forward straight about the reason why we must suffer in this world.

It has metaphorical nuances on the suffering of the Messiah, as (according to my interpretation) it must do specifically with the joy and rejoicing from the People of Israel when He comes to the earth. All this is due to the unfaithfulness of Israel toward God. So, He, to lesson His chosen nation, had decided to depart from them for a while. However, just when He sends the Messiah to the earth, the people of Israel will enjoy and rejoice as He will never abandon her.

In terms of disability, what could we learn from this encouraging verse from the Prophet Isaiah? There are many factors I aim to teach the disabled people of God that have do to with this principle, but at the moment (and as you will see in the coming Autism Bible Study articles), will be based upon my personal reality.

In my humble personal reality, I must afford that the Bible itself is filled with too much suffering given by man’s fall (As evident as we see it in the book of Genesis). But in some cases, God chose some common men to change the world by Himself, even taking to the creation of the people of Israel. Nevertheless, Israel used to be disobedient toward God and that’s why God’s wrath sparked toward her. This comes to a reflection that sometimes we used to be anxious for tomorrow’s days, then God tries to give us a lesson by grounding us toward suffering, so we blame the demons given that afterward, God Himself grounded us due to our behavior.

However, this passage is more than just encouragement. We have hope in God for tomorrow, as we will fill in and resettle in all the nations’ ruined cities (Isaiah 54:3). This is, in fact, the verse that matches my attention. The people with disabilities have generally resettled all the nations’ ruined cities. In some instances, the contemporary nation of Israel’s Defense had implemented a training program for Israelis with autism to be trained then to serve in the local market. Such a program is called Roim Rachok (Which in Hebrew means: Looking Ahead). According to the program’s official site in English (n.d), “It is an innovative program designed to train adults on the autism spectrum in professions required by the Israel Defense Forces and the civilian market. Qualified young adults, who want to volunteer for service in the IDF or integrate into the job market, are taught professions for which they have a comparative advantage”. What is impacting and intriguing is the mere fact that the program is from anywhere else than the Holy Land (Israel). That’s the mere point where I want to get straight about a strategically implemented program for young adults with autism in a country as sub-developed as Colombia. What if our suffering becomes a testimony among those who also suffer?

I’ve heard many inspiring stories from people here in Colombia who have started up a business as their primary source of sustainment. Sometimes my maternal grandmother doesn’t pay attention to my interests because of watching an inspiring story from people from certain populational sectors that come up with entrepreneurship as a source of income for their families. Indeed, those inspiring stories are part of the suffering they face! Perhaps that suffering is made up by the Christians themselves. It’s a matter of fact that my person has tried to start up many things. I am a very enterprising young man, but many of my enterprising attempts have failed. My mother and my grandmother, indeed, sustain the home when the real thing is that a home man should bring it! In those spheres of desperation, I aimed to write down this blog, and here I am. The ups and downs are there, but lifted I am!

How can the autistic analysis of the presented ABS can relate to the suffering of the disabled?

In the words of Joni Eareckson Tada (2016):

“In many cultures, including ancient Israel, the face is the central symbol for relationship. Losing face is shameful, and having a loved one turn their face away signifies a broken relationship. In exile, God turns his face away, but that is not the end of the story. The Redeemer returns in everlasting love to restore his people to the deepest joy of face-to-face reunion”

These words from Joni correlate to v.8. Something curious I want to point out in her mouth is that the Redeemer (Jesus Christ) is the face of the vs. 1-13 of the Book of Isaiah! This may correlate to the fact that the Christian book has 66 books, each taking into account events, characters, and all those related topics a common preacher typically exposes.

As the followed-up section title of the present article indicates, there are certain passages, verses, and books of the Bible that are taken seriously in terms of suffering…

Thanks for reading this article, and if you liked it, please share it with your friends, family, and community. If you’re willing to reach out, you can do it at religiontheo062022@gmail.com.

Angello Forero

Barranquilla, Colombia

Bibliography

Beyond Suffering Bible. (2016). Tyndale House Publishers.

Isaiah 54 Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary. (n.d.). Retrieved January 05, 2025, from BibleHub: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jfb/isaiah/54.htm

Roim Rachok Program. (n.d.). Retrieved January 06, 2025, from https://www.roim-rachok.org/english