Isaiah 52:7: “How lovely upon the mountain are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that announces peace and brings good news, announces salvation saying to Zion your God reigns.”
Why feet? Why not just the person who brings the news? If you are going to mention a specific physical part of the person bringing good news you would say the mouth or the tongue. But feet? Feet just are not lovely, well maybe to some. In oriental culture feet are considered the most sensual part of the body. In Judaism, feet represented humility. The sages see the feet as symbolic of the Ten Commandments (10 toes, get it? Oh well). Mystic Jews believe the feet give off energy, thus the phrase “walking in someone’s footsteps.” Disciples of a master teacher were known to roll on the ground over the foot prints of their master hoping to absorb the energy imparted from the feet of the master. In ancient times a slave or servant could not look at his master’s face or any other part of his body except for his feet, which is why the prostitute could only washed Jesus’s feet. As a sinner she could not look upon Jesus and so expressed her submission to him as a slave or servant. We have the symbol of Jesus on the cross, where we can only stand under His feet. We are unworthy to look on His face, except by his death he transmits the power of His salvation and in his resurrection we can then look into his face.
So how does this all answer the question of why the focus is on the feet of this messenger of peace and salvation? It seems to only make sense if this messenger is Jesus Himself. For while yet in our sins, we can only look at His feet. The word in the Hebrew for foot is regal. Now there are three other words in the Hebrew for feet. Feet were quite important in ancient times, it got you to where you wanted to go. We don’t do much walking today, so we don’t give much consideration to feet. However, if you have a job where you do a lot of standing the ancient HebrewS would call your feet qarcol which are sore feet or weak feet. A runner in a baseball game will tag a base with his marglah. This is the word used when Ruth laid at Boaz’s feet or his marglah. Here the foot is giving a message of victory or power. When you see a cockroach run across the room, you will step on it with you pa’am. This is the foot that tramples down. When you step up to the podium to make an announcement you are stepping up with your regal. Regal is spelled Resh, Gimmel Lamed. In its Semitic root it is a picture of the power of God running to bring divine revelation. That is the word used here for feet.
Now when the announcement is good, the feet are referred to as na’ah which means beautiful but in this case it is in a Piel form so the feet are very beautiful or the announcer is giving a very beautiful message. If the message was bad the feet would be described as degath or ugly.
So what is all this saying? If this is really a reference to Jesus, which I believe it is, then Jesus has a message of na’ah (beauty) and not degath (ugliness). When he makes an announcement, it is of peace, good (tov, harmony with God), and salvation. As we face the events of this day all we heard is bad news. Yet, when we put our eyes to the feet of Jesus we will see only na’ah, good news. The bad news of the world has to give in, it will pale in the face of the good news of Jesus. It is just a matter of who or what reigns in our lives. If circumstances and events reign, that will be degath bad news, but if our God reigns, that is na’ah beautiful news
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