Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 42/65

'Thou art my God,' and to the stone, 'Thou hast begotten me,' but even to make gods, most senselessly, of men who had become distinguished upon the earth.

And indeed Sennacherib, when he had withdrawn from Judaea back to his own land, was said to have done worship to his patron deity.

For they used even to offer sacrifices to the dead, and calling them heroes they registered them as gods.

It was fitting, therefore, once the multitude of idols had been plainly discredited, that the discourse should proceed against this very thing also, persuading those who had gone astray to reckon human affairs as nothing whatsoever;

but rather, even if some among those on earth have at various times become illustrious and worthy of admiration, or have been conspicuous upon the highest and royal thrones, or have at times been deemed worthy of some other pre-eminence, in no way to suppose that they are gods, but rather to consider that both the power to prevail and the rule over any people would come from no other source than as a gift from God.

And that this matter is free from every difficulty for the God who is all-powerful, He shows plainly, saying that rulers are granted nothing toward ruling except from Him.

And He raises the matter to something yet greater and says: He made the earth as nothing.

And that it lies within the authority that comes from God whether the memory of things on earth that were illustrious and notable should be preserved or not, He declares, saying:

For they shall in no way sow, neither shall they in any way plant.

For unless God should will it, He says, they shall have no fruit upon the earth, nor even root or memorial, but as though a wind had swept down upon them they shall pass away into nothingness, on a par with dry twigs.

For all human things are small and easily scattered and wholly liable to be overthrown, and they wither away on a level with grasses.

One must therefore worship God alone, who is God by nature and in truth; and let there be no account made of the things devised by skilled craftsmen, nor indeed of men upon whom the name of gods has been inscribed by certain people.

For this is the worship of the dead, and nothing else.

Now then, to whom have you likened me? And He said: I shall be exalted, the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has displayed all these things;

He makes a most just foundation for His argument.

For though it was open to them even from the creation itself to know the Author and Craftsman of all things, they were carried off into false worship, and have done worship to those who are no gods.

And Paul spoke thus concerning the God who rules over all things:

For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, are clearly seen, both His eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse.

And professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Since therefore, He says, I hold the circle of the earth, and have stretched out the heaven like a kind of tent, and grant to rulers to rule over nothing, and liken those upon the earth as it were to locusts, to whom have you likened me?—that is, To whom, likening me, would you not fall outside what is fitting, nor stray from the truth?

By calling me heaven, or by wishing to liken me to one of the elements, do you suppose that you exalt me? But nothing among created things resembles me, nor is anything in every respect unchangeably the same as I am.

For no one could be equal in the account of essence to Him who calls into being the things that once were not.

For that I am not at all such as the gods among you, which received their origin from human craft, behold from the very created things themselves.

Lift up your eyes on high, behold the firmament, the choir of the stars, consider who has displayed all these things, who is the one who brings forth His world by number—clearly meaning that of heaven.

And He calls the stars the world of heaven, which He says He knows within Himself, not only as seen in their multitude, but also each one individually, and as it were by name.

This is a thing befitting God, and extraordinary;

and indeed the prophet reckons the matter as one of great wonder, and says to Him:

By reason of Your great glory, and in the might of Your strength, nothing has escaped You.

For as the sacred Scripture says: The drops of rain are numbered by Him.

For nothing at all could escape that ineffable Wisdom, that Mind which knows all things.

For do not say, O Jacob, and why does Israel speak thus: My way has been hidden from God, and my God has taken away my judgment, and has departed? Because at their appointed times those who have gone astray shall be called, and, growing rich in the light of truth in mind and heart, shall come to know the Author and Craftsman of all things—having very fully declared this—and shall be wise and quick of understanding, and from the beauty of created things shall by analogy behold the One who brought forth this whole universe into being by ineffable power. And having woven for them a sufficient initiation into the mysteries through the things already said, He transfers the discourse to those who are of the blood of Jacob, that is, to Israel.

For since they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, and not having received the Provider of salvation, they became somehow far from intimacy with Him—the shadow according to the Law being no longer accepted, but rather the worship in spirit and in truth, and the service, that is, the evangelical worship, being now brought in—they murmured, saying:

My way has been hidden from God—that is, He no longer regards the polity according to the Law.

just as, of course, the commandment given through the all-wise Moses had enjoined, He no longer deems it worthy of His oversight henceforth.

And He has taken away my judgment and has departed—that is, He has brought the Law to an end.

And they call the Law 'judgment';

You have wrought judgment and righteousness in Jacob—that is, You did ordain, through angels, or rather through the mediation of Moses, the Law.

And Moses also said concerning Israel, that There He gave him ordinances and judgments.

He has taken away my judgment, therefore—that is, having all but cast off the service according to the Law, He has both taken it away from us and departed.

For He no longer cares for the chosen, and Israel the firstborn has passed away into nothingness.

Have you heard? The eternal God, the God who fashioned the ends of the earth, shall not hunger, neither shall He grow weary, nor is there any searching out of His understanding. For of old, O Israel, you were instructed through the Law, you came to know through the prophets the manner of the dispensation that was to be after the Law.

For the Law was given as an oracle, having shadows and types of the good things to come, and holding in the letter, as though in birth-pangs, the power of the mystery concerning Christ;

for in manifold ways, through the commandment according to the Law, Christ was prefigured beforehand, and the mystery concerning Him was inscribed in an enigmatic manner;

and He confirms this, Himself saying to those of Israel who chose to disbelieve:

If you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote concerning me. But since, He says, one lays the charge, saying, He does not regard my ways according to the Law;

My way has been hidden from God, and that He has taken away our judgment, that is, the Law, and has departed;

and, as one who is somehow altogether ignorant of Him who shelters within God, he says such things as these:

Be it so, He says, that even now you did not know: had you not heard? that is, if you would not hear? and it is as though He were saying:

You did not know, unless you should learn, that is, unless you should hear.

Hear then: The eternal God.

God, who fashioned the ends of the earth, shall not hunger, neither shall He grow weary.

You used to bring near, He says, sacrifices by means of blood—sheep, and you offered up oxen, discharging your vows;

you honored Me with frankincense and smoke, with turtledoves and pigeons;

but know well, and do not be ignorant, that it is the eternal God who fashioned the ends of the earth.

And by 'the ends of the earth' He means its uttermost bounds, that through this the whole may be understood.

He shall not hunger, neither shall He grow weary.

I declare this to be like what was said to them through the voice of the Psalmist:

Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? For how, He says, do you bring your sacrifices near to Me? Is it as to one who hungers, and is wont to grow weary from famine? Away with such ill counsel!

For the eternal God, who knows not corruption, shall neither hunger nor grow weary;

for nothing of human things shall touch Him.

But neither is there any searching out of His understanding.

For there is at times an accusation, He says, that runs thus:

If You have now made unacceptable the commandment given through Moses, that is, the shadow in the Law, why then did You legislate it at all in the beginning? If the new things—that is, the evangelical decrees—are better than the old, why were these too laid down by the Law itself? But do not say this, He says.

For you are not able to find out the incomprehensible understanding, that is, the wisdom of God.

And on what grounds, and for what cause, Paul will teach, saying that The Law entered in, that the trespass might abound. And again:

For the Scripture shut up all things under disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all. The Law, then, was ordained as that which points out sin, and as it were a proof of the weakness of all, so that—since it does not know how to justify those who have sinned, but rather condemns them—thereafter of necessity the grace of the bounty through Christ is brought in, justifying the ungodly and delivering from their offenses those who are held fast in them.

There is not, therefore, any searching out of the understanding of God, who dispenses all things wisely, and who both displayed the Law beforehand for the reproof of sin, and sent the Son from the heavens, that He might justify by faith those in their sins.

For the young shall hunger, and the youths shall grow weary, and the chosen shall be without strength.

But those who wait upon God shall renew their strength, they shall put forth wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not hunger. Now understand for me, taken in common, that the eternal God, the God who fashioned the ends of the earth, is Himself the One who gives strength to those who hunger.

For being God and eternal, He was never at any time in want of food.

But He likewise gives grief also to those who are not in pain.

For to those who do not know that, by giving offence to Him, they will fall into dreadful and inescapable punishments, He grants as a help this: that they may henceforth grieve over whatever wrongs they have committed.

For godly grief works repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of — that is, for those who crucified Jesus, and who perhaps even rejoiced over this (for such was the disposition of the teachers of the Jews, and of all who dared to say:

'His blood be upon us and upon our children') — He gives grief, having prepared them to encounter calamities and the evils of war;

and because they slipped away from familiarity with Him, they have become bereft of all strength and of spiritual nourishment.

For this reason, all but interpreting what has been said, He adds, saying:

'For the young shall hunger, and the young men shall grow weary, and the chosen shall be without strength.'

For as regards the nations having been dissolved, having become so enfeebled, having been cast beneath the feet of the diabolical powers, and doing without hesitation whatever seemed good to the unclean spirits — in that respect they were, as it were, valiant and youthful;

but in the spiritual and intelligible sense, clearly, they were held fast by hunger and by toil.

But those who, through the tutelage of the Law, knew how to do good and were carrying out the commandment once given — yet even these, he says, shall hunger and grow weary; that is, they shall be without strength for any good thing whatsoever.

For if a famine of the divine words should befall any, it altogether shows them to be enfeebled, slackened, and knowing nothing of how to achieve any good.

And that the nation sprung from Israel was consumed by famine — those who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ being exempted from the evil — God foretold, saying long ago through one of the prophets:

'Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will send a famine upon the land — not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord;

and they shall run to and fro from east to west seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.' For how were they not going to be without strength and to grow weary, and to be consumed by the intelligible famine — plainly because they did not receive Christ, though He said clearly:

'I am the living bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world;

if anyone eat of this bread, he shall live for ever'? But since, through great folly, although it was permitted them to partake, they did not eat the bread of life, they waste away with famine, while the nations feast.

For it is true that, as Solomon says, 'The Lord will not let the soul of the righteous famish, but He will overthrow the life of the ungodly.' But these things it befell the Jews to suffer.

But those indeed who wait upon God — that is, those who serve Christ, and are minded as He is minded, and are zealous to do right — shall change their strength.

For they have not remained in those weaknesses in which they once were when they were going astray, yoked under Satan and under worldly pleasures; but they shall have another, Christ plainly supplying them with the power to prevail over every abominable pleasure and to be borne beyond the snares of sin.

'The Lord is my strength and my song.' And they shall thus be renewed, he says, even as eagles.

For eager and youthful they shall traverse the paths of godliness toward God, Christ giving them that which is life-sustaining and not permitting them to grow weary.

For He fills the hearts of those who love Him with strength from above, so that even if it should happen to them to fall into trials and toils, in achieving virtue they become greater than weariness, knowing well that endurance is greatly to be prayed for, and, wherever it dwells in any, shows them to be most thoroughly approved.

'Be renewed unto me, O islands.'

'For the rulers shall change their strength;

let them draw near and speak together, then let them proclaim judgement.' In various senses are the islands understood.

For there are indeed many in the seas, but sometimes cities are also so called, and villages having round about them broad land unploughed and left waste;

such, they say, were those of the Idumeans and of the Moabites, as lying in the wilderness.

And these were impious and idolaters, and not far from the land of the Jews.

We say, then, that wishing to signify the reception of the nations, and carrying the force of the matter from the midst to the whole, He addresses the cities of those who go astray, saying:

'Be renewed unto me, O islands' — that is, having put away from your own hearts the oldness and rottenness that come from going astray and transgressing, be made new through repentance.

Take counsel for the better things; receive the grace that renews you unto newness of life — plainly the grace that is through Christ.

And it is likely, too, in another sense, that the islands are here named as the Churches, which are set, as it were, in the midst of worldly circumstances and are washed over by the waves of those who rise up against them, yet possess a secure foundation and remain unshaken.

For they have been founded upon a rock, and in it is Christ.

These, then, which are named as islands — that is, the Churches.

And there is signified through them the multitude called through faith, which was once sin-loving, abominable and unclean, rotten and wrinkled, but through Christ passed over unto newness of life, became a virgin, chaste, having no spot or wrinkle, but rather holy and blameless.

Therefore, He says, 'Be renewed unto me.'

And He very strongly affirms that the rulers shall change their strength.

By 'rulers' here He names the heralds of the truth, who became others in place of others after the calling.

And Peter and Paul make this plain, and the rest of the roll of the apostles, to whom it is more fitting also to refer the words, 'They shall grow wings as eagles.'

'They shall walk, and shall not hunger.'

For such are the wonders which the Acts concerning them display.

For not according to the former ones — that is, the teachers of the Jews — did the disciples of our Saviour prove to be.

But as in another power, plainly a spiritual one, they were far better, and incomparably surpassing them in the boasts of virtue.

These rulers, then, let them draw near and speak together.

And the phrase 'let them draw near' you will understand with respect to time.

For if the appointed season should reveal them, they shall speak together.

All shall say the same thing to those being initiated into the mysteries.

For as speaking from one Spirit, they shall not contend with one another's words, but rather shall harmoniously make their proclamation concerning the divine doctrines, and shall announce in a hidden manner the mystery of Christ.

For this, I think, is the meaning of, 'Then let them announce judgement.'

For since those from Israel called the Law given through Moses 'judgement,' for this very reason He too, most fittingly setting over against it the evangelical and saving proclamation, calls it 'judgement' through these words.

For the truly righteous judgement, and the power of the legislation that is pleasing to God, is not displayed more in the shadow according to the Law, but in the proclamation of the holy mystagogues, the new rulers.

These also, having learned from Christ the judgement — that is, the will of God and Father — proclaimed this same thing to us in identical words.

'Who raised up righteousness from the east, called it to His feet, and it shall go forth?' It is not from the mere and bare grandeur in His works that the God who holds authority over all things ought to be marvelled at, but through the benefits He bestows He makes the demonstration of the serenity that is in Him.

For He has saved those on the earth, and has delivered the human race, which was utterly perishing, from death and corruption, and from the greed of the devil.

For He has abolished him, together with the powers that are with him, and has justified through faith, having driven away the sin that tyrannized over us.

But all these things were accomplished through Christ;

for He has become for us, from God the Father, righteousness and redemption and sanctification. And we have been enlightened through Him, and have partaken of mercy and love, and, in a word, of all that belongs to Him who knows how to save.

And this too He foretold to us through one of the holy prophets, saying:

'And unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and healing in His wings.' Who, then, He says, has prepared righteousness to rise like a sun from the east? That is, Christ.

Who called it? That is, prepared it to come and to be thus made manifest, so as even to go at the feet of Him who called it — meaning, all but to walk in the footsteps of God the Father? For thus the Lord conducted Himself on earth, fulfilling the works of the Father and revealing Him to us in His own nature.

For He was and is equal in power to Him, and through the very deeds themselves He has fully assured those on the earth that in every respect whatsoever He is equal in measure to Him who begat Him.

And indeed He said plainly:

'If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.

But if I do, though you believe not Me, believe the works.' Following everywhere, then, the will of the Father — or rather, being Himself the will of the Father — He addressed the peoples of the Jews, saying:

'You judge according to the flesh;

and even if I do judge, My judgement is true, because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.' You see, then, how as it were He goes at the feet of the Father.

'And He shall give their swords to the earth, and their bows as sticks thrust away.'

'And He shall pursue them, and the way of His feet shall pass through in peace.'

Who wrought and did these things? 'He called it, He who calls it from ancient generations.' For before the coming of our Saviour, those on the earth, differing in nothing from irrational beasts, appeared to live in great ignorance, and were held fast by unknowing and by darkness, and had become enslaved to the world-rulers of this age; and having bowed the neck of their own understanding to the wills of the devil, they were borne down along the tracks that lead to baseness, unto destruction.

But Christ shone upon them.

For He Himself is the expectation of the nations.

And having delivered them from those who of old held them in bondage, He declared them free, and sons of God, having scoured away every defilement that was in them.

For He justified them through faith, and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit He rendered them radiant and illumined.

The righteousness, therefore, which is set in the rank of the sun and, as it were, has risen from the east, He has given to the nations, since Israel was manifestly cast out on account of its impiety toward Him.

And when this had come to pass, and so great a multitude had been saved, the kings rose up.

For an amazement, as it were, has fallen upon the world-rulers of this age, and they have feared the divine and unbearable judgment—that judgment, I mean, which has come upon the nations.

And those who of old were fierce and strong, warring against the divine glory, accustomed as it were to wield weapons against it and to bare their swords and to bend the bow of madness, have fallen to the earth; and, laying aside the implements of war, they have become as dry stubble.

And again the discourse concerning these things has been framed, as it were, by analogy with our own affairs.

For the wicked powers have been vanquished, and every mode of their malice has been enfeebled, since Christ plunders their vessels.

'For the enemy shall not prevail against him,' He says, 'and the son of iniquity shall not proceed to afflict him.' For it was necessary—indeed necessary—that, once the evils and the wicked powers had first been done away, and once the enemy of all had been cast down to the earth, then indeed, and very much in season, the redemption of the nations should come to pass.

For Christ pursued them—that is, He turned them to flight.

...altogether to suffer those very things which it was fitting should be brought upon by Him against those who had ruined the land.

'For the way of his feet,' He says, 'shall pass in peace.'

For nothing arose as an obstacle to Christ, the Saviour of us all, as He ordered our affairs.

But as though walking along a smooth and level road, He accomplished the salvation of us all, with no enemy hindering or standing in opposition.

Who, then, was it that wrought all these things, or who called forth this righteousness? 'Was it not I,' He says, 'who now, even in the last time, have made it manifest, yet who called it from generations of old?'

For the mystery of Christ is not something new, but rather it was foreordained before the foundation of the world, since God foreknew what was to be.

He foreordained the manner of it; and do not wonder that He is found to have gathered even us ourselves together beforehand, when we had been justified through faith in Him.

'For whom He foreknew,' he says, 'He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son; these also He called.'

Since, then, we were foreordained according to foreknowledge, how much more was He Himself, through whom we have been saved and called? 'I am God, the first, and unto the things that are to come, I am He.'

'The nations saw and were afraid; the ends of the earth drew near and came together, each judging that he should help his neighbour and his brother.' He says that He Himself is the first God—not as though a second had come to be after Him.

For how, or from where, could there be? For God, the God of all, is one, having no beginning of His being, but rather having called all things into being.

He Himself, therefore, is first and alone and without beginning, God, the Creator of all things; and unto the boundless ages that follow He will be so in no other manner, for He Himself is, and He alone.

But since the nations have beheld Christ and the righteousness that came to us from Him, and since all have beheld His glory with the eyes of the mind, they have feared, He says, those from one end of the earth to the other—that is, those throughout the whole inhabited world.

And they were gathered together and drew near, no longer remaining afar off and, as it were, estranged on account of sin, but as though having come near through the spiritual kinship, and united into one faith and one accord of soul.

For this, I think, is what is signified by the words, 'They drew near, and came together.'

And having tasted of the Lord, and having understood that He is good, and having marvelled at the beauty of the truth, they did not keep the gift for themselves alone, but rather, doing well, each also decided fittingly to help his brother and his friend, He says.

'The workman, the carpenter, prevailed, and the smith striking with the hammer, forging together.'

'They fastened them with nails, they will set them, and they shall not be moved.' He sets forth clearly the manner of the succour.

For each of those who have decided to help his neighbour and his brother, having been initiated, He says, and having come to know the truth, will also admonish others, saying:

'The workman, the carpenter, prevailed, and the smith striking with the hammer, forging together.'

But in what manner did he prevail? For he who possessed skill in carpentry, having fashioned idols and carved them into a god, and moreover the smith, having made a beaten image by striking with the hammer, brought it to those who had been deceived into a reprobate mind, and made those who were made after the image of God to be worshippers of his own labours, that is, his own inventions.

Then He derides the making of the idols, and, as it were, imitates the words of those who fashion them, calling out to one another that 'It is a good joining.'

For the makers of idols, having perhaps wrought a hand or a foot, or some other of the members of the body, complete them by means of joinings, fitting limb to limb, and making them strong with nails;

then setting them up and securing them so as to stand and not be shaken.

But these things are a laughing-matter and nothing else, demonstrative both of the vanity of those who worship them and of their utmost folly.

The idol was completed out of joinings piece by piece, and its permanence in coming to be, and moreover in standing, together with its security, it has in nails;

then to worship these things and to name them gods—how is this not truly full of all foolishness? 'But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham, whom I have loved, whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and from her watchtowers I have called you, and said to you:

You are My servant, I have chosen you, and I have not forsaken you.'

'For I am your God who has strengthened you, and I have helped you, and I have secured you with My righteous right hand.' Having most excellently initiated those from among the nations, and having prepared them to know that He is God and the Creator of all things, and that all things are subject to Him and to His divine nods, and that they came into being in the beginning and, having been brought forth into being, stand fast in a good state and have an unshaken permanence, He accordingly and of necessity encourages the ministers of the evangelical proclamations, through whom He was about to make the word of catechesis to those from among the nations.

And He declares them wise and most courageous, and carries them back to the remembrance of the virtue of the holy fathers, and wills that they should know the love that was shown toward them.

'But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham, whom I have loved.'

Now Jacob and Israel, and the seed of the beloved Abraham, would be none other than those from Israel who believed in Christ, of whom the divine disciples became, as it were, a kind of firstfruits.

And he says that the fathers became chosen and beloved, all but saying:

'You who are of a noble root, and of one so honoured and beloved by Me, you who are of the blood of Abraham—emulate the good report of your fathers' virtue, and become imitators of their love for God.'