Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 44/65

For he himself is the Lord of hosts, and the invincible right hand of the Father, through whom all things were brought into being.

But again he frames his words as though addressed to one of us, inasmuch as he appeared as man, and seems in some way, on account of his humanity, to be empowered by the Father.

For thus he is also said to have raised him up, and to have given him glory, and to have declared him superior to the plot of those who murdered him.

For if he humbled himself, and willingly descended into self-emptying, then it is altogether necessary that the measure of the emptying also be seen, and that the lowliness be perceived through the very facts.

And observe how, while saying as concerning a man, 'I will lay hold of your hand and strengthen you,' he immediately shows him to be by nature God and truly Son, and Light of Light.

For the only-begotten Word of God came into this world with flesh, and to those of the race, that is, of the blood of Israel;

for from them He appeared, having been born according to the flesh of a woman;

He gave the new covenant, which had long before been proclaimed through the voice of the prophets.

And He became also a light to the nations.

For to show that the lawgiver, and the shadow of the all-wise Moses, was rendered ineffectual, and to add the new things to the ancient with a most divinely-fitting authority, and moreover to be able to enlighten those in darkness and to open the eyes of the blind—

for the divine and heavenly light flashed forth upon the nations—

how would this not furnish a clear demonstration that He is both God and by nature from God? And that Christ, having gone also to the spirits in Hades, preached, and appeared to those shut up in the house of the prison, and released all from bonds and necessity and penalty and judgment, He foreshowed beforehand when He said that He would bring out from bonds those who were bound, and out of the house of the prison those sitting in darkness.

'I am the Lord God, this is My name.'

'My glory I will not give to another, nor My virtues to graven images.'

'The things from the beginning, behold, they have come, and new things which I will declare.'

And as the all-wise Paul says:

'Even if there be many so-called gods and lords both in heaven and on earth,'

'yet to us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we from Him.'

He has presented Himself as the accomplisher of wondrous deeds, and He says that He will not bestow His own glory—that is, His divinely-befitting virtues—upon the lifeless idols, nor upon any other of created things, but will keep it for Himself alone.

For it was fitting that the glory of the Godhead should be conspicuous in none of the others, nor essentially in any that is other than itself, but in that ineffable nature which is above all things, and in it alone.

But though He says He will bestow His glory on none, He has given it to the Son;

for He is glorified, just as indeed the Father also is worshipped both in heaven and on earth.

How then has He given it to another as not being from among themselves, according to the principle of consubstantiality, even though each is distinguished into His own particular hypostasis? For one is the nature of the supreme Godhead in three particular hypostases, conceived and worshipped by those accustomed to think rightly.

'And the things from the beginning, behold, they have come.'

'And new things which I will declare; and before I declare them, they were made manifest to us.'

He does not allow that the word concerning the Saviour should in any way at all be disbelieved by us.

For just as, He says, the things spoken from the beginning concerning His advent were brought to fulfilment, so also they will come out into the truth;

and whatever new things He may speak, before they become manifest they are made known.

And what are these? For our Lord Jesus Christ promised us life in the age to come, that is, life in incorruption and sanctification and righteousness, the kingdom of heaven;

the glorious participation in spiritual goods, the fruits of gentleness, the rewards of piety, the crown of love toward Him;

which may it be granted us also to attain through His grace and love toward mankind;

through Him and with Him be glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages.

DISCOURSE I. God, being Lord, appeared among us according to the Scriptures, and through Him the flock of those going astray has been drawn as with a net toward the grace that is through faith.

For He was the expectation of the nations, and God the Father, through Him, called those in mist and darkness to the light of the truth.

And this He made clear to us through what follows, saying a little later:

'I the Lord God have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand and strengthen you, and I have given you for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out from bonds those who are bound, and out of the house of the prison those sitting in deep darkness.' For our Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed by God the Father as a covenant for the race according to the flesh, I mean those of Israel, to whom of old also God made promise through one prophet, saying:

'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers.' For the divine Moses was a minister of shadow and type, existing within the measures suited to petitioners.

Christ indeed, as Son and Lord, became the mediator of a new covenant.

And I say new, as that which refashions man into the newness of a holy life, and renders him, through an evangelical manner of living, an approved and true worshipper;

for 'God is Spirit,' He says, 'and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.' Therefore He has been appointed for a covenant of a race, and for a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring out from bonds those who are bound.

For Satan, the author of evil, darkened the hearts of the nations;

with diabolical deceit that fell upon those on the earth, he poured out darkness;

he set free from bonds those who were caught in inescapable snares by the chains of their own transgressions.

That therefore those who of old served the creation rather than the Creator, those who had darkness in their mind, those who were persuaded to worship the works of their own hands, those who were far from God, would be called through the faith that is in Christ, and would come to know the King and Lord of all—the word of the prophecy shows exceedingly well.

For He commands those who have obtained mercy through God to glorify Him, and thus He says:

'Sing to the Lord a new song, His rule; glorify His name from the end of the earth;'

'you who go down to the sea, and sail upon it;'

'the islands, and those who dwell in them.' The song is new, and befitting the newness of the things.

For 'if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,' according to what is written, 'and the old things have passed away; all things have become new.' For those of the blood of Israel were redeemed from the rapacity of the Egyptians, the all-wise Moses at that time mediating, and were delivered from brick-making, and from vain sweat over earthly labours—the work of the cruelty of taskmasters and of the inhumanity of the ruler;

they were led across through the midst of the sea, they ate the manna in the wilderness, they drank water from the rock, they passed through the Jordan with unwetted foot, they were brought into the land of the promise.

These things for us are all new, and incomparably in better estate than the ancient ones.

For we have been delivered not from a fleshly, but rather from a spiritual slavery, and instead of earthly labours we have been freed from the defilements that come from love of the flesh;

we did not flee Egyptian taskmasters, nor an impious and savage tyrant—yet a man like ourselves—but rather the wicked and unclean demons who thrust us into sin, and him who presides over their herds, that is, Satan.

We ate the spiritual manna, the bread from heaven, which gives life to the world;

we drank water from the rock, revelling in the streams of Christ, that is, the spiritual ones.

'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' Therefore upon new achievements it was fitting that a new song should arise from His rule;

that is, from those who have come to be under Him and are ruled by Him;

and that the song, that is, the glorification befitting Him, should arise not only throughout the land of the Jews, but indeed from the end of the earth to its other end—that is, throughout all that is under heaven.

For of old God was known in Judea, and in Israel alone was His name great.

But since we have been called through Christ to the knowledge of truth, heaven and earth have become full of His glory.

For they did not preach Jesus, and the grace that is through Him, only throughout Judea, but indeed, crossing over the sea, they brought the good tidings to the lands of the nations.

They came, at any rate, even as far as Illyricum, and beyond, so that even the islands in the sea did not remain unhearing of the sacred proclamations, nor did those who dwell in them.

And thus, historically, you will apply yourself to what has been said.

But you will also understand, if it seems good, the words of the prophecy according to another manner.

namely, human life, according to what is hymned in the Psalms:

'This is the great and wide sea;'

'there are creeping things without number, living creatures small with great.' He insists that our life resembles the sea, perhaps precisely on account of the instability of the things in it, and the up and the down, and the being in much confusion.

These, having obtained help from God, and ever mindful of the gifts through Christ, glorify Him; and the islands, that is, the Churches, all but preserved amid the spiritual sea, and receiving those tossed by the wicked spirit—these glorify Christ, that is to say, those who dwell in them.

For when we say, or rather name, Churches, we signify the holy worshippers who are in them.

For they are called islands, as many as lie in the midst of villages or cities, in the midst of a great and wide wilderness.

'Rejoice, O wilderness, and her villages, the encampments, and those who dwell in Kedar.'

'Those who dwell in Petra shall be glad; from the tops of the mountains they shall shout.'

For Christ was, as I said, the expectation of the nations.

But they let go the discourses concerning such things, not simply to all the nations and peoples throughout the whole inhabited world.

For it was not likely, seeing that a countless multitude fills all that is under heaven, that they should choose to be so sparing of speech as to make mention of all by name and by nation; but often, taking the regions bordering on Judea, which were greatly given to idolatry, and then saying that these would be called in due seasons, they made, as it were, from a part the declaration of the whole.

Since, then, adjoining the land of the Jews there lies to the south the broad wilderness, which the nations of the Saracens and Arabs pastured over, he says that those who dwell in it shall in due season attain the grace and salvation that come through Christ.

The names of the villages, or rather the small towns—those, I mean, in the wilderness—are 'the encampments,' and Kedar, and Petra, which even to this day lies in the land of the Arabs and is so named.

For they had been in bondage of worship to the unclean spirits.

But since, as I said, they were destined to become partakers of the calling and salvation that come through the preaching of the Gospel, and of the faith that is in Christ—

for this very reason, and quite fittingly, the prophet—having beautiful feet, as one who in these matters brings good tidings—all but lifts up his cry on high, and says:

Rejoice, O wilderness, and its villages, the encampments, and those who dwell in Kedar;

the inhabitants of Petra shall rejoice. And it is a great and wonder-worthy demonstration of the power and pre-eminence of our Saviour—this very thing—that He so easily softened hearts so hard and incorrigible, persuading them to depart from their ancient deception, to choose instead the better things, and to be refashioned toward the truth.

And this He foretold to us beforehand through the voice of Ezekiel, saying: 'I will pluck out their heart of stone from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh'—that is, a tender heart—'that they may know Me, that I am the Lord.' Therefore, that these too shall be called, He signified, saying:

Rejoice, O wilderness—and what follows thereupon.

But those who cry aloud from the tops of the mountains, giving glory to God, and proclaiming His excellences among the islands—who might these be, worthy to be beheld?

and they weave songs—not to the falsely named gods, but rather they glorify the God who has illumined them and, as with a net, has drawn them to the truth.

Or rather, those who cry aloud from the tops of the mountains may quite rightly be said to be the divinely inspired disciples.

To whom also the prophet somewhere elsewhere says:

Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion;

lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem;

and their hill was not in a corner or in hiding, but in great boldness, just as I said a moment ago.

For this the Saviour Himself also commanded them, saying:

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops. They therefore gave glory to God, and proclaimed His excellences among the islands.

For indeed the word of the holy apostles and evangelists is seen to have become the herald of the Saviour's glory.

For sometimes they make their discourses concerning His ineffable Godhead, and hymn His supramundane excellence, ranking Him not among things begotten, but beyond all that has been called into existence, and in natural identity with God the Father;

and sometimes again they recount His divine signs, which are beyond wonder and word.

For the raising of the dead from their tombs, and the treading of the sea as though it were dry land, showing it firm to His own feet, and the rebuking of the winds, and the crushing of Satan by a word—these establish for Him a glory befitting God.

The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and shall shatter war;

He shall stir up zeal, and shall cry out against His enemies with strength;

I have kept silence: shall I also keep silence forever and forbear? I have endured as she who travails. Even now the word proceeds in much orderliness, and its economy is not without wonder.

For those who ministered the oracles of our Saviour were destined to proclaim His excellences to men everywhere, and with much boldness to make their discourses concerning these very things.

But it was necessary to bear in mind that assuredly and by every means the enemies of the truth would rise up against their so venerable zeal and eagerness—men, that is, corrupt and superstitious, instruments of diabolical wickedness, and shield-bearers of that one's perversity; or perhaps together with them the very hordes of demons as well, inasmuch as their glory and the dominion procured through greed were being shaken.

For by deception they had gained mastery over what is beneath heaven.

That, then, they shall be invincible to their enemies, and none shall prevail against them while God shields them, the prophet clearly shows in these words, saying that the Lord of hosts shall go forth and shall shatter war; and the 'shall go forth,' he says, is as of one of the kings upon earth who falls irresistibly upon the phalanxes of the enemy together with the armies under his sceptre.

And that the Lord of hosts shall by all means prevail, he made clear by saying that He shall shatter war.

For the power that comes from God is not easily withstood by any; rather, it is unbearable to none of existing things when it rises up and falls upon them—whether we conceive of evil powers, or the apostate and abominable Satan himself, or certain earthly ones who take his part instead;

but they shall be taken captive—and that indeed without toil and without struggle.

For 'who shall turn back the exalted hand?' according to what is written.

That, then, for those who set themselves against the choir of the holy apostles, the war was and is even to this day not against the holy angels alone, but indeed against the very Lord of hosts, the prophet has fully assured us, saying that He Himself shall go forth to shatter war.

He shall stir up zeal, he says—that is, provocation, or the wrath that proceeds from Himself against His enemies, according to what is written in the words of Zechariah;

of those who reverence Him, of whom one, and a chosen one, was the most holy Paul, we say; who indeed also says:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? And again: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Thus we say that the holy martyrs also became zealots, who became stronger than Satan and warred against his power, for the sake of their piety toward Christ.

For they kept the faith, and the genuineness of their love toward Him.

He shall therefore stir up zeal, he says, and shall cry out against His enemies with strength;

putting 'shall cry out' in place of 'shall raise the battle-shout.'

And this is a cry most fitting for the victors, exulting in a manner over the vanquished:

I have kept silence: shall I also keep silence forever, and forbear? I have endured as she who travails.

From this one may very well perceive that at that time, in which the multitude of the nations was in error—Satan plundering them, and blackening them with the darkness of sin, and carrying them off even into ignorance of the one thing: who is by nature and truly the God of all—the God who is beyond all indeed willed to succour them;

but He held back the matter, and clearly persevered, awaiting the fitting season for His aid;

and this was the time in which His only-begotten Word was enfleshed and became man.

For then, precisely then, He waged war against those who had conquered us, and delivered us from their perversity, took hold of us and saved us, and brought us under His own yoke.

Therefore, in the time now past, when those upon the earth were being plundered, and Satan, in the manner of a lion, was devouring all:

shall I also keep silence forever, and forbear? I have endured as one who travails.

Consider, then, how great was the forbearance that the God of all exercised toward those upon the earth;

and yet, as the Psalmist says, there being none that did goodness;

all having turned aside, and, down to the last one, having become altogether unprofitable, all but entirely so.

And having, as it were, the birth-pangs over this, and—if indeed one might allow Him to be capable of grief—having suffered even this for our sake, He reserved His aid, as I said, for the fitting season.

I will astonish, and I will dry up together, and I will make rivers into islands, and I will dry up the marshes. What the 'I will astonish' might signify in these words, it is necessary to inquire carefully.

For either He means this: 'Those who now hold power over those upon the earth, I will cast out, and I will bring it about that they be put outside the dominion they had procured over all,' according to what was said by Christ:

Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; or you will understand the 'I will astonish' in place of 'I will make those who behold what has been accomplished, and the manner of My economy, and the surpassing greatness of My ineffable power, to marvel;'

just as, of course, the prophet Habakkuk also was struck with amazement at these very things, saying:

O Lord, I have heard the report of You, and I was afraid;

I considered Your works, and I was astonished. Or rather, if it seems good to anyone, you may understand the 'I will astonish' also in another manner.

For those who now wander astray, those in darkness and in diabolical mist, I will transfer to the recognition of the truth, and to the divine and spiritual and heavenly light;

those who now are defiled, and have a mind loathsome and unpurified, I will change to a disposition incomparably better, so that they depart from their ancient filth, and choose rather to do good.

And the 'I will dry up together' again signifies something of this kind, which the force of what lies next will make clear.

For I will make rivers, He says, into islands, and I will dry up the marshes.

Who might be the rivers that are made into islands, and the marshes that are dried up? We say, then, that they are the poets and choice authors among the Greeks, who became heralds of the polytheistic error.

For they deified the creation, and introduced innumerable gods into human life.

the sweetness and charm of fine speech.

Therefore they might reasonably be likened to rivers and marshes—that is, to thickets, or rather groves that have obtained abundant and richly-flowering grass.

Such rivers, then, God promises to change into islands—that is, to render them dry and waterless, and as it were to make the marshes dry; which indeed has come to pass.

For henceforth the fine-worded elegance of their eloquence is idle and ineffectual.

And no one at all cleaves to them any longer; but, having spurned as it were the decayed and profane and old-wives' fables of the deceivers, those who once wandered astray now snatch up the wisdom that is in Christ.

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Therefore we say that the rivers set into islands are the discourses which contain the wisdom of the wise men among the Greeks unto Hellenic deception.

That is to say, we have already granted in what preceded that there are also other 'islands,' namely the Churches of Christ, which receive those who sail — spiritually, of course, and in a mystical sense — and who cast anchor, as it were, in safe harbours, that is, in the teachers who are within them, and who thereby escape the wicked spirit that ever storms against those who go down to the sea in ships and do their business in many waters.

By 'sea,' as I have said, we must understand the tempest of the life you now live, and the turmoil of earthly affairs.

And the marshes also are dried up — that is, the pasturelands of those things that were once under the satanic hand —

so that henceforth they might come to be under Him who is the Chief Shepherd of all, namely Christ.

He does not, like those false shepherds, carry off His own flock into thorns and thistles, but rather shepherds them among the lilies;

for spiritually understood, most fragrant are the divine and sacred things, and His own proper ordinances.

'And I will lead the blind by a way that they knew not, and I will make them tread paths that they had not known.'

'I will make the darkness into light for them, and the crooked places into straight.'

'These things will I do, and I will not forsake them, says the Lord God.' For when the Lord of hosts had come to crush war, and when the enemies had been destroyed, and when the rivers had been set as islands and the marshes dried up — according to the accounts of our contemplation just now given — then those who had been in the rank of prisoners of war and had been borne down by the devil's perversities, being blind, were altogether redeemed;

for the apostate had blinded their hearts;

and now they are led by Christ, clearly into ways which they had not formerly known.

These are, without doubt, the evangelical ordinances, and the life lived according to understanding and virtue, and the beauty of a holy and seemly manner of living.

The divinely-inspired Paul therefore also proclaimed to those from among the Gentiles:

'For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.' Thus the darkness became light for them;

which is to say, their affairs were altogether transferred into the very opposite.

For those who were unlearned became wise; those who once wandered came to know the straight ways of all righteousness; those who knew nothing of good things were shown to be masters of every virtue and diligent stewards of the pursuits that make for godliness.

The crooked places became straight for them — that is, things difficult and hard to accomplish became passable and easy to travel, level and cleared.

Something of this sort is also hinted at in the preaching of John the Baptist.

'For every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways into smooth roads.'

For hills and hollows show that the road is uneven.

But where there is neither mound nor hollow, the road is altogether straight and easy to travel, freed from every difficulty.

This too the blessed prophet Isaiah himself says somewhere else:

'For the way of the godly,' he says, 'has become straight, and the way of the godly is made ready.' For the way of the evangelical polity is in truth not rough and hard to travel, but rather smooth and, as it were, level for those who love the excellent life.

That God brings His promises to fulfilment and does not forsake them — that is, that He is with them continually — according to the saying, 'Behold, I am with you all the days, unto the consummation of the age.' 'But they shall turn back to what is behind.'

'Be ashamed with shame, you who trust in graven images, you who say to the molten images: You are our gods.' At the proper moment He now shifts the discourse to the nation of the Jews, who, though they had the Law given through Moses to lead them by the hand to the knowledge of God and to make them willing to accomplish those things by which it was fitting that they should win approval, had turned aside to apostasy, and, having stepped into the mire of polytheism, had gone down into the pit of destruction;

and for this reason they had given offence — and very justly so — to God, who had apportioned to them all forbearance and love.

The Word therefore, having proclaimed beforehand that the Gentiles would be called in due seasons and would tread ways they had not known,

and that the darkness would become light and the crooked things straight, He uncovers the ignorances of those who are of the blood of Israel, saying:

'But they turned back to what is behind.'

The word 'they' must be taken with emphasis;

that is, those who were being trained by the divine Law and had come under my hand, and had obtained Moses as mediator, those who had heard expressly:

'The Lord your God, the Lord is one;'

'and there shall be no other gods to you besides me.' These, while the multitude of the Gentiles was in good hopes, turned back to what is behind, impiously slipping back to the defilements of Egypt, and taking up again the blemish of the ancient deception.

And there came upon them the word of the true proverb:

'A dog returning to its own vomit, and a sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire.' Our Lord Jesus Christ also said something of this sort, showing Israel running back to its ancient impiety.

'For when,' He says, 'the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it returns to the place from which it came out.'

'And coming, it finds it unoccupied and swept.'

'Then it takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter in and dwell there.'

'And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.' For they had indeed served the gods of the Egyptians, but the demon had been cast out, since they had been called to the knowledge of God, namely through the Law;

yet they fell sick again with the reproach of having gone astray, and still more grievously, when, having known the God who is God by nature, they became apostates, honouring as gods those who are not gods.

'Be ashamed then with shame,' He says, 'you who trust in graven images,' you who attach the venerable name — that is, the glory — of the deity that is above all things to things hand-carved and hand-made.

'You deaf, hear; and you blind, look up to see.'