Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 46/65

But who could bear witness to the demons, or rather to the lifeless idols, that they had spoken any such thing through them? For very many among the Greeks are their chosen sages and poets, yet not one of them at all said, as if from their own gods, that these things should come to pass for them in due seasons;

nor indeed could one observe any of the Greek sages having foretold that Satan should in due seasons be thrust out from the glory he had procured for himself by greed, or that the whole world under heaven should be made glad through faith in Christ, and that the nations should be called to the knowledge of him—or, in other words, that the darkness of idolatry should depart, and truth should hold sway over all that is under heaven.

Let them, therefore, bring forward their witnesses, and let them show that they spoke the truth.

And even if this should come about, let them hear them—that is, let them follow and consent that the herd of demons too is enriched with the knowledge of things to come.

But there is no one who has borne witness to them, nor any herald of things to come.

By common confession, then, those who supposed them to be gods have gone astray;

for they are profane, and deceivers, and buffoons.

Be my witnesses, and I too am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I am he.

And before me there was no other god, and after me there shall be none. Having said that not one thing could bear witness to the unclean demons, or rather to the works of human hands, that they know the things to come, he converses beforehand with his own prophets, and says:

For I have spoken through you, and my Spirit has flashed forth upon you the knowledge of things to come.

I shall therefore bring forward witnesses of my own glory and my God-befitting excellence.

And I shall bear witness to myself, and so shall the Servant whom I have chosen.

Similar to this is what was said through the voice of our Saviour to the Jews:

If I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is true, because I know whence I came and whither I am going. And again:

I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness concerning me. For the voice of God is worthy of belief regarding whatever he may will to say concerning his own glory and excellence.

And there follows in second place, in due reason, also the vote and understanding of the saints, assigning to him all such things as would befit the nature that is beyond all natures.

For the voice of God suffices, as I said, for all faith to those who are sound of mind.

For unless you believe, neither shall you understand, he says;

but you shall believe that before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none.

For neither was there another God before him, but he himself is the beginning of all things and beyond all mind, and after him there shall be none.

For he remains the same, and has a nature unchangeable, and an unshaken pre-eminence over all things, and a perpetual kingdom.

For he who has no beginning of being, to what end shall he run? I am God, and there is none beside me that saves.

I reproached, and there was no stranger among you.

witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, that

from the beginning, and there is none who delivers out of my hands.

I will do it, and who indeed shall turn it back? Bear witness, he says, that I alone am the God of all things, none having come to be before me, nor indeed being to come after me.

For I alone am he who saves, and this I announced to you long ago, and I brought what was spoken to its fulfilment;

I reproached, and there was no stranger among you.

For those of Israel would from time to time forget the sacred oracles—those, I mean, given through the all-wise Moses—and the lovers of God became rather lovers of pleasure.

Then, practising the ways of sloth, they were sometimes brought into peril when enemies were let loose upon them.

But in the season of affliction they would undertake to call upon the one who ever saves, for their aid.

And this I reproached them for, saying through the voice of Jeremiah:

And in the time of their evils they shall say:

And where are your gods, which you made for yourself? If they will arise and save you in the time of your affliction? Therefore I reproached you many times, you who are of the blood of Israel, and you have learned by experience that there was no God among you—clearly, no strange god.

For none of those saved you.

I am, therefore, the only Saviour, even I.

Everyone, then, who confesses me before men, I also will confess in him. Bear witness, therefore, that I am, and have been so from the beginning; that is, I am he who from the beginning until now foretells the things to come, and who is able effortlessly to save those who thirst after intimacy with me.

And so saving, that none at all can snatch out of my hands the one who has once been taken into my keeping.

For there is none, he says, who can deliver out of my hands.

I will act, and who shall turn it back? For I have brought about the calling of the Gentiles, he says, that is, I have saved those who were wandering astray.

And who shall change this, that is, remove it so that it should not be so?

For that no one shall snatch out of the hand of God those who have been saved by him, the Saviour himself confirms, saying:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;

and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. This is plainly what was written:

There is none that can deliver out of my hands. Thus says the Lord God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel;

and the very elements of the world serve him, and whatever he may will is by all means brought fully to pass, with nothing standing in the way.

For it was needful, indeed needful, that those of Israel should have very much enlightenment, and exhortations and reminders that would set them upon steadfastness of mind, since they had slipped away to what is not lawful, and, inclining toward other gods, had sacrificed to idols and to the host of heaven, as it is written;

he therefore makes to them the foretelling of things to come, and beforehand unveils the calamities of the Babylonians, most skilfully indeed, showing in advance that they themselves will be taken captive by those men;

and they will suffer, because he was announcing beforehand for their sakes the most shameful of all things, as I said.

the word came to them, and of necessity he makes plain the incomparable glory of his own power, and moreover the surpassing greatness of his might, saying:

Thus says the Lord God, who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel.

For in order to bring them back to the remembrance of things of old, I mean those concerning the redemption that came about out of Egypt, when also a great multitude of wonders bore witness to his glory, on this account, having named himself Lord and God, he affirmed that he is also Redeemer.

But what is the thing to come? For your sake, he says, I will send into Babylon.

For the Babylonian took Israel captive, and, having driven them from their homeland, or rather having burned down the whole country of the Jews together with the far-famed temple, he removed them to the mountains of the Persians and the Medes.

But when the seventieth year of misery was being completed for those who had fallen into this plight, God had compassion on them, and indeed raised up against the Chaldeans Cyrus the son of Cambyses, with the Persians and Medes joined in arms with him;

these took by force the land of the Chaldeans, that is, of the Babylonians, though of old they had feared them and shunned their overreaching hand.

And tradition has it that Cyrus, having taken certain of the great men among them, then bound them with iron and sent them off through the Caspian Sea into pathless and uninhabited regions.

Now Cyrus was raised up against the Babylonians because God incited him, and had apportioned to him the power to prevail.

For he said somewhere to him through the voice of Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations should be obedient before him. And again:

I will go before you, and will level the mountains, I will shatter doors of bronze, and break in pieces bars of iron;

and I will give you dark treasures, hidden, unseen, I will open them to you. For since the Babylonians, having used dreadful and unmixed wrath against those of Israel, gave offence to God, on this account they too were given over to the Persians and Medes, who indeed used insufferable inhumanities against them.

It has therefore been said to Babylon through one of the holy prophets:

As you have done, so shall it be to you;

your recompense shall be returned upon your own head.

For your sakes, then, he says, O Israel, I will send into Babylon; and whom shall I send? Surely, of course, the far-renowned Cyrus, and the army under him. And the phrase 'I will send' signifies 'I will dispatch against them.'

And I will rouse up against them also all those who of old were fleeing, yielding to them and fearing them as warriors and as men more valiant.

And the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships.

For as I said before, they too were removed into far-off and pathless regions, sailing across what is called the Caspian Sea.

But it should be known that another reading is also current.

For the Chaldeans, it says, shall be bound not so much in ships as in fetters.

And spiritually too the Saviour and Lord of all things has saved all who are upon the earth, having brought to nought the throngs of the demons, and having raised up against them his invincible and supernatural power, that is, Christ.

For thus he redeemed us who were captives, and made free those who were, as it were, in bondage to the will of that one, and, as though from a barbarian land, he led back those who had revolted into the spiritual Judaea, which is the Church that he purchased for himself, having freed her from every stain and defilement, and rendered her holy and blameless.

I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One, who appointed Israel your king. The great and extraordinary among matters are also often disbelieved, whenever they are announced beforehand as going to be.

For this very reason, and quite fittingly, the God of all things, whenever he promises anything of this kind, in order to secure the faith of the hearer, makes his own glory manifest, and names himself Lord and God of all things.

And what could there be to withstand one who is thus in nature and in glory? Whenever, then, I foretell to you, he says, I am not one of the falsely-named gods, who, being altogether nothing, could not work anything either small or great;

and by irresistible decrees accomplishing whatever I will.

And I am he who appointed Israel your king.

As I am he who has manifested myself through many signs, and, by strength and authority beyond words, am your king;

or rather, one should suppose that through this something else is being disclosed;

namely, on account of his being of the seed, according to the flesh, of those who have been named.

I am therefore, he says, he who appointed him who is of the blood of Jacob and Israel to be your king.

And the passage holds a very great dispensation of meaning.

For since he made mention of a partial redemption;

for Israel was brought back, as I said, out of Babylon into Judaea, of necessity he raises the promise up to the incomparably greater, and calls to mind the redemption that was to be through Christ, no longer partial, nor as concerning a single nation, as of old, but rather more universal and extending over the whole world under heaven.

And that the mystery of Christ is not devoid of wonder, on account of the surpassing greatness of the dispensation and the magnitude of his gentleness toward us, none of those who have once known it would doubt.

For being God by nature, and having shone forth from God the Father, the Only-begotten descended into self-emptying, and took the form of a servant, that, having freed those who lay under the tyranny of the devil, he might bring them under his own sceptre. The passage therefore makes mention in these words of a redemption that, according to the seasons, was to be partial, or given to those of the blood of Israel alone, and of one that is universal and most all-embracing, through Christ, of course, by which God the Father saved those throughout the whole inhabited world.

He who gives a way in the sea, and a path in mighty water, who brought forth chariots, and horse, and a mighty throng.

But they fell asleep, and shall not rise, they were quenched like quenched flax. Things good and profitable, even if they are spoken very often both by God and by men, would in no way be irksome to those of sound mind, but rather necessary for salvation.

For this reason the all-wise Paul writes to certain persons:

To write the same things to you, is to me indeed not irksome, but for you it is safe. For since the human mind, out of exceedingly great slothfulness, is corrupted at times to forgetfulness of the things given to each by God, on this account the divine word raises us up to the remembrance of them in very many places, not permitting us to grow altogether cold toward slothfulness, but rather rekindling us to the love of God, and to the desire of every good thing.

Therefore, since Israel had been redeemed, very many things having been marvellously accomplished on its behalf, and then, becoming unmindful of these, they turned to apostasy and inclined toward gods that are not, of necessity God brings them back to the remembrance of his own power, saying that he had given a way in the sea, and a path in mighty water.

And this we say to be the path in mighty water.

What ails you, O sea, that you fled? and you, Jordan, that you were turned back? And again, speaking concerning God:

He who turns the sea into dry land, they shall pass through the river on foot. Therefore he has given a way in the sea, and a path in mighty water.

And he brought forth chariots, and horse, and a mighty throng.

For Pharaoh pursued those of the blood of Israel with chariots and horses, and using the hard-to-withstand hand of his fellow-warriors, yet in no way did he conquer, nor did he harm those who had been redeemed.

For they fell asleep, and shall not rise, he says, but were quenched like quenched flax.

For they were drowned in the waters, together with their horses, and utterly perished, and, like easily-consumed flax, were devoured by the divine wrath, and were quenched without struggle; that is, they came to nothing, and were, as it were, reduced to ashes.

But if someone should say: Seeing that they were running down upon Israel by the private will of the ruler of the land of the Egyptians, how is God of all things said himself to have brought forth the horses, and chariots, and the army under him? We say that it was said to Pharaoh by God who rules over all things:

For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might display in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. And let these things again be understood historically.

But we say that those who have chosen to live well, and who shun the bondage under the devil, and who depart from the concerns of earthly things, and, as it were, wish to withdraw from all uncleanness, the evil one pursues, but God marvellously saves, making the surge of the present life passable for them, and by unspeakable power leading them across, and not suffering the distractions of the present life to overwhelm them, but rather enabling them to come beyond the fleshly waves, and calming for them, as though a sea, the temptations that befall in manifold ways;

that they might have strength, having come into a wilderness land, that is, into a pure and unhurried condition of mind, to eat the bread from heaven, and to drink water from the rock, that is, to come into participation of Christ, and to be brought across the Jordan, and so to drive into the land of promise. He who is spiritual will assuredly understand what I mean.

Do not remember the former things, and do not consider the things of old.

Behold, I make new things, which now shall spring forth, and you shall know them.

And I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land.

The beasts of the field shall bless me, the sirens and the daughters of ostriches, because I have given water in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land, to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I have won for myself, that they may recount my excellences and mighty deeds. Just as in the passages above, where the redemption to come for those of Israel was but partial and limited in scope, he set it before them for their knowledge, yet, raising the narrative of these matters to something better, he made mention, in incomparable measure, of the salvation through Christ, saying that he would proclaim Israel as our King;

so also here, having profitably recalled the Red Sea, and the streams of the Jordan, and the passing over of those of Israel, he again returns to the mystery of Christ.

Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

For the entrance of things incomparably superior sometimes consigns the lesser to oblivion; and the brilliant among matters somehow dim those which are not so by nature, even if they are prior in time.

Something of this kind the all-wise Paul also expresses, when he says: For now we know in part;

but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. For great indeed, and beyond all speech, were the things accomplished by God through the all-wise Moses; yet surpassing and pre-eminent are those wrought through the might and supremacy of our Saviour.

For through him and from him the multitude of the nations throughout all the inhabited world has been saved.

and rather to fix the mind upon things incomparably superior and possessing splendid glory.

I will make, then, he says, a way in the wilderness.

Now by 'wilderness' in these words is understood the multitude of the nations, of old barren and unfruitful, and as it were bearing thorns, because there was in it utterly no one godly, nor of good repute, nor knowing wisely how to do good works.

They are all gone aside, they are together become unprofitable; there was none that did good, no not one. In this wilderness, then, there has appeared a way, bringing those who come through it to the true knowledge of God, and to a holy and undefiled life, and to all understanding of every good thing.

And we say that this way is either the divine and evangelical and saving proclamation, or perhaps indeed Christ himself.

For we have heard him saying plainly:

I am the way. But not only did a way come to be in the wilderness; rivers also were shown forth, able to make drunk with spiritual and soul-profiting streams those who were in it.

The rivers lifted up their voices. For as he himself again says somewhere:

Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the inhabited world. And besides the rivers so named, there may be understood also the leaders of the peoples, who know how to initiate rightly and blamelessly into the mysteries, and who are able to water with words leading to godliness those who draw near to Christ through faith.

And he names the multitude of the nations 'the dry land.'

For there was among them no teacher of truth, possessing the saving stream.

For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, according to the utterance of the blessed and inspired Paul:

And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Therefore, he says, a way having been shown forth in the wilderness, and the dry land having received rivers, the beasts of the field shall bless me, the sirens and the daughters of ostriches, because I have given water in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land, to give drink to my chosen race, the people whom I have won for myself, that they may recount my excellences;

and by 'beasts of the field' he seems to signify those who, through very great ignorance, have been in a manner made brutish and are living savagely.

And by 'sirens and daughters of ostriches' he means those who among them know how to speak eloquently, and are practised in fine speech.

It is customary for the God-inspired Scripture to call 'sirens' those of the little birds that are most talkative, and accustomed to utter something tuneful and rhythmical.

And such, in a way, were the teachers of the superstition of the Greeks, both poets and prose-writers.

For there is in them, as far as concerns words, that which is sweet and well-sounding.

But all these, he says, shall glorify me, as having given the spiritual water, and having shown rivers to the dry land.

That they may give drink to my chosen race;

and what is this race, if not surely those to whom

the all-wise Peter also addressed himself, saying:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may declare the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God in the Lord? I have not now called you, O Jacob, neither have I made you to labour, O Israel.

You have not brought me the sheep of your whole burnt offering, neither have you glorified me with your sacrifices, nor served me with your sacrifices.

Neither have I wearied you with frankincense, nor have you bought me incense with silver, neither have I desired the fat of your sacrifices.

For he said that he would make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry land;

and that for this cause he would be blessed by all the beasts of the field;

and the giving of glory might be understood as a mode of spiritual sacrifice, and as the fruit of the new covenant in Christ.

But in the present passage he endeavours to assure Israel that it has indeed been redeemed out of Egypt, and delivered from the servitude there, and freed from those grievous toils, not in order that it might bring him calves, and make its approach through blood and smoke.

For such things are cast off before God, and are shadow rather than truth.

He says, then: I have not now called you, O Jacob.

And the word 'now' is to be understood in place of 'not when you sacrifice'; that is, I have not called you while you were engaged in slaughtering oxen and killing sheep, lest perhaps you should suppose that you had gained redemption as a kind of recompense for your offering; but rather, while you were still in sins and involved in defilements—for you had served the gods of the Egyptians—I counted you worthy of sparing and of love.

Therefore the gift is of kindness, and grace is the fruit of loving-kindness, and redemption is as it were out of love.

For nothing, he says, are the sheep of your whole burnt offering to me, nor indeed did you glorify me with your sacrifices.

For that which is altogether unacceptable and offered in vain, how could it become for my glory? But neither did you serve me with your sacrifices.

For he who practises something of good things, he says, and becomes an accomplisher of the boasts that lead to virtue—he who bows his neck to my commands, and is a worker of the sacred oracles—he might be said to serve the God who is over all.

But he who fills the holy tabernacle with the smoke of frankincense, and brings oxen or sheep, or has performed some of the finest things, shall not carry off the glory of genuineness;

for such a one has done nothing at all of the things that please me. Therefore serving does not consist in sacrificing, but in resolving to bow one's neck tenderly and, as it were, pliantly to his will.

For as far as it depended on what seemed good to me, he says, I would not have wearied you with frankincense, nor would you have bought me incense with silver; nor indeed did I desire the fat of your sacrifices.

Like to this is what was spoken to them through another prophet:

Gather together your burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh; for I spoke not to your fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt. And the same prophet Jeremiah said again somewhere else:

To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me. And moreover, through the voice of the psalmist:

I will take no bullocks out of your house, nor he-goats out of your folds. And everywhere he makes cast off the worship in shadows, removing them indeed from the types, but as it were driving them together toward the justification in Christ, and teaching them to lay hold of the evangelical way of life, through which alone it may come to pass that one is able to please God, and to render worship truly blameless and sincere—that is, evidently, spiritual worship.

For God is Spirit, he says, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions, and I will not remember them.

But you, remember, and let us plead together.

Declare you your transgressions first, that you may be justified. Consider then for me again, how it was not to the power of the worship according to the Law that God assigned the ability to free any from the uncleanness that was in them.

For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, and useless in these things is the shadow of the Law.

He writes, at any rate, and says concerning both himself and the other apostles, that is, those who had believed from among the circumcision:

We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles;

yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ;

even we have believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified in him. Do not therefore, he says, suppose that you will ever be able to make yourself free from the charges arising out of wickedness through sacrifice and smoke.

But know rather that I am he that blots out your transgressions, and I will not remember them.

For this alone saves those on the earth, who have a feeble mind, easily led astray toward anything whatsoever of the things that have been discredited from the Law.

For diligently, he says, the mind of man is set upon evil things from his youth.

If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, who shall stand? for with you there is propitiation. The God of all, then, has compassion, and indeed, using auspicious tokens of favour and the pardons that befit God, sets outside of blame and of stumblings those who had been caught in them.

Yet he does not permit those who have obtained mercy to fail to acknowledge the grace of him who justifies them. And we shall find this profitable, and pursued with earnestness by the saints.

For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me; and again, For I will declare my iniquity, and I will be anxious for my sin. I, then, he says, will forget the charges;

but do you yourself remember, and indeed let us plead together;

and do you confess, and hold fast the pardon secure.

Be not ashamed to confess concerning your sins. This commandment the haughty Pharisee did not keep—the one whom, in the evangelical parables, the Saviour sets forth praying in the synagogue, and then, being greatly sick with ignorance, and out of vain conceit saying:

God, I thank you, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, or even as this publican.

'I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.' This man could not bring himself to confess his own sins.

He stands condemned, then, as both a boaster and a liar, for no one is clean from defilement, and we all stumble in many things.

But the tax-collector knew and confessed his own sins.

For he stood beating his breast and saying:

'Your fathers first, and your rulers, have transgressed against me.'

'And the rulers defiled my holy things;'

'and I gave up Jacob and Israel to be destroyed, unto reproach.' Having said:

'I am he that blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them,' he foresaw that perhaps some would rise up in opposition to what had been said, and indeed would say:

'If you have honoured Israel with pardon, if a very great calm has come upon him, if he has been cleansed of his defilements and has washed off the stains of his ancient charges, how then, and for what offences, is he consumed by the swords of his enemies and made to pay the penalty?'