Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 53/65

For now, he says, the Lord has sent me, and His Spirit.

And the phrase 'And now' He sets in place of: even if none of the things that came to pass had been announced beforehand by God, yet behold, now Cyrus has confessed that it was God who raised him up and crowned him with glories unto the end, by his triumphing greatly over the Babylonians.

For Cyrus, having learned from the Jews who dwelt in Babylon that God had spoken concerning him through holy prophets—that he would come in due seasons and take the land of the Chaldeans by force, and himself release Israel;

then, as it says, when they had also shown him the very books, they prevailed upon him to come to such a mind that by his own proclamations he named the God of Israel both Lord and Most High.

And it is written thus in the first book of Esdras:

In the first year of the reign of Cyrus of the Persians, for the fulfillment of the word of the Lord in the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he made proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and at the same time in writing, saying:

Thus says Cyrus the king of the Persians:

The Lord Most High, the God of Israel, has appointed me king of the world, and has signified to me that I should build Him a house in Jerusalem in Judaea.

If, then, there is any of you from among His people, let his Lord be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judaea and build the house of the Lord the God of Israel.

having settled Jerusalem. Therefore, He says, whenever you come to understand that it was not through the falsely-named gods, but rather through Me, that the things that came to pass were made known among you before they happened, hear Cyrus saying that the Lord has sent me, and His Spirit. Thus says the Lord, He who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel:

I am your God, I have shown you the way in which you shall walk in it.

And if you had listened to My commandments, your peace would have become like a river, and your righteousness like a wave of the sea;

and your seed would have become like the sand, and the offspring of your womb like the dust of the earth;

not even now shall you be utterly destroyed, nor shall your name perish before Me.

Come out from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans. Once more He fashions in them a firm resolve and a well-grounded mind, unto the necessity of knowing the God who is by nature and truly;

and He uncovers to them His own glory, that they may not be carried off by the voices of those who lead astray to what is fleeting—that is, to supposing and imagining that the falsely-named gods, who do not exist at all, came to their aid.

This also He declared to the all-wise Moses, saying:

I am He who is. For the God of all is properly and truly He who is.

But the things that were brought into being by Him might indeed be said themselves also to be, save that they came into being and received a beginning of their existence.

Thus, then, says the Lord who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel:

I set before you a Law, He says, one that defines what must be done and knows how to direct you toward whatever is most pleasing to Me, a guide into righteousness, a teacher of godliness, one that leads to the straight road; and had you been willing to walk by it, you would have arrived at being a true and genuine servant, well crowned with the boasts that spring from the virtues.

But you have strayed outside the straight path and, abandoning the highroad, you turned aside, as it were, to what is unlawful.

You have given worship to the host of heaven, you have sacrificed to idols, you have bowed down to gods that are not, you forgot your Creator, you counted as nothing the Law that was given.

For had you become obedient to My commandments, your peace would have become like a river, and your righteousness like the wave of the sea.

And what He wishes to indicate is something of this kind.

They say that when a violent rain bursts upon the mountains, the torrents come rushing down terribly and unbearably, so that nothing whatever is able to withstand their onset.

And that other thing too is plain, I suppose, somewhere.

For the batterings of the waves of the sea are terrible and hard to face, and this not only for sailors, that is, for their vessels, but at times even for the very rocks themselves.

For these rocks are broken apart, as the waters shatter against them in gushing streams.

Therefore, He says, if you had been a hearer of My words, if you had brought your mind to be obedient, your peace would have become like a river and like the waters, unconquerable by your enemies, that is, by those who wished to oppose you.

Or perhaps also in another way, so that He might declare peace to be for them an abundant and perpetual thing, He likens it to a river and to waves: to a river as ever and copiously flowing and being borne along, and to waves as ever swelling and, as it were, perpetually running up upon the dry land.

And your seed also would have become like the sand, and the offspring of your womb like the dust of the earth.

But since you have acted outrageously against God and have grievously offended, going out into every kind of monstrous deed, you have been reduced to a small remnant, and you do not possess the increase of your race widening into a multitude; nevertheless, not even now shall you be utterly destroyed.

For everywhere the remnant of Israel has been preserved.

And God declared that nowhere would he fall utterly root and all, because of the promise given to the fathers.

Then He says: Go out from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans.

This is a royal nod, releasing Israel from captivity.

For just as those who hold power over affairs on earth, and who administer the thrones of the kingdom, sometimes grant to those held underground the release into flight, signifying the matter by a benevolent nod and word;

so too the God of all bestowed a benevolent nod upon those who had suffered, and He says clearly, 'Go out,' that they might know the Redeemer and the Giver to them of all good cheer.

Declare a voice of gladness, and let this be made to be heard.

Declare it to the end of the earth.

The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob; and if they thirst, he will lead them through the wilderness, rocks shall be split and waters shall flow, and my people shall drink.

There is no rejoicing for the ungodly, says the Lord. Now all the things that God may do are, by common confession, worthy of wonder.

But those of His works which surpass the rest and have obtained the highest glory, when they remain hidden do a wrong, so to speak, to those who happen to be deprived of the knowledge of them, yet when made known they profit no little.

For from this it is possible to see both His ineffable glory, and His pre-eminence over all things, and His mighty hand, and His all-powerful glory.

For He was redeeming Israel out of Egypt.

But in order that He might be seen as a doer of great deeds, so that His glory might become manifest even to those throughout all the earth, Pharaoh was taken up in the midst like some vessel, so that by opposing the words spoken through Moses he might call forth God to what remained—namely, to manifest His own glory to all and to display the magnitude of His measureless power.

For it was said to him:

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 those things befell the men of old, but they came to pass for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

It was necessary, therefore—necessary that the redemption of those of Israel from Babylon should not rather be kept in silence, but be, as it were, proclaimed aloud to those everywhere.

Declare a voice of gladness.

And we say that a voice of gladness is the doxology which one might make in hymning Him for deeds so great and splendid.

This is, properly and truly, gladness—a voice befitting the righteous, to whom it is also fitting that they should give glory.

'and of salvation in the tents of the righteous.' And He wishes the voice to contain the narrative of the redemption of those of Israel, such as was that in the Book of Psalms.

You were well pleased, O Lord, with Your land;

You turned back the captivity of Jacob, You forgave the iniquities of Your people, You covered all their sins. For these things, even if they contain the disclosure of spiritual matters, are nevertheless useful also for the history.

And He promises that, if they thirst while journeying through the wilderness, He will bring them water from a rock.

A rock shall be split, and water shall flow, and my people shall drink.

And we say that in these things He shows that it was no other God who freed Israel from the harshness of the Egyptians, and led them through the midst of the sea, and gave them food in the wilderness, and brought forth water from a rock;

but the same One, ever the same and in the same manner, and able to work wonders equal to those of old.

For if they should come through the wilderness, He says, and then find themselves in want of drink and of waters, that ancient sign shall be shown to them;

for water shall be brought forth from a rock;

and yet one could not find that this actually happened to those of Israel as they went up into Judea from Babylon.

The One who was of old, and is now, able to employ equal power and matching wonders, and possessing unfailing strength, cries out and, as it were, issues a general law.

For there is no rejoicing for the ungodly, says the Lord.

For the countenance of the impious is somehow always downcast, since their heart is naturally smitten, and the mind bears the burden of the reproofs of conscience.

For he expects not crowns, nor the honor of praise, but rather fire and punishment, which have been prepared for transgressors.

Or perhaps also the saying might fit the Babylonians.

For they rejoiced as having captured the people of God, and supposed that, having triumphed over His right hand also, they had prevailed over Judea.

For the former, because they were caught transgressing, came to be outside His sparing mercy; while the latter, because they were hard and unyielding and knew not how to show mercy, have had the punishments befitting them demanded of them, and have been deprived also of rejoicing, still keeping their brow chastened and their pride already chastised.

For it was not because they had once conquered those of Israel that rejoicing still belonged to them, but because, being evil, they perished evilly, and, their country having been laid waste, they received the bitterness of grief.

From my mother's womb He called my name, and He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and under the shelter of His hand He hid me.

He made me as a chosen arrow, and in His quiver He sheltered me, and He said to me:

so as to know clearly who is by nature and in truth God, and the nature that holds sway over all things.

And He addresses the islands, which we say are the Churches of Christ, as lying, as it were, in the sea—that is, in the surge of the present life—and encompassed by unbearable batterings of waves, that is, by persecutions and calamities, which the enemies of the truth and those who fight against the calling of God bring upon them.

Concerning such islands, much has been said in many places by the God-inspired Scripture.

The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice, let the many islands be glad. For when Christ reigned over all that is under heaven, taking all under His hand, and tearing it away from the tyranny of the demons;

then also they exulted—that is, they became full of gladness—the Churches throughout all the earth.

For that the prophet, in naming islands in these passages, indicates the Churches from among the nations, would become clear through what follows.

For he immediately added to the words 'Hear me, you islands' the words 'Give heed, you nations.'

He promises, as I said, the manifestation of the Savior of us all, Jesus Christ, and that, being God the Word, He would live together with those on earth in a form like ours.

What then is this? The very person of the Savior was brought in, saying:

From my mother's womb He called my name.

In these words there was at once conjoined the mystery, deep and great, and requiring the initiation from above.

For it was thus revealed to the divinely inspired Peter.

For the Word both is God, equal in honor and sharing the throne with God the Father, co-existing and co-eternal;

and the names before the incarnation, belonging in a certain proper way to His nature, are: God, and wisdom, and light, life, and power;

and others besides these, which are found in the sacred Writings.

But when He lowered Himself into self-emptying, having come to be in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, He receives the common name—that is, both Christ and Jesus, or rather, 'God with us.'

For the phrase 'with us' signifies being in our condition.

For it is written: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel'; for the blessed Gabriel, unveiling the mystery to the holy Virgin and Mother of God, said:

'Fear not, Mary,' he says.

'For you have found grace with God, and behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.'

'For he himself shall save his people from their sins.' Have they then, the blessed angel and the prophet, spoken utterances that are irreconcilable with one another? By no means.

For the inspired prophet, speaking mysteries by the Spirit, foretold beforehand God-become-among-us, naming him thus both from his nature and from the economy according to the flesh.

But the blessed angel gave him his name from the effect of his working;

for he saved his own people.

Therefore for this reason he is called Saviour.

And indeed, when for our sake he endured the birth according to the flesh, the hosts of angels proclaimed the good tidings of his nativity to the shepherds, saying:

'Jesus'—precisely because it was necessary that he, being God and having become man, should save all that is under heaven.

When therefore he came forth from the womb of his own mother—for that which is according to the flesh was begotten of her—then also was his name called.

I say therefore that the name of 'Christ' is unfitting to God the Word before the birth according to the flesh.

For not yet being anointed, how could he be called Christ? For when he came forth from the womb of his mother as man, then, concurrent with the birth according to the flesh, he receives the appellation.

And he says that his mouth was set as a sharp sword.

For it is written somewhere concerning him—or rather the prophet Isaiah himself says:

'And he shall be girded about the loins with righteousness, and bound at the sides with truth, and by the spirit through his lips he shall slay the ungodly.' For the divine and heavenly proclamation, that is, the evangelical message spoken through the mouth of Christ, has become a sword sharp and most keen against the tyranny of the devil, destroying the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness.

For he scattered the mist of deception, and cast into the hearts of all the radiance of the true knowledge of God;

for he transformed all that is under heaven into a godly manner of life, and made all men lovers of holy pursuits; he reaped away the sin of the world, justifying the ungodly by faith, filling those who draw near with the Holy Spirit, declaring them to be sons of God, implanting in them a vigorous and most warlike resolve, and giving them the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, that, rising up against those who once held them in bondage, they might run toward the prize of the upward calling, with nothing hindering them.

And that the instruction and initiation through Christ has become destructive of the tyranny of the devil for those on earth, the prophet Isaiah will make plain, saying:

'In that day God shall bring the holy and great sword upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and shall slay the dragon.'

And he adds: 'And under the shelter of his hand he hid me.'

For he says that he is under the shelter of his right hand, that he might intimate that the unassailable and unconquerable quality of his own nature is preserved to him, even though he came to be among the things that pertain to us.

For no one shall prevail against his all-powerful right hand; but the Word, as I said, remains distinct from the measures of humanity.

For the Word from God the Father is still all-mighty, and he himself is the Lord of hosts.

Since he became man, the Father, not dishonouring the power of the mystery, concurs with the economy, and speaks concerning him through the lyre of the Psalmist:

'The enemy shall gain no advantage over him, and the son of iniquity shall not add to afflict him; and I will cut down his enemies from before his face.'

'And those that hate him I will put to flight.'

'And my truth and my mercy shall be with him.' Consider then, consider also through the voice of the prophet how he who for our sake became as we are speaks in a manner befitting a man:

'Under the shelter of his hand he hid me.'

'He set me,' he says, 'as a choice arrow, and in his quiver he sheltered me.'

For very many have been the arrows of God, hidden at their appointed seasons as in a quiver in his foreknowledge, and brought forth at the season fitting for each; but a choice arrow, above all the rest, is Christ, hidden, as I said, as in a quiver, in the foreknowledge of the Father.

For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, and was brought forth into the midst when it was necessary to visit the whole earth, which had fallen into destruction and ruin through worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, and being subject to unclean spirits, and bound in the snares of sin.

This choice arrow destroys, as I said, Satan himself and the wicked powers that are with him.

And likewise it destroys the enemies of the truth, and those who impiously stood against his sacred proclamations.

But it also wounds in another way, unto benefit and salvation.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

For the Son was, and is, free, as one who sprang ineffably from the substance that reigns over all.

But he heard the Father saying:

Therefore the Word, who is free by nature, is made a servant through the fleshly economy—that is, the one understood as being according to the flesh—that again you may consider his birth according to the flesh from a woman in time.

And he names him to become Israel, on account of his becoming, according to the flesh, of the blood of Israel;

but 'In you also,' he says, 'shall I be glorified.'

For the God of all was glorified also through the holy prophets, yet not in them.

But in Christ in a strange and unaccustomed manner.

We see him pre-eminent in him, through the God-befitting dignities and the power and working in every respect whatsoever, of sanctification and righteousness and utter gentleness.

For the Deity is thus made known to the mind.

'He who has seen me has seen my Father.' And the all-wise Paul also said that the Begetter is glorified in the person of Christ.

'Therefore in you,' he says, 'shall I be glorified.'

For to the Son, even having appeared in the flesh, every knee shall bow, as it is written, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is unto the glory of God the Father.

'In vain have I laboured, and to no purpose, and for nothing have I spent my strength.'

And to this they were called, and before all others those of the blood of Israel;

and they were so preferred above the nations that Jesus said:

having obtained so glorious and exceptional an honour, they became faithless, and bold apostates, and dreadful deserters of the flock, insolent and arrogant.

And although they ought most gladly to have drawn near to grace, and to have gained faith and the good things that come from it, this they did not do—how could they?—but rose up in opposition; against him who called them to salvation they blasphemed without restraint, reviling him unchecked;

and indeed, what terrible thing did they not utter unbridled, and in the end they crucified him.

Therefore, as far as concerns the harshness of those who disobeyed and the contentiousness so monstrously practised by them, the Saviour laboured in vain, and to no purpose, and for nothing gave his strength.

For, as I said just now, stupefied Israel did not endure his sacred proclamations;

it did not honour his labour.

For it was labour for the Word to become as we are, and to endure the lowliness of humanity.

'But my judgement,' says the Father, 'is the toils that I have spent for the sake of their salvation.'

And what was the judgement? They have been cast out from intimacy with him, thrust out from being the people of God, become partakers no longer in the salvation from him, remained without a taste of the hope of the saints; and in their place the multitude of the nations has been called in.

And in place of the shepherds among them, others have been ordained—righteous and God-loving, overseers of holy endeavours, and able to lead peoples, luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life, as the all-wise Paul says.

Do you wish to see the judgement of the Father, that is, the verdict pronounced upon them? Hear the Saviour saying to the teachers of the Jews:

'There was a certain man, a householder, who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.' Then he says:

He sent servants to receive the fruits, and all were put in peril.

But since afterward he sent his son, and they, having seen him, he says, said:

'This is the heir' among themselves; 'come, let us kill him, and let us seize for ourselves his inheritance.'

And indeed they killed him. When this parable had been told them, the Lord is again reported saying:

'When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those husbandmen?' And they answered him:

'He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out the vineyard to others, who will render him the fruits in their seasons.'

And in response to this Christ says:

For other keepers of the vineyards have been appointed, and wise husbandmen—that is, the divinely inspired disciples.

Upon these the clouds have sent down showers for us, even though they had been commanded no longer to water the Jewish vineyard.

From these Christ has gathered not thorns rather, but a cluster of grapes.

And consider with me again the force of the saying, reflecting on the dispensation which the all-wise Paul himself also makes clear to us, saying:

That the Son, being in the form and equality of the Father, counted it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself and became obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross;

and for this cause he was highly exalted and there was granted to him the name which is above every name, that in his name every knee should bow. For he was, and is, God the Word.

But since he was named man, and this took place in truth, he has ascended into his own glory together with the flesh.

For it was recognized that he is God, and that he had not labored in vain.

Being known, he caused heaven and earth, and the things yet below, to fall down before him.

And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to gather together Jacob and Israel:

To him will I be gathered, and I shall be glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.

And he said to me, It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel. In these words we affirm that it is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself who has employed such humanly-fitting utterances, even though above all he thereby makes clear the great mystery of godliness and renders manifest the manner of the self-emptying.

For consider how he says that the one who is by nature and truly his own he formed into a servant for himself—yet from the womb.

For indeed he does not say that the Word, while yet bare and fleshless, was brought into the formation of servitude, though God the Father was well pleased with this;

but rather from the womb—that is, when he was born according to the flesh from a woman.

For then, being God by nature and free, as from a Father who is God and free, he receives the form of a servant, that is, the fashioning.

For no one, if he had any sense, would say that what is by nature a slave is rather fashioned into slavery; but he who is beyond slavery and the yoke, and adorned with the boasts of natural freedom, would fittingly receive the fashioning, that is, the form, of a servant.

For that the Son, being free, willingly lowered himself to this—how could anyone doubt it, when Paul says that he was indeed in the form of God, and counted it not robbery to be equal with God, but out of his equality and likeness in every respect whatsoever, he came down, not unwillingly, into the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men?

For God was with him, yet no less did he demonstrate to us that which is by nature and truly free, and that which is a servant not unwillingly, in the payment of the didrachma.

For the tax-collectors asked the divinely inspired Peter whether Christ ever pays in the didrachma along with the rest, or whether he rejects the payment.

Then the Lord said to him:

Then, he says, the sons are free.

But that we may not cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater;

take that and give it to them for me and for you. Therefore he who is free by nature is fashioned into a servant according to the dispensation, when indeed he was also born from the womb of his mother according to the flesh.

For this was the season befitting the measures of the self-emptying.

And that he was fashioned in a ministering capacity, he confirmed by saying, to gather together Jacob and Israel.

For he came down into our condition, being God the Word, for no other reason than to save Israel and to gather Jacob.

For the inventor of all wickedness scattered abroad all who were upon the earth into sin manifold and multiform.

For some he wholly turned away from the Creator, contriving that they should be subject to himself and to the unclean demons, casting upon them the yoke of sin, hard to escape, and utterly estranging them even from knowing who is by nature the God and Lord of all.

But those who had the law of Moses as arbiter of what ought to be done, he rendered slothful and slack, carrying them off to every kind of thing out of place, so that they made very little account of the law, but acted rather according to whatever seemed good to each, and taught for doctrines the commandments of men.

But when Christ appeared to the world, that which Satan had scattered abroad was gathered together through faith into one right and irreproachable mind; and those who long ago had departed from the love toward God ran to him, and casting the enmity-producing sin behind them as the pursuit of good things, they are at peace with Christ.

For the divinely inspired prophets also urged them to go swiftly to this.

Isaiah, at any rate, says: Let us make peace with him, let us who come make peace.

And the divinely inspired disciples also cried aloud:

We are therefore ambassadors for Christ, as though God were beseeching you through us; we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And we make our reconciliation to God when we draw near to Christ through faith.

For as the most holy Paul again somewhere says:

God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. For in Christ the world is reconciled to God.

Therefore he sets forth clearly the ministry of the incarnation, saying that he was fashioned by the Father into a servant from the womb, that he might gather Israel and Jacob.

And even if someone should say that the nation of the Jews is signified by these words, he would not be shooting wide of the mark.