Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 54/65

I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But if he should wish to name all those saved through faith as both Israel and Jacob, this too would be well.

If indeed it is true that he is not only a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is in the flesh, then it might thus be called circumcision;

but rather he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.

If then a Jew is he who has circumcision in the spirit, such persons would by no means be excluded from being named Israel and Jacob.

And there has been inserted in the midst of the discourse, by those who are called through faith, an utterance affirming that, To him also will I be gathered, and I shall be glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.

For at the same time that he commands it to come to pass, God, all but at once, brings to fulfillment the very things spoken of that follow.

For Israel has been saved not once for all, but some disbelieved because of their own perversity, not accepting the grace of the evangelical teachings.

But the multitude of the nations has been called together along with the remnant;

who have also been appointed children of Abraham, so that in every respect, as far as the dispensation is concerned, the purpose of the sojourning should not miss its aim;

for there has been gathered together everyone who is Israel, and indeed also Jacob, according to the explanations we have just now set forth.

Therefore the people called in Christ promises that it will both be gathered to God, clearly through faith, and that it will be glorified before God, winning the splendid boast of adoption as sons, having become partakers of the divine nature, adorned with the Holy Spirit, appointed as a cultivator of the noblest pursuits, and that it will regard God as its own strength.

For thus it befits those to be disposed who desire the salvation and glory that come from him.

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.

If one must speak somewhat in human terms, the Father does not permit the Son to shrink from the dispensation, nor does he leave unrewarded the lowliness of the servant's form; but he declares the matter, as it were, fruitful, and the humiliation not without reward, and the burden of the dispensation as not going to be without wonder, but glorious for this very reason, even the seeming to be dishonored.

For it was admittedly a small thing for the Word who was begotten of God to be called a servant, that is, a household slave.

But the need of the concepts causes both this and that to be introduced, each according to the occasion befitting it.

And since the discourse is about the dispensation with the flesh, it would fittingly be right for the servant to be understood as a slave.

Therefore, even if, as I said, the ignominy of servitude was to the Son but a small matter, yet it was otherwise.

And indeed it became no small thing for him;

that he might scatter the hordes of demons of their intolerable greed against us, that he might do away with destruction-working sin, that he might abolish death, and reshape the nature of man to what it was from the beginning, and deliver up to God his kingdom, which is both the Father's and his own, no longer tyrannized over by anyone, but rather casting off the yoke of the covetousness of others.

Behold, I have set you for a light of the nations, that you should be for salvation to the end of the earth. The Father was not ignorant of the hardened and unadmonishable mind of the Jews, wholly turned aside to unruliness.

For they in no way accepted the instruction through Christ, although it was fitting that they should admire the gentleness and the incomparable love for mankind of the Redeemer, and receive his generous favor as it were with open hands.

Therefore, that the dispensation of our Savior might not seem to have come to a failure of its aim—inasmuch as the people that had led the way had spurned it and did not receive, as I said, his redemption—the Father added that he would point out the path of salvation, and would send the light of the true knowledge of God into those in gloom and darkness.

For Israel was called to this, Christ saying plainly:

I am the light of the world. And:

While you have the light, walk in the light, that the darkness may not overtake you. But since they loved the darkness rather than the light, they were left by him, even though the holy prophets had foretold to them the grace that is in Christ.

Shine, shine, O Jerusalem;

for your light has come, and the glory has risen upon you.

Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth upon the nations.

But upon you the Lord shall appear, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And another prophet says:

And to you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness shall arise, with healing in his wings. But since, as the sacred Scripture says, they made their ears heavy that they should not hear, and closed their eyes.

Christ shone forth upon the nations, and He showed the whole earth beneath heaven to be filled full of the divine light, so that those from the East to the West, and even to the ends of the earth, might have the benefit of His bounty, and with pure eyes of understanding might contemplate the divine and supremely exalted nature, and might consecrate to it alone the modes of spiritual worship.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel who has redeemed you:

Sanctify Him who despises His own soul, who is abhorred by the nations, by the servants of the rulers.

Kings shall see Him, and rulers shall rise up and shall worship Him, for the Lord's sake, because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I have chosen you.

In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you. From this too you may learn how great a sparing kindness God the Father counted worthy those who are called through Christ.

For He initiates them into the mysteries, and unveils the deep and great mystery of the Incarnation, not suffering any to be broken to pieces upon the stone of stumbling, nor to strike, through folly, against the rock of scandal.

For thus was stricken Israel, smitten as with a stroke of paralysis.

What then, He says, does He declare? I, the God who redeemed you, thus say to you:

Sanctify Him who despises His own soul—that is, hold in reverence and regard as holy, and be earnest to treat as sacred, Him who counted His own soul as cheap, that is, esteemed it as nothing.

For God, having become man—even the only-begotten Word of God—laid down His own soul on our behalf, and chose to suffer for our sake the death that is according to the flesh, while enduring nothing in respect of His own nature.

For He Himself, as being beyond suffering inasmuch as He is God, nevertheless—so to speak—cast it away, and this on behalf of sinners.

At this indeed the all-wise Paul marveled.

For he said that God commends His own love toward us,

for while we were yet sinners, in due time He died on behalf of the ungodly. And Christ Himself somewhere says:

The good shepherd lays down his own soul for the sheep. He therefore laid it down on our behalf; for by His stripes we were healed, and He was bruised for our iniquities, and for our sins He was delivered up.

—that is, let Him be esteemed holy, or rather be confessed as such.

And this would befit God, and Him alone, properly and in a special sense.

For even though there are many holy ones—both rational powers, and indeed also men upon earth—yet it is by participation in the One who is holy by nature, and who alone is truly such, that they are styled holy.

For just as He Himself is the true light, yet has given this dignity to others also—

for He says, You are the light of the world—so also, being alone holy together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, He gives, as out of His own fullness, sanctification even to those who partake of Him.

Thus also do we say in our prayers:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. And by no means do we say this as though we were entreating that some addition of sanctification might accrue to the name of the Father;

for the notion would be utterly foolish.

Rather, we truly pray that it may be among all men what it in fact is—that is, holy and to be feared;

so here too the word Sanctify must be understood, even though, He says, He despised His own soul—that is, even though He is said to have suffered something of what pertains to man, and prepared His own flesh to taste of death, yet He laid down His own soul on behalf of many.

The discourse runs on, and makes mention of other things also—things which might at times prove even a hindrance to those who ought to believe in Him, if they do not perceive the depth of the divine economy; yet to the sound of mind these could work no harm at all.

For when Jesus had been delivered up to Pilate, some of the soldiers treated Him with abhorrence, on the one hand striking Him impiously, and on the other dishonoring Him with spittings, insulting Him with the crown made of thorns, mocking Him and saying:

And to this One also there shall surely follow the word Sanctify; but though He suffered the mockeries at the hands of the nations according to the divine economy,

yet after this He shall shine forth again, and shall be glorified by all in the highest pre-eminences, and among those who are held in the honors set beneath; He foretells this, saying:

Kings shall see Him and shall rise up—that is, from the thrones of their kingdom.

Rulers also shall worship Him.

But they shall see Him not with the eyes of the body, but rather as in a contemplation of mind and heart.

For thus do we behold the glory of Christ.

And they shall worship Him for the Lord's sake—that is, for My sake.

And the word faithful in this passage denotes Him who abides forever.

For the kingdom of God the Father is unshakable;

and likewise also that of the Son;

whereas the falsely-named gods are not faithful.

For they are newly-born, and perishing, and do not abide.

But the Savior and Lord of all is truly faithful—that is, firmly established in His own pre-eminences, and holding fast unshaken—and He Himself chose those who are called through Christ.

For whom He foreknew, he says, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son; these He also called, and besides this He sanctified and glorified them.

It was fitting, then—yea, fitting—that the chosen should sanctify Him who despises His own soul, and not, fixing their gaze on the things of His humanity, fall away from what is fitting and be carried off from the exact knowledge concerning Him; but rather, understanding the wisdom of the divine economy, that they should worship Him, and be firmly persuaded that He is by nature and in truth the Son of the faithful Lord, even though He appeared according to the economy in a form like ours and submitted to the measure of the self-emptying.

And He converses with the chosen, and says that In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.

Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, and His mystery likewise;

For thus somewhere also speaks the divinely-inspired Paul;

to establish the earth, and to inherit an inheritance of the wilderness, saying to those in bonds:

and to those in darkness, Be revealed.

And in all their ways they shall be pastured, and in all the ways shall their pasture be.

They shall not hunger, nor thirst, nor shall the burning heat or the sun strike them;

but He who has mercy on them shall comfort them, and shall lead them through springs of waters.

And I will make every mountain into a road, and every path into a pasture for them.

Behold, these come from afar.

These from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. It seemed good to some of the earlier commentators to make the beginning of the present chapter here.

In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.

And they say that these things were spoken by God the Father to Christ, the Savior of us all.

And they weave in besides some such meaning as this.

For He prayed, they say, before the precious cross, saying:

Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; and He was not heard, for He drank it.

But since He trampled down death, the Father lending His aid, it was necessarily said to Him: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.

For although He knew that He must drink the cup, and that it could not come to pass that the world beneath heaven should be saved except through the death of His flesh and His resurrection from the dead, yet most fittingly according to the economy He performed the outward act of prayer, in order that the deprecation of the passion might accuse the murderous cruelty of the Jews;

for in what way had Israel become liable to the charges of impiety against Him, if suffering had not been against His will on account of its ignominy? Yet even so it became His will, both to remove the sin of the world and to refashion our condition into the newness of a holy life.

For understanding thus also that which was said by Him, that I have come down from heaven, not that I may do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me—that is, the will of the Father who sent Me—that of all that He has given Me I may lose nothing of it, but may raise it up at the last day. For Christ appeared to the world, and the sacred proclamations were set forth among those of Israel.

But since they were disobedient and hardened, ungovernable and insolent, they did not receive the faith, but rather sinned against it in manifold ways, and then at last crucified Him.

Here, I pray you, behold the power of the ineffable wisdom.

For from the perversity of the Jews there was brought upon Him—I mean death—

[corruption], and we sprang up again unto life, we who through the transgression in Adam had been brought down to the contrary state.

We do not therefore say that a failure took place in the prayer of our Savior Christ—far from it!—but rather an act of the divine economy, upon which it must needs follow that we should marvel.

And in another way also we say that the entreaty—I mean that which was before the precious cross—was a wise one.

For it became for us a pattern and an example of a needful thing;

for when temptation hangs over us, and fear storms about us like a winter's tempest, we ought not to be slothful and cast down, but rather watchful, and then to strain ourselves toward prayers, and to beseech God who saves, so that, if it be His pleasure, we may carry our foot away from the snares and the trap.

But if indeed He knows that it will profit us more to have to suffer, this too shall come to its fulfillment, He Himself supplying the endurance.

Since, therefore, the opinion of certain persons has been shown to be unconvincing, come, let us take up again the matters in hand.

'Come forth,' and to those in darkness, 'Be uncovered.'

For she had gone astray, serving the creation and subjecting herself in bondage to the herds of unclean spirits.

For she did only what seemed good to those spirits.

And they were dragging her down into every kind of uncleanness, and commanding her to lead a life befitting brute beasts.

The earth, therefore, had been thrown into no small tumult, and was troubled;

but through Christ it was set aright, and, as it were out of storm and tempest, it passed over into calm.

For it became His portion and His inheritance.

And this, then, was what was said to Him in the second Psalm, as from God the Father:

'Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.' And He calls the multitude of the nations a 'desert,' likening it to a barren and waterless land.

Nevertheless, as I said, it became the inheritance of Christ.

But how, and in what manner? For to those who were in bonds and fettered fast by the chains of their own sins, He cried aloud, saying,

And to those who were in darkness and in spiritual gloom, all but consigned to deep night, He gave command to be uncovered and to come into the light, to open wide the eyes of the understanding, and to receive within themselves the divine light that comes from Him.

'And those deemed worthy of these things,' He says, 'shall be pastured in all their ways, and in all the paths shall be their feeding-ground.'

For very many are the ways of righteous conduct, but for the nations there was none that could be trodden; rather they were rough and steep.

They had been overpowered both by the onslaughts of their own passions and by the graspings of the devil, who set the good as an untrodden thing before them.

But when the grace of the Saviour shone forth, it loosed their bonds, illumined their heart, and thereupon they had strength to run along every way and to gather the spiritual nourishment;

for this is what 'they shall be pastured' signifies, and that they go swiftly upon every path of well-doing.

Nor does anything hinder us from saying this also: that the paths and ways which carry off our understanding towards God—that is, towards a holy and excellent manner of life—are the God-inspired Scriptures;

and these were least of all known to those who had gone astray.

But when they were called to the light of the truth, these became to them pastures and feeding-places, nourishing them unto spiritual manliness and unto the desire of every good thing.

And God promises them the abundance of the grace that comes from Himself, and of His succour, and of spiritual consolation.

'For they shall not hunger,' He says, 'neither shall they thirst.'

For of old they were in want of spiritual consolation, since with them there was no divine law, no prophet, no tutor, no guide, no teacher, no fountain of the spiritual waters.

But when they had obtained mercy from God, thereafter a most lavish provision of spiritual goods was granted them, since they now had food that benefits the soul.

For they ate bread from heaven, they drank living water, concerning which Christ Himself also spoke when He addressed His words to the woman in Samaria:

'Every one that drinks of this water shall thirst again;

but whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him, it shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life.' And the prophet Isaiah also said somewhere concerning those who have been justified by faith and who bow the neck of their understanding to the evangelical oracles:

'This man shall dwell in a high cave of a strong rock;

bread shall be given him, and his water shall be sure.' 'But neither shall the burning heat smite them, nor the sun.'

For Christ became to them a shelterer.

This is He who of old also suspended a cloud over the sons of Israel by day, and led them in a pillar of fire by night.

'They shall therefore be beyond the sun and the burning heat,' He says; that is, they shall attain the shelter that is from God, so that no burden befalls them, nor anything that carries them off into faintheartedness.

Something of this kind the all-divine Paul also said:

'For He shall lead them through fountains of waters, and shall make every mountain into a way, and every path into a feeding-ground for them.'

And by 'fountains' in these words we mean the holy prophets, and the apostles and evangelists, in communion with whom, wisely and skilfully, we draw from them the life-giving and divine word, sufficient to have power to brace our souls unto godliness and to work in us the spiritual delight.

'And ye shall draw water with gladness out of the fountains of salvation.' And that there is nothing steep or hard to traverse among the excellent deeds of valour for those saved through Christ, He would intimate by saying that the whole mountain has been made into a way.

But the Saviour has made every way for us smooth and easily traversed, so that even what seems hard to journey and hard to traverse lies levelled before those who are willing to walk through Him.

And this, I think, is what was clearly said through one of the holy prophets:

'Every ravine shall be filled, and all the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough into smooth ways.' And again:

'The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is made ready.' And that those who have been called have become greater than number, and have been gathered together out of every quarter under heaven, he made plain by saying:

'Behold, these come from afar, and these from the north and the sea, and others from the land of the Persians.'

For 'from afar' seems to indicate the southern regions, and 'the north' the northern parts, and 'the sea' the lands towards the west.

For thus the Psalmist also makes mention of them, saying:

'The north and the sea, You created them.' And 'those from the land of the Persians' would be those netted from the dawn.

For the land of the Persians lies towards the sunbeam.

Or perhaps, too, it is fitting to understand the magi who worshipped Him.

For they came into Judaea, inquiring and saying:

'Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the East, and are come to worship Him.' For having worshipped, they also honoured Him with gifts—I mean with frankincense, and gold, and myrrh.

'And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia.' For by 'Arabia' in these words he names the land of the Persians.

'Be glad, O heavens, and let the earth rejoice.'

'Let the mountains break forth into gladness, for God has had mercy on His people, and has comforted the lowly of His people.' Into one festal company He calls together heaven and earth, and He gives command right earnestly to fulfil the feast over those who have been saved by Him.

And by 'earth,' likewise, are meant those among them who were expecting His manifestation to come, and who knew that He would be present for the redemption of those of Israel, and indeed of all the nations that are throughout all the earth;

just as, for instance, righteous Symeon, holding the infant Jesus while yet a little babe in his arms, glorified God, saying thus:

If perhaps it is right to understand these too as the saved, keeping the feast among themselves, and crowning the Redeemer with the fitting doxologies;

the mountains, however, that break forth into gladness one must suppose to be, as I said just now, the rational powers lifted on high in virtue—that is, the ministers of the evangelical proclamations, who, speaking of Christ and His concerns, fill the earth with spiritual gladness.

For Christ had mercy on all when He shone forth upon them;

if indeed it is true that they have been rescued from the devilish hand and from the malice of demons.

And they were delivered also from the sin that of old tyrannised over them, and moreover from the bonds of death;

and they were deemed worthy of grace and of a supramundane gift, having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and been made resplendent with the glory of adoption as sons, and having been enriched with the hope that surpasses understanding.

Nevertheless, observe closely the exactness of the prophet's words:

'For the lowly of His people,' he says, 'He comforted.'

And we say that the lowly are those who have submitted their neck obediently to Christ and to His kingdom, not disdaining the yoke, inasmuch as they have received the faith, and have made themselves ready for worship of Him in spirit and in truth and to render Him service; whereas those who have not received the faith are not lowly, but bear their horn aloft,

[or, variant reading: raising up,] and speaking iniquity against Him, and, as it were, arrogantly stretching up the neck of their understanding against His sacred oracles.

These have not been deemed worthy of the spiritual consolation.

'For what portion have believers with unbelievers,' according to that which is written? For Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.'

'Can a mother forget her child, so as not to have compassion, and the offspring of her womb? But if even a woman should forget these, yet I will not forget you.' For the Lord and Saviour of all set forth, and that before all others, to the children of Zion—that is, to those of the blood of Israel—the grace that is through faith, and by ten thousand means He sought to persuade them, saying, 'Lay hold of the season' in which it was possible, upon believing in Him, to be enriched with the honours promised to the fathers.

But they were unyielding and disobedient, and indeed, despising the laws given through the all-wise Moses, and caring little for the prophetic proclamations, they slipped away from believing, and were caught in the snares of the slaying of the Lord.

Therefore for this cause they were thrust out, and were set far from their kinship with Him; nevertheless the remnant has been saved, and Israel did not perish root and all.

But those who were saved have become very few, and altogether easy to number in comparison with the multitude of the disobedient.

Most elegantly, then, Zion—assuming the person of the mother of Judea—is now brought forward all but weeping, as one overlooked by the God who upholds her.

For this very reason, too, since only a few children were left remaining to her.

For she said, it says, that 'The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.'

And what does God say in response to this? He declares his love toward mankind to be beyond compare, and God promises to the spiritual Zion the good things that spring from his compassions, and he strives to give full assurance that he would never forget his own creatures.

For just as a woman who has given birth could not forget her own children—having as arbiter of the highest love, or rather of tender affection, the law of nature—

so neither, he says, would I forget my own.

If indeed those attributes of God somehow rise even above the tender affection found in mothers.

For in her case it is nothing strange that she should even be able to fall into forgetfulness.

But for me to suffer this is not permissible.

Therefore the complaint is spoken as though from the Zion on earth—that is, the mother of the Jews who suffered childlessness, or rather scarcity of children;

but the promise is directed toward the spiritual Zion;

to which the all-wise Paul says that those who have believed have drawn near;

so that you may understand the Church, gathered together out of Gentiles and Jews, which bears the type of the Jerusalem above, of which the all-wise Paul also makes mention, saying:

'But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.' For it is a city of the living God, and nurse of the firstborn, and mother of the saints who are enrolled in heaven, whom Christ would never forget.

For he loves the Church, which he himself presented to himself, having made the two peoples into one new man, and having reconciled both in one body to the Father.

For what sort of thing might one suppose the hands of God to be, upon which it is right to conceive that the walls of Zion are also inscribed? In very many places the sacred Scripture names as the hands of God his active powers, through which he brought all things into being, even if he also accomplishes something according to his will;

for instance, the Psalmist makes clear the coming into being of every man, saying:

'Your hands made me and fashioned me,' 'for the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.' And again:

'And you, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.' Then how could anyone suppose that the walls of Zion here understood are inscribed, as it were upon a tablet, on the active powers of God? Or of what walls at all does the passage make mention? What then shall we say? Nothing, I think, would prevent the disciple of Christ from fitting some such sense to the matters set before us.

Zion accused the Lord of having forgotten her.

But that this is not true, our Lord Jesus Christ strives to show, by reference to the things of the incarnation and to what he endured for our sake, having become as we are.

For although it was possible for him to exist in the form and equality of the Father, he did not count this a thing to be grasped, but rather stooped down to self-emptying.

He took the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross.

For he was hung upon a tree, his hands having been nailed fast.

Yet the saving passion pulled down the principalities, triumphed over the world-rulers of this age, set all free from the tyranny of the devil, and brought us near to God.

For by his stripe we were healed, and he bore our sins in his body upon the tree; and he indeed was made weak, but we have been saved, and his passion has become for us both a security and a wall;