Commentary on Isaiah 4.1.23–4.2.5

… “Not now, then, have I called you, Jacob.” The “now” must be taken in the sense of “not when you were sacrificing”; that is: I did not call you while you were sacrificing oxen and slaughtering sheep, lest perhaps you should think you had received the redemption as a kind of repayment for your offering; but rather, when you were in sins and liable to defilements, for you had served the gods of the Egyptians, I counted you worthy of forbearance and love. The gift, then, is one of gentleness, the grace a fruit of love for humankind, and the redemption came as from love. “For the sheep of your whole burnt offering are nothing to me,” he says, “nor have you glorified me with your sacrifices.” For what is wholly unacceptable and offered at random, how could it be for my glory? “Nor have you served in your sacrifices.” For the one who practises something good, he says, and has accomplished praiseworthy deeds of virtue, who has bowed his neck to my nods and is a doer of the sacred oracles, would be said to serve the God who is over all. But the one who fills the holy tent with the smoke of frankincense and brings oxen or sheep, without having accomplished any of the best things, will not carry off the glory of genuineness. For such a one has done nothing at all of what pleases me. Service, then, is not in sacrificing, but in resolving to bend the neck gently and, as it were, softly to his wishes. “For as far as my own pleasure goes,” he says, “I would not have made you weary with frankincense, nor would you have bought me incense with silver, nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices.” Like this is what was said to them through another prophet: “Gather your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh; for I did not speak to your fathers concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt.” The same prophet Jeremiah said somewhere else again: “Why do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a land far off? Your whole burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me.” And also through the voice of the Psalmist: “I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks.” Everywhere he rejects worship in shadows, removing them from the types and driving them, as it were, toward the justification that is in Christ, and teaching them to lay claim to the gospel way of life, through which alone it becomes possible to please God and to offer a worship that is truly blameless and pure, spiritual worship, clearly. “For God is spirit,” it says, “and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

“I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them. But you remember, and let us go to judgment; tell your iniquities first, that you may be justified.”

See again, I pray, how God did not assign to the power of the worship according to the law the ability to free anyone from the uncleanness within them. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, and the shadow of the law is useless in these matters … according to the voice of [the most wise] Paul. He writes, at any rate, and says about himself and the other apostles, or rather those who believed from the circumcision: “We, Jews by nature and not sinners from the nations, knowing that a man is not justified by works of law except through faith in Jesus Christ, we too believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified in him.” “Do not think, then,” he says, “that you will ever be able to show yourself free of the charges arising from wickedness through sacrifice and smoke. Know rather that I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them.” For we have been justified not by works of righteousness that we did, but according to his great mercy. For this alone saves those on earth, who have a mind that is feeble and easily led astray to anything at all of what the law has censured. For “the mind of man,” it says, “is intently set on evil things from youth.” Therefore, very fittingly, the divine David recalls human slips, saying: “If you mark iniquities, Lord, who will stand? For with you is propitiation.” The God of all, then, has compassion, and, using favourable nods and amnesties befitting God, sets them free of blame, and [wishes] those who have received mercy to know the grace of the one who justifies them. We shall find that this is profitable and that the saints practised it earnestly. The blessed David sings, at any rate, and says at one time: “I know my iniquity, and my sin is before me always”; and again: “I will declare my iniquity, and I will be anxious over my sin.” “I, then,” he says, “will not remember your offences. But do you remember them, and let us go to judgment. Confess, and hold the amnesty firm.” For it is written: “The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech.” And again: “Do not be ashamed to confess your sins.” The proud Pharisee did not keep such a commandment, whom … those caught in slips … yet he does not allow … the Saviour in the gospel parables sets praying in the synagogue, sick with great ignorance and, from vain puffing-up, saying: “God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, unjust, or even like this tax collector; I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all that I possess.” This man would not tell his own sins.

He is condemned, then, as a boaster and a liar; for no one is pure from filth, and we all stumble in many ways. But the tax collector knew and confessed his own sins. For he stood beating his breast and saying: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” He was justified, then, having confessed his failings, and … the filth of the loathsomeness within him …

“Your fathers first, and your rulers, acted lawlessly against me. And the rulers defiled my holy things; and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reproach.”

Having said, “I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them,” he saw that perhaps some would rise up against what was said and would say: “If you have honoured Israel with amnesty, if very great calm has come upon him, if he has been cleansed of his filth and has washed off the defilements of his ancient offences, how, or for what, has he paid the penalty, being consumed by the swords of enemies, then becoming a captive taken by the spear, leaving the land that bore him, and coming under the hand and yoke of his captors? For he was given over to the fighters who came from Babylon.” He makes his defence, then, saying “Let us go to judgment,” and he says that they themselves have become the cause and procurers of this upon their own heads. “For your fathers,” he says, “and your rulers acted lawlessly against me.” He does not simply blame our forefathers in saying this. He seems rather to want to hint at something like this: those chosen for sacred ministry, wise men and experts in the law, and [appointed] to train the peoples under their hand, might be called fathers of those yoked under them, rulers and leaders. When, then, some outrageous thing is done not by the common multitude but rather by those who could reasonably have corrected even the faults of others, the matter is grievous, the penalty hard to escape, and owed thereafter to those who have acted impiously. “Those, then, who are placed in the rank of fathers,” he says, “and who obtained the rule over you, acted lawlessly against me.” By saying “against me,” he shows that what they so outrageously and unholily offended was done not against one of us, but against the very glory of the God who is beyond all.

I mean something like this. When someone wrongs one of his neighbours, encompassing him with greed and outrage, or in some other way, he offends, but against a man of the same nature, and not against God. But the one who thrusts away the worship due to him, and subjects himself to the deceits of demons and worships them, rises up against God, and as far as in him lies removes him from the thrones of the Godhead, and tries to shake loose the supremacy and glory that befit him alone. Those of Israel did this at various times. For they worshipped idols, and, bidding farewell to the sacred oracles, they wished to raise a stiff and arrogant neck against God. He blames them, at any rate, and says: “The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who handle the law did not know me, and the prophets acted impiously against me.” And again: “Why do you speak to me? You have all acted lawlessly, and you have all acted impiously against me, says the Lord Almighty.” “The rulers, then,” he says, “defiled my holy things.” For they dared to set up the pillars of demons not only in Jerusalem; they would also be convicted of having done this unholily in the divine temple itself. The God of all said, at any rate, about the synagogue of the Jews: “Why has the beloved done an abomination in my house?”, calling “abomination” the statue and image fashioned in the form of a god. The holy things are also defiled in another way, if what has been commanded to be performed reverently and holily for God's glory is despised by some, and some count the transgression of his divine laws as nothing. “Since, then, your fathers,” he says, “acted lawlessly against me, and the rulers too defiled my holy things, I have given [the people] to the enemies, so as to destroy Jacob, and [Israel] to the reproaches upon these things.”

“But now hear, Jacob my servant, and [Israel] whom I have chosen.”

Having recalled the former things and stated very well the causes for which apostate Israel was given to destruction and reproach, he again … them to complete and blameless obedience. Passing over, as it were, the time of ignorance, in which the one who had become a lover of God, the one who had the law, was caught in wrongdoing, he again sets them another time, saying “Now.” I say this resembles: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation.” “For in the time already past,” he says, “a very great and surely just outcry arose against you; for you gave yourself over to apostasy and offended me, turning to what is unlawful and entangling yourself in the charges of disobedience. But let those things be passed over,” he says. “Now hear,” that is: “Lay aside your proud mind. Know your own Master; come under the yoke of obedience, realizing that you have been named my servant. And I made you chosen, out of all,” the nations that are on the earth, clearly. “For when the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance.” He shames, then, and as it were rebukes those who transgressed and offended in no small measure, who had come to be in the rank of children to him and lay in the portion of the chosen.

Discourse 2.

“Thus says the Lord God who made you, and who formed you from the womb: You will still be helped.”

Having charged those of Israel with apostasy, with departing from love toward him and giving themselves over to the gods that are not, for he said, “Your fathers and your rulers acted lawlessly against me, and the rulers defiled my holy things,” he very providently adds these words too. For he does not allow them to be carried off into apostasy, or rather into despair, nor to slip entirely out of hope in him. He promises them gentleness again, wins them back with his usual love for humankind, and brings them back to repentance. He gives them to understand that he has not wholly turned away from those who sinned, and that Israel will not perish root and branch, since he has compassion on them and very well smooths the way of salvation for those who believe in him. By calling himself Lord and God, who made and formed him from the womb, he seems to hint that Israel went astray in putting the name of the Godhead on others and thoughtlessly attaching the glory of lordship to the gods that are not. And that he did not know his Maker, the one who brought into existence man on earth when he once did not exist, he hints again by saying that he himself is the former and maker … not those who leapt away from love toward him. For it is surely absurd that we should offer the highest honours to our parents according to the flesh, the divine law also prescribing this, but should not honour the Creator of all still more than them, by complete submission to him. He says something of this kind through one of the holy prophets too: “A son honours his father, and a servant his master. And if I am a father, where is my glory? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord Almighty.” For he is at once Lord, as having the whole creation under the yoke and in servitude, for the divine Melodist said to him somewhere, “All things are yours”; and again Father, as former and maker and the one who brought it into being. As a debt owed, then, we must render to God both the submission fitting sons and the fear fitting servants. When, then, God says that he is former and maker, he brings them to the thought that they must honour him as the provider of being itself and the cause of existence to those who once were not. By saying to those who had sinned, “You will still be helped,” he gives them confidence that, although they are caught in many inescapable charges, a remnant of gentleness and love for humankind has been kept for them. And nothing would prevent them too from being saved, if they should choose to move over to what is better and more fitting, and in accord with his laws.

“… Israel, whom I have chosen. For I will give water in thirst to those who walk in a waterless land. I will put my Spirit on your seed, and my blessings on your children. And they will spring up like grass among water, and like willow by flowing water. This one will say, ‘I am God's,’ and this one will cry out in the name of Jacob; and another will write, ‘I am God's,’ in the name of [Israel].”

Here he seems to name the choir of the holy apostles Israel and Jacob, understood as one person. For all are one in Christ. See how he says that he is beloved and chosen; and indeed how is it not plain to all that he would never call those who had rejected faith in him beloved and chosen? But since, being of the blood of Jacob, who is also Israel, they became precious and chosen vessels and were called to the sacred ministry of the gospel proclamation, he thought it right to crown them with such splendid words, since they would be like luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life, and initiators into the mysteries of [the earth] under the sun. “Do not fear, then,” he says, that is: be manly and be strong, have an enduring and youthful mind, and, laughing at the uprisings of persecutors, keep your faith in God firm. For very many fight against the sacred proclamations, and an unholy multitude will rise up to oppose your words. “But be superior to cowardice,” he says, “to hesitation and unmanliness. For I will give water to those who walk in a waterless land.” For it is sweet and saving for those walking in a thirsty land to come upon springs of water. And we say that it is thrice desired, and still more, for those who labour for godliness to be watered with divine and spiritual streams, … with the consolations that come through the Spirit, by which the human mind, when it has somewhat flagged, may be strengthened again to courage. The water here, which God promises to supply to those walking in a waterless land, we say is the Holy Spirit. The Saviour himself said, at any rate: “As the Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” [And the] evangelist at once added: “This he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.” For water is life-giving and brings plants and grass up to growth, and in a way imitates the working of the Holy Spirit, through whom all things hold together, kept in well-being, and the spiritual creation is enriched with progress in every good thing and, as it were, leaps up as it advances to spiritual growth. That the promise of water to those walking through a waterless land hints at the life-giving power and working of the Holy Spirit, and at the spiritual consolation through him, what follows will make clear. “For I will put my Spirit,” he says, “on your seed, and my blessings on your children.” We say that the seed and children of the holy apostles are those called through them to the knowledge of truth and to spiritual regeneration, by which they regenerate them not from perishable seed but through the living and abiding word of God, and through the working of the Holy Spirit himself. The divine Paul writes, at any rate, to those called through him and says: “For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” We shall find them everywhere calling “children” those who believed in him through them. “I will put, then,” he says, “my Spirit on your seed, and my blessings on your children.” By blessings we mean the many kinds of spiritual gifts supplied by God to the saints. For to one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, and what follows. And the all-wise Paul writes somewhere: “Each of you has his own gift from God.” Then what the benefit of the blessings would be, he made clear by adding: “They will spring up like grass among water, and like willow by flowing water.”

Grasses and plants that are in waterless places spring up only briefly, and when they spring up … at once; [but by water] a pouring of streams and a flow of waters keeps them alive; and the willow is an evergreen plant, always growing beside springs and rivers. [Watered], then, he says, by the spiritual streams, those enriched with them will confess that they know me alone, and will inscribe as God the one who called them. By saying, “This one will say, ‘I am God's,’ and this one will cry out, and another will write,” he signifies the multitude of those who run to them through faith in Christ. For not one people will be called, but rather the whole multitude of the nations, those under the sun; and all will confess that they have become God's, will inscribe him as Saviour and Redeemer, and will thereafter be designated by the name of Jacob, that is, as being the measured lot and portion of God. For “his people Jacob became the Lord's portion,” it says, “Israel the measured lot of his inheritance.” We who have believed boast … of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

“Thus says the Lord God, the King of [Israel, who delivered him, God Sabaoth: I am the] first, and I am after these things; besides me there is no God. Who is like me? Let him stand and call, and let him prepare for me, since I made man forever; and let them announce the things that are coming before they come.”

Having made mention of the knowledge in Christ through the readings just now, he moves the word on to another necessary matter. For since at that time, when the divine prophet Isaiah composed these words for us, a God-hated [king] was reigning among them, and they had fallen into unbearable slips, for to each one whatever he pleased was god and object of reverence, the [exhortation] that God [gives] was necessary for them: moving them away from polytheism and the sicknesses it brings, calling them through repentance to the knowledge of the truth, and bringing them to remember his glory and incomparable power. Therefore he says: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, God Sabaoth, who delivered him.” For he wants them to know that he is God and Lord of hosts, and, as if they had recovered from drunkenness, to see that he [freed] them from the greed of the Egyptians …, showing the greatness of the power and supremacy that is in him. For what wonder was not done?

What plague was not brought upon their oppressors? Or how would there not be a clear proof of his unspeakable power in the parting of the sea, the waters standing firm like a wall, and the fugitives going through the midst? And what of the wonders in the desert after this? Did he not give them the bread from heaven? Did he not split a rock in the desert and give them drink as from a great deep, and bring down waters like rivers? Did he not, as if putting a bridle on the streams of the Jordan, make it possible for them to cross on foot? Necessarily, then, he does not simply call himself Lord and God here; he added, “and who delivered him,” bringing to their memory, as I said, the things wondrously accomplished for him. “Know, then,” he says, “that I am God the first, and I am after these things, and besides me there was no God.” For God is the beginning of all things, being himself without beginning, and by him all things were brought into being; he himself came into being by no one, but is the one who is and who will be. For this is his name and his eternal memorial to generations of generations. Neither, then, was there another God before him, nor will there be any after him. For God by nature is one, and there is no other besides him. The exhortation is very useful for those who denied him and through very great folly slipped into thinking that there are many gods. That there is none like him, or other … “like me? Which, then, of the gods suspected by you, or foolishly so named, will be equal to my glory and power? From what great work have you believed them to be gods? Let anyone stand, if he is like me. Let someone prepare one who has a nature of equal weight, in strength or glory. Let them call whichever of the falsely named gods they choose, since I made man forever. For I created,” he says, “the heavens and what is in them, having herds of countless holy spirits worshipping and serving me; but since I made man on earth, and in the time that follows, that is, forever, let someone show me one like me.” By saying again, “since I made man,” he shows himself to be the Creator, and the falsely named gods to be nothing at all. “For which of their worshippers did they bring into being? But I am known to be the Creator and the maker of all, and to have knowledge of all things. Search this out among those you call gods: let them announce to you the things that are coming before they come.” For to God by nature would belong having all knowledge both of things already past and of things to come. If none of the falsely named gods is found to have obtained this, it is unclear to no one that those who do not have God's knowledge would not be gods.

“Do not hide yourselves,” that is, “Do not be silent …” to you?”

For as one who is God by nature and knows all things, … to you through holy prophets, [and] through the all-wise Moses. For I revealed the mystery of Christ, and there is nothing whose knowledge it was fitting should become plain to us ourselves which was not announced beforehand by me. Those, then, are not gods, since they have obtained nothing of what befits God. But I am by nature what I am believed to be, God, of all things clearly, and having knowledge befitting God. The word thus instructs those who had been carried away from the true vision of God and had inclined to lifeless idols, saying to wood, “You are my father,” and to stone, “You begot me.”

“You are witnesses whether there is a God besides me.”

He brings them again to remember the power and authority displayed to them, such as would befit the one who is God by nature and Lord of all, when they were redeemed from the land of the Egyptians. For then, then indeed, the creation itself took up arms alongside its Master and rose up against the perversity of their oppressors. For the water was changed into blood, and a deep darkness of three days stretched out; the heaven came down on them with hail, with gnats and frogs and dog-flies, and the death of the firstborn … they conquered many nations stronger than the strength in them, and became terrible and hard to face for the neighbouring nations, and admired and famous to those still far off. “No others, then, would know better than you yourselves about your own affairs: who accomplished these things, who had the creation as ally in your affairs, who shattered the forces of your enemies and crowned you with victories in courage over all. You are the witnesses of my supremacy, if you choose to think rightly, and you will need no other teachers. For very many were the gods among the Egyptians, and their shrines were full of statues. Very many likewise were those among the Amorites; none of them is seen to have availed for the salvation of their own people; rather you crushed those who were worshipped together with their worshippers. For it was [commanded] through Moses that you should pull down their altars, break their pillars, and burn the carved images of their gods with fire. If, then, you choose to tell the truth, bear witness to me whether there is a God besides me. For if anyone has risen up against my powers and conquered, let him be reckoned a god among you. But if they have been caught being nothing, and have become the work of fire through you, [you know] by experience itself [who is] truly God.”