Commentary on Isaiah 4.5.8–4.5.14

But since nothing is hard for God to accomplish, and all things are smooth and easy, they became the beginning and root of a multitude of men that vies with the stars. For it was said somewhere to the divine Abraham to look up at the stars and to believe that his seed would be equal in number to those seen. That Sarah bore a child not according to the law of human nature, and the divine Abraham became father of a son when he was already very old and past his prime, [the passage] takes two examples: a solid rock that is quarried, and a deep pit that is dug. For just as it is among the very hardest things to be able to cut stone out of solid and stubborn rock, and to dig a deep well, so in the same way, I think, it would not be easy, or rather impossible, for a child to spring from an old man and a barren woman. Yet this too was accomplished, contrary to expectation, by God’s consent. So when you who have believed think yourselves very few, since the divine and sacred preaching is still at its beginning, be firmly persuaded, he says, that it will grow into a multitude beyond number … [For he was one, and I called] him, and blessed him; and having blessed him I loved him; and having loved him I multiplied him, that is, I made him father of the whole race, or nation, of the Jews, and besides this of those of the promise. For it was said to Abraham: “I have made you the father of many nations.” So he who is called is blessed, and whoever is blessed will certainly be loved, and he who obtains this will be multiplied, plainly spiritually. For he will have the manifold fruits that come from virtues and from the glories of the gospel. Yet according to the account of the history too one can see the promise true in the events. For the whole earth under heaven worships Christ, the Saviour of all, and all things have become full of him, and the whole earth has been filled with his glory.

“And now I will comfort you, Zion, and I comforted all her desert places, and I will make her desert places … gladness they will find in her, they will confess, and a voice of praise.”

The words of the holy prophets are always somehow shaped toward things seen and objects of sense, but they have their reference to things beyond sense and spiritual. So even if he names Zion, do not think of the earthly one, but take rather the spiritual one, which is the church of the living God. For otherwise how could one see the prophet’s words truly fulfilled? God promised to comfort her, but we shall find that this nowhere happened; on the contrary, one can see her made desolate and laid waste. So the prophet’s word is now addressed to the multitude of believers, which is the church of the living God. And what does he say? “Just as I called Abraham,” he says, “and, though he was one, made him father of many nations, so I will also comfort you, Zion.” The comfort here is a gladdening promise, planting firm hope in the hearers that, as God certainly gathers those who will be called in faith, she will not be desert and barren, but like a paradise, full of flowers and fine trees, thick with noble plants, and bearing spiritual fruit, that is, gladness and rejoicing, confession and the voice of praise. Understand from this that he promises to carry away from the worship of the law those who will be in the rank of plants, and [to set them in the paradise] which he calls God’s. For of old the law of Moses [commanded] to offer to God … and fine flour mixed with oil. But the God of all is no longer approached through these things, but, as Christ himself said: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” And worship in spirit and in truth, and the power of spiritual service, has as its fragrance spiritual gladness and rejoicing in the hope in Christ. For we are persuaded that he will also transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory; we shall be with him and reign with him, ranked among the sons of God and enriched with his divine and … life-giving Spirit. And we too offer him spiritual fruit, confession and songs …

“Hear me, my people, and you kings, give ear to me; for a law will go out from me, and my judgment for a light of nations.”

Having promised to display a very great multitude, beyond number, of those who believe in him, he speaks to it as though it were already gathered. And he now initiates them into the mysteries as his own worshippers, so that what is written about them may be seen to be true: “And they shall all be taught of God.” … [the psalmist] says to Christ, the Saviour of all: “Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law.” And he promised the bounty of this to those who recognized his appearing. Indeed he says through one of the holy prophets about his own coming, which took place in this world with the flesh: “At that time, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them on their hearts.” Understanding this rightly, the all-wise Paul writes and says to those who had obtained it: “You are our letter, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” “So hear me,” he says, that is, receive my words, “and do not, like Israel, become unbridled, clinging to the oldness of the letter of the law and seeing nothing beyond the types. The commandment given through Moses,” he says, “was laid down until the time of reformation. But since the time of the incarnation is no longer awaited but is already present, let the shadow give way to the truth. So hear me, my people.” In saying “my people” he holds out the spiritual close relation given to them at the right time, both shaming them, I think, by this too, and making them more eager to accept, I mean, the word that comes from him. And he calls not only those counted among the peoples, but kings with them, so that you may understand the rulers, or leaders of the peoples. For from the multitude of believers many were brought forward to this, of whom the divine disciples became the first-fruits; then, after them, those who followed in their footsteps were invested with the name of kingship, since they had been enriched with the name of kingship and appointed to lead peoples. And indeed, as from very great joy, they raise songs of thanksgiving to God, saying: “He subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet.” And the divine [David] also sings about them: “[The rulers of the peoples were gathered with] the God of Abraham.” O peoples and kings, then, …

… the future, he promises: “A law will go out from me, and my judgment for a light of nations.” Here he calls the divine preaching of the gospel a law. For the new and saving oracle is, as it were, of another kind, yet it is a change of the old law, as it were, for the better, and a transfer of the types, which have run their course, to the truth. At any rate Christ said: “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish but to fulfil. For I say to you, not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all things come to pass.” But the law in letters was given through Moses, while the saving preaching, that is, the gospel, went out through Christ. For it was fitting that Moses should be the minister of shadow and type, … but that Christ should be the enlightener of [the knowledge of God] and of the true worship in the Spirit. For he himself is the true light. And he adds to this: “My judgment for a light of nations.” By “judgment” here he means either his holy and kindly verdict, which brought forth his grace into the light of the nations, or judgment as uprightness and just judgment, that is, righteousness, plainly the righteousness of the gospel. For so the divine David mentions the sacred preaching, saying: “You have prepared uprightness; judgment and righteousness in Jacob you have done.” If he says here that the divine and saving preaching has been done in Jacob, and not rather among the other nations too, we must remember God saying clearly: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And indeed also through the voice of the divine David himself: “But I was set as king by him (plainly by God the Father) on Zion, his holy mountain, proclaiming the decree of the Lord.” For to Israel belonged the fathers and the promise, the giving of the law and the covenant. But since they became stubborn apostates and Lord-slayers, the grace for this reason passed over and became a light for all the nations.

“My righteousness draws near quickly, and my salvation will go forth, and nations will hope in my arm. The islands will wait for me, and in my arm they will hope.”

He does not let the eagerness of those called wither away through the injustices done to them, nor does he say that the fulfilment of their hope will be put off for long times; rather he shows the promise running, as it were, on the heels of the words. It is like what was said through the voice of Habakkuk, or to him, by God: “Yet a little while, a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay.” For the hopes of good things, thirsted for by those who await them … [he says that] his righteousness draws near. If we wish to attach these words to the person of God the Father, we say that he calls the Son his righteousness. For we have been justified in him, “not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to his great mercy.” For he came into this world not to judge it, but that it might be saved through him; and it was saved in no other way than through great gentleness. For he said: “I am he who blots out your lawless deeds, and I will not remember them.” And again: “And you, Israel, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your lawless deeds like a cloud, and your sins like darkness.” And David too sings and says to him: “You have been favourable, Lord, to your land; you turned back the captivity of Jacob; you forgave the lawless deeds of your people; you covered all their sins.” So in the righteousness of God the Father, that is, in Christ, we have been saved and sanctified, having washed off the stains of wickedness. But if it is Christ himself who says “My righteousness draws near quickly,” you will understand righteousness here no less as either his justifying grace or the gospel and heavenly preaching, through which we have come to know the way of the righteousness pleasing to him

and have been guided to every kind of the best deeds of virtue, according to what is said in the Psalms: “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” And he calls righteousness salvation too, and very fittingly. For it draws us out of every evil, frees us from the bonds of death, and brings us up to endless life. And he promises something else too. “For nations,” he says, “will hope in my arm.” And he declares that the islands too will wait for him. For of old the multitude of the nations, [held fast] in unbreakable bonds, I mean those of sin and of the all-wicked …, was captive and in the utmost miseries, wholly without help. For there was no one able to free it from so bitter and inescapable a [misfortune]; there was no one to break the yoke of greed; but they were, as I said, in the lot of spear-won captives, stripped of every hope that leads up to life and bereft of every good thing. For those who had not known at all him who is by nature and truly Master were surely living in the world without God and without hope, according to the words of the blessed Paul. “But those who of old were weak,” he says, “and as it were thrown to the ground, taking my arm for their salvation, will gain an unexpected hope.” The sacred writing everywhere calls the Son the arm of the Father, for he is his power. But if one should wish to understand the arm of the Son himself, on which the hope of the nations called to salvation will rest, you will understand his power, befitting God and extraordinary, by which he will crush Satan and the world-rulers of this world, and has saved those from the nations. For he himself said: “Or how can anyone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his goods.” And David too said: “You humbled the proud like one wounded, and with the strength of your arm you scattered your enemies.” So Christ is the hope and the way of salvation not [only for those of Israel] but also for the nations, he for whom the islands too will wait. And by islands, I think, he means the churches from the nations, which, lying as it were in the middle of the sea and struck by the assaults of circumstances as by waves, carry off the crown of approval through endurance. For endurance produces approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not put to shame. So to wait for God would mean nothing else than to please him through perseverance and endurance, and for this reason to be granted his care and oversight. For it is written: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he attended to me.”

“Lift up your eyes to heaven and look at the earth below; for the heaven was made firm like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell on the earth will die like these. But my salvation will be for ever, and my righteousness will not …”

In saying that he will be the hope of the nations, he weaves for them a necessary initiation into the mysteries. For those who did not know him could not otherwise be joined to God in spiritual close relation than by being freed from the ancient error, getting outside the nooses and malice of the devil, and [gaining] the true and blameless knowledge of God. For the entrance, as it were, into close relation with God is to know clearly and confess that there is no other God besides him. Since, then, they thought that heaven was a god, and were persuaded to worship the more conspicuous of the stars, and even revered the earth itself, which lies under the feet of all, … and who is by nature God of all, and who brought into

being things that once were not, for this reason he speaks, showing that creation is of another nature compared with himself, and demonstrating very well that the difference between maker and thing made is beyond comparison. He bids them lift their eyes to heaven, that is, to consider the firmament itself and what is in it, and again to bring their mind down to the earth, or to the contemplation of what is on it, I mean the living creatures and simply everything on it; and, even if they choose to marvel at it, not to stop their mind there, but from the greatness of the works to measure the power of the craftsman, and the supreme and ineffable … of the maker of all things, gathering it from the divinely inspired Scripture and from the magnificence and order of created things. At any rate Paul laughs at the wise men among the Greeks, because, though they wrap themselves in a reputation for wisdom, they have a heart full of every folly. “For they worshipped and served the creation,” he says, “rather than the Creator.” He rebukes others too, for turning back again to the weak and beggarly elements of the world and wishing to be slaves to them against all reason. That for the more sensible the beauty of creation would provide no occasion for going astray, but rather starting points for true knowledge of God, he made clear by saying: “For his invisible things are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.” “So when you marvel at the heaven,” he says, “made firm and seen as it were in the form of smoke, know,” he says, “that things brought into being will be dissolved again.” For what had beginnings of coming to be will end again in not being. “The earth, then,” he says, “will grow old,” that is, it will vanish, “and those who dwell on it will die like these.” He aptly calls the change of the elements to something better their death. For, as Paul says: “The creation itself will be set free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” In what way will it be set free? The disciple of Christ will make it plain, saying: “For the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be burned up; but we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises.” So he says that the renewal of creation will be like a resurrection from the dead, as with human bodies. And when the elements are dissolved, “my salvation will be for ever,” he says, “and my righteousness will not fail.” As we have said very often, he calls the Son salvation and righteousness; and by calling him his own he shows the proper relation which the Son has to him by nature, being from him and in him. But “he will be for ever,” he says, “and will not fail.” How great is the difference between creator and creation, between maker and thing made, he shows by these words. For creation will grow old, and, having been brought from non-being into being, will not be without a share in corruption. But God the Word, the maker and craftsman of all things, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, will be for ever and will not fail. This the divine Singer too teaches when he says: “In the beginning you, Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; and they will all grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail.”

“Hear me, you who know judgment, my people, in whose heart is my law: do not fear … of them, do not be overcome. For like a garment it will grow old with time, and like wool it will be eaten by moth; but my righteousness will be for ever, and my salvation for generations of generations.”

Having initiated those from the nations into the mysteries and woven for them the simpler word suited to their understanding (for milk [suits] those still infants in their condition), he speaks again to those who are already manly, who have a stronger heart and a well-grounded mind … and counts nothing [above] godliness … Who these might be he made clear by saying: “You who know judgment,” that is, those who, like approved money-changers, test each of the things to be done, distinguish them precisely, hold fast what is good, and keep away from every evil thing. These are those who have the law of God in mind and heart and have made it their practice to receive it as a tutor and wise guide. At any rate David sings and says of every righteous and wise man: “The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps will not be tripped up.” It is a saving thing, then, to make the divine law a treasure stored, as it were, in our mind and heart. For just as a vessel made of bronze or some such material, having fire heaped within it, remains [hot, so the soul that] has the law [within it] is surely fervent in spirit. But one of the holy disciples says that because lawlessness is multiplied the love of many will grow cold. “Hear, then,” he says, “you who know judgment and carry my law in your heart: do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be overcome by their contempt.” For all who wish to live godly in Christ will be persecuted; and suffering for their reverence, they endure the jeers of those who do not know it. But one must count such things as nothing, and rather consider that the Saviour and Lord of all himself endured the cross, despising the shame. And for this reason he said: “A disciple is not above his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household?” And besides this: “Blessed are you when they persecute you and reproach you and say every evil word against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” “You must, then, have an unbroken mind in these matters, spit at the laughter of the persecutors as stale, look down on all abuse, and count it rather an occasion of all renown to be persecuted for godliness and reviled for Christ.” For what can insult and a word spat out from a foolish heart do to one who is approved through endurance? That the renown of those who suffered will shine out in its time, while those who held them cheap and reproached them will go off into nothing, he has assured them by saying: “Like a garment they will grow old with time, and like wool they will be eaten by moth.” Wool and a garment are most ready to suffer ageing and rotting. “But my righteousness,” that is, the justification that comes from me, and the salvation that will be given, will be long and endless and will run on into many generations, that is, will stand for ever. So, having suffered a little for godliness, … And the all-wise Paul will bear witness, saying that “the momentary lightness of our affliction [works for us an eternal] weight of glory, [since we look not to the things that are seen] but to the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.”

“… put on the strength of your arm. Awake as at the beginning of the day, as a generation of an age.”

Here he seems to mention the calling and conversion of Israel. For Israel too will be called to the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of us all, after the entry of the nations. At any rate it is written in the prophets: “For the sons of Israel shall sit many days without king, without ruler, without priesthood, without manifestations; and after this the sons of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things in the last days.” That here the prophet names as David the Christ who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, I think no one at all will doubt; for the words of the prophecy came many years after the divine David was already dead. The all-wise Paul too knows that the calling of those of the blood of Israel through faith will come in its time. For he said, at one time: “But when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved”; at another, he speaks to those from the nations who have believed and says, as of a plant and an olive tree: “But if some of the branches were broken off … branches. For it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. For just as you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive, so these too, the natural branches, will be grafted into their own olive tree.” “O Jerusalem, then,” he says, “awake.” This, I think, is clearly what the most sacred Paul wrote to some: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” “Be watchful, then,” he says, “or rise as from the dead; put on the strength of your arm,” and not a perceptible arm but a spiritual one, that of the soul, by which one is plainly [strong] for the achievement of virtue. For Israel admittedly became weak by its outrages against Christ; but when it has turned and come to its senses, it will again put on the power that comes from Christ. And this, then, was what was said to it through one of the holy prophets: “Return, Israel, … in your injustices.” And it was said about them through the voice of Jeremiah by Christ, the Saviour of us all: “Behold, I am giving weakness upon this people, and fathers and sons together shall be weak in it; neighbour and his fellow shall perish.” For Israel, because of its impiety toward Christ, fell entirely away from being able to fulfil anything at all of what usually makes up an excellent life. “But awake,” he says, “as at the beginning of the day, as in a generation of an age,” so that you may run to this and go back again to what you were …