Prophetic Extracts 4.8–4.21

“Behold now, the Master, the Lord of Sabaoth, will throw the glorious into confusion with strength, and the lofty in insolence will be crushed and humbled, and the lofty will fall by the sword, and Lebanon with the lofty will fall. And a rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up from the root; and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him, the spirit of the fear of God. He shall not judge by appearance, nor rebuke by what is said; but he shall judge judgment for the lowly and rebuke the lowly of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and with breath through his lips he shall destroy the ungodly. And he shall have his loins girded with righteousness and his sides wrapped with truth. And the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the bull and the lion shall feed together, and their young shall be together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and an infant child shall put its hand on the hole of asps and on the bed of the offspring of asps; and they shall not do harm, nor be able to destroy anyone on my holy mountain; for the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water to cover the seas. And there shall be in that day the root of Jesse, and the one who rises to rule nations; in him nations shall hope; and his rest shall be honour.” Not even those of the circumcision have supposed that the one prophesied here is anyone other than the Christ, except that, imagining the things in the passage to happen more bodily according to the bare reading of the prophecy, they do not confess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But we, persuaded that everything in the prophecy is worthy of God, have believed that these things are said about the changes of humans who, through our Saviour's appearing, have turned from the depth of vice to gentleness. We see even now how, and in what way, in the churches throughout the inhabited world, after the coming of Jesus Christ who sprang from the root of Jesse, most people were reshaped and changed their very nature from the beastlike life: some who were formerly wolves, leopards in this way, lions, and the other beasts and reptiles the prophecy lists, in proportion to the varied vice and wickedness in each. Having changed and been, as it were, reshaped, they reached such gentleness that they feed together, eating the same food of the sacred words of God, with the righteous men of God who are gentlest in character, whom, for such innocence of soul, the divine word has likened to tame and very gentle animals and to the children written of here. If anyone is reluctant to accept this, let him say whether it is possible otherwise to save the wording according to the obvious sense. For why, or how, will Lebanon fall with the lofty? Let him not interpret the rod figuratively, nor the flower from it, but show how a bodily rod is said to come forth from the root of Jesse, and what sort of flower will come up from it. And if this compels even the very hard to raise these things to a spiritual sense, see whether we have not rightly shown the rest too to have been fulfilled spiritually at our Saviour's coming. These things happened in keeping with the prophecy after the Lord of Sabaoth threw into confusion those of the former people who were glorious of old, who, exalted in their insolence against our Saviour, he prophesies will be crushed, humbled, and fall. And with them, the word says, Lebanon too will fall; for it is its custom to name thus Jerusalem and the worship formerly performed bodily in it, as is clear from Ezekiel, where it is written as follows: “The great eagle, with great wings, long in extent, full of talons, which has the purpose of entering into Lebanon, and it took the choice parts of the cedar.” Solving the parable, the prophetic word itself clearly teaches that Lebanon is Jerusalem, saying, “Son of man, say now to the provoking house, ‘Do you not know what these things were?’ Say, ‘When the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, and takes its king and its rulers.’” It is evident, then, how this Lebanon too fell with those lofty in insolence at the coming of our Saviour, born of the root of Jesse; on whom also the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit rested, and who will come again at his second and glorious coming, not judging by appearance (for God does not accept the face of a man), nor rebuking by what is said (for he tests hearts and kidneys, and pierces to the division of soul and spirit). At his coming, which has already taken place, the earth was truly filled with the knowledge of the Lord, though before no one knew him except those of the circumcision alone; but the prophecy will be brought still more to its end when, after the fullness of the nations has come in, all Israel too will be saved together with the other nations. And Christ, having risen from the dead, was appointed by God to rule the nations, according to “And there shall be the root of Jesse, and the one who rises to rule nations; in him nations shall hope.” See, then, that here neither Israel nor Jacob nor Judah is named at all, but it is clearly prophesied that the nations will hope in the one who will rise from the root of Jesse, the wording here agreeing with the words in Moses: “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up; and he is the expectation,” not of Israel, but of the nations. And whose rest has come to be in the highest honour with God, but his who heard the Father saying to him, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet”?

“And a throne shall be set right with mercy, and one shall sit on it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking judgment and hastening righteousness.” These things too are prophesied about the second coming of Christ, when the Word of God, the kingdom over all having been set right for him with mercy and love for humankind, will sit judging with truth in the tent of David; by which I think is meant the church of the holy firstborn enrolled in heaven, and all the saints who have come under the portion of the Word of God.

“Behold, the Lord sits on a light cloud and will come into Egypt, and the handmade things of Egypt shall be shaken before his face, and their heart shall be defeated within them.” To take what is set out as about the unbegotten nature of the God of the universe, as though he were going to ride on some cloud and sojourn in the bodily Egypt, I think is neither plausible nor holy. So the prophecy must be taken of the Word of God, and as already plainly fulfilled at his first coming, in which, on a light cloud, the flesh formed for him by the Holy Spirit, he came into this life, figuratively named Egypt, and also bodily into Egypt itself, to which, while still a child, he was carried by his mother and Joseph. At that time, for certain secret reasons, the demons who formerly dwelt and were active in the handmade wooden images everywhere were shaken and moved, thrown into confusion by his coming; which is shown by the prophecy that says, “And the handmade things of Egypt shall be shaken.” These things will also be fulfilled at his second and glorious kingdom from the heavens, at which it would be likely that it too will be shaken; and then the handmade things of Egypt mentioned will be shaken still more, whose heart too, they say, will be defeated within them, the divine Word then subjecting to himself and humbling every height now raised up against the knowledge of God. The rest of the prophecy will all be explained by figurative interpretation alone.

“In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, and a pillar to the Lord at its border; and it shall be for a sign for ever to the Lord in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of those who afflict them, and he will send them a man who will save them; judging, he will save them; and the Lord will be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and they will make sacrifices and an offering, and will vow vows to God.” And who else could the man sent by the Lord be, who saved the Egyptians by judging, but the Christ of God, who took the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man? If Egypt is understood figuratively as human life, the Egyptians would be the superstitious and those given over to material things, whom the God of the universe pitied as they were afflicted by the demons who tyrannized them, and sent the man mentioned, who saved them with a salvation befitting God; so that those who were formerly excluded by the law from the assembly of the Lord came to know the Lord through the appearing that happened to them, the Lord himself making himself known to them. It is clear how in the land of the Egyptians so understood an altar was set up to the Lord from the gatherings held in every place for prayers and the worship of God. One who keeps to the wording, “And there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians,” might say: if the altar is a place of victims, where irrational animals are slaughtered for the sake of God, then most justly a greater and truer altar has come to be for God through Christ, both in the whole region of the earth, figuratively called Egypt, because of the martyrs everywhere offered to God as victims and, as it were, sacrifices for the human race, and in the bodily land of the Egyptians itself, where so many and such great martyrs glorified God by their own blood. But if those of the circumcision are reluctant to accept what has been given, let them say when, where, and by whom an altar was set up to the Lord in Egypt; who is the man who saved the Egyptians; and in what way and when the Lord became known to the Egyptians, so that they turned from their former error and took up the knowledge of him; for that is what it is to come to know the Lord. All the rest of the prophecy depends on a deeper sense, which the present occasion does not allow us to unfold.

“Lord, in affliction I remembered you; in small affliction was your discipline for us; and as a woman in labour draws near to giving birth and cries out in her pain, so have we become to your beloved.” A title in the Psalms runs, “For the beloved”; and again it is said, “The king of the hosts of the beloved”; and in those passages the one called the beloved of God is shown to be none other than the Christ. For this reason we have noted the beloved in the passage in hand too, taking him to be that very one whom a voice from heaven clearly proclaimed, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

“Hear the words of the Lord, you afflicted men and rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem. Because you said, ‘We have made a covenant with Hades and agreements with death; if a rushing storm passes by, it shall not come upon us; we have made falsehood our hope, and by falsehood we shall be sheltered’; therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord: Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a costly stone, chosen, a cornerstone, precious, for its foundations; and whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame; and I will make judgment a hope, and my mercy for measures.” How is it not truly foolish and quite laughable, the notion of those who bodily expect that a stone, one of those thought costly and very precious, will be laid by the Lord himself in the foundations of the bodily Zion, a stone in which whoever believes is prophesied never to be put to shame? Shaking off, then, the foolish and Jewish explanations and the old wives' tales, as the apostle called them, let us receive the inspired prophecies in a way worthy of God. “Therefore,” he says, “behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a stone.” Therefore for what reason? Because the rulers of the former people had made agreements with death, and had abandoned God's covenant and made a covenant with Hades in its place, and supposed that because of this they would suffer no evil; and further because they had set their hope on falsehood and thought that they would be sheltered by falsehood. For these reasons, then, as those men had fallen from their hope in God, he promises to lay the precious stone for those who believe. To those who had said, “We have made a covenant with Hades and agreements with death; if a rushing storm passes by, it shall not come upon us; we have made falsehood our hope, and by falsehood we shall be sheltered,” the word says further on: “You who trust in vain in falsehood, the storm shall not pass you by, lest it also take away your covenant with death; and your hope toward Hades shall not stand; if a rushing storm comes upon you, you shall be trampled by it.” It is evident how these things were fulfilled upon that people at the coming of our Saviour. Consistently, then, we hold that the chosen stone shown here, so wonderful and marvellous that those who believe in him will not be put to shame, is none other than the sacred Word of God, on whom, as on a firm foundation, the spiritual and heavenly Zion has been built, which is none other than the church of God. “For no one can lay another foundation than the one laid, which is Jesus Christ.” About him it is said in the Psalms too, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,” and he has been named cornerstone. Daniel too interprets this stone as the kingdom of Christ, where he says, “And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and struck,” or rather “filled, the whole earth.” Those who built the building according to the letter of the law rejected this stone; but he, nonetheless rejected by them, has been shown to be the head of the corner of the church from the nations, according to what is said somewhere, “You will make me head of nations.” Whoever believes in this stone, then, will not be put to shame, this prophecy about him also proving true.

“Behold, the name of the Lord comes after a long time, a burning wrath; with glory the oracle of his lips; the oracle full of anger, and the anger of his wrath shall devour like fire.” And what could the so-called name of the Lord be but God the Word, through whom all things came into being? I think, then, that this prophecy too hints at his second and glorious coming.

“Thus says the Lord: Blessed is he who has offspring in Zion and kinsfolk in Jerusalem; for behold, a righteous king shall reign, and rulers shall rule with judgment.” The Christ of God, who said, “But I was set up as king by him,” is shown through these words too. The rulers under him would be either the apostles and those who rule the churches with God's judgment, or divine angels, overseers of human salvation. Because of this king who reigns over Zion and Jerusalem, “Blessed is he who has offspring in Zion and kinsfolk in Jerusalem”; which should be taken in a way worthy of the apostolic Spirit, who teaches us about the Jerusalem above and the heavenly Mount Zion.

“Be glad, thirsty wilderness; let the wilderness rejoice and blossom like a lily; and the deserts of the Jordan shall blossom and rejoice; and the glory of Lebanon has been given to it, and the honour of Carmel; and my people shall see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of God. Be strong, you weakened hands and paralysed knees; comfort one another, you faint-hearted in mind; be strong, do not fear; behold, our God renders judgment and will render it; he himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be clear; for water has broken out in the wilderness, and a ravine in a thirsty land; and the waterless land shall become marshes, and in the thirsty land there shall be a spring of water.” It foretells that at the coming of God there will be marvellous healings. Clearly, then, here too the Christ of God has been honoured with the title of God; at whose coming the healings mentioned were accomplished bodily on the sufferers, and are still now worked even more wonderfully through faith in him, the whole human race, simply put, being freed from the passions of the soul. Water broke out in the wilderness at Christ's coming, and a ravine in a thirsty land, when the drinkable and life-giving word gushed up in the land that was long desert and thirsty, the church from the nations; in which, formerly waterless and parched, a spring of the living water of Jesus' words, springing up to eternal life, suddenly poured forth. Watered by this spring, the once desert land is said to blossom like a lily, and is commanded to be glad and rejoice; and the reason for the gladness and rejoicing is added, since, it says, the glory of Lebanon, that is, of Jerusalem, has been given to it. About Lebanon it was said in the earlier prophecies that Lebanon too will fall with the lofty; and when it fell, the glory formerly in it was given to the wilderness now evangelized, that is, the church from the nations, together with the former honour of what is called Carmel, clearly the former people. These things clearly reached their end in deeds after the coming of Christ, in keeping both with the prophecy in hand and with the word of our Saviour himself which says that the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a nation producing its fruits.

“A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths. Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and all the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough way plains; and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken.” John, the forerunner of our Saviour, said to those who asked him who he was, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” and what follows. For this reason we have set out the chapter among the testimonies about Christ, thinking that John is a symbol of the apostolic preaching. For such is the voice crying in the wilderness, being obscure and inarticulate to those just beginning to learn the elements. In the wilderness of old, the church from the nations, such a voice, having come, bids them prepare the way of the Lord, and what follows; which whoever cares to know these things will learn by investigating them at leisure.

“Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem; lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God.’ The Lord, the Lord, comes with strength, and his arm with lordship; behold, his reward is with him and his work before him; like a shepherd he will shepherd his flock, and with his arm he will gather lambs, and comfort those that are with young.” We think these things too are said about the coming of the Word of God, and perhaps rather about the second, at which he is prophesied to come as a righteous judge, bringing his reward, which renders to each according to what he has done. The rest, however, the present occasion does not require us to explain; so we shall turn to another passage.

“Who raised up righteousness from the east, called it to his feet, and it will go? He will give it before nations and will astound kings; and he will give their swords to the earth, and their bows ※ like driven-off brushwood; and he will pursue them; the way of his feet will pass in peace; he will not come. Who has worked and done these things? He who called it from the beginning of generations called it; I am God, the first, and for the things to come I am. Nations saw and were afraid; the ends of the earth were amazed; they drew near, they came together, each judging to help his neighbour and his brother; and he will say, ‘The carpenter has prevailed, and the coppersmith, striking with the hammer, beating at the same time’; sometimes he will say, ‘It is a good joint’; they made them strong with nails; they will set them up, and it will not be moved.” What could the righteousness raised up from the east be, as a definite substance having its own subsistence, but the Christ of God, of whom the apostle says, “who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption”? Him the dispensation of the incarnation raised up from the Father's bosom, which is the east of all spiritual light, or the Father himself did, who gave him before the nations; so that their former kings, being invisible evil powers, might be astounded at the marvel of the dispensation, seeing so great a Son of God having neither form nor beauty; and that after such astonishment their swords might be given to the earth and their bows be like driven-off brushwood, so that they might no longer hold weapons of war and fiery darts, with which they formerly warred down the souls subject to them. After this it says, “And he will pursue them,” so that, when they have thus been pursued at the end of all things, the way of his feet may pass in peace. “Who has worked,” it says, “and done these things?” We understand in addition that it is the goodness and love for humankind of the God of the universe, who calls it, clearly the righteousness, which is none other than his wisdom; seeing which, the nations who were formerly without the fear of God feared God; and being called from the extremities and the ends of the inhabited world, they drew near to God, those once far off having come near to the kingdom of heaven. Therefore they were also amazed at the marvel of salvation, and teaching one another, brother helping brother, they confess their former error about idols, saying these very things: “It was a carpenter, then, and a coppersmith, who by hammer and nails and human contrivance raised up and made strong those we formerly thought gods; but they were nothing but lifeless wooden images, receiving no movement from themselves; and how false were the idols our fathers acquired, and there was no profit in them!” That these things were thus accomplished at our Saviour's coming, the testimony of deeds shows better than that of words.

“Jacob my servant, I will help him; Israel my chosen, my soul has accepted him. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations. He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor will his voice be heard outside. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; but he will bring forth judgment to truth. He will shine forth and not be broken until he has set judgment on the earth; and in his name nations will hope. Thus says the Lord God, who made the heaven and fixed it, who made firm the earth and what is in it, and gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who tread on it: I, the Lord God, have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand and strengthen you; and I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out of bonds those who are bound, and out of the prison house those who sit in darkness.” That the words from “Jacob my servant, I will help him; Israel my chosen, my soul has accepted him” are not prophesied about the Jewish people will be clear to those willing to examine each phrase of what is set out; and it is also clear from the exactness of the Hebrew, for neither the name Jacob nor Israel appears in it, which is why they have been marked with the obelus in the accurate copies of the Seventy. And I think no one doubts that no other of the righteous except our Saviour Jesus Christ, not even Isaac's son himself, who was called Jacob and Israel, was such that the things set out could fit him. For even if one were to fit “I have put my Spirit upon him” to others, what would he say to “He will bring forth judgment to the nations,” and what follows, and especially “And in his name nations will hope”? And how would it be plausible to fit either to the Jewish people, or to Isaac's son Jacob himself, or to any other of the righteous, “I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out of bonds those who are bound, and out of the prison house those who sit in darkness”? But let these difficulties be raised by us against those of the circumcision. The Gospel clearly teaches us that this prophecy too was fulfilled in our Saviour Jesus, when the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him how to destroy him; but Jesus, knowing it, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all, and he ordered them not to make him known. For to this is added in the Gospel: “that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my Spirit upon him,’” and the rest that is listed in the prophecy. He, then, would be the one also called Jacob, being the only-begotten servant of God, as it is said elsewhere: “It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel.” Having heard from the Father, then, among other things, “I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of nations,” he brought forth judgment to the nations, so that they live by a discerning reason according to the holy Gospel. It is clear how the nations who have believed in him have hoped in his name, and how he has been shown to be a light of nations, so that through the light of his word the eyes of the understanding of those long blinded were opened; and he also brought out of bonds those formerly bound fast by the cords of their own sins, and out of the house of the devil's prison those who sat in darkness through ignorance of the God of the universe. It remains for the lover of learning to examine each phrase of the prophecy and, in keeping with what we have said, to transfer to the Christ of God whatever occurs to him.

“Be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen.” And who could the servant be whom the Lord God has chosen, whom he also counts with himself as one who will be a witness among those who bear witness to him, but the one about whom it was said in the previous chapter, “Jacob my servant, I will help him,” and what follows? These were clearly shown to have been prophesied about our Saviour and Lord Jesus.