THE NEW EXODUS Chapters 48 and 49 include talks about salvation, like the divine decree for the return to the homeland, prayer as a source of strength, and the joy of salvation. After presenting a word of admonishment to His people, characterized by hypocrisy, stubborn-heart, and deviation to paganism, God revealed to them His aim, in delivering them to captivity. And finally, He declares the happy news, that He issued the order of their quick release, accompanied by redemption. 1. God admonishes His people 1-8. 2. God’s aim in allowing captivity 9-19. 3. The prompt and joyful salvation 20-22. 1. GOD ADMONISHES HIS PEOPLE In the previous chapter God exposed Babylon, the Virgin queen of kingdoms, which has been swept to a life of luxury, together with haughtiness and violence that led to a complete collapse. Now, before proclaiming the release of His people from captivity, He, in a fatherly manner, reveals their weaknesses and transgressions, and also His aim in allowing for their captivity, for the sake of keeping them from returning again to their sins. The most serious danger facing Gnostic believers is probably hypocrisy together with formality of worship. God does not wish to humiliate them, but raised them up to an exalted level, and granted them spiritual possibilities to live with Him, the most important of which are: a. He called them “Israel” (Is. 48: 1), being His chosen people. b. A royal people: “have come forth from the wellspring of Judah.” (Is. 48: 1) c. They are attributed to the name of the Lord: “who swear by in the name of the Lord, and make mention the Lord of Israel.” (Is. 48: 1) Although they were aware that He is the One real God, they worshiped Him, albeit in formal laterality, devoid of spirit, “but not in truth or in righteousness.” d. They enjoyed the city of Jerusalem (Is. 48: 2), the holy city of God that embraced His temple. e. They rely on the God of Israel (Is. 48: 2); take pride in His covenants, and lean on Him (Micah 3: 11). f. They enjoyed divine prophecies; God announced to them, things to come (Is. 48: 3), to let them abide in their faith in Him, and to believe His words and promises. Knowing how stubborn they were - how the sinews of their necks were iron, and their foreheads were bronze, He knew that they could hardly believe prophetic words, therefore He presented them with prophecies that would be realized in the near future, to lead them into believing them, and to give them the ability to discern between God and the idols (Is. 48: 5). Despite all these possibilities presented to them by God, they led a life of hypocrisy, worshipping Him with a Pharisee-like way, besides mixing between God and 8 idol-worship. They disregarded and despised words of prophesy, and misunderstood their mysteries; so He rebukes them by saying, “Surely you did not hear. Surely you did not know. Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called transgressor from the womb.”(Is. 48: 8) Being preoccupied with talking about spiritual insight and sanctified inner ear, Isaiah’s talk concerning the Savior seemed to many - even to the majority - in his days, as something almost impossible. The Savior did come; nevertheless, He was rejected by many, despite the numerous prophesies in the Old Testament concerning His Person, beside His redeeming works. The world is still in need of the true insight and the sanctified ear. Even those who believed in Him and accepted Him are in need of that, in order to be able to enjoy deeper mysteries, and to apprehend the hidden inner heavenly glories. We are all in need of being accompanied by the Lord of glory, to walk with us and talk to us, to say with the two disciples of Emmaus: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24: 32) O my God... You are my light; open my eyes to behold Your divine splendor, and to be able to walk my way without stumbling in the snares of the enemy. You are the Light that illuminated Jacob’s mind, to reveal to his sons the things to come. St. Augustine1 2. GOD’S AIM IN ALLOWING CAPTIVITY a. “For My name’s sake I defy My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off.” (Is. 48: 9) In other words, that people should have perished and utterly cut off; yet God with His zeal for His name and glory, chose to chastise them, in the hope that they might return to Him. As though captivity is a divine ‘gift’ presented to beloved children, despite their unworthiness of that fatherly love. This is a splendid spiritual look at chastisement, through which the believer comprehends its significance as a sign of fatherly love. The apostle says, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons” (Hebrew 12: 6, 7) If lack of chastising is a sign of illegitimacy (Hebrew 12: 8), we should rejoice for getting chastised, considering it as a sign of our legitimate sonhood!2 St. John Chrysostom A father will not chastise his son if he does not love him, and a teacher will never try to straighten the ways of his student, unless he sees in him certain signs of promise. When a physician stops his efforts to cure his patient that would be a sign that he gave up hope in his recovery3. 1 .74 ، الحب الإلهي، ص 70 2 In Hebr. 29:33. 3 Ep. 118:1. 9 St. Jerome “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” (Psalm 89: 32) It is out of mercy, that God, not only calls them, but also chastises and scourges them. Let your father’s hand be on you; and if you are a good son, do not protest his chastisement, as long as he does not take his mercy away from you, or deprive you of your right to inheritance. That is what you should be afraid of. I wish the pious children would not say, “If you intend to come to us with a rod, do not care to come at all.” It is better for you to learn by your father’s rod than to perish through enemy’s care1. God, who preserves the simple-hearted (Psalm 116: 6) will scourge those, who, when they become mature, He would seek them to become His heirs. He helped me in my time of affliction. The pain caused by a surgeon’s scalpel is not meant as a punishment but as a gift2. St. Augustine. b. For refining: “I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (Is. 48: 10) We are God’s silver and gold, whom He cares to test in the furnace of pain and affliction. Blessed is he, who is chastised in this life twice; as God does not punish twice for the same offense (Neh. 1: 9)3. St. Jerome c. God, who allows us to be chastised for the sake of our refinement, will lift it up as soon as it fulfills its goal. He called heavens and earth, together with all His creation to witness His amazing salvation. He loved Cyrus and chose him to carry out His purpose against Babylon (Is. 48: 14). What Cyrus accomplishes, is not through his own will, but through that of God, the Savior of His people. “I, even I, have spoken.; Yes I have called him. I will brought him, and his way will prosper... From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent me.”(Is. 48: 15, 16) God and His Holy Spirit sent Cyrus, as a symbol of the Lord Christ, who came by His own will, and, at the same time, was sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit. How was that? This demonstrates the unity of the Holy Trinity, as inseparable Hypostasies, of one divine essence that works for the salvation of mankind. The Father loves humanity, and in His love He sent His Word who is inseparable from Him. The sacrifice of Christ is counted as a gift from the Father, and as said by the Lord Christ Himself, “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3: 16) The Father, the Lover of mankind, sent His Son as a sacrifice of love. The Son, in His turn, offered Himself willingly, in obedience to the Father, according to the words of 1 On Ps. 89. 2 On Ps. 116. 3 On Ps. Hom. 51. 10 the apostle: “who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2: 20) As to the Holy Spirit, He had a positive role in the whole work of salvation. Through Him, the divine incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary was realized (Luke 1: 35); Jesus went up the mountain to be tempted, and He testifies for the Lord Christ (John 15: 26). d. For the sake of obedience to the Father: Captivity did not happen by a chance, but as a fruit of rebellion; without which they would not have fallen under it. That is why it became their duty, on their return, to practice obedience, to enjoy the righteousness and goodness of God: “Oh, that you had headed My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offsprings of your body like the grains of sand. His name would not have been cut off nor destroyed before Me.” (Is. 48: 18, 19) If they had obeyed God, they would have, not only spared themselves falling into the Babylonian captivity, but would have also been flooded with God’s peace, like a wide, deep, and continuously running river, to quench the thirst of many. 3. THE PROMPT AND JOYFUL SALVATION God offers a call for exodus: “Leave Babylon. Flee from the Babylonians.” (Is. 48: 20) Although God sent Cyrus for their salvation, yet He does not let them go out against their free will, but calls and persuades them to do that. They did; and 40, 000 of them returned on the hands of Zerubbabel (See Nehemiah 9: 36 - 39). It is a continuous call for our exodus from every offensive situation, under the leadership of our Savior, to set ourselves free by the Spirit of God, from their yoke; like when Lot and his household were called to leave Sodom and Gomorrah. Fleeing from evil is not weakness or passivism, but is a positive act, through which man, by the Spirit of God, proclaims his victory over his depths, that yearn for, and enjoy such offensive situations. That call is accompanied with joy for the salvation work of the Lord, “Announce this with shouts of joy.” (Is, 48: 20) As the prophet Isaiah looks forward to freedom from captivity, as a second exodus, he recalls the exodus of God’s people from the servitude of Pharaoh on the hands of Moses, who, by God’s grace, gave them water from the rock in the wilderness, to quench their thirst. In this new exodus, they enjoy the same gift: “They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts. He caused the water to flow from the rock for them. He also split the rock and water gushed out.” (Is. 48: 21) This was realized, as Christ’s salvation was connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit, on the day of the Pentecost, as a fountain of living water that flooded the Church of Christ. Finally, this salvation is optional; who does not receive it, is deprived of the exalted peace of God, who said, “There is no peace for the wicked.” (Is. 48: 22) We were told that the voice of mirth and that of gladness ceased to come out of their mouths (see Jeremiah 7: 34). Yes, the feasts of the wicked are nothing but woes. 11 Those rejecting prayers and thanksgiving, deprive themselves of the fruits of joy. Pope Athanasius the Apostolic1 In the Septuagint version it came: “There is no (joy) for the wicked.” St. Augustine2 discerned between the temporary joy of the wicked, connected with the temporary things, and that ends with them, and the joy of the righteous who rejoice even in their shackles. The martyr Crispina rejoiced as she was shackled and led to trial, then as she was imprisoned. Her joy was before the angels, according to the words of the Psalmist: “Before the (angels) I will sing praises for You.” (Psalm 138: 1) 1 Pasch. Ep. 2,3. 2 On Ps. 138.
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