NOTES for Isa 4:2-6

In the messianic prophecies of Isaiah of Jerusalem, the Messiah is often called a "shoot" or "branch." And yet the image of the Messiah in this prophet is not yet as clear as in the prophets of later eras. But the image of the messianic Kingdom is revealed to him with astonishing clarity. The point, of course, is not its earthly details, but spiritual realities. And the center of this Kingdom turns out to be not the Messiah Himself, who is revealed to Isaiah of Jerusalem in the image of an earthly ruler, a righteous king appointed by God, but the presence of God. That very presence accompanies the people throughout their entire historical path.

It is the presence that makes the people of God the people of God; without it the Jewish people would be no different from any other people on earth. In the text it is called glory, as it was customarily called in priestly circles. And it is described in the way the texts traditionally connected with the time of Moses describe it. A cloud by day, a radiance like fire by night: everything is as it was during the exodus, when God Himself led His people. Here there is symbol, but in this symbol there is a revelation about the messianic Kingdom. About the Kingdom where God's presence will be revealed in all its fullness. About the Kingdom that will be wholly permeated by God's breath. About the Kingdom where each person is sanctified in such fullness that it completely changes and transforms his human nature. And the prophet also speaks about this renewal. It is no accident that he calls the inhabitants of the renewed Jerusalem revealed to him in vision sanctified, or "holy." To be sanctified, one must approach the altar, ascend and enter the Temple court, the place where God's glory, God's presence, dwells. It is this presence that sanctifies a person, changing his nature. Then the person leaves. And as he leaves, over time he becomes his former self again: fallen nature takes its own.

But for the Kingdom something else is needed. To be there, one must preserve what was received at the altar and remain sanctified forever. This is not given automatically: the prophet does not speak of the Judgment that all who seek new life will have to pass through by accident. "By the breath of judgment and by the breath of fire" God washes the inhabitants of the city renewed by His presence. Defilement, the consequences of sins committed by a person, has no place in the Kingdom. Therefore the Judgment becomes fiery. God's breath is the breath of love, which receives the person but does not receive what kills the beloved. It is terrible for sin, which substitutes itself for a person's genuine life, but it is not terrible for the person who seeks the fullness of life.

Again we read about "that day," but what a different picture we see! In what is revealed to the prophet there are many layers, apparently belonging to different times. And if we can say of all the prophecies, perhaps almost all, in the preceding chapters that they have been fulfilled, then the fulfillment of this prophecy has taken place only in part, because the Branch of the Lord has appeared in beauty and honor, and purification by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of fire has been accomplished, but the constant presence of God's glory, visible to all in the fullness of His power, is promised to us only at the Second Coming.

Today in the prophet Isaiah we read the famous parable of the vineyard, which the Lord Jesus Christ will repeat shortly before His Passion. For us it is important first of all to hear the direct meaning of this parable. What applies to Old Testament Israel is no less relevant for the new Israel, the Church, the Christian people.

The Lord says that His people are a vineyard planted by Him so that it would bear fruit. Not as a museum of unearthly beauty, not as a pedestal of honor, not as an inn for tired travelers, but as a garden that must bear fruit. The apostle Paul clarifies for us what this fruit is in the Letter to the Galatians: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." This is the righteousness the Lord expects from us. And if we do not bear this fruit, then this choice of ours will lead to what Christ said to the Jews: "See, your house is left to you desolate." (Mt. 23:38)

But the prophet, like the Lord, speaks not in order to predict disasters for us. God always wants our repentance and conversion. That is why it is important for us not to be afraid to hear this rebuke and to trust in God's promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.

The first messianic predictions in the yahvist history are connected with the name of one of the biggest prophets of Israel Isaiah of Jerusalem. It is him who called for the first time the Messiah "root" or "the branch", and afterward this definition was fixed in the yahvist traditions, as one of the names of the Messiah promised by God.

Certainly, the image of the Messiah to Isaiah is still close to the traditional image of a righteous governor, as it appeared to the previous prophets. Besides, Isaiah was sure that the Messiah will come already very soon, and His coming will be preceded by serious cataclysms, which will become a test of the faith of the people of God. What is it: the error of the prophet? The aberration of a historic sight? And maybe, not the first, nor the second?

Of course, when the matter concerns the projection of such big spiritual events, as, for example, the coming of the Messiah, on the earth history, errors in chronology are not only possible, but also are almost inevitable: the intervals of time are really too big, which it is necessary to seize with a spiritual glance. But the important, probably, is not all the same in the aberration of the historic vision. The important is that there is no predetermination in God's plans. God has no date defined beforehand for the coming of the Messiah, quite as He has no date beforehand defined for His return. In the one, as in the other case the variants are possible. Everything depends on the spiritual state of the people of God and of the humanity in general.

And when as it was during Hezekiah's governance and sermons of Isaiah, the people dwell in the state of spiritual exaltation, the probability of the coming of the Messiah indeed increases. From the point of view of history we would have been able to say, that such a state of the people approaches objectively the coming of the Messiah, quite as the state of spiritual decline moves it objectively far away, and sometimes vaguely distant, in the future. And the prophet sees only the spiritual state of the people and the possibilities opening. Not more, not less.