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NOTES for Isa 48:17-19

Printable version
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
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It may seem that comparing the well-being which, according to the prophet, awaits the people if they follow the Torah and God's commandments to the sea or a river is no more than a beautiful image. Yet it is not quite that simple. What is the Torah? What is the Decalogue? Commandments given by God? Laws based on those commandments? Undoubtedly, but not only that. Rabbinic tradition contains the idea of the Torah written on heavenly tablets before the creation of the world. We could treat that image as an allegory too, if we saw the Torah only as a text or as a legal and moral code. But is that what it is? Does God need such a code? Is morality what matters to Him, or something else? Today we often think that ethics is what matters most in communion with God, that God needs our morality, and that sin is abhorrent to Him because it is immoral.

The Bible sees this differently. The most terrible thing about any sin is not the violation of a moral norm, nor even the harm that violation does to one's neighbour—terrible though that may be. The most terrible thing is that sin objectively separates us from God and makes communion with Him impossible. Not some abstract communion, but a very concrete one, of the kind described in the Bible: communion as an encounter that completely changes a person because God's presence acts upon human nature.

It is this transforming action that sin obstructs. God will not work with a person whose nature—bodily and inward—is corrupted by sin. In any case, He will first cleanse that nature. To transform someone completely, they must be completely cleansed of sin: this is why the Messiah came into the world. The question of sin is spiritual, not moral. And the Torah describes the laws governing a person's relationship with God and people's relationships with one another.

It describes the laws of spiritual life, for spirituality is precisely relationships: people's relationships with one another and with God; their relationships with Christ, and Christ's relationship with His heavenly Father. These laws are as unshakeable as the laws of nature. They come from the same Source. By following them, we do not merely become decent people, or religious people. By following the Torah, we become part of God's plan and of God's great world—as organic a part of it as the sea or a river, but, unlike them, aware of ourselves and of our relationship with God. A world that will one day become the Kingdom, which we too will enter.

Other notes

 
For Isa 48:17-19
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
Hide
It sometimes seems that in the Holy Scriptures God expects from us all the time unconceivable efforts, that we have to fight and work. We hear first of all in commandments what we do not have to allow ourselves, not always realizing...  Read more

It sometimes seems that in the Holy Scriptures God expects from us all the time unconceivable efforts, that we have to fight and work. We hear first of all in commandments what we do not have to allow ourselves, not always realizing, why. It turns out that our life owes a constant overcoming. Although it is sometimes like that, but only partially. God speaks about Himself through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah-" God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." Each of us has his way, to find it by oneself is rather difficult, how then one can understand where it is, this road, in which we are called? And God lets us know that commandments are pegs indicating the edge of the way, protecting against the fall into the abyss. As the watersides of a plentiful river, giving it the direction, and protecting it so that it spreads not on the meadows and floods everything all around. According to the words of the prophet, our life can really become as such river, if we begin to believe in God and understand that commandments don’t limit our will, but just warn of the danger.

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For Isa 48:17-18
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Hide
The Lord says that there is only one source of peace - hearken to the commandments. We look for peace, we want more that everything on earth comfort, the internal light...  Read more

The Lord says that there is only one source of peace - hearken to the commandments. We look for peace, we want more that everything on earth comfort, the internal light … But for some reason it goes wrong all the time. Why? And here is why. Because it is necessary at first to listen to the Lord, to accept His teaching, because He teaches good, to obey and to walk by the way that He leads. And we hear in His voice an obvious pain: "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!" If only… if only we could lift up our eyes and look at Him, open our heart and accept His word …

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For Isa 48:1-22
1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.
8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
9 For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.
Hide
It turns out that one can confess the Lord and swear by His Name while none of it is in truth or righteousness...  Read more

It turns out that one can confess the Lord and swear by His Name while none of it is in truth or righteousness. This means that when we are in such a state, we may in theory adhere to lofty principles while acting contrary to them. This is possible not only when, like the people rebuked here, we try to combine faith with idolatry or with consulting soothsayers and diviners, but whenever we seem to do everything correctly and act piously while outward piety has become a habit concealing the absence of steadfastness in faith.

Then the Lord can manifest His will in a way entirely different from what we are accustomed to expect on the basis of earlier experience, still less on the basis of the calculations of false wisdom. Putting false prophets to shame—and us too, if we become firmly convinced that everything is already clear to us and that surely we cannot stumble—He reveals to us both the destinies of the world and what is taking place in our own depths, things we could never have conceived on our own.

If this happens, we may become confused and fail at first to understand how to respond to what has unexpectedly been revealed. Nevertheless, it is worth going out to meet the new and unknown when it comes from the Lord.

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For Isa 48:1-22
1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.
8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
9 For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.
Hide
Today's prophecy of Isaiah once again gives us an opportunity to touch the mystery of God's plan. Through the prophet, the Lord says of Himself that He is Israel's Redeemer and leads the people along the way they should go. But then the prophet puts strange words into the Messiah's mouth...  Read more

Today's prophecy of Isaiah once again gives us an opportunity to touch the mystery of God's plan. Through the prophet, the Lord says of Himself that He is Israel's Redeemer and leads the people along the way they should go. But then the prophet puts strange words into the Messiah's mouth: “I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet... My reward is with My God.”

From a human point of view, the three years of the Lord Jesus' ministry produced no results. Instead of a royal triumph, there was a shameful death; instead of multilingual crowds of followers, a handful of disciples who scattered before the execution... The strange organization He formed from them so that the Spirit of love and mercy might dwell within it is constantly subjected to all kinds of attacks and temptations and is completely unable to draw the world to itself... All this is true, but it is only the visible side of events.

Behind this visible side there is something else. The shameful execution opens the way to the radiant miracle of the Resurrection; the scattered disciples prove capable of receiving the Spirit of God and obeying Him; and the Church continues to be a spring of living water despite all the hostility of this world. Truly, we see today's prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled.

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