NOTES for Isa 48:17-19

Sometimes it seems that in Scripture the Lord constantly expects incredible efforts from us, that we must struggle and labor. In the commandments, we primarily hear what we must not allow ourselves, not always realizing why. It turns out that our life must become a constant overcoming. And although sometimes this is so, it is only partially true.

Through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says of Himself: “who teaches you what is profitable, who leads you in the way you should go.” Each of us has our own path, and finding it on our own is quite difficult; how then to understand—where is it, that road to which we are called? And the Lord gives us to understand that the commandments are pegs marking the edge of the road, protecting us from falling into the abyss. They are like the banks of a full-flowing river, giving it direction, but guarding it from overflowing into the meadows and flooding everything around. It is exactly such a river, according to the word of the prophet, that our life can become if we begin to trust God and understand that the commandments do not limit our will, but only warn of danger.