John Chrysostom — Commentary on Scripture

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

For since we are accustomed to use the word evil to speak of calamities, and not only of thefts and adulteries, so the prophet allows this usage. On this basis the prophet can say, “There is no evil in the city that the Lord has not done.” This too, by means of Isaiah, God has made clear, when he said, “I am God who makes peace and creates evil,” again naming calamities evils. This evil also Christ hints at, thus saying to the disciples, “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” that is to say, the affliction, the misery. It is manifest then on all sides that he here calls punishment an evil, even as we commonly do, affirming at the same time that God brings these on us. This affords us the greatest view of his providence. For the physician is not only to be commended when he leads forth the patient into gardens and meadows, nor even into baths and pools of water, nor yet when he sets before him a well-furnished table, but when he orders him to remain without food, when he oppresses him with hunger and lays him low with thirst, confines him to his bed, making his house a prison…

For since we are accustomed to use the word evil to speak of calamities, and not only of thefts and adulteries, so the prophet allows this usage. On this basis the prophet can say, “There is no evil in the city that the Lord has not done.” This too, by means of Isaiah, God has made clear, when he said, “I am God who makes peace and creates evil,” again naming calamities evils. This evil also Christ hints at, thus saying to the disciples, “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” that is to say, the affliction, the misery. It is manifest then on all sides that he here calls punishment an evil, even as we commonly do, affirming at the same time that God brings these on us. This affords us the greatest view of his providence. For the physician is not only to be commended when he leads forth the patient into gardens and meadows, nor even into baths and pools of water, nor yet when he sets before him a well-furnished table, but when he orders him to remain without food, when he oppresses him with hunger and lays him low with thirst, confines him to his bed, making his house a prison, depriving him of the very light and shadowing his room on all sides with curtains. When he cuts, and when he cauterizes and when he brings his bitter medicines, he is equally a physician.

These things have thus been clearly shown to you to be in some cases bad, some good and some in between, … the inspired author is saying the in-between things are not really bad but are thought to be by the general run of people—things like captivity, servitude and exile. Now, it is necessary to explain the reason for this statement. Loving as [God] is and quick to show mercy, while slow in exercising retribution and punishment, God sent prophets so as to avoid consigning the Jews to punishment, intending to frighten them in word, so as not to punish them in deed.…Observing this and wishing to undermine the reform that was the result of such a threat, the devil sent down false prophets, and in contradiction of the prophets’ threats of captivity, servitude and famine, false prophets preached the opposite—peace, prosperity and enjoyment of countless good things. Hence, the genuine prophets also mocked the false by saying, “Peace, peace—and where is peace?” This every scholar knows, that everything happened just as the prophets had foretold against the false prophets, who were undermini…

These things have thus been clearly shown to you to be in some cases bad, some good and some in between, … the inspired author is saying the in-between things are not really bad but are thought to be by the general run of people—things like captivity, servitude and exile. Now, it is necessary to explain the reason for this statement. Loving as [God] is and quick to show mercy, while slow in exercising retribution and punishment, God sent prophets so as to avoid consigning the Jews to punishment, intending to frighten them in word, so as not to punish them in deed.…Observing this and wishing to undermine the reform that was the result of such a threat, the devil sent down false prophets, and in contradiction of the prophets’ threats of captivity, servitude and famine, false prophets preached the opposite—peace, prosperity and enjoyment of countless good things. Hence, the genuine prophets also mocked the false by saying, “Peace, peace—and where is peace?” This every scholar knows, that everything happened just as the prophets had foretold against the false prophets, who were undermining the people’s zeal. So when they undermined the people in this way and corrupted them, God said through the prophets, “I, God, am making peace and creating evils.” What sort of evils? Those mentioned—captivity, servitude and the like. Not fornication, licentiousness, avarice and anything else like that.…
Do not let the false prophets undermine you; God can give you peace and consign you to captivity, which is the meaning of “making peace and creating evils.” For you to learn that this is true, let us make a precise examination of the individual expressions. After saying before, “I am the one who brought light and darkness into being,” he then went on to say, “making peace and creating evils.” He cited two opposites first, and two opposites after that, for you to learn that he is referring not to fornication but to calamities. I mean, what is set as the opposite of peace? Clearly captivity, not licentiousness or fornication or avarice. So just as he cited two opposites first, so too in this case; the opposite of peace is not fornication, or adultery, or licentiousness or the other vices, but captivity and servitude.

Isaiah 47:13

Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

[God the] Father devoted a large portion of his discourse to prophecy when he took a stand against the cult images. “Let them tell the things that shall come to you”; and again, “I have declared and have saved; and there was no strange one among you,” and throughout the entire prophecy he stressed this point. Prophecy is indeed especially the work of God, which the demons would not be able to imitate, even if they should strive very hard.

Isaiah 50:7

For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

For the railings, and insults, and reproaches and gibes inflicted by enemies and their plots are compared with a worn-out garment and moth-eaten wool when God says, “Do not fear the reproach of people, neither be afraid of their revilings, for they shall grow old as does a garment, and like moth-eaten wool so shall they be consumed.” Therefore, let none of these things that are happening trouble [you], but stop asking for the aid of this or that person and running after shadows (for such are human alliances); persistently call on Jesus, whom [you serve] … and in a moment of time all these evils will be dissolved.

Isaiah 52:14

As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

“Even as many will be astounded at you, so your appearance will be without glory from people.” For what could be equal to this insolence? Even the sea, on seeing his face, gave it reverence. Even the sun, when it beheld him on the cross, turned away his rays. Yet on his face they did spit, and struck it with the palms of their hands, and some on the head; giving full swing in every way to their own madness.

Isaiah 53:2

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

For not by any means in working wonders only was he wonderful, but even when merely showing himself, he was full of great grace. To declare this, the prophet said, “Fair in beauty beyond the children of humankind.” When Isaiah says, “He had no form nor comeliness,” he is comparing the [embodied Son] with the glory of his godhead, which surpasses all utterance and description. Or he is speaking of what took place at his passion, the dishonor that he underwent at the season of the cross and the mean estate that throughout his life he exemplified in all respects.

Isaiah 53:9 · 3 passages

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Then to show that the court was corrupt and the sentence unjust, he went on to say, “In his humiliation his legal trial was taken away,” that is, no one judged justly in his case.

And is not one ashamed to say that God is not crafty or deceitful? Concerning him, however, in respect of the flesh, it might be reasonable [to say it].

In reality, the people were subject to another curse, which says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all that is written in the book of the law.” To this curse, I say, people were subject, for no person had continued in or was a keeper of the whole law. But Christ exchanged this curse for the other, “Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree.” … It was necessary for him who is about to relieve us from a curse to be himself free of it. But he received another instead of ours. Therefore Christ took on himself just such curse and thereby relieved us from the curse. It was like an innocent person deciding to die for another sentenced to death, and so rescuing him from punishment. For Christ took on him not the curse of transgression but the other curse, in order to remove that of others. For “he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”

Isaiah 53:11

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

[David] predicted that Christ would rise again. “You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.” Isaiah expressed the same thing in a different way. For he said, “The Lord wishes to cleanse him from his wounds, to show him light, to justify the righteous one who served many well.”Isaiah established that the slaying of Christ was a ransom for humanity’s sins when he said, “He has borne the sins of many.” And he will free humankind from demons, for as Isaiah said, “He will divide the spoils of the strong.” And the same prophet spoke out clearly that Christ did this through his death when he said, “Because his soul was delivered up to death.” That Christ would be put in charge over the whole world he revealed by these words of his, “He shall inherit many.”

Isaiah 53:12

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Hear, at least, what God says to the Jews, “As my child Isaiah walked, naked and barefoot, so shall the children of Israel walk into captivity naked and barefoot.” He wishes, therefore, to remind you by your appearance that the devil held sway over you, and he brings you to the recollection of how lowly born you were before regeneration. Hence, you stand not only naked and unshod, but you even stand with upturned hands to confess God’s future sovereignty to which you draw near. You are all the spoils and booty of war. Isaiah mentioned these spoils long ago, before our release from troubles, when he prophesied as follows, “He shall divide the spoils of the strong.”

Isaiah 54:1

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

Who is this who before was “barren” and “desolate”? Clearly it is the church of the Gentiles, which was before deprived of the knowledge of God. Who is “she who has the husband”? Plainly the synagogue. Yet the barren woman surpassed her in the number of her children, for the other embraces one nation, but the children of the church have filled the country of the Greeks and of the barbarians, the earth and the sea, the whole habitable world.

Isaiah 55:1

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

As long as the virtues are found before us and are sold cheaply, let us take from the munificent One, let us grasp, let us purchase.… As long as the festival lasts, let us buy alms, or, better yet, let us purchase salvation through almsgiving. You clothe Christ when you clothe the poor.

Isaiah 55:8 · 2 passages

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

“For my counsels are not as your counsels.” … Now if we admit to our favor household slaves when they have offended against us, on their promising to become better, and place them again in their former position and sometimes even grant them greater freedom of speech than before, much more does God act thus. For if God had made us in order to punish us, we might well have despaired and questioned the possibility of our own salvation. But if he created us for no other reason than his own good will, and with a view to our enjoying everlasting blessings, and if he does and contrives everything for this end, from the first day until the present time, what is there which can ever cause us to doubt? Have we provoked him severely, in a way no other person did? This is just the reason why we ought specially to abstain from our present deeds and to repent for the past and exhibit a great change. For the evils we have once perpetrated cannot provoke him so much as our being unwilling to make any change in the future. For to sin may be a merely human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceas…

“For my counsels are not as your counsels.” … Now if we admit to our favor household slaves when they have offended against us, on their promising to become better, and place them again in their former position and sometimes even grant them greater freedom of speech than before, much more does God act thus. For if God had made us in order to punish us, we might well have despaired and questioned the possibility of our own salvation. But if he created us for no other reason than his own good will, and with a view to our enjoying everlasting blessings, and if he does and contrives everything for this end, from the first day until the present time, what is there which can ever cause us to doubt? Have we provoked him severely, in a way no other person did? This is just the reason why we ought specially to abstain from our present deeds and to repent for the past and exhibit a great change. For the evils we have once perpetrated cannot provoke him so much as our being unwilling to make any change in the future. For to sin may be a merely human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceases to be human and becomes altogether devilish.

Do not want to be more merciful than God, or rather, if you wish it, you will not be able, not even in the least degree. How should you? As far as the heaven is from the earth, Scripture says, so far are My counsels from your counsels: and again, If ye, He says, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more your heavenly Father? But in fact this talk is mere pretext and subterfuge. Let us not prevaricate with God's commandments.

Isaiah 56:10

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

Hence even sacred Scripture, with these sorts of disturbing passions in mind, in many places applies the names of brutes and of wild beasts to those gifted with reason; sometimes it calls them “dogs” on account of their shameful and headstrong behavior—“dumb dogs,” since they are “unable even to bark.”

Isaiah 57:18

I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

For such is the loving-kindness of God; he never turns his face away from a sincere repentance, but if any one has pushed on to the very extremity of wickedness and chooses to return afterwards toward the path of virtue, God accepts and welcomes and does everything so as to restore him to his former position.

Isaiah 57:19

I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

But let us humble our own souls by almsgiving and forgiving our neighbors their trespasses, by not remembering injuries or avenging ourselves. If we continually reflect on our sins, no external circumstances can make us elated, neither riches, nor power, nor authority nor honor; no, even should we sit in the imperial chariot itself, we cry bitterly.

Isaiah 58:6

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Do you see, dearly beloved, what true fasting really is? Let us perform this kind and not entertain the facile notion held by many that the essence of fasting lies in going without food till evening. This is not the end in view, but that we should demonstrate, along with abstinence from food, abstinence also from whatever is harmful, and should give close attention to spiritual duties. The person fasting ought to be reserved, peaceful, meek, humble, indifferent to the esteem of this world.

Isaiah 58:9

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

Were he distant from us in place, you might well doubt, but if [God] is present everywhere, to him that strives and is in earnest he is near.… What father would ever be thus obedient to his offspring? What mother is there, so ready and continually standing, in case her children call her? There is not one, no father, no mother, but God stands continually waiting … and never, when we have called as we ought, has he refused to hear.