Isaiah 10:23

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. [Isaiah 10:22-23] And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

When God made statements such as “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness,” he was teaching me to refrain from doing to others what I would be unwilling to do to myself. Therefore the precept offered in the Gospel belongs only to the one who first drew it up in ancient times, arranging it according to his own teaching in a formula that could easily be understood. This was predicted in another passage in which the Lord, that is, Christ, was “to make a concise word on the earth.”

What wonder, most beloved brothers, if such [the Lord’s Prayer] is the prayer that God has taught, who by his instruction has abbreviated our every prayer in a saving word? This had already been foretold by Isaiah the prophet, when filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving kindness of God. He said, “He will finish the word and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word in all the world.” For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came to all, and gathering together the learned and unlearned alike, he gave forth the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, he made a concise compendium of his precepts. [This was] so that the memory of the learners might not be burdened in heavenly discipline but might learn quickly what was necessary to a simple faith.

Three gathered together in the name of the Lord count for more with God than tens of thousands of those who deny the Godhead. Would you prefer the whole of the Canaanites to Abraham alone? or the men of Sodom to Lot? or the Midianities to Moses, when each of these was a pilgrim and a stranger? How do the three hundred men with Gideon, who bravely lapped, compare with the thousands who were put to flight? Or the servants of Abraham, who scarcely exceeded them in number, with the many kings and the army of tens of thousands whom, few as they were, they overtook and defeated? Or how do you understand the passage that though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved? And again, I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal? … God has not taken pleasure in numbers.

I find, indeed, that some eminent writers have published treatises on these matters piously and briefly written. Moreover, I know that the heretic Photinus has written on the same, with the object not of explaining the meaning of the text to his readers but of wresting things simply and truthfully said in support of his own dogma. Yet the Holy Spirit has taken care that in these words nothing should be set down which is ambiguous or obscure or inconsistent with other truths; for therein is that prophecy verified, “Finishing and cutting short the word in equity: because a short word will the Lord make upon the earth.” It shall be our endeavor, then, first to restore and emphasize the words of the apostles in their native simplicity.

(Verse 20 onwards) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel shall no more stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts will make a consummation and an abbreviation in the midst of all the land. As it is said in Greek: The remnant of Jacob will return to the mighty God, for the mighty God, in Hebrew it is written El Gibbor (), two names out of the six names by which we read the little child and son, who is given to us, is called. And because it is written: The remnant will return, in Hebrew it is said in the singular number, that which is left will return, that is, τὸ ὑπόλειμμα ἐπιστρέψει, in Hebrew it is written Sar Jasub (). And from this occasion of conversation, they believe that the son of Isaiah, named Jasub, preceded as a sign of salvation for the people of Israel. Therefore, when the light of Israel, and the holy forest of Carmel, and the thorn bush are consumed, and the Assyrian king flees with a few, then the remaining people of Israel, who were besieged in Jerusalem with King Hezekiah as their leader, will by no means rely on the Assyrian king, as they now do under King Ahaz, who sent messengers to the king of Assyria saying, 'I am your servant, go up and free me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen against me' (2 Kings 16:7). When he brought gold and silver, which were found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and in the royal palace, and sent gifts to the king of Assyria, he listened to him and went to Damascus, captured it, and deported Rasin. But having been freed from the Assyrian oppressor, who had previously been a friend and later an enemy, let them rely and have confidence in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, not falsely as they did under previous kings, but in truth. What we read about under Hezekiah: that, having abandoned idols, they turned to the worship of God. And because he had said that the remnants must be saved, he moves on to later times and says that full salvation will come under Christ. This is also what the apostle Paul, understanding this, writes to the Romans: But Isaiah cries out for Israel: If the number of the children of Israel is like the sand of the sea, the remnants will be saved. For the word is consuming and shortening in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word upon the earth (Rom. IX, 27). And as Isaiah said: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we would have been made like Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:9). Therefore, when such great authority precedes, let all other interpretation cease. And truly, if we read Josephus (Book X, Chapter 2), and consider how great was the multitude of people in Jerusalem and in Judea when the Lord suffered, we understand that only a few among the Apostles and Apostolic men were saved from the Jews. But the Gospel is an abbreviated and perfected discourse, which, instead of all the burdensome ceremonies of the Law, gave a very brief precept of love and faith, that we should not do to others what we would not want done to us. Hence, the Lord in the Gospel said: 'On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets' (Matthew 22:40). Some refer this chapter to the time when a certain part of the people returned to Judah under Zerubbabel son of Salatiel, and Joshua son of Josedech, and Ezra, and Nehemiah. We will respond to those by not preserving the order of history, especially since what follows is not against the Babylonians, whose king was Nebuchadnezzar, but against Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians.

One might perhaps suppose that in regard to the knowledge of righteousness we have all we need; inasmuch as our Lord, summing and shortening his word upon the earth, has said that upon two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, and he put those commandments in the plainest words: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”