Isaiah 43:1

(Chapter 43, Verse 1 and following) And now, thus says the Lord, the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. From the moment you became honorable and glorious in my eyes: I loved you, and I will give men for you, and peoples for your soul. Do not fear, for I am with you: I will bring your descendants from the East, and gather you from the West. I will say to the North, give up: and to the South, do not withhold: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. And everyone who calls upon my name, I have created him for my glory, and I have formed him and made him. Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among you will declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, 'It is true.' You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I am, I am the Lord, and there is no savior without me. I have declared and saved; I have made known, and there was no strange one among you. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and I am God, and from the beginning I am myself, and there is no one who can rescue from my hand. I will work, and who can turn it aside? LXX; And now thus says the Lord who made you, Jacob, and formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine. If you pass through water, I am with you, and rivers will not cover you. And if you pass through fire, you will not be burned: the flame will not burn you: for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have made your exchange for Egypt, and Ethiopia, and Seba for you. Since you have been honorable and glorified in my sight: and I have loved you, I will give men for you, and princes for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you: I will bring your offspring from the East, and gather you from the West. I will say to the north, give up; and to the south, do not withhold: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears. All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, 'It is true.' Let them bring their witnesses, and let them be justified, and let them hear and speak the truth. Be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe and understand that I am: Before me there was no other God and after me there will be none. I am God, and there is no Savior besides me. I have declared and saved: I have rebuked and there was no stranger among you. You are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God from the beginning, and there is no one who can deliver from my hand. I will do it, and who will turn it away? The Hebrews interpret this as the second coming of the Savior, when after the fullness of the Gentiles, all of Israel will be saved. But we do not think that the promise will be fulfilled for them, as it has been said: Who is blind, but my children? And who are deaf, but those who rule over them? And the servants of God have become blind. And again: The people have been devastated and plundered, and similar things. Finally he brought upon him the outpouring of his furious indignation, and perhaps war, and consumed him all around, and did not recognize, and set him ablaze, and did not understand. Therefore, what we have said above, there are two Jacobs and two Israels, one carnal and the other spiritual, those who did not want to believe in the Savior and those who received the Son of God. This should also be understood now, that the chorus of the Apostles and the first Church of Christ, gathered from the Jewish people, may understand their Creator and Maker, who is both the creator of their soul and body. And let him not fear persecutors, because he has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who has called him by his name, and let him specifically call his people because of their special relationship; but let him preach fearlessly, and let him not fear any dangers. And what he implies: he describes the attack and fury of persecutors as waters and rivers, and fire and flames, who envy the salvation of the Gentiles and do not want the gospel message to be preached. Although the Jews want the Egyptians to be understood as waters, the Babylonians as rivers, the Macedonians as fire, and the Romans as flames. Therefore, He commands them not to fear, because the Lord their God, the Savior, and the holy one of Israel will be with them, who made them known in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Syene, and even to the ends of the earth to proclaim. Regarding Syene, the remaining interpreters have placed it in Saba (), where the queen of the South came to hear the wisdom of Solomon (III Kings 10). Therefore, the chorus of the Apostles became honorable in the sight of God, and beloved by Him; and they are the salvation of all people and nations who are called to the Gospel through them, and they will be considered for the salvation of their souls. And he joins and says: Do not be afraid, I am with you, who speak to you in the Gospel: Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world (Matt. 28:20). For I will bring your sons from the East and from the West, who will rest in the bosom of Abraham, and from all parts of the world the people of my sons and daughters will be gathered, who will either invoke my name or be called by my name, so that they may be called Christians to the glory of their creator. And what follows: Educate the blind people, who have eyes; the deaf, who have ears; many people think that it is said about the Gentile people, who began to hear and see through the teaching of the Apostles. But we should also understand this about the dispersed Israel, who was called by the Apostles and believed first; to whom Paul also speaks: It was necessary for the word of God to be preached to you first (Acts 13:46). And the Lord Himself in the Gospel: Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:6). Finally, it follows: all the nations are gathered together, and the tribes are assembled, that is, with the people who believed from the Jews, so that there may be a dual calling, of circumcision and of uncircumcision. But what is said, 'Bring forth, O Lord, the word is spoken to the Son.' Or, according to the Septuagint, the Father speaks to the Son, that He may bring forth His blind and deaf people, and join them to the nations, and make many leaders of the Church from them. And the prophet marvels that no one among the nations could have known these things in advance, nor could they have known the plans of God; but only His people who have received the Law and had prophets: For God is known in Judea, His name is great in Israel (Ps. LXX, 1). Whether he himself is the witness of his own words, both the doer and the boy and servant whom he has chosen. There is no doubt that it signifies Christ, to whom he also says above: It is great for you to be called my servant. And all these things will happen, so that the truth may be preached to the world, and they may know, and believe, and understand, whose minds were previously brutish and insensible, that besides one God, there is no other God, neither before nor after. For the creator of times never has a beginning, since time itself sometimes exists. And how did He speak: I am a witness, says the Lord God; and the boy whom I have chosen, saying this very thing to the Lord in the Gospel: The testimony of two men is true. I am the one who testifies about myself, and the one who sent me is the Father (John 8:17-18). Thus, we must understand the divinity of Him, that there is no God except Himself who speaks, and His chosen boy. Besides God the Father, there is no other God: because Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1), who speaks in the Gospel: I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me (John 14:11). For just as the one Lord Christ does not take away from the Father so that he may not be Lord, so the one God the Father does not take away from the Son so that he may not be God: who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2). And what follows: And there is no Savior without me, shows that the Son saves all things in the Father. Concerning whom the same prophet testifies: And the Lord will send them a Savior, who will make them safe (Isaiah 9). For indeed, God is wise and strong, and His wisdom and virtue cannot exist without Him. So when I foretell these things from the beginning, there will be no one who rejects my will: indeed, what I have done, they could make void. These things are indeed said to Jacob and Israel, but they refer to the apostolic choir and all who want to believe in Christ and be saved from the Jewish people.

The things said here are of a quite different tenor from what was said in the previous passage about the people of the covenant, where he called them blind, deaf and plundered. Now the message here is of the better condition of those believers of the covenant who belong to a better order. For the former ones were those who were suffering. Here he addresses as “you” those who recognize their Creator and Maker. “Do listen to the one who keeps you an unblemished creation and product, for here you are fittingly called Jacob and Israel. For I made you in your soul, according to the image, and formed you, taking a body from the ground, and I provided my blood for you, buying back my own creation. You, being made worthy of these things, go by the road on which you are instructed to go and preach the good news. Although some will attack you, be encouraged that you are special. ‘For behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Be followers of me, the one who wished to give my blood of redemption for you, as atonement.” …“You are mine.” For we are said to have been Christ’s, even before the separation from God that occurred when we as sinners went out of the garden, though by nature we were always God’s. But he has made us once more to be his own through the Holy Spirit making us strong through every trial. Rivers, water and flames denote the many channels of temptation. For it is written, “All who wish to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” And Christ says to those who believed in him, “You will have sorrow in the world.”