The reading has two parts, separated by the beginning of a new chapter.
The mention of Babylon is one of the indications that the author of
the second part of the book of the prophet Isaiah (after chapter 40) was
the so-called Second Isaiah
– one of the students of the school of
prophets founded by Isaiah himself, who lived some 200 years after the
latter one.
However, the indication is indirect, it is rather common thought that there was only one Isaiah, and the instructions in the second part refer to the power of his prophetic gift.
In general, the question of whether one Isaiah wrote, or whether there were two of them (with a time gap of more than a century) remains not entirely clear.
Returning to the text, I will note that in the first part of today’s
reading, the Lord recalls the promises to Abraham and the patriarchs,
speaking of sand
and grains of sand
(and not dust
, as was the case
in the first promise to Abraham), that is, what is possible at least
approximately count
(compare the comments on the link:
03052023.html
).
Peace would be like a stream (river), and righteousness would be
like a wave of the sea
is a kind of metaphor that can be compared with
what is written in the work by reference:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/ThememoryofSt.GregorytheTheologian.html
that is, that due to the action of God’s grace on righteous people,
their righteousness (and especially if the whole nation is righteous) is
so frequent and strong, as easily the waves of the sea arise in great
numbers on the sea, and a happy life would spread everywhere, in all
spheres of life, just as you cannot easily stop the flow of a river or
stream.
The second part (from the beginning of chapter XLIX) is a prophecy
about the special vocation of the people of Israel, in which the
Messiah-Christ was to come (and has already come). Arrow
is something
that should accurately defeat sin, being thin
, that is, a minority of
humanity (one people) directly contributed to the fulfillment of God’s
prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah-Christ.
At the same time, we can see indications of Christ Himself, who glorifies God the Father and is the true Light.
Isaiah XLIX, 1 – from the womb He called me, from matrix of my
mother He has made mention of my name
– from my mother’s womb
– two
original roots ‘meeh’ – internal organs, belly, especially stomach,
reproductive organs, heart etc., figuratively – sympathy
and ‘em’ -
mother
(‘mi’ – mine
) (the phrase roughly sounds like ‘mimmeeh
`immi’).
It should be noted that the complex history of the people of Israel and humanity in general is shown, which did not become righteous together, but nevertheless are capable of repentance, and this is what happens.
The story of the end of the life of Sarah, Abraham, a large part of the life of Isaac and Rebekah (his wife), the first years of the lives of Esau and Jacob, their sons, are omitted.
It tells how Jacob, because of his mother Rebekah’s participation in this, receives more blessings from his father Isaac, who was almost blind, and Esau – less, and how it allows us to better see the difference between these brothers.
We also see the sacrifice of Rebekah, the mother, who is ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of her beloved son, and the importance of blessings (especially from parents) and respect for blessings.
But the topic of attitude towards the spiritual is key and important
in particular for fasting, on the example of two brothers – sincere
Jacob, who truly believes and tries to act according to his conscience,
and Esau, who considers the spiritual only as a certain means, an
instrument
for obtaining good, advantages.
It was because of the latter that God took that blessing from him and
gave it to Jacob — because Esau himself proved to be unworthy in his
soul (let’s look at the fact that earlier he sold the birthright
to
Jacob, at Esau’s dialogue with his father, as well as at the plan to
kill Jacob with compliance with the rules
of mourning for a later
deceased father, to envy). Jacob did not have such plans, because he was
close to God, had a good conscience, and treated his brother with
respect. Esau, on the other hand, treated the spiritual as points in
the game
, which can be received for a successful game, passing the
game.
He was not really interested in God, and he was only interested
in the spiritual because of its external significance for the
environment in which he grew up and lived.
It must be said that later, Jacob will come to make peace with Esau precisely because of the voice of conscience, and will indeed succeeded in making peace because of God’s grace to both of them.
Isaac’s blessing of Esau also in this context resembles a prophecy
about the secularization of society — people will try to formalize
spirituality in order to get more freedom
, although the roots of this
attitude do not lie in the lack of spiritual freedom (just the
opposite!), but in the very attitude of people , who have distanced
themselves from God. It can also be said that God cares even about
people who are far from Him.
The Greek and Hebrew texts are slightly different, but generally very similar, however, some verses are very different.
In general, the Lord through Solomon teaches here honesty, wisdom, kindness, mercy, care for the needy (especially the poor), love of learning, the ability to listen and respect for advice, the need for parents to teach, righteousness.
The most famous verse is Proverbs XIX, 17 – which actually proclaims the Gospel truth that what we do to people, we do to Christ Himself (God and man, God) (Matthew XXV).
It is also necessary to pay attention to the instruction that parents need to teach and educate, but at the same time it is bad to elevate oneself in the soul, to consider oneself a teacher, to show superiority. Again, in the Gospel, this rule is revealed with much greater depth.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!