The story of Isaac’s sacrifice, O God, grant us
mercifully, will be analyzed soon on a weekday, but now I will stop at
the oath by Himself
. Here, in my opinion, Himself
means mysteriously
that God, Who swears, will Himself bring the Sacrifice, like the type of
Isaac. The Father sent the Son, and also the Spirit is together with
Them, the Son Himself offered Himself as a Sacrifice and Himself
accepted it together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. That is, it is
said hidenly that Christ is God, and that He is the Sacrifice for our
sins for the sake of our salvation. And these words refer to the One God
in the Holy Trinity.
Paul does not speak about this, but speaks about the fact that in this way the word of God is faithful and infallible.
And then he talks about hope. Hope in the truest sense is Christ Himself.
This place can be considered one of the most eloquent testimonies of the Old Testament about who Jesus Christ is (as well as the New).
Hebrews VI, 18 – the word παρακλησιν is also used again – ισχυαν
παρακλησιν – that is, strong encouragement
.
I wrote briefly about it earlier, in the post linked
on August 6, 2022:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
I am quoting about the parallel place in Matthew. The father did not
have faith, but in desperation I turned to Jesus. And the Lord did not
reject such a sincere and heartfelt appeal, but also rebuked the father.
Often in life we receive good from God, but we also receive rebuke at
the same time. We should not neglect both, because God wisely knows
better than us. I will stop here at the reproach itself. The father is
called "unfaithful” because he did not believe, (a parallel place in
Matthew adds "corrupted" – because he was in sins. When there is no
faith, then corruption easily occurs, people easily succumb and this is
a warning for everyone, even for those who are successful in their work
for salvation). Because we often receive the mercy of God, although we
would not have received it in God’s demandingness. Therefore, Christ’s
mercy gives everyone hope, calls everyone to conversion and
repentance.
The father’s words show that he has a weakness in faith, i.e. a
mixture of faith and unbelief
, but because of his very sincere appeal
to Jesus, humility and other virtues, he gets what he asks for (in fact,
Jesus Himself expresses a desire to grant him faith through
healing).
Here too, the Lord reveals the special meaning of prayer (and some manuscripts also add fasting) — it can be a spiritual weapon against the evil one, better, more effective than any other. This is another encouragement to pray and fast.
I will also add, since today is Epilepsy Day, that the boy’s condition is similar in symptoms to this disease with its seizures. But you need to understand that possession by an evil spirit and a disease (even a mental one) are not the same thing and have different treatments. In the first case, it is necessary to cast away the evil spirit, and in the second – God’s healing (unfortunately, modern medicine does not know how to completely successfully treat epilepsy, and does not have really effective means to cast away evil spirits, and does not deal with the latter).
Later, Jesus reveals what awaits Him in Jerusalem, but the disciples did not understand, because they held to their own ideas about the Messiah, the King of Israel.
See the explanation of the difficult place at the
link:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew (more detailed, because it is in honour of Reverend John of the Ladder, who described in detail the ladder of ascending in virtues to God), 9 precepts of beatitudes.
There are many good interpretations and explanations on them, in
particular, there are short ones at the link:
https://parafia.org.ua/biblioteka/hrystyyanstvo-virovchennya-ta-tradytsiji/zakon-bozhyj/chastyna-tretya-svyaschenna-istoriya-staroho-ta-novoho-zavitu/#toc--24
It is appropriate to mention today that the commandments also form a certain ladder, the following ones provide for the understanding of the previous ones. For example, to have a pure heart, one must have spiritual poverty and meekness, desire righteousness and be merciful. And in order to cleanse it, you need to repent and follow the path of repentance.
Also, in my opinion, the 9 commandments can be conditionally divided into three groups of three commandments each (just as the 9 known angelic ranks are divided into 3 groups). Then the first 3 correspond most closely to repentance and purification, the next 3 to godliness, and the last 3 to Christian glory.
I also want to say that in the Ukrainian language the word πραεις
(the 3rd commandment), as you know, does not have a completely
satisfactory and exact equivalent. Saint John of the Ladder in The
Ladder
explains it as the ability and virtue not to be annoyed by
others, and not to annoy others by the own audacity. Thus, it is closely
related to non-anger and non-maleficence.
In my opinion, in the modern Ukrainian language it makes sense to
translate as humane
. Blessed are the humane ones, because they will
inherit the earth
, considering the fact that the Lord said to learn
from Him first of all precisely this virtue and humility.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!