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Isaiah 43:9-14 (5/29-6/11) First Vesperal Reading for the Sunday of All Saints
Gods Testimony: Isaiah 43:9-14 SAAS, especially vs.12: I proclaimed, and I saved. I denounced foreign gods so there were none among you. You are My witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God. The prophetic passage from which this quote is taken begins with a statement of universal condition that includes all mankind: All the nations are gathered together... (vs. 9); but where is such a circumstance true? Or, is this a prophetic statement of a situation that will be true at some later moment of history, yet in the future? Close scrutiny suggests that what is meant is not a future condition; for the burden of the passage as a whole speaks of a present circumstance. As a prophecy of Isaiah, in fact, it is true, at present, today.
For example, God directs us, as His People, to be His witnesses now - to testify that He alone and exclusively is God and that there can be no other (vss. 10-11). If anyone doubts that God is speaking of a present situation, the Lord makes clear, first that what He did in the past - proclaimed, saved and denounced - establishes a solid set of facts for all ages - that He alone is God among all peoples, the only existing One (vs. 12). Then, the Lord God records His actions up to the present, actions carried to their conclusion despite every opposition standing against Him and us (vs. 13). He redeems, liberates captives, and even binds captors (vs. 14).
Returning to the initial question: where, in the present, are all the nations gathered - where is this condition true and operative? We agree with Theodoret of Cyrus: it is the Church that ...has gathered all (the nations), and from these nations themselves also have come the heads of the Church. So we see...the fulfillment of this prophecy: for Syrians are the leaders of the Syrians, Cicilians of the Cicilians, Romans of the Romans, and barbarians of the barbarians. All nations are gathered in the Church through all time.
The beauty of this Divine declaration is that God not only directs the Church to testify, but also offers Himself and Christ our Savior as fellow Witnesses (vs. 10). How can one be hesitant to stand up for Gods truth alongside such unimpeachable Witnesses?! Theodoret notes that ...in the course of a conversation with the Jews, Christ our Master declared: It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I Am One Who bears witness of Myself, and the Father Who has sent Me bears witness of Me (Jn. 8:17-18). This is true here likewise: ...I am a witness, says the Lord God, and My Servant whom I chose... (Is. 43:10).
Hear Gods testimony then: I am God, and besides Me there is no one who saves (vs. 11). The Lord is Savior, and salvation is inherent in the universe, in the process of history, and in your life and mine. This is true despite the disruptions caused by sin, satanic interference, and even death - the universal contradictions that trouble all human activity. Hear Him, for God Himself embraced death, and has once and for all revealed Himself as Savior over death. All the malignancy that opposes God, the life-Giver, is despoiled and exposed as a fraud.
Gods testimony is urgently important for every single human, for the truth of His witness is attested by a long, historically validated record of saving: Joseph from an inescapable pit (Gn. 37); Israel from the extinction of slavery in Egypt (Ex. 1-15); the Jews from absorption in exile (2 Ez. 1); a small, helpless Infant and His defenseless parents saved from genocide in the city of Bethlehem (Mt. 1:13-23); the crucified Savior Himself risen from the tomb (Jn. 20).
If anyone knows a stirring, an awakening, an illumination of heart and soul when all this testimony is considered, let him acknowledge that the source of what is moving in him is from God. God stirs men to flee despair which weighs down so many in todays world (Is. 43:14).
Stir up, O Lord, Thy faithful people to bring forth a true, life-giving witness unto Thee.
DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
013198
Gods Testimony: Isaiah 43:9-14 SAAS, especially vs.12: I proclaimed, and I saved. I denounced foreign gods so there were none among you. You are My witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God. The prophetic passage from which this quote is taken begins with a statement of universal condition that includes all mankind: All the nations are gathered together... (vs. 9); but where is such a circumstance true? Or, is this a prophetic statement of a situation that will be true at some later moment of history, yet in the future? Close scrutiny suggests that what is meant is not a future condition; for the burden of the passage as a whole speaks of a present circumstance. As a prophecy of Isaiah, in fact, it is true, at present, today.
For example, God directs us, as His People, to be His witnesses now - to testify that He alone and exclusively is God and that there can be no other (vss. 10-11). If anyone doubts that God is speaking of a present situation, the Lord makes clear, first that what He did in the past - proclaimed, saved and denounced - establishes a solid set of facts for all ages - that He alone is God among all peoples, the only existing One (vs. 12). Then, the Lord God records His actions up to the present, actions carried to their conclusion despite every opposition standing against Him and us (vs. 13). He redeems, liberates captives, and even binds captors (vs. 14).
Returning to the initial question: where, in the present, are all the nations gathered - where is this condition true and operative? We agree with Theodoret of Cyrus: it is the Church that ...has gathered all (the nations), and from these nations themselves also have come the heads of the Church. So we see...the fulfillment of this prophecy: for Syrians are the leaders of the Syrians, Cicilians of the Cicilians, Romans of the Romans, and barbarians of the barbarians. All nations are gathered in the Church through all time.
The beauty of this Divine declaration is that God not only directs the Church to testify, but also offers Himself and Christ our Savior as fellow Witnesses (vs. 10). How can one be hesitant to stand up for Gods truth alongside such unimpeachable Witnesses?! Theodoret notes that ...in the course of a conversation with the Jews, Christ our Master declared: It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I Am One Who bears witness of Myself, and the Father Who has sent Me bears witness of Me (Jn. 8:17-18). This is true here likewise: ...I am a witness, says the Lord God, and My Servant whom I chose... (Is. 43:10).
Hear Gods testimony then: I am God, and besides Me there is no one who saves (vs. 11). The Lord is Savior, and salvation is inherent in the universe, in the process of history, and in your life and mine. This is true despite the disruptions caused by sin, satanic interference, and even death - the universal contradictions that trouble all human activity. Hear Him, for God Himself embraced death, and has once and for all revealed Himself as Savior over death. All the malignancy that opposes God, the life-Giver, is despoiled and exposed as a fraud.
Gods testimony is urgently important for every single human, for the truth of His witness is attested by a long, historically validated record of saving: Joseph from an inescapable pit (Gn. 37); Israel from the extinction of slavery in Egypt (Ex. 1-15); the Jews from absorption in exile (2 Ez. 1); a small, helpless Infant and His defenseless parents saved from genocide in the city of Bethlehem (Mt. 1:13-23); the crucified Savior Himself risen from the tomb (Jn. 20).
If anyone knows a stirring, an awakening, an illumination of heart and soul when all this testimony is considered, let him acknowledge that the source of what is moving in him is from God. God stirs men to flee despair which weighs down so many in todays world (Is. 43:14).
Stir up, O Lord, Thy faithful people to bring forth a true, life-giving witness unto Thee.
DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
013198
