Is 8:23 ‘In the former time it was lightened.’ He calls that time the former one when Phul (Phalasar) captured the two tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali; for then the land was lightened, that is, emptied of the wicked inhabitants with whom it had abounded. But ‘in the latter time’, that is, in the time of the second captivity, the land was made heavy, when Samaria was taken and overthrown by Shalmaneser and the people of Israel were carried away into Assyria. Yet these victories of the Assyrians were a foreshadowing of Christ’s victory.
Therefore the prophet adds: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light' (Is 9:1). That is, men who were moving about in the gloom of sins and were suffering from blindness of the eyes of the mind saw Christ our Savior, who is the true light enlightening every man. He is called a great light, not a small one such as that of the prophets in comparison with Christ. The words that follow have the same meaning: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light’ is the same as ‘Upon those dwelling in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned.’
By the light that has dawned upon them you may understand the doctrine of Christ, an admirable light which arose for them so that they might be freed from the darkness of error and behold the splendor of virtue and truth. The prophet uses past tenses for future events, as in many other places, in order to signify the certainty of the prophecy, according to the custom of the prophets.
The sense, therefore, of these words which the prophet chiefly intended is this: in the former time, when Christ began to preach, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali will be lightened, that is, illuminated, because many there will believe whom Christ will draw to himself; and in the latter time the land will be made heavy and will be conquered, when the devil also, who had ruled there, will be defeated through the apostles, and many more will believe. This expression ‘made heavy’ is taken from warfare, by which is signified the great triumph of the apostles and the illustrious victory which they won over the demons, and how they subjected a multitude of men to the rule of Christ, in order to lead them to the heavenly Jerusalem, where, resting in the greatest security and with incredible delight, they will behold God and attain the most beautiful and excellent knowledge of his divinity and of all other things.
Into this eternal and most splendid city do not enter those who have not received the faith of Christ, but, excluded from the fellowship of the heavenly citizens and separated from that indescribable joy of blessed minds, they go into the dark depths of hell, where they will dwell in eternal torments and miseries.
Explaining the location of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the prophet says: ‘The way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations,’ as if to say: the land of Zebulun and Naphtali lies near the sea, beside the lake of Gennesaret, where cities are situated beyond the Jordan, which are in Galilee of the nations, that is, in that part of Galilee which Solomon once gave to Hiram, king of Tyre. For this reason that region is called Galilee of the nations, since there is another Galilee around Tiberias.
In this land of Zebulun and Naphtali, therefore, Christ began to preach the Gospel, and there the people who walked in darkness saw Christ, the great light, and those dwelling in the region of death were illuminated by divine splendor. There were villages there from which the apostles came, of whom it is said in the Psalm: ‘The princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali, their leaders’ (Ps 68:27).
That this prophecy is to be understood of Christ our God is most clearly indicated by the divine Matthew, whose words are these: ‘When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving the city of Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those sitting in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned”’ (Matt 4:12–16).
Here you see that sin is the shadow of death, of which Zachariah says in Luke: ‘The Dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death’ (Luke 1:78–79). He calls darkness not sensible darkness, but errors and impieties. And when they were not seeking the light, the light itself sought them; it arose for them. In this the infinite mercy of our God toward men is shown, for God did not allow them to sit any longer in gloom and wander in inextricable darkness, but at last opened their eyes so that they might behold that very light, Christ our God, with the eyes of both mind and body.
And because these two tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali, had earlier been captured and carried away into Assyria, and their land devastated and oppressed, therefore Christ first preached the Gospel among them, so that those who had first been led into captivity of body might themselves first be brought back from the captivity of the mind, and be recalled from the region of the shadow of death to the region of the shadow of life, that is, from sins to grace.
For there are two regions in this life: one is the region of the shadow of life, which is the spiritual Jerusalem, founded on the love of God; the other is the region of the shadow of death, which is the spiritual Babylon, established on self-love. For although just men, fortified by charity and dwelling in Jerusalem, have the life of the soul, they are nevertheless said to be in the region of the shadow of life, because they do not yet enjoy the divine vision in eternal life, but walk by faith and not by sight, seeing as through a mirror and in an enigma, not face to face, as the Apostle says (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). As long as our souls are held in the prison of the body, they are very far from perfect knowledge of the divine essence and of other things as well.
But those who are defiled by vices and bound by deadly crimes, and who despise God, are said to be in the region of the shadow of death, because although sin is death, yet as long as they are in this world, worshipers of Babylon, they are not yet tormented in that true and eternal death of which sin is the shadow.
Is 9:2 ‘You have multiplied the nation.’ The prophet addresses that great light, Christ our God, who, although he gathered together a multitude of men whom he illumined with the knowledge of his name through faith, hope, and charity, nevertheless did not magnify their joy. For the faithful, although they rejoiced when they recognized that they had been freed from darkness, nevertheless grieved and were deeply distressed when they saw many remaining in their blindness and obstinacy, rejecting the Gospel. Feeling this, the divine Paul said in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘I speak the truth in Christ Jesus, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I wished that I myself might be accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh’ (Rom 9:1–3).
Or thus: ‘You have multiplied the nation,’ because many at the beginning heard the Gospel; ‘but you have not multiplied the joy,’ because many of the believers fell away from the faith. Or again: you did not multiply the joy of this world, but you wished your faithful here to live amid afflictions, so that, attacked on every side by adversity in body and goods, they might aspire to you alone and place all their delights and pleasures in you alone.
‘They shall rejoice before you.’ When the faithful shall have been gathered from the whole world, the apostles will exult like harvesters with the gathered crop, of which the Lord says: ‘The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few.’ But note that he does not say, they shall rejoice before the world, but before you. For here the just are oppressed by afflictions and appear abject and miserable before the world, but before the Lord they are filled with incredible delight, even glorying in their very calamities, just as victors exult when the spoil has been taken.
He calls spoil the men whom they had snatched away from the power of demons. Thus the prophet foretells the glory of the apostles and their admirable victory won over the demons.
Is 9:3 Because of the admirable victory won over the demon. ‘For the yoke of his burden.’ The sense is this: You, Lord Jesus, have torn human beings away from the yoke by which the devil was pressing down upon their necks, and from the rod with which he struck them, and from the scepter by which he ruled. And this victory was achieved without human weapons, but by your powerful hand, divinely accomplished, just as that victory which Gideon won in a marvelous way, where a few men, furnished with no arms, overcame forces armed to the teeth, almost infinite in number and abounding in every kind of military equipment. You have this history in the Book of Judges, chapter seven.
Here he teaches that impious men are crushed beneath the most grievous yoke of the devil, from which God frees them when he converts them to himself. Christ has a yoke, and the devil also has a yoke; but the yoke of Christ is softened with gentleness, for he himself says: ‘My yoke is sweet’ (iugum meum suave est). But the yoke of the devil is burdensome and harsh. Wishing to signify this here, the prophet said: ‘For the yoke of his burden.’ The yoke of the devil is a yoke of burden; the yoke of Christ, however, is one of mildness and sweetness.
Christ invites us to his sweet yoke and offers it freely; but we despise it and run instead to the most grievous and rough yoke of the devil, which we purchase with great labor. O lamentable blindness! We buy the heavy yoke of the devil, while God calls us to his own yoke, full of sweetness and offered freely.
A certain man, invited to a great supper—to the divine banquet, to the sweet yoke of Christ—excused himself for this reason: ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them’ (cf. Luke, chapter fourteen). Read the Gospel and you will find this. What have you done, madman? Why have you bought the harshest yokes, when you were invited freely to the most sweet yoke of Christ? O unheard-of folly!
Men buy the yokes of the devil; they buy the labors of the world; they buy offices and honors, as they call them; they buy calamities and occasions of sin—indeed, sins themselves and sheer vanity—while Christ cries out: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is sweet and my burden light’ (Matt 11:28–30).
Be attentive, I beg you, in your minds, sons of men, and consider: the yoke of Christ is offered to us freely, and with it an admirable and eternal reward; but the yoke of the devil, purchased with much toil, brings with it eternal damnation. Why then do we wish to fall into horrible miseries and everlasting torments by buying the yoke of the demon, when, subjected to the yoke of Christ, we can attain a blessed and immortal life?
In this life we cannot be without a yoke, for man, as we read in the book of Job, is born to labor. Is it not therefore far better to submit to the yoke of God rather than to that of the devil? Who does not see this? Moreover, is it not better to choose one rather than five? Who can serve five tyrants? The yoke of Christ is one; the yokes of the devil are five. There is no faculty of the human person which the devil does not desire to subject to himself.
What did that man say who, invited to the supper, refused to come? ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them.’ Where are you rushing, lamentable man? What do you wish to test? I want to try them. Do you not know that the yokes of the devil are intolerable, deadly, and exceedingly harsh? Why do you desire to test them? Abandon the yokes of oxen and come to the great supper to which you have been invited by the Lord.
It is not a small supper; it is great. For the things which God bestows and to which he invites you are great. On the contrary, the things to which the world calls us are small, empty, false, uncertain, and fleeting—things fixed with no roots, shaken by every change, and utterly torn away.
“And the rod of his shoulder.” You see here that the devil has a rod with which he strikes his own. For there is no one who endures greater labors and calamities than the one who is subjected to the demon. Wishing to signify this, Sacred Scripture in the Book of Wisdom has the condemned speak in this manner: “We have walked difficult paths; we grew weary on the way of iniquity.”
Although Christ has overcome the yoke, the rod, and the scepter of the demon, rescuing many from his power, nevertheless the demon still rules over all the impious, because they willingly subject themselves to his authority.
“And the scepter of his oppressor.” An oppressor (exactor) is one who exacts money and tribute. The devil is called an oppressor because he exacts sins from human beings as if they were tribute. He is also called a tyrant and the prince of this world, for whoever holds the scepter is a prince. This passage shows that the devil is the prince of the wicked.
Now Christ says in John: “The prince of this world will be cast out”; and elsewhere in the same Gospel: “The prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” Consider what the kingdom of the world must be like, when it has such a ruler.
Plato says that there are three reasons why people ought to leave the city in which they live: either because there are more harms than benefits, or because there are more evil people than good, or because the ruler or governor is unjust and impious. Since we see all these things in the world, what are you doing in the world, you who are greater than the world? Flee the scepter of the devil, from which Christ has freed you; flee to Christ, that you may obtain eternal life.
Saint Gregory, treating this passage in the Moralia (book thirty, chapter thirty-one), speaks thus: “The Lord overcame the yoke of the nations when he freed them from the slavery of demonic tyranny; the rod of the shoulder, when he restrained the blows suffered for evil deeds; and the scepter of the oppressor, when he destroyed from the hearts of the faithful the kingdom of the devil, who exacts the tribute of sins.”
CONTINUE
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