Reading Scripture in Lent with the Church Fathers: Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Today’s Scripture Readings in the Orthodox Church
Isaiah 28:14-22; Genesis 10:32-11:9; Proverbs 13:19-14:6

Isaiah 28:15. When you [in your baptism] renounce Satan, trampling underfoot every covenant with him, then you annul that ancient “league with hell,” and God’s paradise opens before you, that Eden, planted in the east, from which for his transgression our first father was banished.
St Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century)

Isaiah 28:16 (in LXX & OSB). [Very good theology here and in the following comments on Isaiah:] I had said to you, he says, Hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers (28:14), or “you leaders who oppress my people”: “don’t make a covenant with death, or an agreement with hell (28:18). You who condemn my precepts have made a lie your hope (28:15). In your boasting, or rather in your despair, you say, We are protected by a lie (28:15).” But the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Exod 34:6; Ps 145:8), and even though you do not want it, he says that he will send to Zion a chosen stone, tested, and precious, a cornerstone (28:16). The apostle was speaking about this when he said: Like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation (1 Cor 3:10). And again: For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11). This indeed is the true stone. Note that the text uses the word foundation twice, just as in Leviticus man is twice called “man.” It is the cornerstone because it joined the people of the circumcision and the people of the Gentiles, about which it is also said in the psalm, The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner (Ps 118:22). These are the builders and workmen who are here called scoffers and leaders of the people in Jerusalem (28:14). In Daniel we also read that this stone was cut out of the mountain by no human hand and filled the whole earth (Dan 2:34–35), meaning that the dispensation of the divine seed took on a human body, and the fullness of divinity dwelt in it bodily (Col 1:19). On this stone, which is also called rock, Christ built his Church (Matt 16:18). According to the Hebrew version, he laid a sure foundation in which the one who believes will not be ashamed (28:16) or, according to the Hebrew, will not be in haste.
St Jerome (4th century)

The foundation of justice is faith, for the hearts of the just dwell on faith, and the just man that accuses himself builds justice on faith. For his justice becomes evident when he confesses the truth. So the Lord said through Isaiah: I will lay a stone for a foundation in Zion (28:16). This means that Christ is the foundation of the Church. For Christ is the object of faith to all; but the Church is, as it were, the form that justice takes. The justice of all is found in her. For she prays in common for all, she works in common for all, she is tested in the temptations of all. Whoever denies himself is a just man and is worthy of Christ. For this reason Paul said that Christ is the foundation so that we might construct the works of justice (cf. 1 Cor 3:9–15). Faith is the foundation. If our works are evil, they are without justice, but if good, they are just.
St Ambrose of Milan (4th century)

Scripture says in the words of Isaiah: Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame (28:16). When, on the day of judgment, all things will be weighed and all contrivances and false teachings will be unmasked, then those who believe in Christ will dance for joy. For they will see that what they believed is true (and what was considered foolish will be thought wise). They will discover that those who were once looked on with disdain as foolish are now admired and reckoned prudent. For there will be certain proof where there is recompense and condemnation.
Ambrosiaster (4th century)

What would it profit me to know and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead if he was not raised within me? If I do not walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4), nor flee the old habit of sinning, Christ is not yet raised from the dead within me. The following words are in accord with this: For Scripture promises that everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame (28:16). This is written in Isaiah. If everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, and everyone who sins is ashamed, as Adam sinned and was ashamed and hid himself (Gen 3:8), so anyone who wears the shame of sin would seem not to believe.
Origen (3rd century)

[A great example of early church typological exegesis] Not only do the gospels, written after the crucifixion, proclaim the grace of Baptism, but before the Incarnation the ancient Scripture everywhere prefigured the pattern of our regeneration, not clearly representing its form, but foreshadowing in figures God’s abundant love. As the Lamb was anticipated and the cross foretold, so too Baptism was shown forth in actions and in words. Let us recall some of the types for those who are interested in learning.
Hagar, Abraham’s servant girl (whom Paul interprets allegorically in writing to the Galatians [4:21–31]), was driven from her master’s house by Sarah’s anger—it is hard for a lawful wife to put up with a servant who is suspected of having relations with the master of the house. So Hagar, abandoned and desolate, wanders about the desert with the infant Ishmael at her breast. When her food ran out and she feared death, especially the death of her child, because her water skin was empty, unexpectedly an angel appears and shows her a well of living water (Gen 21:19). Drawing water from the well, she saves Ishmael
This then is a type filled with spiritual meaning. For from earliest times it was by means of water that salvation came to someone who was perishing, and this water was not there previously but was given out of grace by an angel.
When Jacob was looking for a bride, he met Rachel unexpectedly at the well (Gen 29:1–12). A great stone was placed over the well, and it required many shepherds to roll it away to provide water for them and their flocks. Jacob, however, moves the stone away by himself and waters the flocks of his betrothed. This stone is a type pointing to what is to come. For what is the stone lying over the well but Christ himself? For of him Isaiah says: I will lay for the foundation of Zion a stone that is precious, costly, chosen (28:16). And Daniel also says: A stone was cut without hands (Dan 2:34, 45).
Just as it is new and uncommon that a stone should be cut out of a rock without a stonecutter and other tools for cutting stone, so it is a thing beyond imagining that an unwedded Virgin should give birth to a child. Over the well, then, was lying the spiritual stone Christ, concealing in the depth of the mystery the washing of regeneration that needed much time—one might say a long rope—to bring it to light. And no one was able to move the stone except Israel [Jacob], who signifies the mind that sees God. He draws up the water and also gives drink to the sheep of Rachel. That is, he reveals the hidden mystery and gives water to the flock of the Church.
St Gregory of Nyssa (4th century)

He says that the one who believes in him will not be ashamed (28:16). See how he puts believers at ease and proclaims the deliverance of the gospel to the afflicted. O afflicted ones (28:14), he says, I will lay the chosen stone as foundation for Zion (28:16). And what good is that? Who believes in him will not be ashamed (28:16). This means that the heavy yoke of the law will be removed and the unspiritual and ineffective shadow of the law will pass away. In its place they will receive grace through faith, and in Christ the righteousness whose burden is light. And I will make judgment into hope, and mercy will be like a balance (28:17). As the Savior himself said, The Father judges no one, but has given judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father (John 5:22–23). This the apostle Paul understood when he wrote: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body (2 Cor 5:10). On that day we expect that the judgment will be merciful and fitting for each person in accord with what one has done. This too is the meaning of the phrase the mercy of the judge will be like a balance (28:17). The judgment will be fair and equitable and in accord with one’s good deeds.
St Cyril of Alexandria (5th century)

Isaiah 28:21. Hence Isaiah, contemplating our salvation and [Christ’s] passion, well said: “That he may do his work, his strange work; that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him.” For the work of God is to gather the souls that he created and call them back to the joys of the eternal light. But it is not the work [of] God in his essence to be flogged, to be smeared with spittle, to be crucified, to die and to be buried, but this is the work of a sinful person who deserved all these things for his sins. But [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And he who in his own nature always remains incomprehensible deigned to be comprehended in our nature and to be flogged, because if he had not assumed the attributes of our weakness he could never have raised us to the power of his fortitude.… And he does his strange work that he might do his proper work, because insofar as he bore our sins in infirmity he led us who are his creatures to the glory of his fortitude in which he lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through ages of ages. Amen.
St Gregory the Great (6th century)

Genesis 11:4. “When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there.” Notice how the human race, instead of managing to keep to its own boundaries, always longs for more and reaches out for greater things. This is what the human race has lost in particular, not being prepared to recognize the limitations of its own condition but always lusting after more, entertaining ambitions beyond its capacity. In this regard, too, when people who chase after the things of the world acquire for themselves much wealth and status, they lose sight of their own nature, as it were, and aspire to such heights that they topple into the very depths. You could see this happening every day without others being any the wiser from the sight of it. Instead, they pause for a while but immediately lose all recollection of it and take the same road as the others and fall over the same precipice. This is exactly what you can see happening to these people in the present instance: “When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there.” See how in gradual stages it teaches us the instability of their attitude. When they saw the open country (the text says), they packed up and left their previous dwelling and settled down there.
St John Chrysostom

After the flood, as if striving to fortify themselves against God, as if there could be anything high for God or anything secure for pride, certain proud men built a tower, ostensibly so that they might not be destroyed by a flood if one came later. For they had heard and recalled that all iniquity had been destroyed by the flood. They were unwilling to abstain from iniquity. They sought the height of a tower against a flood; they built a lofty tower. God saw their pride, and he caused this disorder to be sent upon them, that they might speak but not understand one another, and tongues became different through pride.
St Augustine (5th century)

Genesis 11:7. This in fact is the way the Lord is accustomed to behave. This is what he did in the beginning in the case of the [first] woman as well. She had abused the status conferred on her, and for that reason he subjected her to her husband. Again, too, in the case of Adam, since he drew no advantage from the great ease he enjoyed and from life in the garden but rather rendered himself liable to punishment through the fall, God drove him out of the garden and inflicted on him everlasting punishment in the words “thorns and thistles let the earth yield.” So when the people in the present case, who had been dignified with similarity of language, used the privilege given them for evil purposes, he put a stop to the impulse of their wickedness through creating differences in language. “Let us confuse their speech,” he says, “so that they will be unable to understand one another’s language.” His purpose was that, just as similarity of language achieved their living together, so difference in language might cause dispersal among them.
St John Chrysostom

Genesis 11:9. Just as when holy men live together, it is a great grace and blessing; so, likewise, that congregation is the worst kind when sinners dwell together. The more sinners there are at one time, the worse they are. Indeed, when the tower was being built up against God, those who were building it were disbanded for their own welfare. The conspiracy was evil. The dispersion was of true benefit even to those who were dispersed.
St Jerome

There are many people even today who in imitation of them want to be remembered for such achievements, by building splendid homes, baths, porches and avenues. I mean, if you were to ask each of them why they toil and labor and lay out such great expense to no good purpose, you would hear nothing but these very words. They would be seeking to ensure that their memory survives in perpetuity and to have it said that “this is the house belonging to so-and-so,” “this is the property of so-and-so.” This, on the contrary, is worthy not of commemoration but of condemnation. For hard upon those words come other remarks equivalent to countless accusations—“belonging to so-and-so the grasping miser, despoiler of widows and orphans.” So such behavior is calculated not to earn remembrance but to encounter unremitting accusations, achieve notoriety after death and incite the tongues of onlookers to calumny and condemnation of the person who acquired these goods. But if you are anxious for undying reputation, I will show you the way to succeed in being remembered for every achievement and also, along with an excellent name, to provide yourself with great confidence in the age to come. How then will you manage both to be remembered day after day and also become the recipient of tributes even after passing from one life to the next? If you give away these goods of yours into the hands of the poor, letting go of precious stones, magnificent homes, properties and baths.
St John Chrysostom

Proverbs 13:24 (13:26 in LXX & OSB). You fathers, educate your children in the Lord, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and teach them such trades as are agreeable and suitable to the Lord, lest they by such opportunity become extravagant and continue without punishment from their parents, and so become slack before their time and go astray from that which is good. Therefore do not be afraid to reprove them and to teach them wisdom with severity. For your corrections will not kill them but rather preserve them.… [Thus Solomon says,] “He that spares his rod hates his son.” He, therefore, who neglects to admonish and instruct his own son, hates his own child. Teach, therefore, your children the word of the Lord. Bring them under with cutting stripes, and make them subject from infancy, teaching them the holy Scriptures, which are Christian and divine, and delivering to them every sacred writing, “not giving them such liberty that they get the mastery” and act against your opinion. Do not permit them to club together with peer groups. For so they will be turned to disorderly ways and will fall into fornication. And if this happens by the carelessness of their parents, those who gave them birth will be guilty of their souls. For if the offending children get into the company of debauched persons by the negligence of those who gave them life, they will not be punished alone by themselves, but their parents also will be condemned on their account. For this cause, endeavor at the time when they are of an age fit for marriage, to join them in wedlock and settle them together, lest in the heat and fervor of their age their course of life become dissolute and you be required to give an account by the Lord God in the day of judgment.
St Nilus of Ancyra (4th century)

Proverbs 13:25 (13:27 in LXX & OSB). If you take [this verse] according to the literal sense that “when the just person eats he will fill his soul but the souls of the impious will be in poverty,” it will appear false. For the souls of the impious take food with eagerness and strive after “satiety,” but the just meanwhile are hungry. Finally, Paul was just, and he said, “Up to this hour we are hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and we are beaten with fists.” And again he says, “In hunger and thirst, in many fastings.” And how does Solomon say, “when the just eats he will satisfy his soul”? But if you consider how “the just person” always and “without interruption” eats from “the living bread” and fills his soul and satisfies it with heavenly food which is the Word of God and his wisdom, you will find how the just person “eats his bread in abundance” from the blessing of God.
Origen

Proverbs 14:3. It is the way of haughty preachers that they are more desirous of strictly reproving their hearers even when distressed than they are to cherish them in a kindly manner. For they study more to chide and reprove faults than to encourage goodness with praise. They are anxious to appear superior to other people, and they are better pleased when anger raises their feelings than when love makes them equal. They always want to find something to smite sharply with reproof. As it is written, “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride,” because really he knows how to smite sharply but not to sympathize with humility.
St Gregory the Great (Dialogos)