Isaiah 29:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What do you make of yourself (John 8:51, 52, 53)?” In other instances, we witness the scribes and Pharisees vocalizing their blasphemies, saying, “He has a demon and is mad: why would you listen to him?” (John 10:20). Thus, the lawless were consumed due to their profound wickedness and the severity of their corruption.

These individuals are also those who sin through their words; by leading the people under their influence away from the respect due to the law, they seduced them into transgression, urging them to adhere to their own doctrines and commandments, and persuading them to regard these as authoritative. What is even more grievous is their audacity in opposing those who challenge them in their wrongdoing. The holy prophets, who declared divine and celestial messages, sometimes chastised the Israelites openly, not in secrecy, but as if they were at the city gates. However, when called to shepherd the flock and guide those who had strayed from the straight and upright path, they obstructed these valuable admonitions, labeling the prophets as deceivers and falsehoods. Their intent was to distort the essence of truth through acts of injustice. This, I believe, aligns with the notion that ‘They deceive the righteous with unrighteousness.’ For instance, the law commands, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever speaks ill of father or mother shall be put to death; yet they taught the children to tell their parents that a gift they might expect from them could render them exempt from honoring them, claiming that it is permissible not to honor father or mother. This very reason prompted Christ to rebuke them, saying, “You have nullified the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:4-6).

Let the Jews, alongside those who limit themselves to mere history and seek only the outward aspects of truth, answer: How can it be that at the arrival of the Savior, the majestic Lebanon was transformed into Mount Carmel, known in Hebrew as Chermel? This mountain is located at the edge of Palestine and Phoenician Ptolemais, despite another mountain named Carmel in the Holy Scriptures, where Nabal resided (1 Sam. 25). He was a foolish and unjust man married to Abigail, who later became David’s wife after Nabal’s death, as she could not marry David while her husband was alive without being labeled an adulteress. How can Carmel be considered a forest filled with fruitful trees? If they fail to provide an answer, let them understand that Lebanon symbolically represents the Gentiles, who, washed clean by the Lord and freed from their past impurities, are raised and firmly established within the Church, centered on the Savior. This is reflected in the Song of Songs, describing one ascending, cleansed, and positioned alongside her brother (Song 8:5). This people shall be led to Carmel, which signifies understanding true spiritual circumcision, replacing the Jewish people. Those who reject Christ are likened to wood and unfruitful trees, incapable of praising the Lord alongside the fruitful ones. When Lebanon becomes Carmel and Carmel transforms into a forest, then those who were once deaf and unable to hear the prophetic words of the Scriptures will listen and speak. The Savior will proclaim to them: ephphatha, meaning be opened (Mk. 7:34). The phrase about the blind seeing from darkness and despair is also conveyed by Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, who interpreted it to signify that the mysteries of Christ will be unveiled to the previously blind Gentiles, according to these words: dark is the water in the clouds above (Psalm 17:12). In the same psalm, it is said of God, ‘Thou shalt put darkness for thy roof’ (v. 12). Proverbs teaches that ‘He that heareth these things, the wise man shall be wiser, and the prudent man shall build up wisdom: but he shall understand a parable, and a dark word, and the speech of the wise, and divination’ (Proverbs 1:5-6). Ultimately, Moses approached the cloud and darkness to understand and see God (Exodus 20:21), concerning which the psalm says: ‘The darkness is under His feet’ (Psalm 17:11). When the previously blind will be granted vision of all mysteries or will lift their eyes from darkness to behold the true light shining on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, then the meek, of whom it is stated, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), and the poor, whom Psalms refer to, saying, This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard (Ps. 33:7), and He judges the poor and rescues the wretched (Ps. 71:4), and to whom it was said, the counsel of the poor is a shame to you (Ps. 13:6), will rejoice in the Lord, allowing the boastful to boast only in Him (2 Cor. 10:17). Those who are poor or scorned by society, previously ignorant of the law, will celebrate the Holy One of Israel, who commands, ‘You shall be holy, as I am holy’ (Lev. 11:44). This joy stems from the fact that the one who conquered is no longer present—the one who derided and the arrogant who proclaimed, ‘By strength and wisdom, I will achieve my aims, I will dismantle the borders of nations and crush their might’—who scorned all, prompting the Holy One to declare, ‘My garments are filled with contempt’ (Psalm 37:8). All who pursue unrighteousness will be eradicated, for the vigilant eyes of evil never slumber; those who led humanity into sin through blasphemy, rejecting the Word of God, and defaming it will face judgment. This alludes to demons, who, being themselves reprehensible, incited humanity toward sin. They devised various teachings that, as far as possible, caused stumbling at the gates of justice, dismissing the truth of the One who stands at the gates of Zion, denouncing those who despised the truth. What we attribute to the devil and his followers, the Nazarenes interpret as directed against the scribes and Pharisees, signifying that there are no longer interpreters of traditions who once derided the people through wicked customs. These interpreters kept vigil day and night, leading the simple-minded into sin concerning the Word of God, persuading them to deny Christ, the Son of God.

He was cast aside by its power; while he continues to exist, his influence and authority were reduced to nothing. He no longer harms the Church autonomously but only operates by God’s allowance. Those unrighteous individuals who serve as tools of his animosity towards Christ have been filled with malice, and the era of persecution and torment against Christians has ceased.