Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Fast Free Week
The Righteous Simeon and Anna
Kellia: Is 19:1-5, 12, 16, 19-21 Epistle: 2 Peter 2:9-22 Gospel: St. Mark 13:14-23
Isaiah 19:1-5, 12, 16, 19-21, especially vss.19, 20, "In that day there will
be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It
will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord
because of oppressors He will send them a Savior...." The Prophet Isaiah begins this passage
with an announcement: "An Oracle concerning Egypt" (vs. 1). Thereby he declares that what he
is about to say is a revelation from the Lord concerning the future of Egypt. Because the Holy
Fathers read and received Isaiah's words as Divine oracle, they were quick to discern the
presence of Christ in the prophesies: His flight as an infant into Egypt, a land burdened under
terrible idolatry at the time of His visitation. They perceived that Egypt's fall under Roman
control was a consequence of its idolatrous worship, but they also found in the Prophet's words
the joyous prediction of Egypt's transformation into a Christ-worshiping nation.
In the first verse, the Fathers regularly translated the original as 'light,' with the sense of 'having
little weight' or 'being insubstantial' rather than as 'illumination." Hence, many of them
understood the 'cloud' upon which the Lord rode to refer to His Incarnate body within which He
clothed His Divinity, to shroud it from common gaze. Some understood the 'light cloud' to refer
to the body of the Theotokos who bore the infant Jesus in her arms. In any case, following the
Presentation ceremonies in the Temple, because Joseph was warned to "take the young Child and
His mother [and] flee into Egypt" (Mt. 2:13), the Incarnate and infant Lord rode out of Israel into
Egypt in the arms of His mother to escape the efforts of Herod "to destroy Him" (Mt. 2:13).
The idols of Egypt trembled "at His presence" when He arrived, being by nature demons and
rightfully fearing the One Who held all power in His hand over their shadowy existence. They
trembled because, being incorporeal, spiritual beings themselves, they immediately perceived the
true nature of this tiny Refugee, despite His appearance as a defenseless infant. But, as Theodoret
has shown, the Prophet "teaches the efficacy of the coming of the Master" to an idolatrous land.
The hard hearts "of the Egyptians will melt within them" (Is. 19:1).
Centuries before Christ was born, the Lord warned the Egyptians of the judgment that was
coming upon them for their idolatry: "the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound their plans; and they will consult the idols and the sorcerers, and the
mediums and the wizards; and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master; and a
fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts" (vss. 3, 4). Theodoret observes
that this prophecy was fulfilled by the reign of Augustus Caesar, for he "made a definite end to
the kingdom of Egypt and delivered it to administrators."
While in "that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand
which the Lord of hosts shakes over them" it will also happen that in "that day there will be an
altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border" (vss. 16,
19). The Gospel would soon come to Egypt and free that land from idolatry. St. Nikolai of Zica
observes the wonder in Isaiah's vision: "The Egyptians will know the one, living Lord at the time
that He appears in the flesh among men. The idols will be destroyed and the temples of demons
and animals thrown down; the altar of the one living God will be established and the table of
oblation raised up....the greatest ascetics will appear in that land that was formerly covered with
darkness, the most courageous martyrs for Christ the Lord...."
O Lord, Thou hast appeared for the revelation of the Gentiles, sitting on a bright cloud: free me
also Thy servant to depart from corruption; for I have beheld Thee in the flesh.
