Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Lenten Fast
Hieromartyr Theodoretos
6th Hour: Isaiah 5:16-26 1st Vespers: Genesis 4:16-26 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 5:15-6:3
Self Destruction: Isaiah 5:16-26 LXX, especially vss. 22, 24: "the mighty ones...shall be as chaff, and their flower shall go up as dust; for they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and insulted the word of the Holy One of Israel." In Isaiah 5:7-16 one finds a scriptural pattern of Divine indictment for a specific sin followed by a Divine imposition of a sentence or punishment. The earlier passage contains two indictments and judgments. In the present verses from Isaiah, the pattern continues. Four woes are pronounced - against 1) disdaining God (vss. 18-19), 2) reprobate consciousness (vs. 20), 3) pride (vs. 21) and 4) self-serving (vss. 22-24).
Following the four woes, today's reading concludes with a decree of judgment against God's sinful people, which begins: "Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust" (vs. 24). Observe that Isaiah's understanding of sin and its consequences in this passage closely agrees with St. Paul's views concerning sin as expressed in Romans 1:18-23.
Disaster begins spiritually, within men's hearts, as we "draw iniquity with cords of falsehood" (Is. 5:18). We sin by asserting our own lusts. We put our hands to the rope of desire and pull, drawing the act of sin to ourselves. Isaiah highlights this truth by framing the common statement of every sinner's heart: "let [God] speed His work that we may see it"(vs. 19). By our inner agreement with our corrupted passions, we start the journey toward visible sins, and, in that interior moment, we effectively ignore the truth of God by questioning whether He acts in our lives. This affront adds to our sin, and so we are "without excuse" before God (Rom. 1:20).
We 'do ourselves in' by a disastrous inner consent in the heart, denying and destroying the image of God within us. In our sinful hearts, we dare God to write out visibly, as on a billboard, what already is written within each of us. The arrogance of sin manifests itself in the appalling demand of the creature for God to prove Himself, to meet our criteria for trusting Him.
From our sinful arrogance, there follows an inversion of truth. As Isaiah declares: men "call evil good and good evil...put darkness for light and light for darkness and...put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" The Prophet provides a portrait of what the Apostle Paul calls "the reprobate mind" (Rom 1:28). As we flaunt God and choose not to "glorify Him as God, nor [to be] thankful," it is we who become "futile" in our thoughts, whose foolish hearts are "darkened" (Rom. 1:21). Listen to all the arguments supporting abortion, homosexuality, same-sex 'marriages,' euthanasia, sexual indulgence apart from marriage, gang marauding, or the use of drugs. Arguments favoring these sins display a common darkness of heart; for in our spiritual centers, mirrors of God's image, we "...suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. 1:18).
Isaiah pronounces God's "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes" (Is. 5:21). St. Paul echoes him in Romans, "Professing to be wise, they became fools" (Rom. 1:22). A "fool" in Holy Scripture is one who scoffs at the fear of the Lord and despises godly wisdom and instruction (Prov. 1:7). However, the root cause of such conceit is pride, a vaunted confidence in one's own ability to determine the truth of life's issues and purpose.
When "foolishness," or pride, is translated into visible behavior, the result is self-serving which inevitably perverts justice, as Isaiah says: acquitting "the guilty for a bribe" (Is. 5:23). Note that the end of all who persist in sins, who do not think to repent, "will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts" (vs. 24).
From my youth up many passions have warred against me. But do Thou help and save me, O my Savior, and quicken and exalt me in purity made resplendent by the Triune Unity.
