Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, with the after-feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, with the day of the memory of the Holy Great-Martyr Katherine, as well as with the second Sunday of Advent!

Last year at the beginning of the Nativity Fast, we began to study the Old Testament prophets and in the course of twelve weeks briefly discussed all of the minor prophets, that is, the twelve prophets who have left for us short books of the Old Testament. It remains for us to discuss the four major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. It seems to me that the Nativity Fast, when we prepare to celebrate the coming to earth of our Creator and Saviour, is an appropriate time to remember those righteous people that lived in the distant past, awaited the Messiah with hope, and in their words clearly prophesied about Him. With this in mind, let us today briefly talk about the Holy Prophet of God Isaiah.

The Holy Prophet of God Isaiah had a long and fruitful life. He began his prophetic service at a young age in the final year of the the reign of the Judean King Uzziah (the middle of the 8th century B. C.) and continued through the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. According to tradition, he was executed by King Manasseh sometime at the beginning of the 7th century B. C. The saint lived in Jerusalem. He had a wife, who was also a prophetess, and children. Without a doubt, he was close to the ruling family (some think that he was a relative of the Judean kings) and was well informed as to the political and foreign affairs of those times. Those years were difficult for the small states of the Middle East, when the Assyrians were rapidly subjugating their neighbours as they collected for themselves an empire.

The book of the Holy Prophet of God Isaiah is quite long, but that person who decides to read it and immerses himself in the essence of that which was written will reap much spiritual good. Of all the Old Testament books, the Book of Isaiah is quoted most often by the authors of the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself on repeated occasions used direct quotations, images, or ideas from Isaiah in His own preaching. Our Orthodox prayers and the texts of the church services also profusely use material from this book. If the Lord Himself and His saints read and loved Isaiah, should not we familiarize ourselves with this prophet and that which he taught?

The name Isaiah means ‘Salvation is from the Lord’ in ancient Hebrew. We can probably consider the name of the prophet to lead us to the main idea or characteristic of this saint’s book. Isaiah wrote much about the salvation of the Jewish people from their external foes of that time, but at the same time, he did not neglect to preach about that most important and most real salvation that came not only to the chosen people but to all of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. For this reason Isaiah is sometimes called the Old Testament evangelist. All the central themes of the Gospels are present in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. We read about John the Forerunner (ch. 40), the birth of the Saviour from a Virgin (ch. 7), His human and divine natures (ch. 7 and 9), His voluntary death (ch. 50, 52, 53), the general Resurrection and the Dread Judgement (ch. 26). The clarity of these prophecies cannot but amaze us. Apart from what is most important, that is, the words about the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah, as is the case with the other prophets, has many wonderful moral and ethical instructions.

Our Lord and God is always ready to instruct us, support us, and strengthen us in faith if only we wish for this. The easiest way to hear His living words is through Holy Scripture; therefore, in these day of the Nativity Fast, let us try to turn aside from all that is unneeded (and perhaps even harmful) with which we fill our free time. Instead, let’s open the Word of God and read the wonderful words about our Saviour in the book of the Old Testament evangelist.

priest Alexis