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From: Isaiah 48:17-19

A Lesson About History

[17] Thus says the LORD,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
[18] O that you had hearkened to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
[19] your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.”

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Commentary:

48:17-19. Now, by way of conclusion, the text deals with a theme closely con-
nected with listening to the Lord’s message (cf. 48:16). It is the theme of divine
instruction: the Lord “teaches you to profit,” that is, for your benefit, and “leads
you in the way you should go” (v. 17) — words reminiscent of Deuteronomy 8:2.
Divine “teaching” is not something purely abstract: it is based on real-life expe-
rience, on salvific events in the history of the chosen people, especially from the
exodus from Egypt onwards. Just as liberation from Egypt carries a message
for Israel, so too does this new exodus from Babylon.

The passage goes on to warn Judah that its punishment was due to its having
closed its ears to the Lord (vv. 18-19). Leaving aside the historical context of the
exile, this oracle is a “teaching” that applies in every age, and is valid for all na-
tions and every individual: everyone must be converted and follow the way of the
Lord.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Matthew 11:16-19

Jesus Reproaches People for their Unbelief

(Jesus spoke to the crowds), [16] “But to what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates.
[17] ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance,
we wailed and you did not mourn.’
[18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’;
[19] the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton
and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified
by her deeds.”

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Commentary:

16-19. Making reference to a popular song or a child’s game of His time, Jesus
reproaches those who offer groundless excuses for not recognizing Him. From
the beginning of human history the Lord has striven to attract all men to Himself:
“What more was there to do for My vineyard, that I have not done in it?” (Isaiah
5:4), and often He has been rejected: “When I looked for it to yield grapes, why
did it yield wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:4).

Our Lord also condemns calumny: some people do try to justify their own beha-
vior by seeing sin where there is only virtue. “When they find something which
is quite obviously good,” St. Gregory the Great says, “they pry into it to see if
there is not also some badness hidden in it” (”Moralia”, 6, 22). The Baptist’s fas-
ting they interpret as the work of the devil; whereas they accuse Jesus of being
a glutton. The evangelist has to report these calumnies and accusations spoken
against our Lord; otherwise, we would have no notion of the extent of the malice
of those who show such furious opposition to Him who went about doing good
(Acts 10:38). On other occasions Jesus warned His disciples that they would
be treated the same as He was (cf. John 15:20).

The works of Jesus and John the Baptist, each in their own way, lead to the ac-
complishment of God’s plan for man’s salvation: the fact that some people do
not recognize Him does not prevent God’s plan being carried into effect.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.