The Shadow Gives Way to the Truth

…revealed, those things were held in high praise. So it is also written of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord” (Luke 1:5-6). In this way, I think, the holy prophets themselves also lived. And indeed the inspired Paul, though he says openly that he had been “blameless as to the righteousness in the Law” (Philippians 3:6), says: “But whatever was gain to me, these things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7).

So before the coming of Christ, the Savior of us all, some who were well esteemed for the glories of the Law were strong and in the vigor of youth. But after His appearing and the preaching of the Gospel, the things of the Law have ceased, the shadow has passed over into the truth, and the worship that is in spirit and in truth has been brought in (John 4:23). God therefore does not rejoice over the young men of the Jews (Isaiah 9:17), that is, over those who still show their strength by choosing to live according to the Law. The sacrifices offered through blood are not accepted, nor circumcision of the flesh, nor teachings about washings, nor the idleness of the Sabbaths. But we have been taught, as I said, the way of the life that pleases God.

So, quite rightly, once the shadow came to an end, the young men who live by it are cast off, and the orphans and widows are far from being pitied (Isaiah 9:17). By orphans he means those who, as it were, lack spiritual upbringing and the guidance that comes from teachers. Likewise we say that the widows are souls that have come to lack the power to bear fruit, because they do not have the one who sows and supplies for them all good teachings.

No one would praise the state in which we shall find the people of Israel: without any share in true instruction because of their drunken outrage against Christ. For “their eyes were darkened so that they could not see,” as the psalmist says, and “their backs were bent” (Psalm 69:23), and this “continually,” so that they cannot look at the things above but, as if stooped over, are fixed on earthly things.

They will suffer this, he says, not without cause, but because “all have become lawless and wicked, and every mouth speaks lawless things” (Isaiah 9:17). For how are they not lawless and full of every wickedness, who strove to bring death upon the One who calls them to life, the One who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), although the Law says plainly, “You shall not kill the innocent and the righteous” (Exodus 23:7)? How has not every tongue of the Jews spoken unjust things? For they cried out against Christ to Pilate, saying, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” (John 19:15). And, “Unless you kill this man…”