On that day I shall call my
servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on
him. I shall commit control and administration into his hands, and he will be
like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Judah. I
shall give him the glory of David, and he will rule and there will be no one to
gainsay him. I shall set him as a ruler in a secure place, and every prominent
person in the house of his father will trust in him, small and great, and he
will depend on him that day (vv. 20-24). So far the story does not depart
from the facts, reporting as it does the details of Shebna the treasurer who,
though accorded the position of priesthood, so abused it and was hostile to
everyone he met as to be intolerably oppressive and in a word leave no crime
untried. When he was cast aside, then—namely, by being deported to a distant
and immense land—the text says, I shall call my servant Eliakim son
of Hilkiah. Now, by referring to him as his son, he confirmed his
compliance, and made clear that he had endowed him with the glory of
priesthood, promising to crown him by saying that he would give him a robe,
control, and administration, that is, the power to rule the peoples under
him. In addition to this he confirmed that he would be kindly, not conceited
like Shebna, but like a father, faithful and good. For this reason he
will also be fastened in a secure place, that is, firmly fastened in him
who saves and abides, so that every prominent and famous person would choose,
as it were, to place his hope in him, not as God—far from it—but as a
kind of father; he will foster and protect small and great, the text
says. He will be so loved that the peoples under his control will seem to depend
on him.
So much, as I said, for the
factual content of the passage. In turn, however, the mystery of Christ is
probably suggested to us in an elevated interpretation. The scribes and Pharisees,
although endowed with the priesthood according to the Law, were disobedient,
hard-hearted, and arrogant, venal and interested in having full purses, and
bent on every exploit hateful to God. The prophet Isaiah himself, for instance,
says at the beginning of the book, “How did she become a whore, the faithful
city of Sion, full of justice? Righteousness came to rest in her, but now
assassins. Your silver has become dross, your innkeepers mix water with the
wine. Your leaders are disobedient, hand in glove with robbers, loving bribes, on
the lookout for kickbacks, not judging in favor of orphans or attending to the
cause of widows.” The Savior personally accused them by speaking in these terms
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For your tithe mint, dill and
cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law, justice and mercy
and faith”—and even more sacrilegiously still, they turned killers of the Lord.
For this reason they were deprived of the dignity of priesthood, removed from
the governance of the people, and expelled from the administration entrusted to
them by Law, forfeiting the sacred laurels and the robe proper to
priests.
After them it was our Lord Jesus
Christ who was called, our great high priest; as blessed Paul writes, “One does
not presume to take this honor, only when called by God, just as Christ did not
glorify himself in becoming high priest, but was appointed by the one who said
to him, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” By
nature, in fact, he is God and Lord of all, and the object of worship by all;
so when he became man, he was also styled our high priest. He is also said to
receive the glory of David, that is, rule and kingship over Israel,
though we say it is not at all Israel according to the flesh but in spirit and
understanding. Scripture says, remember, that not all Israelites truly belong
to Israel, and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants—only those
justified by faith, following in the footsteps of their father Abraham, are his
children, styled children of the promise and of Israel. So when Christ is
revealed as high priest of us all, there will be no one to gainsay him,
the text says; no enemy will prevail over him, nor will the son of iniquity proceed
to abuse him. To take it in another sense: while Israel opposed him, the
nations accepted being ruled by him. He is found saying in a statement of
David, for instance, in reference to Israel, “Deliver me from a people of
contradiction,” and in reference to the nations, “You will make me head of the
nations, people I had not known served me; on hearing of me they obeyed me. Foreign
sons were false to me, foreign sons grew old, and went limping from their
paths.” In other words, they have grown old and come close to disappearing, and
with their minds as good as shattered they have become “foreign sons”—the people
of Israel, that is. Though once firstborn, in fact, they became “foreign” when
they proved false to Christ; they are now called children of ruins, sons of
Hades.
When, however, the text says, I
shall bring to light Eliakim (which means “God’s resurrection, for, as God, the
Word is raised up for our assistance, as he also said of old, “For the sake of
the hardship of the poor and the groaning of the needy I shall now arise, says
the Lord”), at that time, the text says, every prominent person in the house
of his father will trust in him. Now, the house of the Father of Christ can
only be the Church; anyone prominent there will trust in Christ;
and not only the prominent but also the insignificant—in worldly terms, that
is. The God of all, after all, being righteous and no respecter of persons,
accepts people rather according to the measure of spiritual maturity, whether
parents, or still children, adolescents or young adults in a spiritual sense. (Cyril
of Alexandria, Commentary on Isaiah, 3 vols. [trans. Robert Charles
Hill; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2008], 2:90-93)
