The wonders of Isaiah were the promises to the Gentiles, and not to Israel, of anointing with sweet-smelling oil and myrrh. They naturally received the name of Christian from this anointing. In addition he promises the wine of joy to the Gentiles, using a shadow to allude to the sacrament of the new covenant of Christ, which is now openly celebrated among the Gentiles.

Israel was called to the knowledge of God through the tutoring of the law and was richly endowed with the things of God. It was delivered [from Egypt] and inherited the Promised Land. Although there were many other peoples living in other parts of the world, all were alien to spiritual matters and heavenly things. They had not tasted the gifts that come from God. They were, as it were, naked and unclothed, enjoying neither divine protection nor shelter from on high, nor the spiritual wealth that comes from virtue nor other things worthy of praise or admiration.

When Christ appeared, destroying the arrogance of the devil, he led the nations to God the Father, and they basked in the splendor of the true light and shared in his glory. Enjoying the splendor of the way of life according to the gospel, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to the God and Father for these gifts. Thus the text says, you have carried out a faithful plan formed of old, O Lord, recapitulating all things in Christ and enlightening those in darkness, destroying the mighty powers of this age. That is, like fortified cities the impoverished people will bless you and whole cities will glorify you. Having become a help to all and protection to those whose ancestral traditions were impoverished, you have saved them from wicked people.

Perhaps this is what the prophet is referring to, that is, those in Israel who were thirsting for the coming of the Savior. They desired to see the Savior and Redeemer of all. One such person was the righteous Simeon. When he took the infant Jesus in his arms, he said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for mine eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.^[1]

Having been counted worthy of this holy chrism,^[1] you are called Christians, verifying the name also by your new birth. For before you were deemed worthy of this grace, you had properly no right to this title but were advancing on your way toward being Christians.

Moreover, you shall know that in the old Scripture there lies the symbol of this chrism. For at the time Moses imparted to his brother the command of God and made him high priest, he anointed him after bathing him in water. And Aaron was called Christ or anointed, evidently from the typical anointing. So also the high priest, in advancing Solomon to the kingdom, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon.^[2] To them, however, these things happened in a figure, but to you not in a figure but in truth; because you were truly anointed by the Holy Spirit. Christ is the beginning of your salvation. He is truly the first fruit, and you are what follow. If the first fruit is holy, obviously its holiness will pass to the remainder also.

Keep this teaching unspotted, for it shall teach you all things, if it abide in you. . . . For this holy thing is a spiritual safeguard of the body and salvation of the soul. Of this the blessed Isaiah prophesying of old time said, On this mountain shall the Lord make for all nations a feast; they shall drink wine, they shall drink gladness, they shall anoint themselves with ointment.

Moreover, this same Isaiah foretells that while those who were engaged in the study of the law from childhood to old age did not believe, to the Gentiles every mystery should be transferred. His words are, And the Lord of hosts shall make a feast on this mountain for all nations. . . . This was the counsel of the Almighty respecting all the nations.

They will not hunger^[1] because they will feed upon living bread, for he said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.^[2] Neither will they thirst, because they will drink from a cup so splendid as to enact in them the truth he spoke: Whoever believes in me will never thirst;^[3] and again: Whoever drinks from the water I give him will receive in himself a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.^[4] Neither will the sun strike them, nor will they be burned by the deadly fire of its heat. God made a similar promise to his church through Isaiah, saying that he would be a shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat. Here he declares the purity of his sacraments to thrive in his own and that none of them will be oppressed by the heat of temptation. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne governs them.^[5] Previously it had said that the Lamb seated on the throne received the scroll,^[6] but now it says that the Lamb in the midst of the throne governs them. It does so to teach that there is one throne for the Father and for the Son, since the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, that is, in the midst of the church, which the one, whole, triune God inhabits through faith.

Having said that the Lord will reign in Zion and Jerusalem, Isaiah leads us to the mystical meaning of the passage. Thus Zion is interpreted as a high place that is good for surveillance, and Jerusalem is the vision of the world. In fact, the church of Christ combines both: it is high and visible from everywhere, and is, so to speak, located on the mountain. The church may be understood as high also in another way: there is nothing low in it, it is far removed from all the mundane things, as it is written, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!^[1] Equally elevated are its orthodox and divine doctrines; thus the doctrine about God or about the holy and consubstantial Trinity is true, pure and without guile. The Lord of hosts will make for all people, not just for the Israelites elected for the sake of their patriarchs but for all the people of the world. What will he make? A feast of wines on the lees; they will drink joy, they will drink wine. They will be anointed with myrrh on the mountain. This joy, of course, means the joy of hope, of the hope rooted in Christ, because we will reign with him, and with him we will enjoy every spiritual joy and pleasure that surpasses mind and understanding. By wine he points to the mystical sacrament, that of the bloodless sacrifice, which we celebrate in the holy churches.

In the Old Testament the jaw of death is bitter, since it is said, Strong death is all devouring. In the New Testament the jaw of death is sweet, for it has swallowed death, as the apostle says: Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?^[1]

Stricken by the indecency of this act [the golden calf], Moses broke the tablets and shattered the head of the calf and beat it to powder in order to destroy all traces of impiety.^[1] The first tablets were broken so that the second ones might be repaired whereon, through the teaching of the gospel, faithlessness, now utterly destroyed, vanished. Thus Moses shattered that Egyptian pride and by the authority of the eternal law checked that loftiness overreaching itself. Therefore David says, And the Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon, and shatter them like the calf of Lebanon.^[2] Thus the people swallowed all faithlessness and pride, so that impiety and haughtiness might not swallow them. For it is better that each person be master of his flesh and its vices, that it may not be said of him that all-powerful death has devoured him, but rather, death is swallowed up in victory!^[3]

The apostle said, With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin,^[1] not by giving my members over to committing iniquities but only by feeling lust, without however giving a hand to unlawful lust. So when he said, With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin, he went on to add, There is therefore no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus.^[2] For those who are in the flesh there is condemnation; for those who are in Christ Jesus no condemnation. In case you should assume this is going to be the case after becoming a Christian, that is why he added now.

What you must look forward to afterward is not even to have any lust in you which you have to contend with, which you have to combat, which you must not consent to, which you have to curb and tame; look forward to its simply not being there afterward. I mean to say, if what is now contending with us from its base in this mortal body is going to be there afterward, the taunt Where, death, is your striving? will be untrue. So let us be quite clear about what it is going to be like afterward. Then, you see, will come about the word that is written: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your striving? Where, death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin; but the power of sin, the law.^[3] Because desire was increased, not extinguished, by being forbidden. The law gave sin power by simply commanding through the letter without assisting through the spirit.

Now the laws of love summoned him even as far as death and the dead themselves, so that he might summon the souls of those who were long time dead. And so because he cared for the salvation of all for ages past and that he might bring to nothing him that has the power of death,^[1] as Scripture teaches, here again he underwent the dispensation in his mingled natures: as man, he left his body to the usual burial, while as God he departed from it. For he cried with a loud cry, and said to the Father, I commend my spirit,^[2] and departed from the body free, in no way waiting for death, who was lagging as it were in fear to come to him. No, rather, he pursued him from behind and drove him on, trodden under his feet and fleeing, and he burst the eternal gates of his dark realms and made a road of return back again to life for the dead there bound with the bonds of death. Thus too, his own body was raised up, and many bodies of the sleeping saints arose and came together with him into the holy and real city of heaven, as rightly is said by the holy words: Death has prevailed and swallowed people up; but again the Lord God has taken away every tear from every face. And the Savior of the universe, our Lord, the Christ of God, called Victor, is represented in the prophetic predictions as reviling death and releasing the souls that are bound there, by whom he raises the hymn of victory.

Where, O death, is your strife? Where, O death, is your sting? Commenting upon the power of this testimony, Paul infers the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Yet thanks be to God, who gave us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.^[1] Because he interpreted the resurrection of the Lord in this way, we dare not nor are we able to interpret it differently. Death can be understood as hell and as the devil, who was strangled by the death of Christ. In this connection, Isaiah also said, Growing stronger, he devoured death, and again, the Lord has wiped every tear from every face. The two brothers who divided from one another at death,^[2] according to the history of that time, are understood to be Israel and Judah, that what was then partially prefigured might now be known fully^[3] and that Israel and Judah might be liberated and redeemed along with every human family.

It is appropriate and necessary that at the time the mystery is handed over,^[1] the resurrection of the dead is included. For at the time we make the confession of faith at holy baptism, we say that we expect the resurrection of the flesh. And so we believe. Death overcame our forefather Adam on account of his transgression and like a fierce wild animal it pounced on him and carried him off amid lamentation and loud wailing. Men wept and grieved because death ruled over all the earth. But all this came to an end with Christ. Striking down death, he rose up on the third day and became the way by which human nature would rid itself of corruption. He became the first born of the dead, and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.^[2]

We who come afterward will certainly follow the first fruits. He turned suffering into joy, and we cast off our sackcloth. We put on the joy given by God so that we can rejoice and say, Where is your victory O death?^[3] Therefore every tear is taken away. For believing that Christ will surely raise the dead, we do not weep over them, nor are we overwhelmed by inconsolable grief like those who have no hope. Death itself is a reproach of the people for it had its beginning among us through sin. Corruption entered in on account of sin, and death’s power ruled on earth.

And since the holy Virgin brought forth as man God united personally to flesh, we say that she is the mother of God. [This is] not because the nature of the Word had a beginning of existence from the flesh, for in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;^[1] he is the Creator of the ages, coeternal with the Father and Creator of all things. As we have stated before, having united humanity to himself personally he even endured birth in the flesh from the womb. He did not require because of his own nature as God a birth in time and in the last stages of the world. He was born in order that he might bless the very beginning of our existence and in order that, because a woman bore him when he was united to the flesh, the curse against the whole race might be stopped. The curse was sending our bodies from the earth to death, and by him abolishing the saying, in pain shall you bring forth children,^[2] the words of the prophet might be shown to be true, strong death has swallowed them up, and again God has taken away every tear from every face.

For eternal rest lies before those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, a rest not given in payment for a debt owed for their works but provided as a grace of the munificent God for those who have hoped in him. Then, before he describes the good things there, telling in detail the escape from the troubles of the world, he gives thanks for them to the liberator of souls, who has delivered him from the varied and inexorable slavery of the passions. But what are these good things?

For he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.^[1] God describes the future rest by a comparison with things here. Here, he says, the sorrows of death have compassed me, but there he has delivered my soul from death. Here the eyes pour forth tears because of trouble, but there, no longer is there a tear to darken the eyes of those who are rejoicing in the contemplation of the beauty of the glory of God. For God has wiped away every tear from every face.

You recognize the one who gives you joy to drink and wine in addition, anointing those in spiritual Zion with myrrh. You recognize that he is true God and Son of God by nature, and although he appeared in the form of a servant,^[1] by becoming man he became the source of salvation and life for all, being in all things like those on earth though without sin. The prophet indicates that they are all but pointing [to Christ] with their finger when they say, Behold our God in whom we have hoped, and we will rejoice in our salvation. I think that this text applies especially to the Israelites who were nurtured in the words of Moses and were not ignorant of the predictions of the holy prophets. They waited for the time of the coming of the Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as I have already said, Zechariah the father of John [the Baptizer] when he prophesied in the Spirit said of Christ, He has raised up a horn of salvation.^[2] And Simeon when he took the holy child in his arms said, Behold, my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared before the face of all people.^[3] Recognize then what had been announced of old, the one who is the hope of all, the Savior and Redeemer, they said, according to Isaiah, Behold our God.

They confess that God will give rest on this mountain. And it seems to me that mountain here refers to the church, for it is there that one finds rest. For we heard the words of Christ: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.^[4]