Further, the prophet introduces Israel in the parable of the vineyard: "My Beloved had a vineyard on the top of a fattened mountain, and He surrounded it with a fence, and cleansed it of stones, and planted in it choice vines, and built a tower in the midst of it, and dug a winepress in it, and expected it to bring forth good grapes – what familiar words! "And he brought wild berries. And now, ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge me with my vineyard. What else should I do for My vineyard that I have not done for it? Why, when I expected him to bring forth good grapes, did he bring forth wild berries? Therefore I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its fence, and it will be laid waste; I will tear down its walls, and it will be trampled underfoot, and I will leave it desolate" (Isaiah 5:1-5).

Through the prophet, the Lord Himself explains this parable: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His favorite planting. And He waited for justice, but behold, there was bloodshed; he waited for righteousness, and behold, there was a cry" (Isaiah 5:7). The image of the vineyard is an image used in the Old Testament by a number of prophets. When Christ tells the parable of the wicked husbandmen, He introduces it, repeating the text of the prophet Isaiah word for word, thereby preventing His listeners from understanding Him in any other way.

And, finally, the words of the farewell discourse: "I am the true vine" (John 15:1) unite Christ and the Church as one, revealing to us the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ.

3.6. The Calling of the Prophet Isaiah

Up to this point, however, we could say that, in comparison with the books of the minor prophets already studied, we did not see anything fundamentally new. But this is just the beginning. You will agree that the first five chapters could have formed a separate prophetic book.

The sixth chapter describes the calling of the prophet Isaiah. It has been noted earlier that several prophets have a description of their calling, although this may not be the original calling at the time when he began his prophetic ministry. Moreover, then this calling would have been in the first chapter, but it is still placed in the 6th. It is possible that this happened at a time when he was already carrying out his ministry and was called to some even more intense activity, to receive higher and more mysterious revelations. If we look at the prophecies contained in the next five chapters, we will see that this is indeed the case.

"I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and exalted, and the edges of His garments filled the whole temple. Around Him stood the Seraphim; each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And they cried out to one another, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. the whole earth is full of His glory! And the tops of the gate were shaken at the voice of those who shouted, and the house was filled with incense" (Isaiah 6:6-4). Notice that God reveals Himself to the prophet in the temple.

We have seen that the Lord demands from people truth, mercy, and condescension to the widow and the orphan. For prophets like Amos and Hosea, this is the center of preaching. At some point, there is even a feeling that the Lord is a God of such social justice that He is only engaged in solving some human problems, sorting out untruths, and so on. From this sometimes follows the naïve (and theologically illiterate) question: "What did God do before He created the world?" And so the scale of the visions of the prophet Isaiah does not allow us to make such a mistake at all. The filling of heaven and earth with the glory of God, the service of the Seraphim and Cherubim to Him, the shock of all this doxology quite clearly shows us the divine omnipotence, the incomprehensibility and incomprehensibility of God by the world, the impossibility of even approaching Him. When Isaiah sees this, he exclaims: "Woe is me, I am lost! for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among the people also with unclean lips – and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5) – it is impossible to be present at this, it is impossible to see it, it is impossible even to think of approaching this holiness, this glory.

And yet, the prophet Isaiah becomes a partaker of this glory when one of the Seraphim brings a burning coal and touches the prophet's mouth and says: "Behold, this has touched your mouth, and your iniquity is taken away from you, and your sin is cleansed" (Isaiah 6:7). When priests and deacons commune in the altar, then, having communed, they kiss the holy chalice and say: "Behold, he touched my lips, and he will take away my iniquities and cleanse my sins." These are the same words, they speak of the action of the power of God, which corrects and purifies a person who by his own will, by his own power, is not able to approach God. The tongs with which Seraphim takes the coal from the throne prefigure the Mother of God, to Whom the divine coal of the Body of Christ was brought.

"And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, Here am I, send me" (Isaiah 6:8). These words are often referred not only to the prophet Isaiah, but also to the Son of God, these words are referred to the Pre-eternal Council, when the question of man's salvation is decided, and the Son of God takes upon Himself the obligation, having accepted death on the Cross and Resurrection, to save the human race (cf. Gen. 1:27). These words also apply to the prophet Isaiah himself and his ministry: "Go and say to this people, 'With your ears you will hear, and you will not understand, and with your eyes you will see, and you will not see. For the heart of this people is hardened, and with their ears they can hardly hear, and their eyes are closed, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, that I may heal them" (Isaiah 6:9-10). Again a prototype. The ministry of the prophet Isaiah precedes the appearance of God incarnate, because it is in His appearance that these words are fully fulfilled. God Himself stands and preaches to the people, and they close their eyes, and stop their ears, and don't want to hear Him, they don't want to hear Him, and they don't want to be healed. After all, this is what Christ said: "And the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled over them, who says, 'With your ears you will hear, and you will not understand... " (Matt. 13:14). And the holy Evangelist John, quoting this quote, adds: "These things Isaiah said, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him" (John 12:40). Thus, he was vouchsafed this appearance before the mystery of the Incarnation of God was revealed to him.