Homilies on Jeremiah, Homilies 1–2

God is ready to do good, and slow to punish§1.1

1.1God is ready to do good, and slow to punish those who deserve punishment. He could bring the penalty on those he has condemned in silence, without first bearing witness against them. He never does that. Even when he condemns, he speaks, and he speaks so that the one about to be condemned may turn from the sentence.

There are many examples of this in the Scriptures. A few that come up at once will be enough, so that we may reach the aim of the readings set before us.

The Ninevites had become sinners, and they were condemned by God. Yet three days, and Nineveh was about to be overthrown. God did not wish to condemn the city in silence. He gave them room for repentance and turning, and sent a Hebrew prophet, so that when the prophet said, 'Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,' those already condemned might not be condemned, but might repent and meet with the mercy of God.

Those in Sodom and Gomorrah had been condemned, as is clear from God's words to Abraham. Even so the angels did their part, wanting to save those who did not want to be saved. They said to Lot, 'Have you anyone here, sons-in-law or sons or daughters?' They were not ignorant that those others would not follow Lot. They were doing the work of their own kindness, and of the kindness of the one who sent them.

Why the dates of Jeremiah's prophecy are written§1.2

1.2You will find the same thing in what is written about Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy is recorded: when he began, and how far he prophesied. Then the reader, if he does not attend to the reading and examine the intent of the passages set down, will say: this is history, and it is written when Jeremiah began to prophesy, and after how long a time he stopped. What is this history to me?

I read, and I learned that he began to prophesy 'in the days of Josiah son of Amos, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.' Then 'it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,' and he prophesied 'until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah.' And I learned that his prophecy stretched through three kings, 'until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.' What then are we taught through these things, if we attend to the reading?

God sent the prophet before the captivity, and even in it§1.3

1.3God condemned Jerusalem for her sins, and they had been judged to be left to captivity. Even so the God who loves mankind, when the time had come, sends this prophet also, starting two reigns before the captivity, so that those who were willing, taking it in, might repent through the prophetic words. He sent a prophet to prophesy under the second king after the first, and under the third, up to the very times of the captivity.

For the long-suffering God was giving a delay even, so to speak, one day before the captivity, urging those who heard to repent, so that the grim things of the captivity might cease. That is why it is written that Jeremiah prophesied 'until the captivity of Jerusalem, until the fifth month.' He had begun, and he was still prophesying, as if to say: you have become captives; even so, repent. If you repent, the captivity will not go on, but the mercy of God will stand over you.

So we have something useful from the record that gives the times of the prophecy: that God, according to his own love of mankind, urges those who hear not to suffer the things of the captivity. It is like this with us too. If we sin, we also are about to become captives. For 'to hand such a one over to Satan' differs in nothing from handing those from Jerusalem over to Nebuchadnezzar. As they were handed over to him because of sins, so we are handed over to Satan because of sins — Satan who is a Nebuchadnezzar. And 'those I handed over to Satan, that they may be taught not to blaspheme,' the apostle says of other sinners.

Sin hands the soul to a spiritual Babylon§1.4

1.4See then how great an evil it is to sin, so that people are handed over to Satan, who takes captive the souls of those left by God. God does not leave without cause, and not without judgment, those he has left. For when he sends the rain on the vineyard, and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what will God do but 'command the clouds not to rain' on the vineyard?

Because of our sins a captivity hangs over us too, and we are about to be handed over, if we do not repent, to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so that the spiritual Babylonians may tear us. With these things hanging over us, the words of the prophets, the words of the Law, the words of the apostles, the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, speak to us about repentance and call us to a turning. If we hear, let us believe the one who said, 'I also will repent of all the evils which I spoke of doing to them.' So much for the preface.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you§1.5

1.5After the preface it is written that 'the word of the Lord came to him' — clearly, to Jeremiah. And what does the word of the Lord say to him? Something set apart from what was said to the other prophets. For we have found this said to none of the prophets.

Abraham was called a prophet in the word, 'He is a prophet, and he will pray for you,' and God did not say to him, 'Before I formed you in the womb I know you, and before you came out of the womb I have sanctified you.' Abraham was sanctified later, when he went out from his land and from his kindred and from his father's house. Isaac was born of promise, and we have not found this word said even to him. Why should I go through the rest? Jeremiah received a gift set apart: 'Before I formed you in the womb I know you, and before you came out of the womb I have sanctified you.'

Some refer the words to the Savior; the whole sequence must be kept§1.6

1.6We are not unaware that some refer these words, as greater than Jeremiah, to our Savior and Lord. And one must know that much of it agrees with him and can be referred to the Savior — I will set that out. But a few of the things said to Jeremiah press the argument, and cannot, as most people take them, be fitted to the Savior.

What then fits the Savior? 'To all to whom I send you, you shall go, and according to all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their face, because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.' These would not yet clearly seem to be referred to the Savior. But what follows puts the reading about Jeremiah in a tight place: 'And the Lord stretched out his hand toward me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to pull down.' What nations did Jeremiah uproot? What kingdoms did he overthrow? For it is written, 'Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to pull down.' And what authority did Jeremiah have 'to destroy'? And whom did he build in such numbers that it should be said 'and to build'? Jeremiah says, 'I have not profited, and no one has profited me.' How then is 'to build and to plant' given to him? How will 'to plant' fit Jeremiah?

These things, referred to the Savior, do not press the interpreter, because in them Jeremiah is a symbol of the Savior. But what I am about to set down presses even the most intelligent person who wants to show how these too can fit the Savior: 'And I said, You who are, Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak.' He who is Wisdom, he who is the Power of God, who brought us 'the fullness of the deity, which dwelt in him bodily' — how then can 'I do not know how to speak' fit the Savior? And 'I am younger' is forbidden to the Savior, as if he were saying it wrongly. For if the Lord says to him, Do not say this, it is clear that he forbids what is not well said. So these do not fit the Savior. Those other words do not seem to put the Savior to shame.

To say that these belong to Jeremiah and those to the Savior is not hard. But a fair-minded person will be much pressed here. To cut a connected run of words, and to say, 'These, being lesser, fit Jeremiah and not Christ, and these, being greater than Jeremiah, fit Christ and not Jeremiah' — that is the work of people without judgment. Let the whole, then, be referred to Jeremiah, and let even the things that seem greater than Jeremiah be interpreted.

Nations and kingdoms in the soul; the child who chooses the good§1.7

1.7Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of the heavenly words has received them in order 'to uproot nations and kingdoms and to pull them down.' But if it is said that everyone who has received words from God 'uproots nations and kingdoms,' do not take the nations and the kingdoms for me in a bodily way. Look at human souls, ruled by sin, as the apostle said: 'Do not let sin reign in our mortal body.' And seeing the many kinds of sins, take the nations and the kingdoms as a figure: the bad things in the souls of men, which are uprooted and pulled down by the words of God given either to Jeremiah or to anyone at all.

The first things, which press us as regards the Savior, can also fit Jeremiah; and the second things can fit Jeremiah for the one who knows how to read them as a figure. Someone among the hearers will say to me: Work the other reading too, and try to show that all that is written fits the Savior. Do not be anxious about the second things. It is clear that the Savior uprooted the kingdoms of the devil and pulled down the nations, taking away the life of the nations. Here, at what seems ill-sounding as regards the Savior, work the word somehow: how can the Savior say, 'I do not know how to speak, because I am younger,' and the rest? You see that the argument is in a tight place.

We know the Savior is Lord. We are seeking, according to the dignity of the Word and according to the truth, to refer these things to the Savior. Witnesses must be taken from the Scriptures. For our guesses, if they have no witness, and our interpretations, are not to be trusted. And 'every word shall be established at the mouth of two or three witnesses' fits interpretations more than it fits men, so that I may establish the words of the interpretation by taking two witnesses from the New and the Old Covenant, taking three from gospel, from prophet, from apostle. For so every word will stand.

How then can we refer these things to the Savior? Bring the Old Covenant as a witness: 'Before the child knows good or evil, he refuses evil to choose the good.' And these things are said outright about the Savior in Isaiah: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.' And there it is added: 'before the child knows.' And if an example must also be taken from the gospel: Jesus, not yet become a man but still a child, since 'he emptied himself,' was advancing. For no one who is already perfected advances; he advances who still needs advance. So he 'advanced in stature, advanced in wisdom, advanced in grace with God and men.' If he emptied himself coming down here, and emptying himself was taking again from what he had emptied himself of, having emptied himself willingly, what is strange if he also advanced 'in wisdom and stature and grace with God and men,' and if what I set down from Isaiah is true of him: before he knows good or evil he will choose the good and refuse evil?

Not knowing how to speak is greater than human speech§1.8

1.8But someone will say: Even if you can refer 'he does not know' to the Savior, does it not offend you to say these things about the Only-begotten, about the firstborn of all creation, about the one announced before the conception according to the word, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you'? And you say he does not know how to speak?

See whether you can see something worth saying, and great, about the Savior in this place: that not knowing certain things, he is greater in not knowing them than in knowing them. And I use his own voice as a witness that he does not know certain things. He says to those who tell him, 'Did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works?' 'Depart from me; I never knew you.' Does that 'I never knew you' present his power as lesser, or as greater and more wonderful, because he did not know the worse and those who are perishing? For he knew the things that matter, the better things, and 'the Lord knew those who are his,' and 'if anyone is ignorant, he is not known.' So the sinner is not known by God.

Someone among the hearers will say to me: You have shown that he does not know the sinners; you have shown that he does not know those who work lawlessness, for they are not worthy of his knowledge. How will you show that it is a great and glorious thing for the Savior to say, 'I do not know how to speak'? Speaking is a human thing. To speak is to use a dialect: the speech of the Hebrews, say, or of the Greeks, or of some others. If you go up to the Savior and see him as Word 'in the beginning with God,' you will see that he does not know how to speak, because speaking is human. He does not know it, because what he knows is greater than speaking. And if you compare the tongues of angels with the tongues of men, and see that he is greater even than angels, as the apostle bore witness in the letter to the Hebrews, you will say that he was greater even than the tongue of angels when he was God, the Word with the Father.

So he learns, and as it were takes on, a knowledge not of great things but of lesser and smaller ones. Just as I force myself to lisp when I talk with little children (for not knowing how to speak in baby-talk, being full-grown I force myself to talk with children), in the same way the Savior, being 'in the Father' and in the greatness of the glory of God, does not speak human things and does not know how to utter speech to those below. But when he comes into a human body he says at the beginning, 'I do not know how to speak, because I am younger.' Younger because of the bodily birth; older according to 'firstborn of all creation'; younger because he came at the completion of the ages and visited this life later. So he says, 'I do not know how to speak': I know things greater than speaking, I know things greater than this human sound. You want me to speak to men? I have not yet taken up a human dialect. I have your dialect, O God. I am your Word, O God. I know how to speak with you. I do not know how to speak to men. I am younger.

Do not say, I am younger§1.9

1.9'Do not say, I am younger, because to all to whom I send you, you shall go.' So he stretches out the hand, touches his mouth, and gives him words, and gives him words because of the kingdoms, that he may uproot. When he was 'in the Father' he had no need of words that uproot. He had no words that pull down and take apart the worse things. For nothing there was worthy of being pulled down, nothing worthy of being uprooted.

It is a great thing, as 'I do not know you, because you are workers of lawlessness' is a great thing, said by the Savior because of the surpassing greatness of his glory. Equal in force to 'I do not know how to speak human things' is this 'I do not know how to speak.'

Formed in the womb, not made: God knows those who are his§1.10

1.10Whether it is said to Jeremiah or to the Savior, 'Before I formed you in the womb I know you': if you read Genesis and watch what is said about the making of the world, you will find that the Scripture, with a very fine distinction, did not say, 'Before I made you in the womb I know you.' For when the one according to the image was being created, 'God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness.' He did not say, Let us form. But when he took 'dust from the earth,' he did not make the man; he 'formed the man,' and 'placed in the garden the man whom he had formed, to work it and to keep it.'

If you can, see the difference between making and forming. The Lord, whether to Jeremiah or to the Savior, did not say, 'Before I made you in the womb I know you.' For what is made does not come about in the womb; what is formed from the dust of the earth is created in the womb. 'Before I formed you in the womb I know you.' If the Lord knew all, he would not have said to Jeremiah as something set apart, 'I know you.' So God knows those who matter, God knows those worthy of his knowledge, and 'the Lord knew those who are his.' Those unworthy God does not know, as the Savior also does not: 'I never knew you.'

We, being men, as we advance, judge some things worthy of our knowing them. Some things we do not even want to hear, so that we may not know them. Some things we want to know. What of the God of all? Does he want to know Pharaoh? Does he want to know the Egyptians? They are not worthy of the knowledge of God. Moses is worthy, and each of the prophets of that rank. You must set many things right before God begins to know you. Jeremiah he knew before forming him in the womb. Another he begins to know at thirty years of age, another at forty. There are secret words here, not in question as regards the Savior, but as regards Jeremiah needing attention from those who have ears.

Sanctified before coming out of the womb§1.11

1.11How does he say, 'Before I formed you in the womb I know you, and before you came out of the womb I have sanctified you'? God sanctifies some for himself. He did not wait for this one to come into birth in order to sanctify him; he had already sanctified him before he came out of the womb. If you refer it to the Savior, it is not hard to say that he has been sanctified before coming out of the womb. If you refer it to the Savior, he has been sanctified not only before coming out, but still earlier. This Jeremiah was sanctified before coming out of the womb.

A prophet to the nations§1.12

1.12'I have set you as a prophet to the nations.' If you look for this in Jeremiah — 'I have set you as a prophet to the nations' — watch later on: he is commanded to prophesy 'against all the nations,' and there is a heading, 'What Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations,' against Elam, against Damascus, against Moab. And we have it that he 'prophesied against all the nations,' as regards the letter of 'I have set you as a prophet to the nations,' said to him.

If it is a matter of the higher sense: if of Jeremiah, we have already spoken; if of the Savior, what need is there even to say it? He truly prophesied to all the nations. For he is, as he is ten thousand other things, also a prophet. As he is high priest, as he is savior, as he is physician, so he is also prophet. Moses, prophesying about him, did not say only 'a prophet,' but said it with a special force: 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers, like me; him you shall hear, and it shall be that whoever does not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from his people.'

This one, then, is also the prophet set 'to the nations,' and he received grace from God poured out on his lips, so that not only when he was present in the body, but also now, when he is present in power and in the Spirit, he may prophesy 'to all the nations,' so that from all the nations his prophecy may reach its end and draw men to salvation.

A child in body, a grown man within; do not fear their face§1.13

1.13'And I said, You who are, Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am younger. And the Lord said to me, Do not say that I am younger, because to all to whom I send you...' We have often said that it is possible, according to the inner man, to be a child, even if someone is in an old age of body. And it is possible at times, according to the outer man, to be a child, and according to the inner, a man. Such was Jeremiah, already having the grace from God while he was still in the age of a child according to the body. That is why the Lord says to him, 'Do not say that I am younger.' And a sign that he is not younger, but 'a grown man,' is this: 'To all to whom I send you, you shall go, and according to all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their face.'

The Word of God knows that those who serve as ambassadors of the word are in danger among the hearers. For when they are exposed they hate them; when they are rebuked they persecute them. The prophets suffer every kind of thing. 'A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his house' — which we also recalled earlier. So God, sending the prophet, knows how many dangers he will take on, and he says to him, 'Do not be afraid of their face, because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.'

What Jeremiah suffered is written down. He was thrown into a pit of mire; he remained there eating one loaf a day and drinking water only; and ten thousand other things which his prophecy has made clear. 'Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?' it is said to the Jews. And it is necessary that 'those who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus be persecuted in every case by opposing powers, through the vessels they find.' Therefore those who are persecuted must not be surprised, but must do everything, only praying that they be persecuted unjustly and not justly — not for injustice, not for sin, not for greed. And if someone is ever persecuted for righteousness, let him also hear, 'Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil word against you, lying, for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, because your reward is great in the heavens; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'

The Lord's own hand, not Isaiah's coal; kingdoms of the vices§1.14

1.14'Because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his hand toward me, and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me.' Watch the difference between Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah says, 'I have unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, with my eyes.' And since he confessed that he did not have unclean works, but only small words (for to that point he was a sinner), the Lord did not stretch out his hand. One of the seraphim touched his lips with his hand, and said, 'Behold, I have taken away your iniquities.' But because this one was sanctified 'from the womb,' no tongs are sent to him, and no coal 'from the altar' (he had nothing worthy of the fire). The Lord's own hand touched him. That is why he says, 'The Lord stretched out his hand toward me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot.'

Who is so blessed as to uproot, by the words given by God, the many kingdoms which 'the devil shows,' kingdoms of opposing powers, kingdoms according to the sins? For it is written, 'Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot.' And as there are kingdoms, so there are nations. A kingdom cannot even be called a kingdom unless it has nations under it. For example: there is a kingdom of fornication, and the nations of fornication are each several fornication. There is one kingdom, the general sin of greed and of robbery, and there are many kingdoms in those who have many kinds of sins. Then, in each of the sinners, think of the nations under the kingdom: this man has many nations of the kingdom according to fornication, that man has many nations of the kingdom according to robbery, according to slander, according to anger.

It is the work of the words of God, sent out over 'nations and kingdoms,' 'to uproot and to pull down.' To uproot what? The Savior taught, saying, 'Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.' There are some things inside in the souls which 'the heavenly Father did not plant.' For all 'the evil reasonings, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies' are plants planted not by the heavenly Father. And if you want to see whose plants such reasonings are, hear that 'an enemy man did this,' the one who sowed 'the tares in the midst of the wheat.' So God stands by, having the seeds, and the devil. If we give 'place to the devil,' 'the enemy' sows a plant 'which the Father did not plant,' which will certainly be uprooted. If we do not give 'place to the devil,' but give place to God, God rejoices and sows his seeds on our governing mind.

Do not think, then, that Jeremiah received some grim gift from God, because he is set 'over nations and over kingdoms, to uproot.' God is good, uprooting through the words the bad things, the kingdoms hostile to the kingdom of the heavens, the warring nations against the nation of God. 'To uproot and to pull down.'

What is pulled down must also be destroyed§1.15

1.15There is a building of the devil, and there is a building of God. The building 'on the sand' is the devil's, for it stands on nothing firm and sure and united. The building 'on the rock' is God's. See what is said to those of God: 'You are God's field, God's building.' So the words of God are over 'nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to pull down and to destroy.' If something is uprooted, and what was uprooted is not destroyed, it is still there. If something is pulled down, and the stones of the demolition are not destroyed, it is still there.

It is a work of the goodness of God, after the uprooting, to destroy what has been uprooted, and after the taking-down, to destroy what has been taken down. Read carefully how such things are destroyed: 'Burn the chaff with unquenchable fire,' and 'Bind the tares in bundles and hand them over to fire.' So after being uprooted they are destroyed. And if you want to see also the things destroyed after demolition, of the building of poor stuff: that house which was taken down because of leprosy becomes dust, and being dust it is thrown 'outside the city,' so that not even a stone remains, like 'I will grind them as the mud of the streets.' For the worse things must in no way still stand. Something has been pulled down: let the stones not be useful for another building which the evil one can build. Something has been uprooted: let him not again find seeds from the uprooted things, so as to sow the tares once more. For having the seeds of the tares he certainly sowed them. That is why 'bind the tares and burn them with fire,' so that after being uprooted they may be destroyed, and after being pulled down the devil's building may be destroyed.

Then build and plant; I will kill and I will make alive§1.16

1.16But the words of God do not stop at 'to uproot and to pull down and to destroy.' Suppose the bad things have been uprooted from me, the worse things pulled down: what good is it to me if, in place of what was uprooted, the better things are not planted? What good is it to me if, in place of these, the things that matter are not built up? That is why the words of God first, of necessity, do the 'uproot and pull down and destroy,' and after that the 'build and plant.' And we have always watched in Scripture that the things which look grim, if I may call them so, are named first, then the things that seem cheerful are said second. 'I will kill and I will make alive.' He did not say, 'I will make alive,' and after that, 'I will kill.' For it is impossible that what God has made alive should be taken away by him or by anyone else. But 'I will kill and I will make alive.' Whom will I kill? Paul the betrayer, Paul the persecutor. 'And I will make alive,' so that he may become 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.'

If the wretched people from the heresies had understood these things, they would not keep putting them forward to us, saying, Do you see how fierce and inhuman the God of the Law is, when he says, 'I will kill, and I will make alive'? Do you not see in the Scriptures a promise of the resurrection of the dead? Or do you not see the resurrection of the dead already making its beginning in each person? 'We were buried' with Christ 'through baptism' and we were raised with him.

So he begins from the grimmer voices, which are necessary — as 'I will kill' — then, having killed, 'and I will make alive. I will strike, and I will heal.' 'For whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives.' First he strikes, and after that he heals. 'For he makes one feel pain and again restores.' So also here: 'I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to pull down and to destroy and to build and to plant.' Only, first those bad things must be taken from us. God cannot build on the place of the bad building. 'For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness?' Vice must be uprooted from the foundations. The building of vice must be consumed from our soul, so that after these things the words of God may build and plant.

I cannot understand what is written in any other way: 'Behold, I have given my words into your mouth.' What do the words do? 'To uproot and to pull down and to destroy.' Words uproot 'nations'; words pull down kingdoms — not these worldly ones. Think, in a way worthy of words that pull down, worthy of words that uproot, the things uprooted by words, the things pulled down by words. Is there not, in what is being said right now, a power — if God gives it (according to 'the Lord will give a word to those who preach good news with great power') — a power that uproots, if there is any unbelief, any hypocrisy, any vice, any incontinence? Is there not a power that pulls down, if somewhere an idol-shrine has been built in the heart, so that when that is pulled down a temple of God may be built, and the glory of God may be found in the temple built up, and there may be not a grove but a planting, a garden of God, where the temple of God is, in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power to the ages of the ages. Amen.

God did not make death; how did the true vine turn bitter§2.1

2.1'God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living. For he created all things that they might be, and the generations of the world are saving, and there is no poison of ruin in them, nor a kingdom of Hades upon the earth.' Then, going a little past the wording, I will say from where death entered: 'By the envy of the devil death entered into the world.' So whatever is best about us, God has made; but we have created evil and sins for ourselves.

That is why here too the beginning of the reading in the prophet was speaking, as it were questioningly, to those who have had bitterness in the soul, opposite to the sweetness which God prepared for it: 'How have you turned into bitterness, the alien vine?' As if he were saying: God did not make lameness, but he made all sound of foot — what then has become the cause of those who have been lamed? And God made all the members healthy in the first place — what has become a cause of someone suffering something?

In the same way the soul has come to be 'according to the image' not of the first man only, but of every man. For 'let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness' reaches to all men. And as in Adam that which most people understand as 'according to the image' is older than what was added to him when, because of sin, he wore 'the image of the dusty one,' so in all the 'according to the image of God' is older than the worse image. 'We have worn,' being sinners, 'the image of the dusty one; let us wear,' repenting, 'the image of the heavenly one.' Yet the creation came to be in the image of the heavenly one.

So here the Word is at a loss toward those who sin, speaking as a reproof: 'How have you turned into bitterness, the alien vine? For I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, all true.' In what was said before this it has been spoken, and taking up a little I will persuade you that God planted a good vine, the soul of man, and each, having turned, has become opposite to the will of the one who created him. 'And I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, all' — not in part — 'true,' not one true and one false, but 'I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, all true. How have you turned' — I planted you an all-true vine; you, how have you turned into bitterness and become an alien vine?

Nitre and soap cannot wash every stain§2.2

2.2After this let us look at: 'If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained in your injustices before me, says the Lord.' Did some sinning soul suppose that, taking nitre and washing with ordinary nitre, it ceases from the stain and ceases from the sin? Did someone assume that, taking this herb that springs from the earth and washing and scouring, the soul is cleansed, because the Word says here to the one who has turned into bitterness and become an alien vine, 'If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained in your injustices before me, says the Lord'?

But one must know that the Word has all power. And as he has the power of all Scripture, so the Word has the power of every medicine, and is the power of everything that cleanses, and is most scouring. 'For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.' And whatever you name, of which there is need, that is in the power of the Word. So there is a word that is nitre, and there is a word that is soap, which, when spoken, cleanses such filth. But since not every sin is healed from such a word as is nitre, and from such a word as is soap — there are sins that do not need nitre or soap — it is said to the one who thinks it has sins of a kind that can be washed off in nitre and soap: 'If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained before me in your injustices, says the Lord.'

And as of wounds some are healed with a poultice, and others with oil, and others need a bandage and so are made well, and there are other wounds of which it is said, 'There is no poultice to put on, nor oil nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire' — so there are some sins which soil the soul, and for these sins the man needs a word that is nitre, a word that is soap. And there are some sins which are not healed this way, for they are not even compared to soil. That is why the Lord in Isaiah, knowing the differences of sins, see how he says, 'The Lord will wash the soil of the sons and of the daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from their midst with a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.' Soil and blood: soil with a spirit of judgment, blood with a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, yet not 'unto death,' you have been soiled. So 'the Lord will wash the soil of the sons and of the daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from their midst.' Then the matching: toward 'the soil,' 'with a spirit of judgment'; toward 'the blood,' 'with a spirit of burning.' And most of us, if we have sinned the worse things, do not need nitre, nor the multiplying of soap, but the spirit of burning.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and baptism in fire§2.3

2.3That is why Jesus baptizes (perhaps I find the meaning now) 'in the Holy Spirit and fire.' Not that he baptizes the same person 'in the Holy Spirit and fire,' but the holy one 'in the Holy Spirit,' and the one who, after believing, after being counted worthy of the Holy Spirit, has sinned again, he washes in 'fire' — so that it is not the same person being baptized by Jesus 'in the Holy Spirit and fire.' Blessed, then, is the one baptized in the Holy Spirit and not needing the baptism from fire. Thrice-wretched is that one who has need to be baptized with the fire. Yet Jesus has both. 'For a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will go up from the root.' A 'rod' upon those being punished; a 'flower' upon the righteous. So 'God is a consuming fire,' and 'God is light': a consuming fire to sinners, light to the righteous and holy.

And blessed is the one who has a part in the first resurrection, who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is the one saved in another resurrection? The one who needs the baptism from fire, when he comes to that fire, and the fire tests him, and that fire finds wood, hay, and stubble, so as to burn them. Therefore, these things being said, gathering as far as we can the words of the Scriptures, let us store them in the heart and try to live according to them, if perhaps we may be able to become clean before the departure, and, having prepared our works for the departure, going out may be taken up in those good things and be saved in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power to the ages of the ages. Amen.

Was the Lord a wilderness to Israel?§3.1

3.1The Lord says at the beginning of what was read about Israel that he was not a 'wilderness' to him, nor an 'untilled land.' Who stands in this passage and does not press to examine what the writing means? Grant that God never became a wilderness in Israel, never an untilled land there. Has the Lord then become a wilderness to Israel today? Or is he untilled land to him now? And when he was neither wilderness nor untilled land to Israel — was he wilderness and untilled land to the nations? For if he is never a wilderness to anyone, and never untilled land to anyone, why was this said specially to Israel: 'Have I become a wilderness to the house of Israel, or an untilled land?' Come first to God's kindnesses that belong to all, and after those to the kindnesses that belong to one people.

Desert to Israel, fruitful for the nations§3.2

3.2God is a wilderness to no one when he 'makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.' He is untilled land to no one when he 'sends rain on the just and on the unjust.' How is he a wilderness when he makes day and night for rest? How a wilderness when he makes the earth bear fruit? How a wilderness when he orders each person for the soul — that he may be rational, that he may take up knowledge, that his understanding may be exercised in the body, that he may have sound 'senses'? So as to the general account, God is a wilderness to no one. As to the particular account I come to Israel's affairs, and I say: he was neither wilderness nor untilled land when in Egypt he did the signs and wonders for the people. But if there was ever a time when they were left behind, he became, as it were, a wilderness to them — though he himself is not a wilderness.

Yet when he was not a wilderness to Israel and not an untilled land, to the nations, on the particular account, he was a wilderness and an untilled land. But when he turned away from Israel and became to that Israel a wilderness and an untilled land, then grace was poured out on the nations, and Christ Jesus has become to us not a wilderness but full, not untilled land but fruit-bearing. For 'many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.' And he threatens those to whom he was not a wilderness and not untilled land, saying: I for my part have not become a 'wilderness' to you, nor an 'untilled land,' but you have said, 'We will not be ruled; we will not come to you any longer.' Have the sons of Israel said in their despair, according to the letter, 'We will not be ruled'?

Israel and Judah in the letter of the reading§4.1

4.1The wording of the passage just read has something unclear. Let that be understood first; and after that, if God grants it, we will know his mystical intention. He wants us to know that, as it is written in the Books of Kingdoms, the people were divided in the days of Rehoboam into the kingdom of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and the kingdom of the two tribes under Rehoboam. Those under Jeroboam were called Israel; those under Rehoboam, Judah. And this division of the people has remained, as far as the history goes, until now. For we know of no history that has gathered Israel and Judah into one.

Israel under Jeroboam and his successors sinned first, and more. He sinned so much beyond Judah that providence condemned them to become captives among the Assyrians, as Scripture says, 'to this day.' After that the sons of Judah also sinned and were condemned as captives to Babylon — not 'to this day' like Israel, but for 'seventy years,' which Jeremiah foretold and of which Daniel also made mention. If we understand these things of that people then, look at the prophet's words and see whether they do not mean something like this. He charges Israel's sins, and says that when so many sins had been done by Israel, the assembly of Judah heard their failures and how I had made them captives — and was not schooled by it, but added to the sins, so that by the added sins, set beside Israel's, righteousness was found in Israel rather than in Judah. Then the prophet is commanded to prophesy, as of Judah worse than Israel, so that after the sins he may turn. After the prophecy toward Israel commanding him to turn, the prophet prophesies that Israel and Judah will one day become one, and that there will sometime be one kingdom of both.

Whoever cares for the readings, take the words of the whole reading today and then you will see the thoughts made plain. 'And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the dwelling of Israel has done to me' — not Judah, but Israel first? 'She went upon every high mountain and under every leafy tree and played the harlot there. And I said after she had done all these things: Return to me. And she did not return. And faithless Judah saw her faithlessness' — the faithlessness of Israel's assembly. 'And I saw' — those from Judah saw — 'that for all the things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce.' Judah ought to have been schooled — for I sent Israel away, the assembly of Israel; I cast them out to the Assyrians 'and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands' — 'and faithless Judah was not afraid.' After so much that I did to Israel, sending her away, giving a bill of divorce, Judah's assembly ought to have been schooled by what those others suffered. They were not only not schooled; they added to the sins, so that the sins of Israel's assembly seemed righteousness by comparison with the sins of Judah's assembly. 'And I gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and her sister, faithless Judah, was not afraid, and she too went and played the harlot, and her harlotry came to nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone. And in all this faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but turned to me falsely.' She was not ashamed of what I had done to Israel, that she might turn completely; she ought to have turned in truth, and she turned falsely. 'And in all this faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart but falsely. And the Lord said to me: Israel has justified her soul more than faithless Judah.' Israel's sins, set beside Judah's failures, became the justification of the soul of Israel's assembly.

The nations called; Israel given a bill of divorce§4.2

4.2'Go, then, and read these words toward the north.' If the wording is understood, let us see what he means to make plain in these things.

The calling of the nations took its beginning from Israel's trespass. The apostles, preaching to the synagogues of the Jews, say that 'the word of salvation was sent to you first; since you judge yourselves unworthy, look — we turn to the Gentiles.' And the apostle, knowing what he knows about these things, says: 'By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.' So the many sins of that people made him be left behind, and made us come to the hope of the promise — we who were strangers to the covenants. For how else would I, a foreigner wherever I was born, now speak of God's promises and believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and receive by God's grace Jesus Christ, announced by the prophets? If you understand these two peoples — the one from Israel and the one from the nations — see with me Israel's removal also upon that people Israel, and understand of them: 'I have sent her away and given her a bill of divorce.' For God sent that people away and gave them a bill of divorce.

It is like this with those who marry. If a wife is displeasing to her husband, Moses' law says a 'bill of divorce' came from the husband and the wife was sent away, and it was allowed for the one who sent the first wife away — because she seemed to have acted shamefully — to marry another. In that sense see those people receiving a bill of divorce. And because they received the bill of divorce, they were left behind altogether. Where are prophets still among them? Where signs still among them? Where an appearing of God? Where the worship, the temple, the sacrifices? They have been cast out from their own place. So he gave Israel a 'bill of divorce.'

Then we are Judah — Judah because of the Savior who rose from Judah, for our Lord has risen from Judah — and we turned to the Lord. And our last things, which may they never already be, seem to become like theirs, if not worse.

When the churches were few, they were faithful§4.3

4.3That such things will also be our lot at the end of this age is clear from what the Savior said in the Gospel: 'Because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold.'

'But the one who endures to the end, this one will be saved.' And: he will do signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Our affairs will be such that the Savior says of his own coming that among so many churches a faithful one will scarcely be found quickly: 'Yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find the faith on the earth?' And truly, if we judge matters by truth and not by crowds, and judge matters by choice of life and not by seeing many gathered, we will see now that we are not faithful. But they were faithful then, when the noble martyrdoms happened, when we escorted the martyrs from the burial grounds and came to the assemblies, and the whole church came without being crushed, and the catechumens were taught by the martyrdoms and by the deaths of those who confessed the truth 'unto death,' 'not frightened' and not disturbed 'before the living God.' Then we know they also saw strange signs and wonders. Then there were faithful people — few, but truly faithful — walking the narrow and afflicted road that leads 'to life.' But now that we have become many, since it is impossible for many to be elect (for Jesus does not lie when he says, 'Many are called, but few are chosen'), from the multitude of those who show a form of godliness very few reach the election of God and the blessedness.

Kind and severe — learn from Israel's fall§4.4

4.4So when he says that first I sent Israel away for their sins and sent them into exile, and Judah, hearing what happened to Israel, did not turn, he is speaking about our sins.

The things that happened to Israel are read, and the failures about that people. We ought to fear: 'If he did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare' us? If he did not spare those who boasted of being a 'cultivated olive,' rooted in 'the root' of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob — if the God who is both kind and loving toward man cut them off — how much more will he not spare us? For he is not kind and not severe, nor severe and not kind. If he were only kind and not severe, we would have despised 'his kindness' still more. If he were severe and not kind, we might have despaired of our sins. But as God (for we who repent need his kindness, and we who remain in sins need his severity) he is both kind and severe. And he speaks to us through the prophets and says: 'Have you seen what the dwelling of Israel has done to me?' Understand that Israel as that people. 'She went upon every high mountain and under every shady tree.'

If you see the Pharisee going up into the temple boastfully, not striking his breast and not caring for his own evils, but saying, 'I thank you that I am not like the rest of men — robbers, unjust, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all I get' — you will see that he has gone up 'upon every high mountain' blameably, loving greatness of mind, and in boastfulness and pride every high hill, and has come to be 'under every tree' that is not fruitful but 'leafy.' For a leafy grove-tree is one thing, and trees planted into groves are another: when they plant such trees they do not plant the fruit-bearing ones, not a fig and not a vine, but only barren trees for pleasure. You will find such to be the words of the heterodox and the beauties of their persuasions that do not turn the hearers.

So when someone gives himself to such words, he has gone 'under every leafy tree.' He did not say 'every tree' and stop, nor again add 'every fruitful tree,' but said 'under every leafy tree.' Therefore you will understand why the lawgiver says: 'You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall not make a grove' — for you have the very name of the grove forbidden.

A new servant in the house must watch how others fell§4.5

4.5'And she played the harlot there. And I said after she had done all this harlotry: Return to me. And she did not return. And faithless Judah saw her faithlessness.' We too have been reviled — I mean we who sin and do not keep God's covenants and do not see that those others, noble though they were, from Abraham, having received a promise, have lost the covenant. We ought to reckon that they have fallen from the blessings and the promises, and that being from the fathers did them no good — how much more will we, when we sin, be left behind. 'If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham,' the Savior says to them. And again John: 'Do not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as father; for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham' — hinting at us who have a stony heart and are hardened toward the truth. And truly God has raised up children for Abraham from the stones, if we remain in the childbearing and keep the spirit of adoption.

So 'faithless Judah' — she who did not keep the covenants with God — 'saw the faithlessness' of the dwelling of Israel, and saw for what things that one was left behind (for we Judah see all this when we read the Scripture): that for the things in which Israel's dwelling committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce, that we might be schooled by what he did to them when he judged them according to their sins, leaving them and handing them over to captivity and to slaughter and to enemies. We ought to have turned from this and each of us reckoned: if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us? If he thrust out those from the fathers when they became sinners, what will we suffer who were called from the nations? We reckoned none of this — we who were called so that that people might be made jealous, seeing the slave honored, seeing the low-born come near. But if they have suffered so much, how much more, if we sin, will we be left behind?

'In the things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and faithless Judah was not afraid' of what I did to the dwelling of Israel — that 'I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce.' 'She was not afraid' because of what happened to them. Someone enters a master's house. He is newly bought. He asks which of the former household servants the master honored and why, which he dishonored and why. Having understood, if he wants to remain in the master's house, he guards himself from falling into what the former servants did when they sinned and were cast out and handed over to punishment. Then, learning what the former servants did who found favor, and for what sort of things they obtained freedom, he imitates those. We too were not servants of God but of idols and demons — Gentiles; yesterday and the day before we came to God. Let us read the Scripture. Let us see who was justified, who was condemned. Let us imitate the justified. Let us guard ourselves from falling into what those fell into who were taken captive, who were cast out from God.

True turning, or a false return§4.6

4.6'And faithless Judah was not afraid, and she too went and played the harlot. And her harlotry came to nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone.' When we sin we do nothing else than, becoming stone-hearted, commit adultery with 'the stone.'

When we sin and play the harlot 'under every leafy tree,' we too commit adultery with the wood. 'And faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart but falsely.' If we have turned to God but incompletely, we are charged with not having turned 'with the whole heart.' Therefore: 'faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart.' He did not say, And faithless Judah turned, and stood — but: 'and faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but turned falsely.'

True turning, then, is to read the old things, to know those who were justified, to imitate them; to read those things, to see those who were blamed, to guard against falling into those blames; to read the books of the new covenant, the words of the apostles; after reading, to write all this on the heart and live by it — so that a bill of divorce may not be given to us also, but we may be able to come to the holy inheritance, and when the fullness of the nations has been saved Israel may then be able to enter. For if the fullness of the nations enters, then all Israel will be saved, 'and there will be one flock, one shepherd,' teaching us to glorify the almighty God in Christ Jesus himself, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever.

Amen.