A new servant in the house must watch how others fell
'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.
Greek
«Καὶ ἐπόρνευσεν ἐκεῖ. καὶ εἶπα μετὰ τὸ πορνεῦσαι αὐτὴν ταῦτα πάντα· πρός με ἀνάστρεψον· καὶ οὐκ ἀνέστρεψεν, καὶ εἶδεν τὴν ἀσυνθεσίαν αὐτῆς ἡ ἀσύνθετος Ἰούδα. λελοιδορήμεθα καὶ ἡμεῖς, λέγω οἱ ἁμαρτάνοντες καὶ μὴ τηροῦντες τὰς συνθήκας τοῦ θεοῦ μηδὲ βλέποντες ὅτι ἀπολωλέκασιν ἐκεῖνοι τὴν διαθήκην εὐγενεῖς ὄντες, ἐξ Ἀβραὰμ ὄντες, ἐπαγγελίαν λαβόντες. δέον οὖν ἡμᾶς λογίζεσθαι, ὅτι ἐκπεπτώκασιν ἐκεῖνοι τῶν εὐλογιῶν καὶ τῶν ἐπαγγελιῶν καὶ οὐδὲν ὤνησεν αὐτοὺς τὸ εἶναι ἀπὸ τῶν πατέρων, πόσῳ πλέον ἡμεῖς ἁμαρτάνοντες ἐγκαταλειφθησόμεθα. εἰ ἦτε τέκνα τοῦ Ἀβραάμ, τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ἂν ἐποιεῖτε« λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ σωτήρ. καὶ πάλιν ὁ Ἰωάννης· «μὴ ἄρξησθε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ὄτι πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ· λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ«· λίθους αἰνισσόμενος ἡμᾶς τοὺς λιθίνην ἔχοντας τὴν καρ- δίαν< καὶ ἐσκληρυμμένους πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν. καὶ ἀληθῶς ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρε τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἀπὸ τῶν λίθων, ἐὰν μείνωμεν ἐν τῇ τεκνογονίᾳ< καὶ τηρήσωμεν τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς . οὖν «τὴν ἀσυνθεσίαν αὐτῆς« τῆς κατοικίας τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ «ἡ ασύνθετος Ἰούδα«, ἡ μὴ τηρήσασα τὰς συνθήκας τὰς πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ εἶδεν διότι περὶ πάντων, ὡν κατελείφθη« ἐκείνη (ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα ἡμεῖς βλέπομεν ὁ Ἰούδας, ἐὰν ἀναγινώσκωμεν τὴν γραφήν) >ὅτιπερὶ ὡν κατελείφθη ἡ κατοικία τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐν οἷς ἐμοιχᾶτο, ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτὴν ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτῇ βιβλίον ἀποστασίου ἡμᾶς παιδευθῆναι ἐξ ὧν ἐκείνοις ἐποίησε κρίνας αὐτοὺς κατὰ τά ἁμαρτήματα, ἐγκαταλιπὼν καὶ παραδοὺς εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ παραδοὺς εἰς φόνον καὶ παραδοὺς τοῖς πολεμίοις· δέον ἐκ τούτων ἡμᾶς ἐπιστρέψαι καὶ ἕκαστον ἡμῶν λογίσασθαι ὅτι, εἰ ὁ θεὸς τῶν κατὰ φύσιν κλάδων οὐκ ἐφείσατο, πόσῳ πλέον ἡμῶν οὐ φείσεται ἀπὸ τῶν πατέρων οὕτως ἐξέωσε γενομένους ἁμαρτωλούς, τί ἡμεῖς οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν κληθέντες πεισόμεθα, ἡμεῖς οὐδὲν τούτων ἐλογισάμεθα, κληθέντες ἵνα παραζηλώσῃ ἐκεῖνος ὁ λαὸς ὁρῶν τὸν δοῦλον τετιμημένον, βλέπων τὸν ἀγενῆ προσεληλυθότα. εἰ δὲ τοσαῦτα ἐκεῖνοι πεπόνθασι, πόσῳ πλέον, ἐὰν ἁμαρτάνωμεν, ἡμεῖς ἐγκαταλειφθησόμεθα; «Ἐν οἷς ἐμοιχᾶτο ἡ κατοικία τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, ἐξαπέστειλα αὐτὴν καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτῇ βιβλίον ἀποστασίου εἰς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῆς· καὶ οὐκ ἐφοβήθη ἡ ἀσύνθετος Ἰούδα« ἃ πεποίηκα τῇ κατοικίᾳ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι «ἐξαπέστειλα αὐτὴν καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτῇ βιβλίον ἀποστασίου. «οὐκ ἐφοβήθη« ἐκ τῶν ἐκείνοις γεγενημένων. εἰσῆλθέ τις εἰς οἰκίαν οἰκοδεσπότου· νεώνητός ἐστι, πυνθάνεται τίνα τῶν προτέρων οἰκετῶν ἐτίμησε καὶ διὰ τί, τίνα ἠτίμασε τῶν οἰκετῶν καὶ διὰ τί. κατανοήσας, εἰ βούλεται μ εῖναι ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ οἰκοδεσπότου, φυλάσσεται περιπεσεῖν, ἃ πεποιήκασιν οἱ πρότεροι δοῦλοι καὶ ἡμαρτηκότες καὶ ἐκβεβλημένοι καὶ κολάσει παραδεδομένοι. εἶτα μαθὼν τίνα πεποιήκασιν οἱ πρότεροι δοῦλοι καὶ εὐδοκιμηκότες, καὶ ἐπὶ ποταποῖς ἐλευθερίας τετυχήκασι, ζηλοῖ ἐκείνους. καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἠμεν δοῦλοι τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ εἰδώλων καὶ δαιμόνων, ἐθνικοί, ἐχθὲς καὶ πρώην προσεληλύθαμεν τῷ θεῷ, ἀναγινώσκωμεν τὴν γραφήν, ἴδωμεν τίς ἐδικαιώθη, τίς κατεδικάσθη, μιμησώμεθα τοὺς δικαιωθέντας, φυλασσώμεθα περιπεσεῖν τούτοις, οἷς περιπεπτώκασιν οἱ αἰχμαλωτευθέντες, οἱ ἐκβληθέντες ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ.