Homilies on Exodus 13.1–13.7

We had already spoken earlier, as far as we could, about the tabernacle. But since the description itself is often repeated in the book of Exodus (for it is given when the Lord commanded Moses how it ought to be made, and again when Moses commanded the people to offer materials for constructing the work, as this reading which has just been recited to us contains; and afterwards the individual items are enumerated when they are made by Bezalel and the other wise men, and again when they are brought before Moses, and again when they are dedicated at the command of the Lord; and besides, they are mentioned in other books or places too, and the account is frequently repeated, as something that must be kept in mind), now, then, the passage has been recited to us where it says: “And Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying: This is the word which the Lord commanded, saying: Take from yourselves a redemption for the Lord. Let everyone who has conceived in his heart offer first-fruits to the Lord: gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, double scarlet, and twisted fine linen, goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and blue skins, incorruptible wood, and sardius stones, and stones for engraving on the shoulder piece and the robe; and let everyone wise of heart among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded.” When I first consider and examine myself, I am reluctant to put my hand to opening these things. For I fear lest perhaps, even if the Lord deigns to reveal them to someone, as perhaps he does (for I have not dared to say it of myself), I fear, I say, and greatly doubt whether he will find hearers; and, this being so, lest perhaps the one who attempts to explain them should be asked where, or how, or before whom the Lord's pearls are to be cast. But since you greatly expect that some of what has been read should be discussed, and my Lord commands me, saying, “You ought to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming I would certainly have demanded it with interest,” I will ask him to deign to make my word his money, so that I may speak to you not my money, not my gold, but his treasure, with his word and his sense, and bring these things to the table of your hearing. It is for you, then, receiving the Lord's money, to see how you prepare its interest for the Lord when he comes. The interest of the word of God is to have in the practice of life and deeds what the word of God has commanded. If, then, hearing the word you use it, and act according to what you hear, and live according to it, you are preparing interest for the Lord; and it can happen that each of you makes ten out of five talents and hears from the Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you shall have authority over ten cities.” Only see to this, that none of you, having received the money, either ties it in a napkin or buries it in the ground; for you know well what the end of such a man is at the Lord's coming. We will attempt, then, a few things out of many, or rather fewer out of few, since both our speech and your hearing must be weighed.

First of all, then, let us see what it means that Moses says to the sons of Israel: “Take from yourselves a redemption for the Lord; let everyone who has conceived in his heart offer first-fruits to the Lord.” Moses does not want you to offer to God something that is outside you: “From yourselves,” he says, “take, and offer first-fruits to the Lord, as each has conceived in his heart.” Gold is commanded to be brought, and silver, bronze, and the other materials: how can I offer this from myself? Does gold or silver, and the other things listed, grow within me? Does not each one bring this out of his own storerooms and coffers? What, then, does it mean that Moses says, “Offer from yourselves, and each one as he has conceived in his heart”? That gold and silver and the other materials from which the tabernacle was built were certainly brought out of each one's coffers and storerooms. But the spiritual law requires for the tabernacle gold that is within us, silver that is within us, and demands all those other materials which we can have within us and bring out of ourselves. For Scripture says: “The word is near, in your mouth; because if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” If, then, you have believed in your heart, your heart and your understanding are gold. You have offered gold for the tabernacle, then, that is, the faith of your heart. And if you have confessed, you have offered speech; the speech of confession is silver. That is why Moses, who is the spiritual law, says: “Take from yourselves.” These things you take from yourself; these are within you; these you can have even if you are naked. And what he added, “each one as he has conceived in his heart,” points to this as well. For you will not be able to offer anything to God of your understanding or of your word unless you have first conceived in your heart what is written; unless you have been attentive and have listened diligently, your gold cannot be proved, nor your silver; for it is required that it be proved. Hear Scripture saying: “The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, purified seven times.” If, then, you have conceived in your heart what is written, your gold, that is, your understanding, will be sound, and your silver, which is your speech, proved. What shall we say also about bronze? Bronze too is needed for the construction of the tabernacle. Bronze seems to be taken for strength, and could be put in place of strength and constancy; but lest someone say, “This is divining rather than explaining,” where what is said is not supported by the authority of the Scriptures, I think bronze can be taken for voice. For speech is one thing, voice another. Speech is utterance based on reason. Voice, however, is, for example, whether something is said in Latin or in Greek, more loudly or more softly. But you demand, as you must, that we prove this from the Scriptures. Hear what the Apostle says: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding bronze or a clanging cymbal.” So to speak in tongues, and to interpret from one tongue into another, is an offering of bronze. For the tabernacle of God must have everything, and nothing must be lacking in the house of the Lord. The offering of bronze, then, as we have said, is voice. Voice is what turns the meaning of another into another tongue; speech is what brings out one's own meaning. So all things are offered to God: understanding, speech, and voice.

What shall we say of the rest? For they are many, and to discuss each one is an immense task. But what will it profit if they are spoken with great labour on our part, and then are despised and perish because the hearers are preoccupied and attend to the word of God scarcely for the moment of a single hour? For “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it have laboured in vain.” Nevertheless we, as was said above, hand over the Lord's money to the table; let each of the hearers see how he receives what is handed over. “But let each of us,” it says, “offer first-fruits to the Lord, as he has conceived in his heart.” As to its saying “first-fruits,” I ask what the first-fruits of gold are, or the first portions of silver. And how do first portions seem to be contributed from scarlet and purple and fine linen? Or how does one offer as he has conceived in his heart? This already knocks at each of us; let us see together how we conceive in our heart. How many of us are present here now while the word of God is being treated? There are some who conceive in their heart what has been read; there are some who do not conceive at all what is said, but their mind and heart are on business or on worldly affairs or on reckoning profit; and especially the women: how do you think they conceive in their heart, who chatter so much, who make such a din with their gossip that they do not allow silence? What shall I now discuss about their mind, what about their heart, whether they are thinking of their infants, or of wool, or of the necessities of the house? I fear … of whom the Apostle says: “Who learn to go about from house to house, not only talkative but also busybodies, speaking what they ought not.” How, then, do such women conceive in their heart? No one will conceive in heart unless he is free in heart, unless he is free in mind and wholly attentive; unless he is watchful in heart, he cannot conceive in heart and offer gifts to God. But if we have been negligent up to now, let us at least from now on be more attentive and pay careful attention, so that we may conceive in our mind. For it is right that each one be found to have his own portion in the tabernacle of the Lord. For what each one offers him does not escape God. How glorious it is for you if it is said in the tabernacle of the Lord: This gold, for example, with which the ark of the covenant is covered, is his; the silver of which the bases and pillars are made is his; the bronze of which the rings and the lampstand and some of the bases of the pillars were made is his; these stones of the shoulder piece and of the oracle are his; the purple with which the high priest is adorned is his; the scarlet is his; and so on, item by item. And again, how unseemly, how wretched it will be if the Lord, coming to examine the building of the tabernacle, finds no gift of yours in it, recognizes nothing offered by you. Have you lived so undevoutly, so faithlessly, that you desired no memorial of yourself to be in the tabernacle of God? For just as the prince of this world comes to each of us and looks to see whether he finds anything of his deeds in us, and if he finds it claims us for himself, so, on the contrary, if the Lord, coming, finds something of yours in his tabernacle, he defends you there and calls you his. Lord Jesus, grant me to be worthy to have some memorial in your tabernacle. I would wish, if it could be, that something of mine were in that gold from which the mercy seat is made, or with which the ark is covered, or from which the lampstand of light and lamp is made. Or if I do not have gold, may I at least be found to offer some silver that may serve for the pillars or their bases. Or at any rate may I be worthy to have even some bronze in the tabernacle, from which rings are made, and the other things the divine word describes. Would that it were possible for me to be one of the princes and offer gems for the adornment of the high priest's shoulder piece and oracle! But since these things are beyond me, may I at least be worthy to have goats' hair in the tabernacle of God, only so that I may not be found empty and barren in everything. “Each one, then, as he has conceived in his heart.” See whether you conceive, see whether you hold fast, lest perhaps what is said flows away and perishes. I want to admonish you with examples from your own religious practice: you who are accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries know how, when you receive the body of the Lord, you guard it with all caution and veneration, lest any little part of it fall, lest anything of the consecrated gift slip away. For you believe yourselves guilty, and rightly believe, if anything of it falls through negligence. But if you use such caution in preserving his body, and rightly use it, how do you think it a lesser fault to have neglected the word of God than his body? They are commanded, then, to offer first-fruits, that is, first portions. Whoever offers what is first must necessarily himself have what remains. See how much we ought to abound in gold, how much in silver and all the other things commanded to be offered, so that we may both offer to the Lord and have some left over for ourselves. For first of all my understanding ought to understand God and offer him the first-fruits of its understanding, so that, when it has understood God well, it may consequently recognize the rest. Let speech too do this; let all that is in us do this. But let us see the rest too: blue and purple and double scarlet and twisted fine linen. These are the four from which the high priest's garments are made, and the other things prepared for sacred adornment. Some before us have spoken about these; and just as it is not fitting to steal what belongs to others, so I think it fitting not to misuse another's good sayings without acknowledging it. These, then, as it seemed to our predecessors, hold the figure of the four elements of which both the world and the human body consist, that is, air, fire, water, and earth. Blue, then, is referred to air, for its very colour indicates this, as scarlet to fire. Purple holds the figure of water, as that which takes its dye from the waters; fine linen, of earth, because it grows from the earth. So we too have all these within us; and because we are commanded to offer first-fruits of them to the Lord, therefore he says: “Take from yourselves and offer first-fruits to the Lord.”

But I think this must be considered: that while Moses spoke of the others simply, only of the scarlet did he add “double,” and of the fine linen “twisted.” It is asked, then, why he spoke of the other materials, by which the other elements are indicated, simply, and set down only the scarlet, by which fire is signified, as double. These things are difficult to understand and much more difficult to express. Yet, as the Lord grants, we will try to explain them. For some things must be said and some kept back. Let us see, then, for what reason he called the scarlet double. This colour, as we said, indicates the element of fire. Now fire has a double power: one by which it illuminates, another by which it burns. This is the reasoning of the literal account. Let us come also to intellectual things. Among these too fire is double. There is a fire in this age, and there is one in the future. The Lord Jesus says: “I came to cast fire upon the earth.” This fire illuminates. Again, the Lord will say in the future to the workers of iniquity: “Go into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.” That fire burns. Yet this fire which Jesus came to cast, though it illuminates every man coming into this world, has something by which it also burns, as those confess who say: “Was not our heart burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?” So at once it both burned and illuminated, as he opened the Scriptures. But I do not know whether that fire in the age to come which burns has something by which it also illuminates. The nature of fire, then, as we have shown, is double, and therefore double scarlet is commanded to be offered. Let us see, then, how we can offer this double fire for the building of the tabernacle. If you are a teacher, you build the tabernacle by building up the Church of God; so God says to you too what he said to Jeremiah: “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth,” that is, fire. If, then, in teaching and building up the Church of God, you only rebuke and reprove and chastise and reproach the sins of the people, but bring forth no consolation from the divine Scriptures, explain nothing obscure, touch nothing of deeper knowledge, nor open anything of more sacred understanding, you have offered scarlet, but not double. For your fire only burns and does not illuminate. And again, if in teaching you open the mysteries of the law and discuss the hidden things of the secrets, but do not reprove the sinner, do not rebuke the negligent, do not hold to the severity of discipline, you have offered scarlet, but not double. For your fire only illuminates; it does not burn. He, then, who offers rightly and divides rightly offers double scarlet, mixing with the light of knowledge the spark of severity.

Let us see what the twisted fine linen means. For here too he gave something added beyond the other elements. We have said that fine linen holds the form of earth, which is our flesh. So he does not want flesh to be offered to God floating in luxury and dissolved in delights … Who, then, is the one who twisted his flesh? Doubtless he who said: “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, after preaching to others, I myself should become reprobate.” So this is to offer twisted fine linen: to wear down the flesh with abstinence, vigils, and the labour of meditation. Goats' hair is offered too. This kind of animal is commanded in the law to be offered for sin. Hair is a dead thing, bloodless and lifeless. Whoever offers this shows that the sense of sin in him is already dead, and that sin no longer lives or reigns in his members. Rams' skins too are offered. Some before us too have taken the ram for fury. And because a skin is a sign of a dead animal, whoever offers rams' skins to God shows that fury is dead in him. After this: “And the men,” it says, “received from their wives, all to whom it seemed good in understanding, and brought gems and earrings and rings and hair ornaments and bracelets.” You see here too how those bring gifts to God who see with the heart, who conceive understanding in the heart, who have a mind attentive and devoted to the word of God. These, then, brought gifts, and they bring from their wives too “earrings,” it says, “and gems and bracelets.” According to the allegorical reasoning, as we have often said, the woman is taken as the flesh and the man as the rational sense. Good, then, are these women who obey their husbands. Good is the flesh which no longer fights against the spirit but obeys and agrees with it; and therefore “if two or three of you agree, whatever you ask will be done for you,” says the Lord. They offered, then, earrings from their wives. You see how hearing is offered to the Lord. Bracelets too are offered to the Lord: works of the right hand and good works, which are done through the flesh. These the rational sense offers to the Lord. Hair ornaments, the “dividers,” are offered too. He offers dividers who knows well how to divide and discern what is to be done and what avoided, what pleases God and what displeases him, what is just and what unjust. These are the dividers that are offered to the Lord. These women, then, offer earrings to the Lord, because they are wise women. “For the wise women knew,” it says, “and made whatever was necessary for the garments of the high priest.” But those women who offered their earrings so that the calf might be made were foolish: they turned their hearing away from the truth and turned to fables and impiety, and therefore offered their earrings so that the head of a calf might be made. And in the book of Judges too we find another idol made from women's earrings. Blessed, then, are these women, blessed this flesh, which offers to the Lord its earrings and its bracelets and its rings and … the work of the Lord.

It is added after this that whoever had incorruptible wood offered it to God. If anyone loves Christ the Lord, he offers to the Lord incorruptible wood, and in incorruption. Blessed, then, is the one with whom is found either an incorrupt understanding or an incorrupt body, and who offers this to God. Hence it said very well: “With whom incorruptible wood was found.” For incorruptible wood is not found with everyone. Of gold or silver it did not say “with whom it was found,” for understanding and speech can be found with everyone. Nor did it say this of the four colours, for it belongs to all to consist bodily of the four elements. But incorruptible wood, that is, the grace of incorruption and virginity, can be found with only a rare few, as the Lord too says: “Not all can receive this word, but those to whom it is given.”

“And the princes,” it says, “offered their gifts.” What are these gifts which the princes offer? “They offered gems,” it says, “and emerald stones, and stones of filling, and stones for the shoulder piece.” The stones of filling are those placed in the oracle, that is, set on the breast of the high priest, inscribed with the names of the tribes of the sons of Israel. What is called the logion, that is, the “rational,” a small piece of cloth of gold and gems and various colours, which was attached to the shoulder piece over the high priest's breast, has the form of the rational sense which is in us. On this the stones of filling are said to be placed, which nevertheless cohere and are joined to the shoulder stones and are held fast by them. The adornment of the shoulders is a sign of good deeds. So deeds are joined to reason and reason to deeds, so that there may be harmony in both: “For whoever does and teaches, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Let our speech, then, depend on deeds, and let deeds adorn speech. For here the adornment of the high priest is described. But princes are required to complete these things: this adornment belongs to those who have advanced so far as to merit to preside over peoples. The princes also offer oil, to be of service for a double use, for the lamps and for the chrism. For the lamp of those who preside over peoples must not be hidden or put under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it may shine for all who are in the house. And the princes offer the composition of incense, which is composed by Moses as a sweet odour to the Lord, so that they too may say, “We are the good odour of Christ.” “And after the people had offered, Moses called,” it says, “every wise man for the making, and the master builder, so that they might put together and make each of the things that are written …” … they might make what was fitting in the tabernacle of the Lord. You see that all these things which are done are done by the wise: wise women are called, and wise men. “For all the works of the Lord are done in wisdom.” So each one who is wise in understanding comes and does the works of the Lord. It is not enough for us only to offer; we must also work with wisdom the things that are in us, and know how to mix gold with fine linen, and to double the scarlet, or mix it with purple. … that you neither know nor recognize how to fit and bring forth each thing in its own time and in its own place? And therefore we must give our effort to be wise, so that what we hear from the holy Scriptures we may bring forth and fit in due time, put together, and from them adorn a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.