Homilies on Exodus 6.1–6.14

On the song that Moses sang with the people, and Miriam with the women.

1. We read of many songs in the divine Scriptures, yet of them all this is the first song, which the people of God sang after the victory, when the Egyptians and Pharaoh had been sunk. For it is the custom of the saints, when the adversary is conquered, to offer to God a hymn of thanksgiving, as those who know that the victory was won not by their own strength but by the grace of God. And while singing the hymn they also take a timbrel in their hands, as is related of Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron. You too, then, if you have crossed the Red Sea, if you have seen the Egyptians sunk and destroyed in the sea, and Pharaoh cast headlong into the depth of the abyss, can sing a hymn to God, can raise a voice of thanksgiving and say: “Let us sing to the Lord.” You will say these things the more worthily if you have a timbrel in your hand, that is, if you have crucified your flesh with its vices and desires, and if you have put to death your members which are on earth. And yet let us see what it says: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honoured,” as though it were not enough to say “he has been honoured,” but it added, “he has been gloriously honoured.” For my part, as far as I can conjecture, it seems to me that to be glorified is one thing, and to be gloriously glorified another. For my Lord Jesus Christ, when he took flesh from the Virgin Mary for our salvation, was indeed glorified, because he came to seek what was lost; yet he was not gloriously glorified. For it is said of him: “We saw him, and he had neither form nor beauty, and his face was without honour beyond the sons of men.” He was glorified also when he came to the cross and endured death. Do you want to know that he was glorified? He himself said: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” So even the passion of the cross was a glory for him; but this glory was not glorious, but humble. Accordingly it is said of him: “He humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross.” Of him the prophet too had foretold: “Let us condemn him to a most shameful death.” And Isaiah too says of him: “In humility his judgment was taken away.” In all these things, then, the Lord was glorified, but, so to speak, humbly, not gloriously glorified. But since “Christ had to suffer these things and so enter into his glory,” when he comes in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels, when he comes in his majesty to judge the earth, when he also slays the true Pharaoh, that is, the devil, with the spirit of his mouth; when, then, he shines in the majesty of his Father, and after the coming in humility shows us his second coming in glory, then the Lord is not only glorified but gloriously glorified, when all honour the Son as they honour the Father.

“Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea; he has become my helper and protector for salvation.” The men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who are born in the flesh are, each of them, horses; but these have their riders. There are horses which the Lord mounts, and on them he goes round all the earth, of which it is written: “And your horsemanship is salvation.” But there are horses that have the devil and his angels as riders. Judas was a horse; but as long as he had the Lord as rider, he belonged to the cavalry of salvation. For, sent with the other apostles, he brought salvation to the sick and health to the feeble. But when he submitted himself to the devil (for after the morsel Satan entered into him), Satan became his rider, and, led by his reins, he began to ride against the Lord and Saviour. All, then, who persecute the saints are neighing horses, but they have riders by whom they are driven, evil angels, and therefore they are fierce. If, then, you ever see your persecutor raging beyond measure, know that he is being spurred on by his rider, a demon, and that is why he is savage, that is why he is ferocious. So the Lord “has thrown horse and rider into the sea, and has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will honour him; the God of my father, and I will exalt him.” He, then, is both my God and the God of my father. Our father, who made and begot us, is Christ; and he himself says: “I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” If, then, I recognize that my God is God, I will glorify him. But if I recognize this too, how he is the God of my father Christ, I will exalt him. For it is a loftier understanding, how Christ, in order to bind fast and safeguard the truth of the one God, calls “his God” the one whom by nature he calls Father. “God who crushes wars, the Lord is his name.” I do not want you to think that the Lord crushes only visible battles; he also crushes those which we have not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and against the world-rulers of this darkness. For “the Lord” is his name, and there is no creature of which he is not Lord.

“Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has thrown into the sea; chosen riders, captains of three, he sank in the Red Sea.” Pharaoh, as one more powerful in malice and holding the kingdom of wickedness, drives chariots. It is not enough for him to mount one horse; he drives many at once, he forces many at once, tormented by lashes of the whip. Whomever you see more shameful in luxury, more savage in cruelty, fouler in avarice, more disgraceful in impiety, know that they are of Pharaoh's chariots: he sits on them, yokes them to his chariot, is carried along and flies on them, and drives them with loosened reins through the open plains of crime. There are also other chosen riders, chosen doubtless for malice. But we have spoken of riders above; now let us see who the “captains of three” are. They seem to me to be called “captains of three” because the way of sinning is threefold for human beings. For one sins either in deed, or in word, or in thought. And therefore “captains of three” are said to be set over each one of us, who besiege these three ways of sinning in us and are always watching and lying in ambush, so that one may draw an evil word out of the wretched man, another extort a wicked deed, another snatch a very evil thought. Accordingly, where the seed of the word of God falls and perishes, a threefold place is described: one is said to be by the wayside, which is trodden down by men; another among thorns; another on rocky ground. And on the contrary the good earth is said to bear threefold fruit, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. For the way of doing good is also threefold: something good is done either in work, or in thought, or in word. The Apostle too signifies this when he says, “But whoever builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,” indicating the threefold way of good things. He likewise adds the threefold way of evil things when he says, “wood, hay, stubble.” These “captains of three,” then, are wicked angels of Pharaoh's army, who stand in such ways, watching for each one of us to make our journey through them into sin. The Lord sinks them in the Red Sea, and will hand them over to fiery billows on the day of judgment and cover them with a sea of punishments, if you, following God, withdraw yourself from their power.

“They sank into the deep like a stone.” Why did they sink into the deep like a stone? Because they were not the kind of stones from which children could be raised up to Abraham, but such as love the deep and are fond of the liquid element, that is, such as seize the bitter and fleeting pleasure of present things. Hence it is also said of them: “They were sunk like lead in the mighty water.” Sinners are heavy. Accordingly iniquity too is shown sitting upon a talent of lead, as the prophet Zechariah says: “I saw,” he says, “a woman sitting upon a talent of lead, and I said: What is this? And he answered: Iniquity.” That is why the wicked were sunk into the deep like lead in the mighty water. But the saints are not sunk; they walk upon the waters, because they are light and not weighed down by the burden of sin. Accordingly our Lord and Saviour walked upon the waters. For he it is who truly knows no sin. His disciple Peter walked too, though he trembled a little. For he was not so great or of such a kind as to have nothing at all of the nature of lead mixed in him. He had some, though little. That is why the Lord says to him: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” This is why whoever is saved is saved through fire, so that if he has perhaps something of the nature of lead mixed in, the fire may melt and dissolve it, so that all may become good gold; because the gold of that land which the saints are to possess is said to be good, and as the furnace tests gold, so temptation tests just men. All, then, must come to the fire; we must come to the refinery. For the Lord sits and refines and purifies the sons of Judah. But when one comes there, if someone has brought many good works and a little iniquity, that little is melted and purged by the fire like lead, and the whole remains pure gold. And if someone has brought more lead there, more is burned away, so that he may be refined further, so that, even if there is only a little gold, it may still remain purified. But if someone has come there wholly of lead, what is written will be done to him: he will be sunk into the deep like lead in the mighty water. But it would take long if we wished to expound everything in order; let it suffice to touch briefly on a few things.

“Who,” it says, “is like you among the gods, Lord? Who is like you? Glorious among the saints, wonderful in majesties, doing wonders.” When it says, “Who is like you among the gods?”, it does not compare God with the idols of the nations, nor with the demons, who falsely claim the name of gods for themselves; it calls gods those who are called gods by grace and by participation in God. Of them Scripture says elsewhere too: “I said: You are gods.” And again: “God has stood in the assembly of gods.” But though these are capable of God and seem to be granted this name by grace, none of them is found like God, either in power or in nature. And although the apostle John says, “Little children, we do not yet know what we shall be; but if it is revealed to us” (speaking, that is, of the Lord), “we shall be like him,” yet this likeness is referred not to nature but to grace. For example, if we say that a painting is like the one whose image is seen expressed in the painting, it is called like as far as the appearance to the eye is concerned, but as to substance it is very unlike. For the one is the form of flesh and the beauty of a living body; the other is the glow of colours and wax laid on boards that have no sense. None, then, among the gods is like the Lord; for none is invisible, none incorporeal, none immutable, none without beginning and without end, none creator of all things, except the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

“You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.” The earth swallows the impious even today. Does it not seem to you that the earth swallows the one who always thinks of earth, who always does earthly deeds, who talks of earth, quarrels over earth, desires earth, and places all his hope in the earth; who does not look to heaven, does not think of the future, does not fear the judgment of God nor desire his blessed promises, but always thinks of present things and sighs for earthly things? When you see such a one, say that the earth has swallowed him. And if you see someone given over to the luxuries of the flesh and the pleasures of the body, in whom the mind has no strength but the lust of the flesh has taken possession of everything, say of him too that the earth has swallowed him. I am still moved by what it says, “You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them,” as though the reason why they were swallowed by the earth was that the Lord stretched out his right hand. If you consider how the Lord, lifted up on the cross, all day long stretched out his hands to a people not believing but contradicting, and how the death that followed the crime they committed overwhelmed the unbelieving people that cried, “Crucify, crucify him,” you will clearly find how he stretched out his right hand and the earth swallowed them. Yet one must not utterly despair. For it is possible that, if perhaps the one who has been swallowed comes to his senses, he can be vomited out again, like Jonah. And I think that the earth once held all of us swallowed in the inner recesses of hell, and that is why our Lord descended not only to the earth but to the lower parts of the earth; there he found us swallowed and sitting in the shadow of death, and, leading us out from there, he prepares for us no longer a place of earth, where we might be swallowed again, but a place in the kingdom of heaven.

“In your righteousness you led this your people whom you set free; you comforted them in your strength, in your holy rest.” The Lord leads in righteousness his people whom he has set free through the washing of regeneration; he also comforts it with the consolation of the Holy Spirit in his strength and in his rest. For the hope of things to come brings rest to those who labour, just as for those engaged in a contest the hope of the crown softens the pain of wounds.

“The nations heard and were angry; pains seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the leaders of Edom hastened, and the princes of the Moabites; fear and trembling seized them. All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.” As regards the literal account, it is agreed that none of these nations was present at the wonders that were done. How, then, will the Philistines and the Moabites and Edom and the other nations it lists be seen to have been terrified with trembling, or to have hastened, as it says, or to have been angry? But if we return to the spiritual understanding, we shall find that the Philistines, that is, “falling peoples,” and Edom, which is interpreted “earthly,” tremble, and the princes of all these run about and are afraid, gripped by pains, when they see their kingdoms, which are in hell, penetrated by him who descended into the lower parts of the earth to rescue those who were held by death. Hence fear and trembling seized them, because they felt the greatness of his arm. Hence too all the inhabitants of Canaan, a name interpreted “changeable” and “movable,” melted away, when they see their kingdoms shaken, the strong man bound, and his goods plundered. “Let fear and trembling come upon them, by the greatness of your arm.” What do the demons fear? What do they tremble at? Doubtless the cross of Christ, on which they were triumphed over, on which their principalities and powers were stripped. Fear and trembling, then, will fall upon them when they see the sign of the cross faithfully fixed in us, and the greatness of that arm which the Lord spread out on the cross, as he says: “All day long I spread out my hands to a people not believing and contradicting me.” So they will not fear you otherwise, nor will trembling at you come upon them otherwise, unless they see in you the cross of Christ, unless you too can say: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.”

“Let them become like a stone, until your people pass over, Lord, until this your people pass over whom you have acquired.” To become like a stone is not to be a stone by nature. For it would not “become” something unless it were what it was not before. We say this because of those who say that Pharaoh or the Egyptians were of an evil nature and were not brought to this by freedom of choice; and also because of those who accuse God the Creator of being cruel, because he turns men into stones. Before they blaspheme, then, let them consider what is written with the most careful weighing. For it did not say, “Let them become like a stone,” and fall silent; it fixed a time and decrees a measure for the condemnation. For it says: “until your people pass over, Lord,” so that, evidently, after the people have passed over, they may no longer be like stones. In this some prophecy seems to me to lie hidden. For I see that the former people, which was before us, became like a stone, hard and unbelieving; yet not so as to remain in the nature of stone, but until this people passes over, this people which the Lord has acquired. For blindness has befallen Israel according to the flesh in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. For when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel too, which through the hardness of unbelief had become like a stone, will be saved. And do you want to see how it will be saved? “God is able,” he says, “from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” So they remain stones now, until your people pass over, Lord, this your people whom you have acquired. But if the Lord himself is the creator of all things, we must see how he is here said to have acquired what is undoubtedly his own. It is also said in another song, that of Deuteronomy: “Is not this your God himself, who made you and created you and acquired you?” For one seems to acquire what was not one's own. Hence, indeed, the heretics too say of the Saviour that those whom he acquired were not his own. For, they say, by paying a price he bought the men whom the Creator had made; and it is certain that no one buys what is his own. For the Apostle says: “You were bought with a price.” But hear what the prophet says: “For your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I sent away your mother.” You see, then, that we are all indeed the creation of God, but each one is sold by his own sins and for his iniquities departs from his own creator. So we are God's insofar as we were created by him. But we have become slaves of the devil insofar as we were sold by our sins. But Christ came and redeemed us when we were serving that master to whom we sold ourselves by sinning. And so he seems to have received back as his own those whom he had created, but to have acquired them as belonging to another, because, whether by erring or by sinning, they had sought for themselves a master foreign to him. And perhaps it is rightly said that Christ redeemed us, since he gave his own blood as our price. But what did the devil give, to buy us too? Listen, then, if you please. Murder is the devil's money. For he was a murderer from the beginning. You have committed murder: you have received the devil's money. Adultery is the devil's money. For in it are the devil's image and inscription. You have committed adultery: you have received the devil's coin. Theft, false witness, rapacity, violence: all these are the devil's revenue and the devil's treasure. For such money comes from his mint. With this money, then, he buys those whom he buys, and makes his slaves all who have received any little part of this revenue of his. But I fear that the devil may be secretly buying some even of those standing here, whom we know; that he may be pressing on some of our people this money which we listed above, making them his own again, again writing deeds of slavery for them and the bond of sin, and mixing in among the servants of God those whom he has made his slaves at the price of sin. For, since he is the enemy, he is accustomed to mix weeds with the wheat. And yet if anyone, deceived by the devil, has perhaps accepted money of this kind, let him not despair altogether; for the Lord is merciful and compassionate, and does not will the death of his creature, but that it should turn and live. By repenting, weeping, and making satisfaction let him blot out what has been committed. For the prophet says that if you turn and groan, then you will be saved. We have gone somewhat further afield in wishing to explain how God is said to acquire what is his own, and how Christ with his precious blood redeems those whom the devil had bought for the cheap price of sin.

“Bringing them in, plant them on the mountain of your inheritance.” God does not want to plant us in Egypt, nor in low and humble places; he wants to plant those whom he plants on the mountain of his inheritance. Then, besides, as to what it adds, “Bringing them in, plant them”: does it not seem to you to speak as of children who are brought to school, brought to letters, brought to all learning? Understand, then, through this, if you have ears to hear, how God plants, lest perhaps, when you hear that he brings in and plants, you think that he sets fig trees in the ground or other plants of this kind. Hear also elsewhere how God plants. The prophet says: “You brought a vine out of Egypt, and drove out the nations, and planted it. You made a passable way before it, you planted its roots, and it filled the land. Its shade covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God.” Have you now noticed how God plants, and where he plants? He does not plant in the valleys but on the mountains, in lofty and high places. For those whom he brings out of Egypt, whom he leads from the world to faith, he does not want to place again in low places; he wants their way of life to be lofty. He wants us to dwell on the mountains, and yet even on the mountains he does not want us to creep upon the ground, nor does he want his vine any longer to have its fruit lying on the ground; he wants its branches to be drawn upward, set on high, trained as climbing vines, and trained not on just any low trees but on the lofty and highest cedars of God. The cedars of God I take to be the prophets and apostles; if we, the vine which God brought out of Egypt, are joined to them, and our branches are spread through their branches, and leaning on them we become, as it were, climbing vines, linked to one another by the bonds of love, we shall doubtless bear much fruit. For “every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“In your prepared dwelling, which you have prepared, Lord.” See the goodness of the merciful Lord: he does not want to bring you in to toil, he does not want you to make a dwelling for yourself; he leads you to a dwelling already prepared. Hear God saying in the Gospel: “Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.”

“Your sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have prepared.” The tabernacle of God, or the temple, is called a sanctuary because it sanctifies those who approach. It does not say this was made by the hand of man, but by the hand of God. What then? For your sake God both plants and builds; he becomes a farmer, he becomes a builder, so that you may lack nothing. Hear Paul too saying: “You are God's field, God's building.” What, then, is this sanctuary, which was not made by the hand of man but prepared by the hands of God? Hear Wisdom saying that she “has built herself a house.” But I think this is more rightly understood of the incarnation of the Lord. For it was not made by the hand of men; that is, the temple of flesh is built in the virgin not by human work, but, as Daniel had foretold, “a stone cut out without hands grew and became a great mountain.” This is the sanctuary of the flesh that was assumed, cut without hands, that is, without the work of men, from the mountain of human nature and of the substance of flesh.

“Lord, who reign for ever, and for ever, and beyond.” Whenever “for ever” (literally, “for an age”) is said, a length of time is indicated, but also that there is some end; and if it says “for another age,” a longer span is doubtless meant, yet an end is still set; and whenever “ages of ages” are named, perhaps some limit is indicated, unknown to us but fixed by God. But by adding in this place “and beyond,” it has left no sense of any limit or end. For whatever you may think of in which you suppose an end could consist, the prophetic word always says to you, “and beyond,” as if it were speaking to you and saying: “Do you think the Lord will reign for the age of the age? And beyond. Do you think for ages of ages? And beyond.” And however you may speak of the extent of his reign, the prophet always says to you: “And beyond.”

“For Pharaoh's cavalry went with chariots and riders into the midst of the sea, and the Lord brought the waters of the sea upon them. But the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.” You too, if you are a son of Israel, can walk on dry ground in the midst of the sea. If you are in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, holding forth the word of life like the light of the sun, to glory, it can happen that, as you walk in the midst of sinners, the moisture of sin does not drench you; it can happen that, as you pass through this world, no wave of lust splashes you, no surge of greed strikes you. But whoever is an Egyptian and follows Pharaoh is sunk in the billows of vices. Whoever follows Christ, however, and walks as he walked, for him the waters become a wall on the right and on the left, and he himself goes along the middle way on dry ground. He turns aside neither to the right nor to the left, until he comes out to freedom and sings to the Lord the hymn of victory, saying: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honoured,” through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.