Homilies on Joshua 23.1–24.3

In human custom, when something is divided by lot, the lot seems to fall by chance to one person, or another lot to another; but in holy Scripture it is not so. I sometimes asked myself whether the holy fathers would have entrusted the decision of so great and important a matter to lots; for if this had been done so among the saints, it would no longer seem strange concerning other men or Gentiles if nothing excellent were found in the things that are said to have been divided by lot by the saints. But let us see whether perhaps we find something set down in the Scriptures that shows us what power is contained in lots. Let us begin, then, with Leviticus, where it is written: “And they shall take two lots,” it says, “one lot for the Lord and one lot for the apopompaeus,” that is, “the one sent away. And on whichever goat the lot of the apopompaeus falls, he shall take that goat and lead it alive into the desert and release it there in its release.” But the other goat they shall sacrifice to the Lord, and the rest that is there, which those who read it know. And again, where Moses divided by lot to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who had asked to receive the land beyond the Jordan, which the sons of Israel had taken. And Jesus too, according to God’s command, gave a portion to Caleb son of Jephunneh and to the tribe of Judah; he gave also to the tribe of Ephraim and to the one that remained, the half-tribe of Manasseh. And after this, it says, he gathered the assembly of the sons of Israel and said: “I will cast a lot, and bring forth the lot before the Lord, if you first describe the land and bring its description.” And so after this, when lots had been cast, the inheritance is distributed to the people of God; and this lot is cast not by chance but according to what had been predestined by God. Indeed, the tribe of Benjamin first received its lot where Jerusalem was; after it the tribe of Simeon second, after this Issachar, then Zebulun, then Asher, then Naphtali, then Dan. Among them come last those three tribes descended from Jacob’s concubines.

What the reason for lots is, then, I used to ask myself, so that from many testimonies of Scripture I might come to know what was hidden. I found in the Scriptures that Gentiles too had used lots, when Jonah was sailing and the storm was pressing on them. For those who were sailing say: “Let us cast lots and see on whose account this great evil has come,” as if the lot were so powerful that it could reveal the one on whose account danger threatened the sailors. And although they were Gentiles and strangers to the knowledge of God, they were not deceived in this opinion; the lot revealed to them what was true. Indeed, “the lot fell,” it says, “on Jonah.” Searching further into these things, I find Solomon too saying in Proverbs: “The lot puts an end to disputes and decides between the powerful,” as if showing that disputes cease where a lot is cast. But since I found that not a few things are related about lots in the Old Testament, I turned to the New Testament too, to see whether perhaps lots are despised there. But not even there is their use rejected, and I find that once, when one apostle was lacking from the number of the apostles and another had to be put in the place of Judas, the apostles came together — and they were certainly much wiser than those who now ordain bishops or presbyters or deacons — and chose two and set them in the midst; yet they did not leave the decision about them to themselves, to make the one they themselves wanted, but praying, it says, they cast lots between the two whom they had set before God, that is, Joseph called Barnabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. “And the lot fell,” it says, “on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” With prayer offered first, then, the lot conveyed the divine judgment, no longer by chance but by providence. But I still searched in the New Testament whether the lot is mentioned in spiritual or mystical matters, which seem to concern souls. I find Paul writing to the Ephesians and saying of Christ: “In whom,” he says, “we have been called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who first hoped in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” And also writing this to the Colossians: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us fit for a share in the lot of the saints in light.” Having gathered, then, so many testimonies about lots from the holy Scriptures, so that by considering many passages we might grasp the power of the thing more carefully — for my part, from all these either no clear sense has yet been able to emerge plainly, or a fear has come over me of declaring and bringing forth a secret about so great a matter. Yet let it suffice to have attained, as far as the matter allows, what the lot cast by the apostles signifies to us: that where a lot is cast in whole faith and after prayer, the lot declares openly what the will of God holds in secret.

But according to the inner understanding, as Paul seems to indicate when he says “in the share of the lot of the saints” and “called by lot in Christ,” we must consider whether perhaps the lot is cast not only among men but also among the higher powers, and whether some power presides over this office, which, for example, when the son of Nun was distributing the inheritance by lot, gave guidance not according to any favor but according to what it knew to please God; and made the first things fall to the one it knew to hold the first place with God, so that what is held hidden with God might be shown to men too by the governance of the lot; and made another the holder of the second place and another of the third. I think that this was done not only on earth but also in the heavens, and that a lot of this kind, which is decided with God by consideration of merits, was also held at that time “when the Most High divided and established the nations and scattered the sons of Adam, and set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel the line of his inheritance.” For you see that here too it says that the portion and the line of Israel belong to the Lord by lot. It must not be thought, then, that it came by chance through the lot to one angel to receive this nation, for example the Egyptians, to another the Idumeans, to another the Moabites, to another India, or any of the nations on earth; but even if the nations are said to have been divided by lot according to the number of the angels of God, yet that lot must be believed to have been there too what we said it is among men: the lot reveals in public the judgment of God that is hidden; so that each angel received this or that nation in the division by his own merit and virtue. And why do I speak of great and general things? Not even for each one of us must anything be said to happen without a lot of this kind, dispensed by God’s judgment: for example, that one of us receives this or that kind of life from birth; or certainly what we have often taught from the holy Scriptures happens to men, that both good angels and contrary angels attend them: for it was certainly not by chance and without judgment that one angel obtained by lot to be the guardian of a particular soul, for example of Peter, and another of Paul, or another of one little child of the church, of whose angels the Lord says that they always see the face of his Father who is in heaven. Of these it must certainly not be doubted that, by the judgment of God, who sees clearly their dignity and the quality of our souls, they obtain by lot the guardianship of each one of us, by a certain mystical lot directed by the dispensation of Christ. And I, for my own opinion, think it may boldly be said also of the powers that have undertaken the ministries of this world, that it is not by chance or accident that one power presides over the sprouting of the earth or of trees, another supplies and sufficiently provides springs and rivers, another rains, another winds, another presides over the animals of the sea, another over those of the land, or over each of the things that spring from the earth; and that in each of these there are ineffable sacraments of the divine dispensation, so that all things are allotted in their order and with a fitting office through each power. For so too the apostle Paul says: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

In imitation of these things, then, it must be believed that here too Scripture relates that the lots are drawn by Jesus and that the inheritance of each tribe is decided by divine dispensation, and that by the ineffable providence and foreknowledge of God a pattern of the future inheritance in heaven is foreshadowed in these lots. For since “the law is said to have a shadow of the good things to come,” and as the Apostle says of those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, “you who have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” there is a city in heaven that is called Jerusalem and Mount Zion. It is certainly not without cause that Benjamin received Jerusalem and Mount Zion in his lot, but because the reason of that heavenly Jerusalem undoubtedly required that an earthly Jerusalem, which keeps the figure and form of the heavenly one, should be given to Benjamin. So too it must be said of Bethlehem, that it is not without a definite reason that it is assigned to the lot of Judah, or Hebron, or the other individual cities to the individual tribes, except that, as we said, those heavenly places in which Jerusalem and Zion are named, and undoubtedly the other places neighboring or joined to them, contained in themselves, in heaven, the cause and reason by which they were governed when distributed by lot on earth. This is why divine wisdom arranged for certain names of places to be written in the Scriptures that contain a certain mystical interpretation, by which it is shown to us that these things are arranged for definite reasons and not by chance or accident. For just as we must not think it happened by chance, for example, that one angel was called Michael, another Gabriel, and another Raphael; and, to come down to human things, just as it was not by chance that one patriarch was called Abraham, another Isaac, and another Israel — nor even among women did it happen by chance, but by a definite and divine reason, that one was called Sarah after Sarai, or one Israel after Jacob, or one Abraham after Abram; and as it is certain that each of the angels or of men receives his name from the offices and acts enjoined on him — so it follows that there are also certain heavenly places and cities, as the heavenly Jerusalem and Zion are spoken of, and that there are others too whose type and image is contained in these on earth, which are now mystically signified to us in this Scripture through Jesus son of Nun. Of these very cities, I think, it is said: “The cities of Judah will be built, and they will dwell there and inherit it.” Of these too the Lord and Saviour says that there are many dwelling places with the Father. And of these cities we must believe that the Lord speaks to the servant who had traded well: “You will have authority over ten cities,” and to another, “over five cities.” These things about the division by lot of the land of Judah we have dared to bring before you as far as was permitted, prompted by Scripture, which speaks of a heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion and says that the other things written in the same way are in heaven; and this has given us occasion to think, concerning all these things, that heavenly mysteries are described in them. And we say this so that you may not read these things with distaste and think that it is a worthless Scripture because it is thick with so many names; but rather know that ineffable mysteries are contained in them, greater than human speech can utter or mortal hearing can hear; which, I think, cannot be explained worthily and fully not only by me, the least of all, but not even by those who are much better than I. Indeed I do not know whether they are uttered fully and completely even by the holy apostles themselves. I did not say that they are not fully known, but that they are not fully uttered. For it is certain that these things were known and fully grasped by him who was caught up to the third heaven, who, being in heaven, saw the heavenly things, saw Jerusalem the true city of God, saw Mount Zion there too, wherever it is, saw Hebron too, saw all these things that are written as divided by lot; and he not only saw them but also comprehended their reasons in the spirit, for he himself confesses that he heard words and teachings. But what words? “Unutterable words,” he says, “which it is not permitted for a man to speak.” You see, then, that Paul comprehended all things in the spirit, but it was not permitted for him to utter them to men. To which men? Undoubtedly to those of whom he said in reproach: “Are you not men, and do you not walk according to man?” But perhaps he told them to those who no longer walked according to man. He told them to Timothy, he told them to Luke and the other disciples whom he knew to be capable of ineffable sacraments. Indeed, he admonished Timothy of something of this kind in a mystery, saying: “Remember the words you have heard from me, and entrust them to faithful men who are fit to teach others.” So, then, believing these things to be divine and mystical, let us prepare ourselves by the acts and merits of our life to be worthy and fit to grasp them, so that, when we have understood them worthily, we may also be found worthy to obtain them as our inheritance in heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Of the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem we said a while ago how the sons of Judah could not exterminate them, and also of the Canaanites living in their midst whom the sons of Ephraim could not exterminate. The present reading relates something similar of the Amorites, saying that “the Amorite continued to live in Elom and in Salamin, and the hand of Ephraim was heavy upon them.” Amorite is interpreted “bitter” or “bitterness.” Living, then, in Elom, which is interpreted “those who butt like rams,” or in Salamin, which is interpreted “the peaceful,” bitternesses remain and dwell among those who butt like rams and among the peaceful. Those who butt like rams are those who, engaged in contests, try to storm the houses and structures of the devil; the peaceful are those who, having overcome carnal desires, keep peace of soul. Yet in both the contrary power, bitterness, persists and strives to remain. In this we can understand something of the following kind, since it says that the Amorite continued to live among them. For example, if a hostile power of a demon from the band of bitterness besieges someone’s body and disturbs and deceives his mind, and many prayers, many fasts, and many invocations of exorcists are applied, and to all these the demon remains deaf and persists in the possessed body, enduring more easily the punishments of the exorcists, the torments applied to it by the invocation of the name of God, than departing from the man it shamelessly and wickedly besieges — so too here we must understand those who are called Amorites, who remain and persist in living in Elom and in Salamin. And to show truly that they persist while bearing punishments and scourges, Scripture says: “And the hand of Ephraim was heavy upon them.” But how is the hand of Ephraim made heavy upon the Amorites? Either, as we said, the hand of Ephraim, laid more forcefully in the imposition of hands by the exorcists, is said to be heavy upon the unclean spirits; or else good acts and good works weigh upon and afflict the race of demons and the contrary powers. For the better we act and the more we live in what is best, the more troublesome and heavy this becomes to them. But one who lives in shamefulness and crimes is pleasing and acceptable to them and in a way provides them with pleasures. Whoever makes his hand heavy upon them by good acts, even if he cannot drive them out completely, will certainly make them tributary and subject.

“And the sons of Ephraim went away to go through the land according to their boundaries.” And after relating that account, Scripture shows in what follows how great was the gentleness and humility of Jesus, who was truly worthy to bear the name of the Lord Jesus our Saviour. For it says: “The sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus son of Nun among themselves, by the command of the Lord, and they gave him the city he asked for, Thamnasachar, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and he built the city there and lived in it.” He it is who gave the inheritance to all the sons of Judah, who gave to Ephraim and to the half-tribe of Manasseh; he also gave an inheritance to the magnificent Caleb son of Jephunneh; he sent three men from each tribe to go through the whole land and describe it in a book and return and show it; he cast the lots for all, and he kept himself for the last. Why do you think he wanted to be the last of all? Undoubtedly so that he might be the first of all. And he did not presume to take an inheritance for himself by lot, but received it from the people; and the people gave an inheritance to the one from whom it had received its own. For so it is written: “And the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus son of Nun.” But these things too happened to them in figure, to be set before us as a pattern, so that we too may keep the command that he fulfilled in deed, which says: “The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find favor before the Lord.” And again what is written: “If they have made you leader, do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of them.” See, then, how he was the leader of the people, he who had brought them into the holy land, the land of promise; he was the successor of Moses; and he does not allow himself to take a lot of land, but waits to receive a little portion from the people, he, the leader of the people. And having received his little portion, Jesus, worthy of this name, builds the very place he received and establishes it, so as to make it truly worthy of the gift of God and of the divine inheritance.

But since we are accustomed to refer to our Lord and Saviour what is written about Jesus, perhaps this whole people of ours too gives some portion to my Lord Jesus and assigns him, as it were, a place to dwell. But lest what is said should seem insulting, let us ask how we, his servants, give him a place to dwell. If I could become good, I would give the Son of God a place in me, and the Lord Jesus, having received the place from me in my soul, would build it and adorn it, and make in it impregnable walls and lofty towers, and build in me, if I were worthy, a dwelling worthy of himself and of the Father; and so he would adorn my soul and make it capable of his wisdom and knowledge and of all holiness, so much so that he would bring God the Father too in with him to make a dwelling in it, and even to dine with such a soul on the food that he himself would provide. That we may be found worthy to obtain this, let us prepare in ourselves a clean heart, so that the Lord Jesus may deign to enter willingly and gladly the clean lodging of our heart: to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.