Homilies on Judges

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.5 · 2.1–2.5 · 3.1–4.4 · 5.1–6.6 · 7.1–8.5 · 9.1–9.2

1. 1.1Each person has in himself either the days of Jesus, lit by Christ the true light, or evil days lit by the false light of the devil.
2. 1.2The elders after Joshua are the apostles, who as the light of the world make days in us for serving the Lord.
3. 1.3The saints' days are long and the evil days are shortened for the elect; the many days of Jesus are the virtues in which the Lord is served.
4. 1.4To know the works of the Lord, in Scripture's usage, is to do them, as not knowing sin means not committing it.
5. 1.5All God's works are great, but beside the gift of his only Son even the wonders of the exodus are small.
6. 2.1Jesus lives in the saints but dies in those who sin, as Joshua's death was followed by a generation that did not know him.
7. 2.2Origen prays that Christ may not die again in us; the generation that forgot Joshua is the brood of evil thoughts that forgets Christ's death and resurrection.
8. 2.3Bowing the knee to Baal is any sin; whatever a person loves above all is his god, so avarice, lust, and ambition are idolatry.
9. 2.4God, who is beyond passion, is said to be provoked to anger because sinners store up wrath for themselves.
10. 2.5God hands sinners over to the devil both through the church's excommunication and by withdrawing from a soul enslaved to vice, leaving it empty for evil spirits.
11. 3.1Israel's subjection to Cushan-rishathaim, "their humiliation," shows how God hands the proud, even now in the church, to a hostile power to humble and heal them.
12. 3.2Pride can infect even the clergy; God punishes in measure, and those who repent and cry to him of their own accord are delivered.
13. 3.3Othniel, filled with the Spirit, figures the angels sent to help the saved and is a model for the church's judges, who judge souls.
14. 3.4A good judge is taken away when the people become unworthy, and their sins give strength to their enemies, both visible and spiritual.
15. 3.5Ehud the ambidextrous figures the leader and the saint who has nothing "left-handed"; the devil and his princes are wholly on the left.
16. 3.6Ehud's right-handed deed shows that God sends heavenly powers, as at the exodus and against Sennacherib, to free those who cry to him in tearful repentance.
17. 4.1Ehud ("praise") killing Eglon king of Moab figures the church's teacher destroying with the sword of the word the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good.
18. 4.2Shamgar ("a stranger there") fighting with a plough figures the church's judge who sometimes cultivates souls gently, and the believer who keeps his hand on the plough of the cross.
19. 4.3A good leader dies for the people's sins, and God gives the church rulers according to its merits; sinners are handed over to Jabin, the reprobate mind.
20. 4.4Sisera, "vision of a horse," is the natural man who persecutes the spiritual until the soul cries to the Lord and prophecy, figured by Deborah, arises.
21. 5.1Origen asks what profit for teaching and righteousness the inspired account of Deborah, Barak, Jael, and Sisera can bring.
22. 5.2Deborah, the only judge called a prophet, shows that purity of mind, not sex, merits the grace of prophecy, and as "bee" she figures prophecy's honey.
23. 5.3Prophecy sits under the palm, between Ramah ("heights") and Bethel ("house of God"), because it lifts its disciples to heavenly things.
24. 5.4Barak ("lightning") figures the former people, whose brief light did not last; the victory over Sisera goes to Jael, a foreign woman.
25. 5.5Jael ("ascent") is the Gentile church, which kills the vices with the wood of the cross and then shares the victory with Israel, who will be saved at the end.
26. 5.6Jael's milk is the church's elementary teaching, which gives life to those who advance but destroys the vices; each soul must slay its own Sisera.
27. 6.1Deborah's song is the church's victory song at the end of the age, when death is destroyed and Israel too is saved; Origen will comment on a few verses.
28. 6.2The "leaders" who help at the beginning are the angels who guide beginners; once trained, Christians must fight by their own will, armed with the armour of God.
29. 6.3The "kings" summoned to hear are believers who rule themselves under Christ; the "satraps" hear only outwardly; only the pure can sing to the Lord.
30. 6.4"My heart toward what is ordained for Israel" means a mind set wholly on the good things to come, no longer thinking in a merely human way.
31. 6.5The beasts and shining she-asses are the body and flesh made bright by chastity under the inner man; in God's people righteousness, not strength, wins.
32. 6.6Prophecy arises at the Lord's coming; the faithful confess that the spiritual powers are stronger than they, but Christ who strengthens them is stronger than all.
33. 7.1The land had rest while righteousness lasted; when Israel sinned it was handed to Midian, as Christians who neglect God's commands are handed to the demons.
34. 7.2Seeds sown in the spirit cannot be spoiled, but sin and denial in persecution destroy what was gathered; the baptism of blood in martyrdom surpasses that of water.
35. 8.1Midian ("outside judgment") and Amalek ("a people licking up") are joined by the "sons of the East," the heretics who bear Christ's name yet attack his church.
36. 8.2The enemies camp in the valley of Jezreel ("seed of God") to snatch the word from those who understand it in a low, literal way, but cannot reach those on the heights of spiritual understanding.
37. 8.3Gideon, strengthened by the Spirit, "called Abiezer," that is, "my father's help"; Origen notes he is preaching, not writing a commentary.
38. 8.4The fleece first wet, then dry, figures Israel once alone receiving God's word and now dry, while the nations receive the dew of Christ; Gideon also models testing a vision.
39. 8.5Gideon's fleece wrung into a basin on the threshing floor foreshadows Christ washing his disciples' feet; the preacher too draws the water of Scripture to wash his hearers' feet.
40. 9.1Gideon's sending home the fearful shows that Christ's soldiers must cast out fear; even women and girls have conquered as martyrs, and flight is allowed, but never denial.
41. 9.2Gideon's test at the water figures baptism, after which Christ's soldiers must stand firm; the three hundred bear the number of the Trinity and fight with the torches of good works and the trumpet of preaching.