Homilies on Numbers 8.1–9.5

Twelve inspectors were sent from the sons of Israel to view the land that had been promised them, and after forty days they returned and brought differing reports. Ten of them drove the people to despair, so that they wished to cast off Moses, choose another leader, and return to Egypt. But the other two brought good news and urged the people to remain in faith, saying: “If the Lord loves us, he will bring us into this land.” But the people, driven headlong by the despair of unbelief, rushed out to stone those who brought good news. But the majesty of the Lord protected them in the clouds. “And the Lord says to Moses: I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and your father's house into a great nation, much greater than this one.” So great a threat is made by the Lord, then, not to show that the divine nature is subject to passion and to the vice of anger, but so that through these things both the love that Moses had toward the people and the goodness of God, which is above everyone who does evil, might become known. For God is written to be angry and to threaten the people with destruction so that man may be taught that he has so much standing with God and so much confidence that, even if there is some indignation in God, it may be softened by human entreaties; and that man can obtain so much from him that he even changes his own decrees. For the goodness that follows the anger both shows Moses' confidence with God and teaches that the divine nature is free from the vice of anger. At the same time the passage contains a mystery to be fulfilled in the ages to come, by which God promises that, when this people has been cast off, he will raise up another people. For he says: “I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and your father's house into a great nation, much greater than this one.” This threat, then, is not anger but prophecy. For another nation was to be taken up, that is, this people from the nations, but not through Moses. For Moses excused himself; he knew that the great nation which is promised was to be called not through Moses but through Jesus Christ, and that the people was to be called not Mosaic but Christian. That is why Moses pleads so earnestly for that people. But the Lord dispenses the measure of rebuke with balanced moderation, and says that the men who came out of Egypt and tempted me and remained unbelieving “shall fall in this desert, and shall not see,” he says, “the land which I swore to their fathers; but their sons, who are here with me, as many as do not know good or evil.” There may perhaps be something of a more secret mystery too in the Lord's words, “their sons, who are here with me.” Where is “here”? Or how “with me”? He who has ears to hear, let him hear. For our part we say meanwhile that that former people were our fathers, and that we are their sons. They, then, because they sinned, were cast off and fell; but we, their sons, who did not know good or evil, have risen in their place and been raised up. For we are from the Gentiles, who knew neither the good things that come from God nor the evil things that are born of sin; provided, however, that, succeeding to the place of those who were cast off, we fear the example of so great a fall, hearing Paul's admonition: “See, then, the severity and the goodness of God: severity toward those who fell, but goodness toward you, provided you remain in his goodness; otherwise you too will be cut off. And they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in.” And after this the Lord adds and says: “Your sons shall be … in the desert forty years.” And he declares what mystery this number holds, saying: “According to the number of the days in which you viewed the land, forty days, a year for a day, you shall bear your sins forty years.” I am afraid to discuss the secrets of this mystery. For I see that in it is contained the reckoning of sins and of punishments. For if for each sinner a year of punishment is assigned for one day's sin, and the same number of years must be spent in punishments as the count of days on which one sins, I fear that for us, who sin daily and perhaps pass no day of our life without sin, not even the ages themselves, or even the ages of ages, may suffice for paying the penalties. For in the fact that that former people is tormented in the desert forty years for a forty-day offense and is not allowed to enter the holy land, a certain likeness of the future judgment seems to be shown, where the account of sins is to be examined; unless perhaps there will also be some offsetting by good works, or also by the evils each one receives in his life, as Abraham taught concerning Lazarus. But to know these things fully belongs to no one except him to whom the Father has given all judgment. That a day of sin is reckoned as a year of punishment is shown not only in this book, in which there is nothing at all that can be doubted, but similar things are also indicated in the little book of the Shepherd, if indeed that writing seems to anyone fit to be received. But perhaps someone may deny that it befits the goodness of God to repay a year of punishments for one day's sin; indeed he will say: “Even if he repaid a day for a day, he might be just, but he would not seem merciful or kind.” Hear, then, in answer to this, whether perhaps we can explain the difficulty of the matter by clearer examples. If a wound is inflicted on the body, or a bone is broken, or the joint of the sinews is dislocated, injuries of this kind usually befall bodies within the space of an hour, and afterward, after many torments and pains have been undergone, they are scarcely healed in a long time; for how many swellings arise in the place, how many torments! But if it happens that someone is wounded again and again in the same wound, or broken more often in the same fracture, with what pains can this be cured, with what torments can it be treated? How long will it take, if indeed it can be done at all, to bring it back to health? And it will scarcely ever be so cured as to escape either weakness of the body or the ugliness of a scar. Pass now from the example of the body to the wounds of the soul. As often as the soul sins, so often is it wounded. And lest you doubt that it is wounded by sins as by darts and swords, hear the Apostle urging us to take up “the shield of faith, with which,” he says, “you can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.” You see, then, that sins are the darts of the evil one, which are aimed at the soul. And the soul suffers not only the wounds of darts but also fractures of the feet, when snares are laid for its feet and its steps are tripped. How long do you think these and similar wounds can take to be cured? O, if we could see, through each sin, how our inner man is constantly wounded, how an evil word inflicts a wound! Have you not read that “swords wound, but not as the tongue does”? The soul, then, is wounded through the tongue; it is wounded also through evil thoughts and desires; and it is broken and crushed through works of sin. If we could see all these things and feel the scars of the wounded soul, it is certain that we would resist sin to the death. But now, just as those who are filled with a demon or out of their mind do not feel when they are wounded, because they lack their natural senses, so we too, made mad by the desires of the world or drunk with vices, cannot feel how many wounds, how many bruises of the soul we acquire by sinning. And therefore it is entirely reasonable that the time of punishment, that is, of care and healing, should be extended, and that for each wound the time of healing should be lengthened according to the nature of the blow. In this way God's fairness and kindness become evident even in the very punishments of the soul; and let him who has sinned, hearing this, come to his senses and sin no more. For conversion in the present life and repentance fruitfully carried out bring swift healing to such wounds, since repentance not only heals the past wound but also does not allow the soul to be wounded by sin any further. Indeed I will add this too: if, for example, I am a sinner, will my punishment be the same if I have sinned once as if I sin a second and a third time, and more often? It will not be so; rather, the quantity of punishment too is to be measured according to the manner, number, and measure of the sin. For God “will give us the bread of tears and give us tears to drink,” but “in measure.” And this measure will be what each has sought for himself in this life by sinning less or more. And the cup in the Lord's hand is said to be full of unmixed wine, mixed. It will doubtless be mixed for each, and his judgment will be made not only from the evil things he has done but also from the good. And yet, though both are mixed, its dregs, which I think are called the share of the evils, are not wholly emptied out. But these things, as we said, are in God's hand; it is ours to hasten more quickly to amendment, to turn to repentance without pretense, to mourn the past, guard against the future, and call on the help of God; for as soon as you have turned and groaned you will be saved. For you will find an advocate who intercedes for you with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, far more powerful than Moses was, who nevertheless prayed for that people and was heard. And perhaps Moses is written to have interceded for the sins of the former people and to have obtained pardon so that we may trust much more that our advocate Jesus will obtain for us undoubted pardon from the Father, provided we turn to him and our heart does not draw back; as John too says in his letter: “I say these things, little children, so that you may not sin. But if any of you sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the righteous, who intercedes for our sins.” To him be glory for eternal ages of ages. Amen.

With God, as we are given to understand, nothing is useless, nothing idle; even the things that men think should be put away and thrown out are found to have some necessary use. The present reading suggests this understanding to us, when it records concerning the censers of Korah and of the rest who sinned with him that God did not order even these to be thrown away, but that thin plates be made from them and the altar overlaid with them. The Scripture relates, then, that by God's command “Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest took the bronze censers which those who were burned had offered, and they made them into bands and attached them to the altar, as a memorial for the sons of Israel, that no foreigner who is not of the seed of Aaron should approach to put incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his conspiracy, as the Lord spoke by the hand of Moses.” Clearly the Lord says through the prophet in a certain place: “My counsels are not as your counsels, nor my thoughts as your thoughts.” If this case were judged today among men, and an inquiry were held before the leaders of the churches concerning, for example, those who, teaching things different from the churches, had suffered the punishment of divine vengeance, would they not judge that whatever they had said, whatever they had taught, whatever they had even left in writing, should all perish together with their ashes? But God's judgments are not like our judgments. For hear how plates are ordered to be made from the censers of those who had risen against God's prophet, and to be fixed around the altar. Korah bears the figure of those who rise up against the faith of the church and the doctrine of the truth. It is written, then, of Korah and his band that they offered incense of strange fire in bronze censers. And God orders the strange fire to be scattered and poured out; “but the censers,” he says, “because they have been sanctified, make into thin plates and overlay the altar with them, because they were offered before the Lord and have been sanctified.” This, then, seems to me to be shown through this figure: that these censers, which the Scripture calls bronze, bear the figure of the divine Scripture. Upon this Scripture the heretics put strange fire, that is, they bring in a meaning and understanding foreign to God and contrary to the truth, and so offer to the Lord incense that is not sweet but abominable. And therefore a pattern is given to the priests of the churches: if ever anything of the kind arises, the things foreign to the truth should be thrust out of the church of God entirely; but if any meanings of divine Scripture are found inserted even in the very words of the heretics, they should not be rejected together with the things contrary to faith and truth; for what is brought forward from the divine Scripture is sanctified and offered to the Lord. But the command about the censers of the sinners, that they be joined and attached to the altar, can also be understood in yet another way. And first, the very fact that they are called bronze will not seem idle. For where there is true faith and sound preaching of the word of God, they are called either silver or gold, so that the brightness of gold declares the purity of faith, and silver tried in the fire signifies tested words. But these which are called bronze consist only in the sound of the voice, not in the power of the Spirit, and are, as the Apostle says, “a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” If, then, we bring these bronze censers, that is, the words of the heretics, to the altar of God, where the divine fire is, where the true preaching of God is, the truth itself will shine more brightly by comparison with falsehoods. For if, for example, I set out the sayings of Marcion, or of Basilides, or of any other heretic, and refute them with the words of truth and the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, as with the fire of the divine altar, will not their impiety appear more evident from the very comparison? For if the church's doctrine were simple and were not surrounded from without by any assertions of heretical dogmas, our faith could not appear so clear and so tested. But the catholic doctrine is besieged by the attack of those who contradict it precisely so that our faith may not grow sluggish with idleness but be polished by exercise. For this reason the Apostle too said: “There must be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you.” That is to say: the altar must be surrounded by the censers of the heretics, so that the difference between the faithful and the unfaithful may become certain and manifest to all. For when the faith of the church has begun to shine like gold, and its preaching has gleamed to the onlookers like silver tried in the fire, then the words of the heretics will be all the fouler with the shame and disgrace of dark bronze. Do you wish to know that good things are recognized as good chiefly by comparison with worse ones? Who would know that light is good if we did not experience the darkness of night? Who would know the sweetness of honey if he had not tasted bitterness? Indeed, if you take away the devil himself and the opposing powers that struggle against us, the virtues of the soul could not shine without an opponent. So too the glory of faithful priests cannot shine forth unless the rejection and punishment of the unfaithful commend it. And from what we read, each of the righteous seems to be held more illustrious before God by comparison with the rest. Indeed it is written of Noah that he was righteous and perfect in his generation. In this it is shown that he was perfect not absolutely but in his generation, and was declared righteous in comparison with the others. In a similar way I think it should be held of Lot too: the worse the Sodomites became each day, the more righteous he appeared. And in this very book which we have in hand, when those who had viewed the land had returned, and ten of them had struck the people with despair by their fearful words, while the remaining two, that is, Caleb and Joshua, brought good news and urged the people to remain in their purpose, it was not so much their own confession that won them immortal merit from the Lord as the fear of their companions. For the virtue of their soul would not have shone out so magnificently in them had the shameful cowardice of the other ten not been made plain. We have said these things about the censers of those who were condemned, which are ordered to be fixed to the altar, because the righteous appear more illustrious by comparison with inferiors; and at the same time so that an example might be given to posterity, that no one, out of the presumption of a proud spirit, should seize the office of high priest not given him by God, but should yield to the one whom no human ambition, no corrupt favor has chosen, and no condemnable bribery has put in place, but whom a good conscience of merits and the will of God have taken up.

After this it is related: “And the sons of Israel murmured,” it says, “against Moses and Aaron, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord. And it happened, when the congregation rushed upon Moses and Aaron, that in the onrush they fled to the tabernacle of testimony. And the cloud covered it, and the majesty of the Lord appeared, and Moses and Aaron went in before the tabernacle of testimony.” We do not read before this that the cloud covered the tabernacle, that the majesty of the Lord appeared, and that it received Moses and Aaron within the cloud, except now, when the people rose against them and wanted to stone them. Let us learn from this how great is the benefit for Christians in persecutions, how much grace is bestowed, how God becomes their defender, how abundantly the Holy Spirit is poured out. For the grace of God is most present when the savagery of men is roused; and we have peace with God when we suffer wars from men for righteousness' sake. “For where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.” He covered them, then, with the cloud of the tabernacle, and the congregation rushed upon Moses and Aaron, and the glory of the Lord appeared. However great Moses and Aaron were in the merit of their life, however strong in the virtues of their soul, the glory of God could not have appeared to them except in persecutions, in tribulations, in dangers, and when they were already all but at the point of death. You too, then, must not think that the glory of God can appear to you while you sleep and are idle. Did not the apostle Paul too deserve to attain the glory of God in these things? Does he not enumerate that, above all the others, he was in tribulations, in hardships, in prisons, that he was three times beaten with rods, once stoned, that he suffered shipwrecks, dangers of the sea, dangers of rivers, dangers of robbers, dangers from false brothers? The more these abound, the more they bring the glory of God to those who have borne them patiently.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Depart from the midst of this congregation, and I will destroy them at once. And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces.” In Sodom, at least ten were sought, through whom, if perhaps they were found, those who lived in the five cities of Sodom could scarcely be saved; but now even two, if only they are found to be such as Moses and Aaron were, can suffice for the whole nation of the Israelites to be saved. What greater thing, then, shall we say is in these two? What great virtue, what merit is there, that six hundred thousand and more should be delivered from the destruction of the destroyer? I think that in Moses is signified the law, which teaches men the knowledge and love of God, and that in Aaron consists the pattern of supplicating and entreating God. If, then, it ever happens that God is indignant with us or with the whole people, and the sentence of vengeance is already going forth from the Lord, but the law of God returns into our heart, admonishing us and teaching us to turn to repentance, to make satisfaction for our offenses, to supplicate for our faults: at once the anger will cease, the indignation will be calmed, and the Lord will be propitious, as if Moses and Aaron were interceding for us and supplicating for the whole people. But if at some time God's indignation arises, and a harsh rebuke comes for our sins, and our hearts are hardened so that we do not turn to the Lord, nor humble ourselves in his sight so as to soften his displeasure and anger by confession and supplication, but on the contrary we say, “God has no care for the life of mortals; these things do not concern God; he abandoned us long ago; these things do not come to his notice”: if we think such things in our hearts and these words come out of our mouth, it is certain that Moses and Aaron are not in us, that is, the knowledge of the law and the fruits of repentance, through which we could escape the destruction of impending ruin. I think this also happened to that people which was before us, when all turned aside, all together became useless, and there was none who did good, not even one. For if there had been, God would surely never have abandoned them. But let us too fear lest something similar be found in us. For I fear that saying in which our Lord and Saviour, who foreknows all things, says as if doubting: “Do you think the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith on the earth?” Moses and Aaron, then, are ordered to go out from the midst of the congregation, so that the congregation may be destroyed at once. But let us see what they do: they are saints, they are perfect, and disciples more of the Gospel than of the law, and therefore they love even their enemies and pray for their persecutors. For while those raged to kill them, these fall on their faces on the ground.

“And Moses said to Aaron: Take the censer, and put fire on it from the altar, and put incense on it, and carry it quickly into the camp and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the presence of the Lord and has already begun to destroy the people.” But since we have come to these passages, I want to admonish the disciples of Christ about the goodness of God, lest any of you perhaps be troubled by heretics if a dispute should arise, when they say that the God of the law is not good but just, and that the law of Moses contains not goodness but justice. Let those who accuse God and the law alike see, then, how Moses himself and Aaron first did what the Gospel afterward taught. Behold, Moses loves his enemies and prays for his persecutors, which Christ certainly teaches in the Gospels should be done. For hear how, falling on their faces on the ground, they pray for those who rose up to kill them. Thus the power of the Gospel too is found in the law, and the Gospels are understood to rest on the foundation of the law. Nor do I call the law the Old Testament, if I understand it spiritually. The law becomes an Old Testament only for those who wish to understand it carnally; and for them it has necessarily become old and has aged, because it cannot keep its strength. But for us, who understand and expound it spiritually and in the sense of the Gospel, it is always new; and both are for us a New Testament, not by the age of time but by the newness of understanding. Does not the apostle John too think the same in his letter, when he says: “Little children, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another,” although he certainly knew that the commandment of love had been given long before in the law? But since love never fails, and the commandment of love never grows old, he declares that what never grows old is always new. For the commandment of love always makes new in spirit those who observe and keep it in themselves. But for the sinner who does not keep the covenants of love, even the Gospels grow old. Nor can the testament be new for one who does not put off the old man and put on the new, created according to God. Moses, then, urges the great high priest to offer incense in the camp and make atonement for the people. “For already,” he says, “the people has begun to be destroyed.” Moses saw in the Spirit what was happening. He saw that a power had gone out into the camp and was ravaging and slaying the sinners; and for this reason he urges the high priest to take the censer, put fire from the altar on it, and, with incense laid on top, go out and stand between the dead and the living, so that the destruction might go no further, or rather, as the wording of Scripture more accurately has it, the breaking.

But first, if you please, let us sketch the picture of the literal account itself, so that, when the appearance of the event has become clear, we may then also look for whatever is mystical in this passage. Imagine, then, that people of Israel arranged in the camp by the ranks of tribes and families, and a certain power sent from God breaking out, not here and there but from some one end, ravaging the people with death; and consider the slaughter of death advancing in order. After this, imagine the high priest coming forth clothed in his high-priestly vestment, carrying the censer and the fire with incense, making his way to the place which the death brought by the destroying angel had reached, and standing in the place where death had made an end of the first and was near the last. Behold the high priest standing and, by placing himself in the way, separating the living from the dead; and the destroying angel put to shame by the power of his propitiation and the mystery of the incense; and in this, death ended and life restored. If you have understood the order of the literal account, and have been able, so to speak, to see with your eyes the high priest standing between the living and the dead, ascend now to the loftier heights of this passage, and see how the true high priest, Jesus Christ, taking the censer of human flesh and putting on it the fire of the altar, doubtless that magnificent soul with which he was born in the flesh, and adding incense also, which is the spotless spirit, stood between the living and the dead and did not let death advance further; but, as the Apostle says, he destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, so that whoever believes in him should no longer die but live forever. This, then, was the mystery which was to come later, and which he who was ravaging the people already feared at that time. For he recognized the figure of the censer, the fire, and the incense, and foresaw what kind of victim was to be offered to God by him who had stood between the dead and the living. And at that time the prefiguring image saved them, but to us the truth of salvation itself has come. For that destroying angel would not have been put to shame by the high priest's vestments woven of purple, wool, and fine linen; but he understood what the vestments of the great high priest were to be, and he yielded to them, to which the whole creation was certainly inferior. And I think that this has not only been fulfilled, but that perhaps the same thing will be kept at the second [coming]. For the Son of Man will come again; and when he comes, he will doubtless find some dead and some living. We can understand this in this way: that some will still be found in this state of life in which we now are, while many will already have gone before in death. But it can also be taken otherwise, so that by the dead we understand bodies and by the living souls. Yet I remember that some of those who interpreted this passage before us said that the dead are those understood to be dead in their sins through the excess of their crimes, and the living those who have persevered in works of life. In either way, however, this great high priest, our Saviour, will stand in the future too in the midst of the living and the dead. And perhaps he is to be said to stand between the living and the dead then also, when he sets the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and says to those on his right: “Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and so on; and to those on his left he will say: “Go into the eternal fire, workers of iniquity, which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels, because I do not know you.” And surely those are the dead who are sent into the eternal fire, and those the living who are sent to the kingdom.