Homilies on Jeremiah 4.0–5.4

Homily 4. On “And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah” as far as “Israel has justified her soul more than faithless Judah.”

The literal sense of the passage read has something unclear, which must be understood first; and after this, if God grants it, we shall know its mystical meaning. The passage wants us to know that, as is written in the books of Kingdoms, the people were divided in the times of Rehoboam into the kingdom of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and that of the two tribes under Rehoboam; and those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under Rehoboam Judah. And this division of the people remained, as far as history goes, until now; for we know of no history that brought Israel and Judah together “into one.” Israel, then, the people under Jeroboam and his successors, sinned first and more, and sinned so much more than Judah that they were condemned by providence to become captives “to the Assyrians,” as Scripture says, “until this day.” After this the sons of Judah sinned too and were condemned to be captives in Babylon, not until this day like Israel, but for “seventy years,” about which Jeremiah prophesied and which Daniel also mentioned. If we understand these things as concerning that people of that time, see whether the words of the prophet do not show something of this kind. For the Word accuses the sins of Israel, and says that when Israel had committed so many sins, the congregation of Judah heard of their failings and of how I made them go into captivity, but was not taught, and added to the sins, so that because of the addition of sins, when compared with the sins of Israel, righteousness was found in Israel compared with Judah. Then, after this, the prophet is ordered to prophesy, as Judah is worse than Israel, so that after the sins it may turn back. So after the prophecy to Israel commanding it to turn back, the prophet prophesies that Israel and Judah are to come together and one day become a single kingdom of both. Whoever cares about the readings, let him take the words of the whole of today's reading, and then he will see these meanings made plain. “And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me?” Not Judah, but Israel first. “She went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree and played the harlot there. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me. And she did not return. And faithless Judah saw her faithlessness,” that is, of the congregation of Israel. “And they saw,” those of Judah, “that concerning all the things in which the house of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce.” Judah ought to have been taught — for I sent away Israel, the congregation of Israel; I cast them out to the Assyrians “and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands” — “and faithless Judah was not afraid.” After all that I did to Israel, sending him away and giving a bill of divorce, the congregation of Judah ought to have been taught by what those had suffered; but they not only were not taught, but added to their sins, so that the sins of the congregation of Israel, by comparison with the sins of the congregation of Judah, seem to be righteousness. “And I gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and faithless Judah her sister was not afraid, but went and played the harlot herself too, and her harlotry became as nothing to her, and she committed adultery with wood and stone. And in all these things faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but falsely” she turned to me. She did not respect me for what I had done to Israel, so as to turn back completely; but though she ought to have turned in truth, she turned falsely: “And in all these things faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but falsely. And the Lord said to me: Israel has justified her soul more than faithless Judah.” The sins of Israel, compared with the failings of Judah, became a justification of the soul of the congregation of Israel.

“Go,” then, “and read these words toward the north.” If the literal sense has been understood, let us see what is meant to be shown in these things. The calling of the nations had its beginning from the trespass of Israel, and the apostles, preaching in the synagogues of the Jews, say: “To you the word of salvation was sent; since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the nations.” And the apostle, knowing what he knows about these things, says: “By their trespass salvation has come to the nations, to make them jealous.” So the many sins of that people caused them to be forsaken and us to come to the hope of the promises, we who were strangers to the covenants, aliens from the commonwealth. For how else would I, who was born anywhere at all, a stranger to the so-called holy land, now discourse about the promises of God, and believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and by the grace of God receive Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed by the prophets? If you understand these two peoples, the one from Israel and the one from the nations, see for me the deportation of Israel, in the case of that people of Israel too, and understand that it is written about it: “I have sent her away and given her a bill of divorce.” For God sent away that people and gave it a bill of divorce. This is how it is with married people: if the wife is displeasing to her husband, says the law of Moses, a “bill of divorce” was drawn up by the husband and the wife was sent away, and the one who had sent away his former wife, because she seemed to have acted shamefully, was permitted to marry another wife. In this way, by the analogy, see them receiving a bill of divorce. And since they received the bill of divorce, for this reason they have been entirely forsaken. For where are there prophets among them any longer? Where are there signs among them any longer? Where is a manifestation of God? Where is the worship, the temple, the sacrifices? They have been cast out of their place. So he gave Israel “a bill of divorce.” Then we, Judah (Judah because of the Savior, who arose from Judah, for “it is evident that our Lord has arisen from Judah”), have turned to the Lord; and our last state, which may it never be, seems to be becoming like their last state, if not even worse.

For that our situation too will be such at the end of this age is clear from what the Savior said in the Gospel, where he says: “Because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved”; and: “He will do signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” Our situation will be such that the Savior says about his coming, as though a believer would hardly be found out of so many churches: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” And truly, if we judge matters by truth and not by crowds, and judge matters by the will and not by seeing many gathered together, we will see that we are not now believers. But they were believers then, when the noble martyrdoms took place, when, after escorting the martyrs from the cemeteries, we came back to the assemblies, and the whole church was present without being crushed, and the catechumens were instructed in the midst of the martyrdoms and the deaths of those who confessed the truth “unto death,” “not frightened” nor troubled, “toward the living God.” Then we know that people saw astonishing and wonderful signs. Then the believers were few, but truly believers, traveling the narrow and hard way that leads “to life.” But now, when we have become many, since it is not possible for many to be elect (for Jesus did not lie when he said, “Many are called, but few are chosen”), out of the multitude of those who profess godliness very few are they who attain to God's election and to blessedness.

So if he says, “First I sent away Israel for their sins, and sent them into exile, but Judah, hearing what had happened to Israel, did not turn back,” he is speaking of our sins. Since the things that befell Israel and the failings of that people are read, we ought to be afraid, and “if he did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us?” If God, who is both kind and loving toward humankind, did not spare but cut off those who boasted of being “a cultivated olive,” those rooted in “the root” of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, how much more will he not spare us? “Note, then, the kindness and the severity of God.” For he is not kind without being severe, nor severe without being kind. If he were only kind and not severe, we would despise “his kindness” all the more. If he were severe and not kind, we might perhaps despair because of our sins. But as it is, as God (for we human beings, when we repent, need his kindness, and when we persist in our sins, his severity), God is both kind and severe; and he speaks to us through the prophets and says: “Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me?” Understand Israel for me as that people: “She went up on every high mountain and under every shady tree.” If you see the Pharisee going up to the temple boastfully, not beating his breast nor grieving over his own evils, but saying, “I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector; I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I possess,” you will see that he has gone up “on every high mountain” blameworthily, loving arrogance, and, through boastfulness and pride, every high hill; and he has come “under every tree,” not a fruitful one but “leafy.” For a leafy tree is one thing; when people plant trees in groves, they plant not fruit-bearing ones, not a fig or a vine, but only unfruitful trees for pleasure. You will find such to be the words of those who hold other opinions, and the beauties of their persuasive arguments, which do not convert their hearers. So when someone gives himself over to such words, he has gone “under every leafy tree.” He did not say “every tree” and fall silent, nor again add “every fruitful tree,” but said “under every leafy tree.” From this you will understand why the lawgiver says, “You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall not make a grove”; for you have even the name of the grove forbidden.

“And she played the harlot there. And I said, after she had played the harlot in all these things: Return to me. And she did not return; and faithless Judah saw her faithlessness.” We too are reproached, I mean those of us who sin and do not keep God's covenants, nor see that those people lost the covenant though they were of noble birth, being from Abraham, having received the promise. We ought therefore to reckon that, if they have fallen from the blessings and promises and it profited them nothing to be from the fathers, how much more shall we be forsaken if we sin. “If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham,” the Savior says to them. And again John: “Do not begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father’; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham,” hinting at us as stones, who had a heart of stone and were hardened against the truth. And truly God has raised up children to Abraham from the stones, if we remain in childbearing and keep the spirit of adoption. So “faithless Judah,” who did not keep her covenants with God, saw “her faithlessness,” that of the house of Israel, and saw “that concerning all the things for which” that one “was forsaken” (for all these things we, Judah, see when we read Scripture), that concerning the things for which the house of Israel was forsaken, in which she committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce: that we should be taught by what he did to them, judging them according to their sins, forsaking them and handing them over to captivity, to slaughter, and to their enemies. From this we ought to turn back, and each of us reckon that, if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us? If he thrust out those from the fathers in this way when they became sinners, what shall we suffer who were called from the nations, if we have taken none of this to heart, we who were called so that that people might be made jealous, seeing the slave honored, seeing the low-born come near? If they have suffered so much, how much more shall we be forsaken if we sin? “For all the things in which the house of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and faithless Judah was not afraid” of what I did to the house of Israel, when “I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce.” She “was not afraid” of what had happened to them. Someone has entered the house of a master; he is newly bought; he asks which of the earlier servants the master honored and why, which of the servants he dishonored and why. When he has taken note, if he wishes to remain in the master's house, he takes care not to fall into what the earlier slaves did who sinned and were thrown out and handed over to punishment. Then, having learned what the earlier slaves did who won approval, and for what sort of deeds they obtained their freedom, he emulates them. So we too, who were not slaves of God but of idols and demons, pagans, who came to God only yesterday or the day before: let us read Scripture, let us see who was justified and who was condemned; let us imitate those who were justified, and take care not to fall into what befell those who were taken captive, those who were cast off by God.

“And faithless Judah was not afraid, but went and played the harlot herself too.” After Israel first played the harlot, Judah later played the harlot too. “And her harlotry became as nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone.” When we sin, we do nothing else than become stony-hearted and commit adultery with “the stone.” When we sin and play the harlot “under every leafy tree,” we too commit adultery with the wood. “And faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but falsely.” If we have turned to God, but deficiently, we are accused of not having turned “with the whole heart.” That is why “faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart.” He did not say, “And faithless Judah turned and stood firm,” but: “And faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but falsely” she turned. True turning, then, is to read the old writings, to know those who were justified and imitate them; to read those writings and see those who were blamed, and take care not to fall under those reproaches; to read the books of the New Testament, the words of the apostles; and after reading, to write all these things on the heart and live by them, so that a bill of divorce may not be given to us too, but that we may be able to come to the holy inheritance; and when the fullness of the nations has been saved, Israel may then be able to enter. For “if the fullness of the nations comes in, then all Israel will be saved,” “and they will become one flock, one shepherd,” who teaches us to glorify God almighty in Christ Jesus himself, to whom be the glory and the power for ages of ages. Amen.

Homily 5. On “Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your breaches” as far as “For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth.”

It is written plainly in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles first went into the synagogue of the Jews, proclaiming to them, as kinsmen through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, what is written about the coming of Jesus Christ. But when they did not receive what was said, and there had to be other hearers of the message, then, having justified themselves to them, they left them; for it is written: “It was necessary that the word of God be proclaimed to you; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the nations.” And this, which is said plainly in the Acts of the Apostles, is said in effect in many places in the prophets too; for the Holy Spirit of the prophets speaks first to those of that people, and if at times, after saying much, he was not heard, he prophesies the word that is preached to the nations. This has happened too at the beginning of today's reading. For before it, to those of Israel, is said: “Though you call me Father, you will not turn away from me. But as a wife breaks faith with the one who lives with her, so the house of Israel has broken faith with me, says the Lord.” And when these things about Israel had been said first, and the sons of Israel had heard “that they did wrong in their ways and forgot their holy God,” the Holy Spirit next transfers the word to us who are from the nations, and says: “Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your breaches.” For we are those who were full of breaches, each one might say, even if he has now been cleansed and healed of his breaches: “For we ourselves too were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another; but when the kindness and love for humankind of God our Savior appeared, through the washing of regeneration he poured out his mercy upon us.” And yet, since I have mentioned that apostolic saying, I will try to present it more clearly. For he did not say, “For we were once foolish, disobedient”; but Paul the apostle, who was from Israel, who was “as to righteousness under the law blameless,” says, “For we ourselves too (we from Israel) were once disobedient, foolish.” So not only those from the nations were foolish, nor only those from the nations disobedient, nor only they sinners; but we too, who had been taught the law, were such before the coming of Christ. So after what was said to Israel it is said to us from the nations: “Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your breaches.”

But someone will say: “These things were said to Israel, and you drag them over to those from the nations.” We wish to show that not long after, but immediately, where he wishes to speak to Israel about returning, he adds the name of Israel. Next, at any rate, it is said: “If Israel returns to me, says the Lord, he shall indeed return; and if he removes his abominations from his mouth, and reverences my presence, and swears, ‘The Lord lives,’ with truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him.” The first words, then, were said to those from the nations; since “if the fullness of the nations comes in, then all Israel will be saved,” according to what the apostle says in the Epistle to the Romans. Notice how God urges us, as we return, to return completely, promising that if, “returning,” we return to him, he will heal our “breaches” through Jesus Christ; and we answer, not delaying or being slow about salvation like that Israel, and say: “Behold, we will be yours.” God said, “Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your breaches”; and those from the nations say, “We will be your servants,” not having been “yours” before, but belonging to demons, being under the opposing powers. For “when the Most High divided the nations,” we did not become your portion, nor, with the people of Jacob, the allotment of your inheritance, but became the portions of others. Yet we, who were once portions of others, when you say to us, “Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your breaches,” answer, “Behold, we”; for this is what we were waiting for, the calling. Not as those were called and made excuses, so too do we make excuses when we are called. For we have in the Gospel parables that, when some had been called first, “one said, ‘I have married a wife; have me excused,’ and another, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen; I am going to try them; have me excused.’” We from the nations were not called in this way only to make excuses. Why should we? About what field, that we should be occupied with it? About what wise wife? Or about what else should we be busy? So God has said to us: “Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your breaches”; and seeing our own breaches and the promise of healing, we immediately answer and say: “Behold, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God.” Having listened, then, and said “we will be yours,” let us remember that we promised God, saying to him “we will be yours”; and having said to him “we will be yours,” let us belong to no one else: not to a spirit of anger, not to a spirit of grief, not to a spirit of desire; let us not belong to the devil or to his angels. But having been called and having said, “Behold, we will be yours,” let us show by our deeds that we have become his, that we have dedicated ourselves to no one else but him. And we say, “For you are the Lord our God”; for we confess no other god (not the belly, like the gluttons, “whose god is the belly”; not money, like the lovers of money, and greed, “which is idolatry”; nor do we deify and make a god of anything else of the things that most people make gods; but for us the God over all, “who is over all and through all and in all,” is God; and since we hang upon love for God, for love binds us to God), we say: “Behold, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God.”

Then, condemning our former evils (when we thought the idols great and lofty, worshipped them, and thought wonderful the things we served; but now we have recognized that all those were false and were nothing), we say as we return: “Truly the hills were for a lie,” we too condemning our former lofty things and former marvels. And perhaps, if we take pains, we shall find the difference between the hills and the mountains among the nations, which those who said, “Behold, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God,” have abandoned, accusing them as false, both the hills and the mountains. What, then, is the difference between the mountains and the hills among the nations, which we have condemned when we say, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains”? This we say, condemning our former things. Of the things worshipped among the nations, some are worshipped as gods, others as heroes. For they themselves admit about some that they were formerly men and were deified. They worship Heracles not as one born a god, but as changed from a man into a god; they worship Asclepius as having been changed from among men into a god because of his virtue. But when they worship the fathers of these, whom they call gods, they worship them not as having changed from men into gods, but, as they suppose, as gods from the beginning. So those considered by the nations to be gods from the beginning will be the mountains and “the power of the mountains,” while those considered by them to be gods now, but to have been men before, are “the hills.” Knowing, then, both ranks of things worshipped, we say, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains.” For those who serve them do not suppose that these things are false. That is why they think the oracles and the healings to be true healings, not seeing the difference between every power and sign and wonder of falsehood, done with all the deceit of unrighteousness for those who are perishing, [and the works of truth. What] Christ Jesus [did], these were signs of truth; and before him what Moses did was a power of truth. But what the Egyptians did were signs and wonders, but of falsehood. So too what Simon the magician did after Jesus, so as to lead astray the nation of Samaria and be thought to be the power of God, these too were signs and wonders of falsehood. So when we condemn those things, we who have condemned them say: “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains.”

Then, since we from the nations know that “by the trespass of Israel we received the way of salvation,” and they have been cast outside until our fullness comes in, and we know that “if the fullness of the nations comes in, after this all Israel will be saved,” for this reason we say, first, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains,” and second, about Israel after the fullness of the nations: “But through the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.” And since we have once mentioned the apostolic saying that “by the trespass by which Israel fell, salvation has come to the nations,” and that when “the fullness of the nations comes in,” while Israel remains outside, after the fullness of the nations has come in “then all Israel will be saved,” come, let us unfold the matters in these passages. There was an Israel being saved. The greater part of Israel fell away, but “a remnant according to the election of grace has come to be,” concerning which remnant it is said mystically “in Elijah”: “I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” And interpreting this remnant the apostle says: “So too at the present time a remnant according to the election of grace has come to be.” So there is an Israel, even if only a remnant, that is saved, while Israel was left behind. Transfer these two ranks for me, if you are able, to those from the nations as well. For he did not say, “When all the nations are saved, then all Israel will be saved,” but “when the fullness of the nations comes in, then” — not after all the nations, but after “the fullness of the nations” — “all Israel will be saved.” If anyone can, having found, as it were, Israel being saved after the fullness of the nations, let him go further in thought and consider when all “will serve God under one yoke,” according to what is said in Zephaniah, and bring sacrifices “from the ends of Ethiopia”; when, as is said in the sixty-seventh Psalm, “Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hand to God,” and the Word commands the kingdoms “of the earth,” saying, “Sing to the Lord, sing praises to the God of Jacob.”