On Jacob and the Happy Life

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.29 · 1.30–2.22 · 2.23–2.50 · 2.51–2.57

1. 1.1Virtue can be taught, and reason, though it cannot uproot desire and anger, can restrain them.
2. 1.2Reason does not remove desire but keeps us from serving it; only the Lord, as in the parable of the fig tree, can cut it out.
3. 1.3David's longing for the water of Bethlehem, which he poured out to the Lord, shows that desire precedes reason but reason can master it.
4. 1.4God set the mind as ruler over the passions and taught it through the law which passions to master.
5. 1.5Pleasure and pain lead the other passions, and temperance, taught by the law's food precepts, restrains them.
6. 1.6Temperance enabled Jacob to receive the birthright and Joseph, reasoning rightly, to resist his master's wife.
7. 1.7Reason tempers anger, as Jacob showed in rebuking Simeon and Levi's vengeance for Dinah.
8. 1.8Temperance was the first command given in paradise, and its loss brought exile and death.
9. 1.9Scripture shows that the virtues are taught, and that righteousness is acquired by learning and obedience, which led to death in Adam and to life in Christ.
10. 1.10Guilt comes from our own will, not the flesh; our members become weapons of righteousness or of sin according to how we use them.
11. 1.11The will, not the flesh, causes sin; serving righteousness under Christ is both precious slavery and glorious freedom.
12. 1.12All are Christ's freedmen, redeemed from the slavery of Adam's sin, and owe him the deference a freedman owes his patron.
13. 1.13The law made sin known and so increased guilt, raising the question how a good commandment can bring death.
14. 1.14Like the knowledge of poisons or an antidote, the commandment is good in itself though it brings death to those who misuse it.
15. 1.15Following Paul in Romans 7, Ambrose shows that the law and the mind are good, but the flesh drags the mind into sin against its will.
16. 1.16God's grace in Christ frees the one whom the law could not, so the law's commandment, though it works death, is not death to the believer.
17. 1.17The mind, though good, cannot master the flesh by the law alone; it needs Christ, who nailed our passions to the cross and justified us by his death.
18. 1.18Since believers have died and risen with Christ, they should no longer live for sin but walk in the Spirit.
19. 1.19What the law could not do is achieved by walking in the Spirit and not returning to the old life; the law, a passing shadow, could not put the flesh to death.
20. 1.20The written law, added to the law of nature, brought recognition of sin rather than release, so that no one can plead ignorance.
21. 1.21The law helped by bringing confession of sin, so that one glories not in one's works but in Christ, who redeemed and forgave.
22. 1.22Where sin abounded through the law, grace abounded more, and Christ, who died for us, is our advocate with the Father.
23. 1.23As co-heirs with Christ, believers should repay his kindness with obedience and bear present losses in hope of eternal reward.
24. 1.24The happy life is proved, not diminished, by adversity, and the believer shares the groaning of all creation while awaiting redemption.
25. 1.25God, who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for all, will surely give everything else; the believer need not fear.
26. 1.26God who predestined, called, justified, and glorified will not abandon his own, and Christ the judge is also our advocate; nothing should separate us from him.
27. 1.27Love for Christ, unquenchable by dangers, is where the happy life is proved.
28. 1.28The wise man remains happy amid sufferings, because happiness lies in a pure conscience and the mind's prudence, not in bodily pleasure.
29. 1.29The happy life belongs to the perfect, rational life, whose good lies within, as Solomon's counsel to drink from one's own well signifies.
30. 1.30The perfect man, content with the one supreme good, needs nothing else, granting the body only what is necessary and reconciling inner and outer man to God.
31. 1.31The perfect man is not saddened by bereavement or loss, consoling himself with the hope of resurrection and holding the soul above the body's condition.
32. 1.32Happiness is defined not by the absence of misfortunes but by contempt for them and possession of the true good.
33. 1.33The wise man naturally prefers health, but if he lacks it, he is not broken, being consoled by virtue.
34. 1.34The wise man delights in his children, but losing them does not make him less happy, since happiness lies in perfection of virtue.
35. 1.35The just man desires only the supreme good; other joys may be added, but neither loss nor gain changes the perfection of virtue.
36. 1.36Captivity and torture do not make the perfect man wretched, as Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the three young men show; he meets misfortune like a brave soldier and a helmsman.
37. 1.37Weakness and poverty do not hinder the just man, whose life consists in sharing his goods with the poor and in temperance, patience, and courage.
38. 1.38The just man fears nothing but the loss of virtue; Elijah and Moses, Elisha and David are equally happy in different conditions, and the wise man, like a lyre player whose instrument is broken, delights in his inner good.
39. 2.1Book 2 turns to examples: Jacob remained happy in exile, which he chose to spare his brother a crime, and he was enriched and reconciled with Esau.
40. 2.2Psalm 1 defines the happy man as one who avoids the ungodly and sin and meditates on God's law, and promises him fruitfulness as reward.
41. 2.3Jacob had all the merits of the happy man, and he is the blessed 'field' whose fragrance Isaac smelled, the field of Christ's vine, fig, olive, and pomegranate.
42. 2.4Jacob showed temperance in yielding his food to Esau, and piety, scruple, and respect toward his parents.
43. 2.5Parents must not favor one child over another, since partiality breeds hatred among brothers, as Esau's murderous anger shows.
44. 2.6Rebecca preferred the just son for God's purpose, sparing Esau greater guilt; the parents' rivalry was one of affection and judgment.
45. 2.7Isaac and Rebecca balanced their love, so that each son was cherished equally.
46. 2.8Jacob, preferred by prophecy, brought kids from the flock, a figure of Christ the Lamb, the food that brings forgiveness of sins.
47. 2.9Esau's robe given to Jacob signifies the Old Testament given to the Christian people, who are justified by faith rather than works.
48. 2.10Esau's late arrival shows the kingdom destined for the church; Jacob's 'guile' was the blameless seizing of the kingdom by the eager.
49. 2.11Esau's blessing, to serve his brother, was given for his good, so that the foolish might be governed by the wise.
50. 2.12Every passion enslaves; only the prudent are free, and the wise rule as lenders of wisdom, which Ambrose applies to Jews and gentiles.
51. 2.13Isaac's words to Esau point to two peoples, of the letter and of grace, and to the remnant to be saved when the people of the letter accepts the spiritual meaning.
52. 2.14Rebecca, a figure of patience, sent Jacob away so that time might soften Esau's anger and both sons be kept from crime.
53. 2.15True virtue seeks only God, who needs nothing; Jacob's sleep on his journey shows a quiet mind.
54. 2.16Jacob's ladder with angels ascending and descending foreshadows Christ on earth served by angels.
55. 2.17Jacob at the well signifies the just man drinking from his own inner spring of life.
56. 2.18Jacob's shepherding for Laban shows that wisdom is never idle or in exile, even abroad.
57. 2.19Jacob's peeled rods of storax, walnut, and plane signify the mysteries of the Trinity: the evening sacrifice to the Father, Christ's priesthood, and the fruitfulness of the Spirit.
58. 2.20Jacob grew rich in a flock nourished for Christ; God called him home, and his anointed pillar signifies the church, anointed by faith and mercy.
59. 2.21When envy arises, the just man withdraws peaceably, carrying only what is his, as Jacob did when Laban searched and found nothing of his own.
60. 2.22The wise man is never empty or naked, being clothed with virtue that no one can take unless his own sin strips him, as Adam was stripped but Joseph was not.
61. 2.23Thieves can take only gold, which burdens the soul; the real danger is the devil, the moneylender of sin, who buries the heart with its treasure.
62. 2.24Mystically, Laban ('whitened') is Satan disguised as light, who found nothing of his own in Jacob, a type of Christ in whom the prince of this world found nothing.
63. 2.25Jacob's two marriages prefigure Christ with law and grace: Leah the synagogue, Rachel the church, who hid the gentiles' idols.
64. 2.26Seeing God's camp, Jacob sought reconciliation with Esau through humility, service, and gifts.
65. 2.27Jacob's bowing seven times before Esau points prophetically to Christ's command to forgive seventy times seven.
66. 2.28Jacob's sleep in the camp shows the inner peace of perfect virtue, the peace Christ gives, which surpasses all understanding.
67. 2.29Inner peace, won against the enemy within, is greater than the outward peace of empire won against barbarians.
68. 2.30Jacob's wrestling with God signifies the contest of virtue; the touch on his thigh foreshadows Christ, born of his line, and the cross that brings resurrection.
69. 2.31Jacob's limp is read as a sign that one of the peoples descended from him would be numb toward faith.
70. 2.32After the slaughter at Shechem, which Jacob grieved, God sent him to Bethel, which Ambrose links with Bethlehem, the 'house of bread' where Christ was born.
71. 2.33The idols and earrings buried under the barren tree signify the end of pagan worship in the church; Ambrose links the tree to the one named in Susanna's trial.
72. 2.34Rachel's burial at Bethlehem signifies baptism, burial with Christ, and the pillar over her tomb signifies the church.
73. 2.35Jacob combined youthful vigor with the tranquillity of age, a harbor and watchman for the young, as when famine came.
74. 2.36Jacob sent his sons to Egypt for grain, went himself to Joseph, and at the end of his life made Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan and blessed his sons.
75. 2.37Though blind and dying, Jacob was happy, seeing the future in the Spirit, as when he crossed his hands to bless Ephraim above Manasseh.
76. 2.38Jacob lacked nothing, since God was with him; rich in poverty and strong in weakness, he blessed kings, faced death serenely, and prophesied against Simeon and Levi.
77. 2.39Jacob, his body like a broken cithara, sang with the Spirit the prophetic blessing of Judah, which speaks of forgiveness and resurrection.
78. 2.40Jacob's blessings of Naphtali and Joseph are a song of eternal reward, and Joseph is a figure of Christ who frees us from reproach.
79. 2.41Christ bore the curse and reproach for us; he is the vine spread through the world and the Son called back to the Father's right hand after his passion.
80. 2.42Joseph in prison, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel among the lions, and the mother of the Maccabees were all happy amid suffering.
81. 2.43Ambrose retells from 4 Maccabees how the aged priest Eleazar refused Antiochus's flatteries and threats to make him eat pork.
82. 2.44Tortured, Eleazar refused even to pretend to eat, lest he mislead the young, and died a teacher of perseverance, his reason unconquered.
83. 2.45The seven Maccabean brothers, following Eleazar's example, told the tyrant that their faith was mature and that they feared no tortures.
84. 2.46The eldest brother, laughing at the tyrant, confessed his faith and died under torture, his religion unconquered.
85. 2.47The second brother, scalped, declared that his spiritual helmet could not be taken and that the tyrant suffered more in being conquered.
86. 2.48The third brother, before his tongue was cut out, told Antiochus that God hears even the silent and that his blood would cry out.
87. 2.49The fourth brother, broken on the wheel, saw in it the course of the law within grace and died victorious.
88. 2.50The fifth brother, burned, thanked God for testing him like silver and gold in the fire.
89. 2.51The sixth brother acknowledged the people's sins and accepted suffering as atonement that would make God favorable to the nation.
90. 2.52The mother urged her youngest son, the seventh, not to yield but to join his brothers, and he died defying the king.
91. 2.53The mother died last, surrounded by her seven sons like a city by walls, a lamp of the church; seven and eight signify the law and the gospel.
92. 2.54Unlike other mothers, the Maccabean mother urged her sons to martyrdom, choosing their eternal life over their safety.
93. 2.55The brothers encouraged one another to die for God, and the mother offered herself in them.
94. 2.56The mother did not mourn her slain sons, whose dying words Ambrose likens to a seven-stringed psaltery sweeter than Sirens or swans.
95. 2.57Ambrose praises the mother's love, strong as death, and her sons, who alone defeated the proud king without arms.