On the Leech (Prov 30:15)

Contents

1. 1Methodius explains that Proverbs speaks in parables, as Jotham's fable of the trees in Judges shows, and prays for understanding.
2. 3The leech of Proverbs 30, which hides in drinking water and is never satisfied, signifies the insatiable hostile power that lives in spiritual waters.
3. 4The great serpent of the waters is the devil, whose head God crushes; Christ calmed the sea and rescued Peter, and believers are given power to trample on the enemy.
4. 5Those who go down to the sea in ships and see God's wonders in the deep are the apostles, who fish men out of the depth of error.
5. 6The leech in the muddy water of the serpent is the power that silences the soul's voice and fills it with improper desires; each of its insatiable daughters is explained.
6. 7In Psalm 19 the heavens are the angels, who announced Christ, the Glory of God, and the firmament is the church, which proclaims his life and works.
7. 8Heaven and firmament may also mean the mind and the feelings; true confession of Christ come in the flesh includes his coming into the church and into each believer, with a holy life.
8. 9In Psalm 19 day is the apostles and the church, night the prophets and the Law with their dark sayings; after the resurrection the apostles' preaching went out to all the earth.
9. 10Solomon's words in Wisdom 7 about his human birth refer to himself, not to Christ, who was born of the Virgin; the work closes with a prayer.