Homilies on Numbers 17.6–18.4

After this it is written further of Christ, “that God led him out of Egypt”; which seems to have been fulfilled in him when, after the death of Herod, he is called back from Egypt, and the Gospel indicates it, saying: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” This saying seems to some to have been taken from this place and inserted in the Gospels, but to others from the prophet Hosea. It can also be understood according to allegory: that after he came to the Egypt of this world, the Father led him out and took him up to himself, to make a way for those who were to ascend to God out of the Egypt of this world. “And his is the glory of the unicorn.” For Christ, casting down all the kingdoms of demons, founded his one kingdom in glory, as that of the true unicorn. For we have often shown that a horn is named for a kingdom. “He will eat,” it says, speaking still of the same one, “the nations of his enemies, and will suck out the marrow of their fatness.” The nations, it says, which his enemies possessed he himself will eat, when the power of the enemy has been destroyed, and he will suck out the marrow of their fatness, when he thins away every gross and carnal sense in them and turns it to spiritual understanding. That fatness is held blameworthy in the Scriptures will be shown by what is written: “The heart of this people has grown fat.” And elsewhere: “The beloved was filled, and grew fat, and kicked.” He will eat, then, the nations, and will have as his food those who believe in him, as he himself also says in the Gospel: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.” His will certainly was this: that the nations should be converted to faith. And if, as we taught above, fatness is held blameworthy, on the contrary fineness must be held praiseworthy: for the spirit of wisdom, which is called intelligent, holy, unique, and manifold, is likewise said to be fine. “And with his darts he will shoot the enemy.” His darts are his words, with which he both conquered the devil and even now overcomes and shatters all who are his enemies and speak against him. For everyone who sins is his enemy while he sins. But if he hears the words of God and, recognizing his sins, is struck by them and pierced to the heart and turns to repentance, bored through by the word of truth, he too will be said to have been pierced by the darts. But after this he also mentions the very dispensation of the passion, and says: “Lying down, he rested like a lion, and like a lion’s whelp: who will rouse him?” He rested like a lion when, placed on the cross, he stripped the principalities and powers and triumphed over them on the wood of the cross. Like a lion’s whelp, when he rose from the sleep of death. That he is compared at once to a lion and to a lion’s whelp can also be understood for this reason: that in those who are perfect he is called a lion, but in those who are beginners and untrained, a lion’s whelp. And as for his saying, “Who will raise him?”, it is because now he is said to have been raised by the Father, and now he himself says that he will raise the temple of his body after three days; and rightly in this the manner of one who is inquiring is indicated. “Those who bless you are blessed, and those who curse you are cursed.” It is certain that those who bless Christ are blessed and are taken up into the communion of the Father’s blessing. But those who curse are cursed. For if you look at that people which curses Christ, it is found, lamentably, to be cursed. For what else could befall those who curse wisdom, who curse truth, who curse life, except that they should lie banished and exiled from all these good things? For Christ is all these things; and he who curses Christ, as one cursing all these good things, is condemned by a perpetual curse. I think, however, that not only he curses Christ who utters a cursing word against him, but also he who under the name of Christian does evil and lives shamefully, and by his dishonourable words or acts causes his name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles; just as, on the contrary, he is not to be thought to bless the Lord who blesses him with words alone, but he who by his acts and life and conduct causes the name of the Lord to be blessed by all. And in these the more will be fulfilled what the third prophecy of Balaam signifies: that those who bless Christ will be blessed, and those who curse him will be cursed. For this reason let us beware in every way lest because of our acts the name of Christ be blasphemed; but let us rather act so that we may deserve to be partakers of his blessings. To him be glory and blessing for ages of ages. Amen.

We now take in hand the fourth prophecy of those which Balaam spoke in the word of God, wishing to open up about it too whatever God may give. To this prophecy, however, as in the earlier ones, similar things are set before it by way of preface. For it says: “And Balak was angry with Balaam, and clapped his hands. And Balak said to Balaam: I called you to curse my enemy, and behold, you have blessed him three times. Now therefore flee to your place. I said, I will honour you; and now the Lord has deprived you of honour.” He shows in this that Balak too understood that Balaam was no longer being deceived by the service of demons but was being carried over to better things by the power of God; and therefore he says: “The Lord has deprived you of honour.” But passing quickly over these things, which are plain, let us come to what follows. “And Balaam said to Balak: Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying: If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I shall not be able to transgress the word of the Lord, to do it, good or evil, of myself. Whatever God says to me, that I will say. And now, behold, I return to my place.” Balaam, knowing that his answers were brought to him not by his usual ministers but by him who had power over all things, rightly appears to have protested that he could not transgress the word of the Lord and do anything small or great of himself. For it was not one who could be swayed by sacrifices and gifts who was speaking to him, but he with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration. And therefore the priest cannot be changed by a fee, where God is not moved by gifts. Yet as he is about to depart, Balaam begins to prophesy again and says: “Come, I give you counsel what this people will do to your people in the last days. And taking up his parable he said.” But before we come to the explanation of what was prophesied, I should like to ask what this sense is, what order of words, in his saying: “Come, and I give you counsel.” For he does not seem to give any counsel, but says what this people will do to your people in the last days; whereas it would certainly seem more fittingly said if he said: “Come, I prophesy to you what this people will do to your people in the last days”; and it would certainly follow that Balaam would seem to prophesy about what the people of Israel would do to the people of Balak or to the other nations: and that it will do it in power, so as to leave none of the cities of Moab who is saved.

But the prophecy too which he joins on about Christ in what follows, saying, “A star will rise out of Jacob, and a man will arise out of Israel, and will lay waste the princes of Moab,” would seem fittingly placed if it had been written: “Come, and I prophesy to you.” But now what shall we say to what is written: “Come, I give you counsel what this people will do to your people”? Let us inquire, then, how what is written, “I give you counsel,” ought to be understood. Often inquiring about this within myself, I could find no way out for the meaning if we think that “I give you counsel” is said in the common and usual way. But I saw that this was more fitting: that “I give you counsel” should be understood as said thus: The divine counsel which is to be fulfilled in the last days, now revealed to me, I open and make known to you, so that you may know what this people will do to your people. And in this way it seemed to me that the saying could stand: “I give you counsel what this people will do to your people”; that is, I announce and make known to you the counsel of God. As I inquired whether anywhere in the divine Scriptures something similar might perhaps be found said in this expression, it seemed to me that what the Apostle says should likewise be noticed: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” For here “who” is taken not for “no one,” but for “rare” or “exceptional.” For how has his Only-begotten not known the mind of God, he who says: “No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal him”? What else is it to know the Father than to know both his counsel and his mind? And the Holy Spirit too, who searches even the depths of God, how should he not know his mind? The Son, then, and the Holy Spirit know the mind of the Lord, and so do those to whom the Son wishes to reveal it. And if the Son knows the mind of God, he is therefore also his counsellor. But “counsellor” is not to be taken as if the Son or the Holy Spirit gives counsel to him as one ignorant of what he should do; but in the sense that the Son and the Holy Spirit share in and know his counsel and will. In a similar way, then, Balaam too, because he was making Balak a sharer in and knower of the counsel which God had revealed to him, says: “Come, I give you counsel,” as one who truly sees and has truly heard the words of God, as he says in what follows: “He said, hearing the words of God, knowing the knowledge of the Most High, and seeing the vision of God in sleep, his eyes uncovered.” We have already spoken above about all these things, since the same things are written in the preface of the third prophecy. Only this seems to be added in the present one, that he says, “knowing the knowledge of the Most High.” For this was not said of Balaam above; and indeed I have not found it easily written of any of all the holy prophets.

Hence I greatly wonder how this was written of Balaam, who was not even granted to say what the prophets are accustomed to use, “Thus says the Lord,” but says: “Balaam said, the man who truly sees said.” And then, how will it be fitting to understand so great a thing of Balaam, that he knows the knowledge of the Most High, he who even taught King Balak how to set a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they should eat things sacrificed and commit sexual immorality? For hardly will anyone find it said even of the holy prophets or apostles that they know the knowledge of the Most High. Although Paul said that he had heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to speak, yet he did not profess to have the knowledge of the Most High. Therefore let us pay closer attention, in case God may perhaps deign to reveal to us something worthy about this saying. In the book which among us is usually counted among the volumes of Solomon and called Ecclesiasticus, but among the Greeks is called the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, it is written: “All wisdom is from God.” This we could perhaps understand as if that wisdom of this world, which is said to be destroyed, and that of the rulers of this world, and any other through which false knowledge is commended, were also from God; were it not that in the same book it is said in what follows: “For the teaching of wickedness is not wisdom.” By this he certainly teaches that every teaching which asserts something false, even if it seems forceful and plausible and hard to overturn, must nevertheless by no means have knowledge of this kind given the title of wisdom. What, then, does he mean by saying, “All wisdom is from God”? He seems to me to have meant this: that every skill which is held necessary for human use in some art, or the knowledge of any thing, is called wisdom given by the Lord. Thus in Job it is written: “Who gave women wisdom in weaving and skill in embroidery?” And in Exodus: “The Lord spoke,” it says, “to Moses, saying: Behold, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom and understanding and skill, so that he may understand in every work and be a master builder to work silver and gold and bronze, and stones for setting, and all works of craftsmanship, and in wood, to work in all works. And I have given him Oholiab son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. And I have given understanding into the heart of everyone who is wise, that they may make all that I have appointed for you.” Consider, then, from all these how the wisdom of craftsmanship, whether in gold or silver or any other material, or even the wisdom of weaving, is from the Lord; and see that it can rightly be said of all these that the knowledge of them is from the Most High. And if the craftsman’s knowledge is declared to be from the Most High, how not also geometry, from which this knowledge which Scripture calls architectural is certainly derived? Indeed in Zechariah too a measuring line is spoken of, with which the angel measures Jerusalem; and therefore I do not think it would seem absurd if this knowledge too were said to be of the Most High. And what shall we say of music, all the skill of which the most wise David had so mastered, and had so gathered the disciplines of all melody and rhythms, that from all of them he found the sounds by which, through playing the psaltery, he could soothe even the king when he was disturbed and troubled by an evil spirit? Hence I do not think that anyone of right mind would deny, in the knowledge of all these things, that all wisdom is from the Lord. As for the knowledge of medicine, I think there can be no doubt. For if any knowledge is from God, which will be more from him than the knowledge of health, in which the powers of herbs and the qualities and differences of juices are discerned? From all these, then, it is gathered that this Balaam’s knowledge too, for which he was summoned from Mesopotamia, from the mountains of the east, to curse Jacob, has indeed its beginnings and origin from the Most High, and that from there came his acquaintance by which he learned either the natures of animals, or the movements of birds, or the differences of sounds; but that what he received for the knowledge of good things he turned to the use of evil things. This seems to me similar to the case of someone who has learned medicine and come to know the powers and mixtures of herbs, the grace of healing given without doubt to men by God, and wishes to turn his purpose around: and uses for evil all the knowledge that was granted for the health of bodies, and becomes a poisoner instead of a physician, bringing diseases instead of remedies, deaths instead of cures. And so that we may understand still more that the wisdom of all knowledge draws its origin from God, but is turned aside to evil by men of evil purpose, or also by demons who mix certain corruptions into the wisdom of God, let us read again what is written in Daniel about Daniel himself and his three friends, whom King Nebuchadnezzar handed over to be educated for three years, wishing them to become most learned in his own wisdom, that is, the native wisdom of the Babylonians. There, then, it is written that the Lord gave them knowledge and understanding and prudence in every art of letters, and to Daniel he gave understanding in every word and vision and dreams; and they stood before the king; and in every word and prudence and learning about which the king asked them, he found them ten times more than the sophists and philosophers who were in all his kingdom. And these things are found in the copies of the Seventy translators; but in the books of the Hebrews I have found something even stronger, and although we do not use them, yet for the sake of information we will also say what we read there: “God gave,” it says, “understanding and prudence in all the wisdom of letters, and Daniel understood in every vision and dreams.” And a little later: “And they stood,” it says, “in the sight of the king; and in every word of wisdom and learning about which the king asked them, he found in them ten times more than all the enchanters and magicians who were in all his kingdom.” From all these, then, it can be understood how Balaam too said of himself that he knows the knowledge of the Most High: namely, so that it is understood that the origin of all knowledge took its beginning from him; but that through the fault of human wickedness, with demons too breathing on it and creeping in, the things granted for benefit were turned to ruin. Let this have been discussed by us, according to our strength, about his saying, “knowing the knowledge of the Most High.”

After this he says: “Seeing the vision of God in sleep, his eyes uncovered.” About this there was sufficient discussion in the third vision, and it is idle to repeat the same things. Let us see, then, what it is that he says in what follows: “I will show him, and not now; I will call him blessed, and he does not draw near.” In other copies we read, “I will see him, but not now.” If this is accepted, it will be thought easier to understand: that he says that Christ, of whom he says in what follows, “A star will rise out of Jacob, and a man will arise out of Israel,” is to be seen, but not now; that is, not at the time when he was saying these things. For in the last days, “when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son.” But if it is to be read according to what we have in the copies, that is, “I will show him, and not now; I will call him blessed, and he does not draw near,” it refers not to this Balaam through whom these things are said, but to those whose part we said he plays in this. For those teachers of the law and scribes will show Christ prophesied in the law and the prophets, but not now: that is, not at the time when he came, but when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and all Israel begins to be saved, then they will show him, and then they will call blessed the one whom they now blaspheme. But this time in which these things are to be does not draw near: for it is far off, and to be hoped for at the very end of the age. And therefore he says, “I will show him, and not now”: “him,” that is, the people which will be saved then. After this: “A star,” it says, “will rise out of Jacob, and a man will arise out of Israel.” Of these things we spoke above too: that it is plainly prophesied of the star which appeared to the Magi in the east, under whose guidance they came to Judaea seeking him who was born King of Israel, and, having found him, offered gifts and worshipped him. But it moves me that, after it has been said of this star in the Gospel that it went before the Magi as far as Bethlehem, and came and stood over where the child was, it is not said further that it either departed from there, or vanished, or was taken up, or that the Gospel narrative indicated anything at all about this; but it said only this, that it came and stood over where the child was. Perhaps, then, just as at the time of the baptism, when Jesus, having been baptized, came up from the Jordan, the heavens were opened to him and John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and remaining on him, and heard a voice saying from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”; so too this star, which came over where the child was and stood, likewise remained in Christ, just as the Holy Spirit too is said to have come in the form of a dove and to have remained on him. And just as we take it that the Spirit of God came upon him and remained on him in such a way that the Spirit of God never withdrew from him, so I think it is to be taken of the star which came and stood over him, that it so stood over him that it never moved from there. And therefore I think that star was a sign of his divinity. Hence the order of this prophecy too shows the same consistently, when it says of his divinity, “A star will rise out of Jacob,” and of his human nature, “And a man will arise out of Israel,” so that Christ may plainly appear prophesied in both, according to his divinity and according to his humanity. “And he will lay waste the princes of Moab.” Moab is indeed a nation, whose princes we understand to be none other than the spiritual forces of wickedness and those principalities against which we have our wrestling. These, then, this man out of Israel laid waste when he stripped the principalities and powers, nailing them to his cross. For he could not save the Moabites and lead them to the knowledge of God unless he had laid waste those princes who had held the dominion of impiety in them. “And he will plunder all the sons of Seth.” Seth is the son of Adam, of whom Eve said when he was born: “For God has raised up for me another seed in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.” This Seth, then, is the one from whom the whole human race in this world is descended. For those who had been born of Cain perished in the flood. All men, then, who are in this world are sons of Seth. And when it is said, “he will plunder all the sons of Seth,” take the plunder as we interpreted above, where it is written, “He will eat the nations of his enemies,” and where he is compared to a lion’s whelp and a lion. Here too, then, he takes all the sons of Seth as plunder. Having conquered the opposing demons, Christ carried off as the plunder of his victory those who were oppressed under their dominion, as it is written of him that ascending on high he led captivity captive: that captivity, namely, of the human race which the devil had captured for perdition, he in turn led captive and called back from death to life. Would, then, that Christ Jesus may always hold me too as a captive, and lead me as his plunder, and that I may be held bound by his chains, so that I too may deserve to be called a prisoner of Jesus Christ, as Paul glories of himself. “And Edom will be his inheritance; Esau is his enemy.” Edom is the same as Esau. According to the literal account he is the enemy of Israel, but at the coming of Christ, it says, he too will be his inheritance: that is, he will be received into faith and not shut out from the inheritance of Christ. But if we consider it spiritually, Edom is understood as the flesh, which opposes the Spirit and is hostile. But at the coming of Christ, when the flesh has been subjected to the spirit, it too will come to the inheritance through the hope of the resurrection. For not the soul alone, but also the flesh, which was once hostile, will through obedience to the spirit become a sharer of the future inheritance. “And Israel has acted in power.” This is what he means: that Edom or Esau, that is, the nature of the flesh, will be called into the fellowship of the inheritance when Israel, that is, the soul, has acted in power and has been fittingly filled with virtues. For if the soul does not come to virtues but persists in sloth, neither will the flesh come to the inheritance, but to the judgment of him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. “And he will arise out of Jacob, and will destroy the one set free from the city.” He, it says, who arises like a star out of Jacob will destroy the one set free from the city. Not only in this, but in almost every prophetic style, the things said are said in a speech quite involved and obscure. For it did not please the Holy Spirit, who willed these things to be written, that they should be set out openly and, so to speak, to be trampled underfoot by the unskilled; but he so provided that, though they seem to be held publicly, yet by the obscurity of the words they are kept hidden in the mysteries and covered in secret. And now, then, what he says, “He will destroy the one set free from the city,” will seem very difficult to understand unless you look to the prophetic custom, of which it is said, “No prophecy is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” Let us see, however, whether it can perhaps be explained in this way. Let us understand the city here as the world, as also in the Gospels it is said of the prodigal son who squandered his father’s substance, that he went, it says, to one of the chief men of the city in that region, and, received by him, is sent into the field to feed pigs. Here too, then, this city, of which that man was a chief citizen, is understood as this world. From this city, then, the one set free, that is, the one whom Christ sets free from this world, he destroys. For he says to him: “Whoever loses his soul for my sake will save it.” With a saving destruction, then, Jesus destroys the one whom he has set free from the city of this world. And we too, therefore, if we wish to come to salvation and be set free from this world, must destroy our souls with a useful and necessary destruction. For he loses his soul according to Christ who reins in its desires, who cuts off its cravings, who chastises its luxury and dissoluteness, and does in nothing at all his own will, but the will of God: and through these things the soul is said to perish. For its former life has perished, and it begins to lead the new life which is in Christ. Like this saying is also that one: “If we die with him, we shall also live with him.” And that other: “But if you have died to the elements of this world, why, as though living in this world, do you submit to decrees?” Necessarily, then, it is declared in these too that he has lost his soul in this world who dies with Christ; and he who has lost it here will find it, without doubt, there where the Apostle says that “your life is hidden with Christ in God,” to whom be glory for eternal ages of ages. Amen.