Homilies on Numbers 20.2–20.5

Much more accursed, however, is that general sexual immorality in which every kind of sin is contained together. It is called general sexual immorality when the soul which has been received into fellowship with the Word of God, and in a certain way joined in marriage with him, is corrupted and violated by some other, namely the adversary of that husband who betrothed her to himself in faith. The bridegroom and husband of the pure and chaste soul, then, is the Word of God, who is Christ the Lord, as the Apostle too says: “For I wish to present you all as a chaste virgin to one husband, to Christ. But I fear lest perhaps, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.” As long, then, as the soul cleaves to its bridegroom, and hears his word, and embraces him, without doubt it receives from him the seed of the word; and just as that one said, “From fear of you, Lord, I conceived in the womb,” so this one too says, “From your word, Lord, I conceived in the womb and was in labour, and brought forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth.” If, then, the soul has thus conceived from Christ, it has produced children for whose sake it is said to it that it will be saved through the bearing of children, if it remains in faith and love and holiness with sobriety, even though the soul seems formerly to have been deceived like Eve. Truly blessed, then, is the offspring where the union of the soul with the Word of God has taken place, and where they have given embraces to each other. From there a noble progeny will be born, from there chastity will arise, from there righteousness, from there patience, from there gentleness and love, and a venerable offspring of all the virtues will follow. But if the unhappy soul abandons the holy marriage of the divine Word and, deceived by enticements, gives itself up to the adulterous embraces of the devil and of other demons, it will without doubt also beget children from there, but those of whom it is written: “But the children of adulterers will be imperfect, and the seed from an unlawful union will be destroyed.” All sins, then, are children of adultery and children of sexual immorality. Hence it is also shown that through each and every thing we do, our soul gives birth and begets children, namely the thoughts and works it performs. And if what it does is according to the law and according to the word of God, it gives birth to the spirit of salvation, and therefore it will be saved through the bearing of children; and these are the children of whom the prophet says: “Your children like young olive shoots around your table.” But if what it does is against the law and is sin, without doubt it begets a malignant offspring from the conception of the opposing spirit. For it bears children of sin. And these are the cursed generations in which some of the saints curse even the day on which they were born. There is never a time, then, when the soul does not give birth. The soul always gives birth, always begets children. But that is a blessed generation which is begotten having been conceived from the word of God, and this is the bearing of children through which it will be saved. But if, as we said, it conceives from the opposing spirit, it is certain that it bears children of wrath, fit for destruction. And perhaps to both these generations of the soul looks the saying: “For when they had not yet been born or done anything good or evil, so that God’s purpose, which was made according to election, might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said that the elder will serve the younger, as it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” For such generations of the soul, even before they do anything good, if they have been begotten of the Holy Spirit, are already loved. But if of the malignant spirit, even before they fulfil anything evil in deed, yet by the very fact that the soul has given birth to such a will, the accursed conception of the evil will is worthily hated in it. For this reason perhaps, as a figure of this sacrament, the boy Canaan too is cursed before he was born. For Ham his father had sinned; and Noah, prophesying, when he marked each of his sons with the best things, when he came to Ham, said: “Cursed be the boy Canaan.” Ham sinned, and Canaan his offspring is cursed, and was accursed. And therefore we must pay keener attention and take care lest perhaps the soul beget something worthy of a curse, so that, even if it has not yet fulfilled it in deed, yet in its very will and purpose there is an offspring cursed in this way. And if this should perhaps happen at some time (for who will easily be found free of this kind of generation, that is, of the will to sin?), if, then, something of this kind should happen, let us inquire from the divine volumes what remedy is given. We find, then, written about this in the Psalms: “Wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who will repay you the repayment with which you repaid us. Blessed is he who will take and dash your little ones against the rock.” Even if this Babylonian thing conceived in us has not yet done any work, while it is still little, do not pity it, do not spare it, but kill it at once. For it is hateful; destroy it, kill it, dashing it against the rock. And the rock is Christ. Who, then, is so great and of such a kind as not to wait at all until the Babylonian offspring grows in him, nor to let the works of confusion increase in him, but at the very first beginnings, when they begin to be nourished and to take shape from the movements of the will, and, so to speak, when they begin to put forth their heads from the womb of the soul, pernicious desires conceived by the inspiration of the malignant spirit, at once seizes them and dashes them against the rock: that is, brings them to Christ, so that, placed in the sight of his dread judgment, they may wither away and perish? These things have been said to us about general sexual immorality, which has very many kinds; one of which is this which is customarily called sexual immorality for bodily debauchery. But I, reading the Apostle, when I had come to the place where he says, “He who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit,” and “He who joins himself to a prostitute is one body,” was asking whether there is some other middle ground besides this, that one is joined either to the Lord or to a prostitute; and, examining it according to my strength, I perceived in these words a quite deep and hidden meaning of the Apostle, who defined it thus, that every soul is joined either to the Lord or to a prostitute; and I understood that by the Lord he meant the virtues which Christ is, that is, the Word, wisdom, truth, righteousness, and the rest of this kind; but by the prostitute, on the contrary, all the kinds of wickedness. I understand this to be said also in Solomon, where he says of the prostitute that she looks out through the windows into the streets, and if she sees any of the foolish young men, lacking sense, passing by the corners of her house and talking in the evening darkness, when there is the silence of night or the gloom of night, a woman meets him having the look of a prostitute, who makes the hearts of young men fly away. This one, then, who is called the prostitute is wickedness itself; and he who joins himself to this prostitute becomes one body of wickedness. Just as, then, he who joins himself to Christ the Lord joins himself to wisdom, joins himself to righteousness, joins himself to godliness and truth, and becomes one spirit with all these; so too he who joins himself to this prostitute joins himself to unchastity, impiety, iniquity, falsehood, and at the same time to all the evils of sins, with which he becomes one body.

“Moreover, Israel settled at Shittim.” In the interpretation of Hebrew names we find that Shittim means in our language “answer” or “refutation.” Israel, then, settled at answer or refutation. It did not settle well. See, in short, what it incurred while placed at this stopping place. It committed sexual immorality with the women of the Midianites, and was refuted by God: because it not only committed sexual immorality but was also consecrated to the idols of the Gentiles, and ate of the things sacrificed to idols, which are certainly accursed to God. “For what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” But I have also greatly wondered at what the Apostle writes to the Corinthians, saying: “For if anyone sees one who has knowledge reclining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, since it is weak, be built up to eat things sacrificed?” For he seems to declare grave not so much the thing itself as the offence of him who, seeing this, is provoked by the like example though he is not protected by like knowledge; so that he shows that he who has knowledge and reclines in an idol’s temple is made guilty not so much of his own harm as of another’s. But see whether perhaps it was not only this that happened among the Corinthians, that they reclined in idols’ temples and ate things sacrificed to idols. But perhaps, since they were men devoted to Greek letters and lovers of philosophy, they were still held by desire for their old studies, and were eating the doctrines of the philosophers as if things sacrificed to idols: which perhaps could not harm those who had received the full knowledge of the truth. But those who had less instruction in Christ, if they imitated them reading such things and still giving their attention to those studies, could be wounded and entangled in the various errors of different doctrines. So it came about that another was harmed by what could not harm him who had the full knowledge of the truth. But since love does not seek what is useful to itself but what is useful to many, we must take care to take such food of the word as not only builds us up and delights us, but also does not offend or harm those who see. There is, then, something sacrificed to idols not only in foods but also in words. I think that, just as every word that teaches godliness and righteousness and truth is consecrated to God and sacrificed to God, so too every word that looks to unchastity or injustice or impiety is sacrificed to idols, and he who receives it eats, as it were, things sacrificed to idols. “The people, then, ate of their sacrifices, and they worshipped their idols.” They not only ate, but also worshipped. See the order of the evil: first desire, then the gluttony of the belly, and last impiety took captive the servants of the Lord. And sexual immorality is paid out as the wages of impiety. If you read again what is written about Solomon, you will find that he, although he was most wise, inclined his sides to many women, though the law of God says: “You shall not multiply women for yourself, lest perhaps they make you commit sexual immorality away from your God.” He, then, although he was most wise and of great merit before God, yet because he gave himself to many women, was deceived. I think that by many women are meant many doctrines and the various philosophies of many nations. When, as one most learned and most wise, he wished to recognize and examine each of them, he could not keep himself within the rule of the divine law. The philosophy of the Moabites deceived him and persuaded him to sacrifice to the idol of the Moabites, and likewise of the Ammonites, and also of the other nations whose women he is said to have received, and to have built temples for and sacrificed to their idols. It is, then, a great thing and truly a work of God to mingle with so many doctrines as with women, and yet not to turn aside from the rule of truth, but to say steadfastly: “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and young maidens without number; but one is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, the only one of her who bore her.” But these worshipped idols and were consecrated to Baal-peor. Baal-peor is the name of an idol which was worshipped among the Midianites, chiefly by women. Into the mysteries of this idol, then, Israel was consecrated. When we inquired more attentively for the interpretation of its name among the Hebrew names, we found only this written: that Baal-peor is a form of shamefulness. The interpreter, however, would not declare what or what kind of form, or of what shamefulness, out of regard, I believe, for decency, so as not to pollute the hearing of his hearers. Since, then, there are many forms of shamefulness, one certain form of shamefulness among many is called Baal-peor. Hence it should be known that everyone who commits something shameful and turns aside into some form of shamefulness is consecrated to Baal-peor, the demon of the Midianites. Moreover, through each sin we commit, especially if we sin no longer by some stealthy surprise but with eagerness and affection, we are without doubt consecrated to that demon whose concern it is that the sin we have committed should be accomplished. And perhaps it happens to us that we are consecrated to as many demons as the sins we commit, and in each offence we receive, as it were, the mysteries of this or that idol. And perhaps for this reason the Apostle said: “For the mystery of iniquity is already at work.” Malignant spirits, then, stand around and seek how they may deceive each one, and through the enticement of sin consecrate him to their mysteries, without his perceiving or understanding it; for example, through the sin of sexual immorality they bring him in to the demon of the Midianites and consecrate him to Baal-peor, consecrate him to shamefulness. Likewise through other sins, as we said, men are consecrated to other demons. But you, observe more carefully what is written: “Stand in the ways, and ask which are the eternal ways of the Lord, and which is the good way, and walk in it,” and do not approach the doors of the house of wickedness. But if you perceive a malignant spirit speaking in your heart to lead you to some work of sin, understand that he wants to lead you in order to consecrate you to some demon. He wants to lead you so that you may receive diabolical mysteries, mysteries of iniquity. And I think this is what the Apostle writes: “When you were Gentiles, going to dumb idols, as you were led.” By whom or by what were you led? By malignant spirits, surely, you were led to works of sin. Hearing this, some watchful hearer will perhaps say: What then shall we do? If malignant spirits go around each of us and lead and drag us to sin, and there is no one else who draws to righteousness, who invites and leads to chastity, to godliness, how will it not seem that the broad way to perishing lies open, but that no entry anywhere is given to salvation? On the contrary, pay closer attention, if you can, and with the eye of your heart opened consider with me the inner mysteries; and you will see how much greater care is taken in secret for our salvation than opportunity is given for deceiving us. There is present to each of us, even to the least who are in the church of God, a good angel, an angel of the Lord, who rules, who warns, who governs, who, in order to correct our acts and to plead for mercies, daily sees the face of the Father who is in heaven, as the Lord indicates in the Gospels. And again, according to what John writes in the Apocalypse, an angel presides over each church in general, who is either praised for the good deeds of the people or also blamed for its offences. At this I am moved with wonder at an astonishing mystery: that God has such care for us that he allows even his angels to be blamed and reproved for us. So it is when a boy is handed over to a tutor: if perhaps he appears to have been trained in disciplines less worthy and not in keeping with his father’s nobility, at once the blame is laid on the tutor, and the boy is not reproved by the father as the tutor is, unless he has been rather hard and has despised the tutor’s warnings and, prone to wantonness and impudence, has scorned his saving words, obeying rather those who urge luxury and provoke to wantonness. What happens to such a soul, learn from the words of the prophet: “The daughter of Zion will be left,” it says, “like a tent in a vineyard, and like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, and like a city that has been taken by storm.” And again: “Its wall will be taken away, and it will be trampled, and all who pass along the way will plunder it, and the solitary wild beast will feed on it.” These things it will suffer if it does not [heed] the warnings of the angel who has been set over it for its salvation. For the soul has free choice, and it is free to turn to whichever side it wishes: and therefore the judgment of God is just, because of its own accord it obeys either good or very bad counsellors. Do you wish me to show you still more from the divine Scriptures how God’s care for men’s salvation is greater than the devil’s care for their perdition? Was not the diligence of the angels enough against the snares of demons and against those who drag men to sin? The Only-begotten himself, himself, I say, the Son of God, is present, he himself defends, he himself guards, he himself draws us to himself. Hear how he himself says: “And behold, I am with you all days until the consummation of the age.” But it is not enough for him to be with us; he in a certain way does us violence in order to drag us to salvation. For he says in another place: “But when I am lifted up, I will draw all things to myself.” You see how he not only invites the willing but also draws the hesitant. Do you wish to hear how he draws even the hesitant? He did not grant to him who wished to go and bury his father even an interval of time, but said to him: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you follow me.” And elsewhere he says: “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” And if you wish to know still more about this sacrament, I will show you from the Scriptures that the Lord the Father himself also does not neglect the dispensation of our salvation, but he too not only calls us to salvation but drags us. For so the Lord says in the Gospel: “No one comes to me unless my heavenly Father draws him.” And the householder too, who sends his servants to invite friends to his son’s wedding, after those who had first been invited excused themselves, says to the servants: “Go out into the roads and lanes, and whomever you find, compel them to come in.” So, then, we are not only invited by God but also drawn and compelled to salvation. Nor is the Holy Spirit absent from dispensations of this kind. For he himself says: “Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the ministry to which I have taken them.” And again he forbids Paul to go into Asia, and again he compels him to go to Jerusalem, foretelling to him that chains and prisons await him there. If, then, the angels of the Lord encamp round about those who fear him to rescue them, if God the Father, if the Son, if the Holy Spirit not only exhort and urge but also drag us, how is not much greater care taken for our salvation than is procured by the adversaries for our death? Let these things have been said about the people’s being consecrated to Baal-peor.

“And the Lord was angry with fury against Israel,” it says, “and the Lord said to Moses: Take the princes of the people and expose them to the Lord against the sun, and the wrath of the Lord’s fury will be turned away from Israel.” I do not know whether, in discussing these things, we may not offend some; but even if we offend, we must obey and serve the word of the Lord rather than the favour of men. Israel sinned, and the Lord told Moses to take all the princes and expose them to the Lord against the sun. The people sins, and the princes are exposed against the sun. They are brought out for examination, to be convicted by the light. You see what the condition of the princes of the people is: they are not only convicted for their own offences, but are also compelled to give an account for the sins of the people, lest it be their fault that the people offended, lest perhaps they did not warn, nor were anxious to convict those who gave the beginning of the fault, so that the contagion should not spread to more. For all these things are incumbent on princes and teachers to do. For if the people sins while they do not do these things and do not exercise care over the people, they themselves are exposed, and they themselves are brought out to judgment. For Moses, that is, the law of God, convicts them as negligent and slothful, and the anger of God will be turned upon them and will cease from the people. If men thought of these things, they would never desire or canvass for the leadership of the people. For it is enough for me to be convicted for my own offences; it is enough for me to give an account for myself and my sins. What need have I to be exposed also for the sins of the people, and exposed against the sun, before which nothing can be hidden, nothing obscured? But perhaps there is in this also some higher and hidden sense, which teaches something more than this common explanation seems to hold. For perhaps this can also be referred to those princes of the people of whom we spoke a little above. For the angels will come to judgment with us and will stand for us before the sun of righteousness, in case perhaps something of the cause of our offending lay also with them, in case perhaps they spent less work and labour on us to call us back from the stain of sins. For unless there were also something in them that seemed blameworthy in our case, the word of Scripture would never say to the angel of this or that church: “You have,” for example, “some who hold the teaching of Balaam,” or “You have abandoned your first love,” or your patience, or other such things, which we mentioned above, for which the angels of each church are blamed in the Apocalypse. For if the angel, for example, who received me sealed from God, hopes for a reward for the things I have done well, it is certain that he will also expect to be blamed for the things not done well by me. And therefore they are said to be exposed against the sun, doubtless so that it may appear whether the sins were committed through my disobedience or through his negligence, through which I would be consecrated to Baal-peor or to any other idol, according to the quality of the sinning. But if my prince (I mean the angel who has been assigned to me) did not fail, but warned me of good things and spoke in my heart, at least in that in which my conscience called me back from sin, but I, despising his warnings and spurning the rein of conscience, rushed headlong into sins, my punishment will be doubled, both for the contempt of the one who warned and for the crime committed. Nor should you wonder if we say that angels come to judgment with men, since Scripture says that the Lord himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people and with its princes. The princes, then, are exposed, and if the fault is in them, the wrath of God ceases from the people. Our care for our limbs ought to be keener, knowing that not only shall we stand before the judgment seat of God for our acts, but the angels will be brought to judgment for us as our princes and leaders. For this reason Scripture also says: “Obey your leaders and submit to them in all things. For they keep watch as those who will give an account for your souls.”

After this it is related that when Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest saw a certain Israelite go in to a Midianite woman, he seized a spear in his hand, entered the brothel, and pierced them both through their very private parts. “And for this,” it says, “the Lord said to Moses: Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest has calmed my anger.” These things may have edified the former people; but you, who have been redeemed by Christ, and from whose hands the bodily sword has been taken away and the sword of the Spirit given, seize this sword; and if you see an Israelite thought fornicating with Midianite prostitutes, that is, wallowing with diabolical thoughts, I would not have you spare it, I would not have you pretend not to see, but strike at once, destroy at once. And, piercing and penetrating the very womb, that is, the secret places of nature, cut out that very tinder of sinning, so that it may no longer conceive, no longer beget, and the cursed offspring of sins defile the camp of Israel. For if you do this, you will at once calm the anger of the Lord: for you have anticipated the day of judgment, which is called the day of wrath and fury, and, having rooted out from yourself the tinder of sin, which is now called the womb of the Midianite woman, you will come secure to the day of judgment. And therefore, rising, let us pray that we may always find ready this sword of the Spirit, through which the very seeds and receptacles of sins may be rooted out, and that God may become gracious to us through the true Phinehas, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to whom is the glory and the dominion for ages of ages. Amen.