Homilies on Numbers 28.1–28.4

The last account in the book of Numbers is related, in which the Lord orders Moses to give commands to the sons of Israel, so that when they have entered the holy land to take its inheritance, they may know which boundaries of their territories they ought to observe in it. And after this, the Lord himself describing it, it is said: toward the south such and such, that is, toward the west, the boundary of this place is to be kept, and toward the east that of that one; and so through the four quarters of heaven the Lord himself marks out certain names which the people of God ought to keep in this earthly Judaea. Someone among the simpler hearers, then, says about these things that they can seem necessary and useful even according to the letter, so that no one may transgress the boundaries established by the Lord’s command, and one tribe may not dare to violate the territory of another. And what shall we do, when in these lands the Jews not only do not invade another’s territory, but have no means of possessing anything at all left to them? For they live in exile as fugitives and outcasts, and they do not keep, as possessors, the boundaries which the divine law laid down, but those which the rights of the victors have dictated. What, I say, shall we do, who read these things in the church? If we read them according to the sense of the Jews, they will certainly seem superfluous and empty to us. But I, who read of wisdom that it is written, “Go out after her like a tracker,” wish to go out after her; and because I do not find her in bodily things, I desire to follow her footsteps and to track where she goes, and to see to what lairs of understanding she draws me. For I think that if I can follow her diligently and track out her ways, she will give me some occasions from the Scriptures by which we ought to explain these places too, if we return to what Paul says in a mystery, that “those who serve under the law serve a shadow and image of heavenly things.” And if, according to his own opinion, the law, of which this reading which we have in hand is a part, has a shadow of the good things to come, it seems to follow necessarily that all the things which are described in the law as if about earthly things are shadows of the good things to come, and that the whole inheritance of that land, which in Judaea is called the holy land and the good land, is an image of heavenly good things; of which these good things recorded on earth, as we said, hold the shadow and image.

But so that my discourse and your understanding may be lifted a little, and may conceive a certain entry into noticing what we say, let us use a comparison. No one doubts that in the land of Judaea every place, every mountain, every city and village, is designated by certain names; and there is no place at all without a name, but each is designated by its own names: for example, those by which the Canaanites in their places, or the Perizzites no less in theirs, and the Amorites, or the Hivites, or even the Hebrews named them. So, then, according to Paul’s opinion, by which he says that earthly things are a shadow and pattern of heavenly ones, perhaps in the heavenly regions too there will be no small differences of places. You see by what or whose appellations and names they are distinguished, and that the names not only of the regions of heaven but also of all the stars and constellations are marked. For he who made the multitude of the stars, as the prophet says, calls them all by names. Concerning these names, indeed, very many secret and hidden things are contained in the books which are called Enoch; but since those books do not seem to be held in authority among the Hebrews, let us for the present put off calling on what is named there as an example, and pursue the investigation of things from those which we have in hand, about which there can be no doubt. The land of Judaea, then, is described by the words of God in the divine law, and it is said that this ought to be referred to the image of heavenly things. And the Apostle plainly declares that in the heavens there is the city of Jerusalem, and Mount Zion. It follows, then, that just as there are other cities situated around the earthly Jerusalem, and villages, and various regions, so too that heavenly Jerusalem, according to the image of earthly things, has around it other cities and villages and various regions, in which the people of God and the true Israel is one day to be placed through the true Jesus, of whom that Joshua son of Nun bore the image, and is to take the inheritance by distribution of lot, that is, by consideration of merits. So, then, the Lord now says in the distribution of the land, for example, that these are the boundaries of this tribe and others of another: perhaps because the merits of those who will obtain the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven will be different, therefore this distinction of boundaries is commanded to be carefully drawn among these tribes too, so that we may know that these differences of merits are to be observed in each one. For example, one who has lived so negligently that for his faith he deserves indeed to be held among the sons of Israel, but for the negligence and sloth of his life and deeds ought to be reckoned in the tribe of Reuben or Gad or the half-tribe of Manasseh, and to receive the lot of inheritance not within the Jordan but outside it. Another, however, who by amendment of life and the conduct of his purpose has made himself such that, for reasons which God alone knows, he ought to be reckoned either in the tribe of Judah or even in the tribe of Benjamin itself, in which Jerusalem itself and the temple of God and the altar stand; and another in another, and another in another. And in this way these things which are now related as written in the book of Numbers may be a certain foreshadowing of the future lot in the heavens, of those at least who, as we said, will take the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven through Jesus our Lord and Saviour. There, I believe, will also be carefully observed these privileges of the priests which are foreshadowed here, for whom the places near the cities and joined to the very walls are commanded to be set apart by the sons of Israel. There, I believe, will also be these cities whose figure is described here, which it calls cities of refuge, to which not all murderers may flee, but those who committed homicide unknowingly. For there are perhaps some sins which, if we commit them by purpose and will, make us murderers; and there are others which, if we commit them unknowingly, a certain place is decreed for us, I believe, and prepared by God’s command, where we must dwell for a certain time, if we have committed sins that were not voluntary; provided, however, that we are found clean and free from those sins which were committed by will. And for this reason certain cities are set apart for refuge. It seems to some that the position and gathering of each of the stars too can be called or held to be a city in heaven: which I indeed do not dare to define. For I see that the whole creation was subjected in hope on account of him who subjected it, yet awaits freedom in the redemption of the sons of God, and without doubt looks for something more glorious, or something more sublime than its present state.

If, then, as we said, the law has a shadow of the good things to come, and those who serve in the law serve a pattern and shadow of heavenly things, and now through a mirror and in a riddle, but then face to face, there will be the contemplation of things, I believe that just as we are now said to have our way of life in heaven through a mirror and in a riddle, so then, face to face, we shall deserve to have such a way of life in heaven. If, then, by the sequence of things and the faith of the promises we must be transferred from earth to heaven, I think that in those heavenly places Jesus our Lord will place each one in this or that part and dwelling of heaven not without the lot of merits. But just as there is much difference on earth, for example, between dwelling in fertile and abundant places overflowing with all good things, where neither a temperate climate nor the culture of men nor liberal institutions are lacking; and it is something far different to dwell either in barren places, squalid with want of things, or parched with heat, or numb with cold and frost, or even where there are no laws but monstrous and savage barbarism, where there are always wars and never rest; and these things are not assigned to each one without a certain hidden dispensation of God and his judgment and justice: so too in those places there will be something of the kind, so that the shadow of heavenly things on earth may not be entirely without likeness. There will be, then, as we said, a certain city of refuge there, and there will be another in the wilderness, as Bezer in the inheritance of Reuben is said to be a city in the wilderness.

But that consequence too must no less be grasped: that just as, “when God dispersed the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God,” or, as we read in other copies, “according to the number of the sons of Israel,” at the beginning of the world the sons of that Adam were dispersed as either their merits or the regard for Adam himself required; what shall we say will happen when the divine condescension begins, not to disperse but to dispense the sons of the last Adam (who was made not a living soul but a life-giving spirit), not at the beginning but at the end of the world, and not as those who all died in Adam, but as those who have all been made alive in Christ? Without doubt there will be some division and distribution of such a kind as must be weighed not only according to the merits of those who are dispensed, but also with regard for the last Adam, in whom all are said to be made alive. But which of us is such as to deserve to come to a distribution of this kind and to that lot of the heavenly inheritance? Who will be so blessed that his lot comes in Jerusalem, so that he is there where the temple of God is, or rather that he himself is the temple of God? Who is so blessed as to keep the feast days there where the divine altar burns with perpetual fires? Who is so blessed as to place his sacrifice and incense of sweetness upon that fire of which the Saviour said, “I came to cast fire on the earth”? Who is so blessed as always to keep the Passover there, in the place which the Lord has chosen for himself, and to keep the day of Pentecost, and the festival of propitiation, and the solemnity of Tabernacles, no longer through a shadow, but through the very form and truth of things? Which of us will be held worthy of the choice of so blessed a lot, when God begins to divide the sons of the last Adam: not one to whom he may say, “You shall have authority over five cities,” nor one to whom he may say, “You shall have authority over ten cities,” nor one to whom he may say, “Enter into the joy of your Lord”; but one to whom he may say, “You too sit with me on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”; of whom he may say, “Father, I wish that where I am, they too may be with me. I wish these too to be kings, so that I may be King of kings. I wish these too to have dominion, so that I may be Lord of lords.” Blessed are those who come to this summit of blessedness. Blessed are those who will be able to climb to these heights of merits; and blessed is our God, who has promised these things to those who love him. These are truly numbered in sacred numbers before God; or rather these are they whose very hairs of the head are numbered, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is the glory and the dominion for ages of ages. Amen.