Book of the Promises and Predictions of God 1.35–2.1

Of the same Moses, who, like Christ the Lord, slew the devil. A prediction made and figured, by which the devil is overcome by God’s ministers. Believed and seen in Exodus. So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and not only told by divine command the words they had heard, but also displayed the signs that had been given them. The rod which Moses carried in his hand, thrown down before Pharaoh, became a serpent. Pharaoh’s magicians too were allowed to do such signs, so that they might be overcome by the divine power; throwing down their rods, they too showed the forms of serpents; and Moses’ serpent swallowed the magicians’ serpents, as the rod of the teaching of our leader Christ has consumed by divine power the doctrines of all pagans and heretics. They did this not only to signify by this figured act, but also so that the proclamation of the prophet David might resound, saying: “The Lord will send forth the rod of your power from Zion: rule in the midst of your enemies.” Moses shows another sign before the people: putting his hand into his bosom and drawing it out, it became leprous as snow; put back again and drawn out, it was restored to its own color. By the bosom is signified prayer for sin, as David says: “My prayer returned into my bosom.” That the hand drawn out of the bosom showed snow signified that when our Mediator, Christ the Lord, poured out prayer for us, our sins too are cleansed. So he himself shows through Isaiah: “If your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow.” And the Church sings to him: “You will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.” For we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Lord, and he is the propitiation for our sins.

Of the same, when the devil, like Pharaoh, is beaten with scourges. The plagues already foretold presented to hardened Pharaoh and his people, by which they were judged. Believed and seen in Exodus. As was promised to Abraham, they at last, unwillingly, let go the sons of Israel whom they had long held captive; and soon Pharaoh himself, who let them go, perished with his people by a fitting destruction and punishment. The ten plagues inflicted on Egypt are to be compared with the ten commandments which the people received in the desert; with the Lord’s help we have undertaken to show this in such a way that they are proved to correspond to one another. The first plague of the Egyptians: the waters were turned into blood through Moses. And the first commandment contains: “Hear, Israel: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no gods besides me. You shall not make for yourself any likeness.” Those, then, who leave the one true God and serve false gods wallow in flesh and blood; and flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. For corrupt morals deserved to have the element of water corrupted. So the waters are changed into blood, because by sacrificing their sons and daughters to demons they shed innocent blood, rejecting the true God, Christ, the fountain of pure water; by whose grace the woman healed of the flow of blood showed the soul rescued from the flow of idolatry. The second plague of the Egyptians is the teeming multitude of frogs, defiling all Egypt with stinking filth. And the second commandment in the law is: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not cleanse such a one.” So every heretic, perjurer, and sacrilegious person, while his tongue sounds something other than the name of the Lord, croaks against God like frogs with the stench of his disputation. Deceitful lips speak with a double heart. And not without reason are they compared to these animals, who in the swamp of the rebaptizers do not wash away the filth they have amassed but rather heap up their offenses. The third plague of the Egyptians is the gnats, swarming through the whole air, tormenting the Egyptians with their pestilent bite in the midst of the heat; in this plague all the magicians’ learning failed, and they confessed that the finger of God was in it; and when they too were afflicted, their cunning remained empty and vain. And the third commandment in the law is that unless the rest of the sabbath is observed, the soul shall perish from its people. This rest the prophet David proclaims in the person of the Lord, saying: “Be still, and see that I am God.” Those, then, who make a vow and offer themselves to God, and are free for his word, keep a spiritual sabbath, like Mary, who chose the better part. Those who turn aside from it into strangling, entangled in worldly cares, are hurt by the pestilent bite of this plague, in the soul that is to be redeemed through our leader Jesus, who is Lord of the sabbath. The fourth plague of the Egyptians is the dog-fly, that is, the canine fly, inflicting pains with its bites even on the private parts. And the fourth commandment in the law is that parents are to be honored. This is the first commandment that refers to men, since the earlier ones are seen to be assigned to the Godhead. Those who do not honor their parents with the respect commanded are like dogs, exercising the madness of their foulness, and cannot be long-lived on the earth. To such the Lord says in the Gospel that what is holy must not be given; and from their company the Canaanite woman, cleansed by faith, with her humble and devout barking, obtained grace for herself and health for her daughter with no preceding merits. The fifth plague of the Egyptians is the sudden death of all cattle and beasts of burden. And the fifth commandment of the law is: “You shall not kill.” Not only those who rage with the sword, but also those who rage with hatred, are murderers. For John the apostle says: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer.” Such people fall with a sudden rush like the animals of Egypt, because no murderer has life abiding in him. The sixth plague of the Egyptians is boiling blisters and running sores. And the sixth commandment of the law is: “You shall not commit adultery.” What adulterers suffer in the soul this plague demonstrates. For unless the sores of the foulest love and boiling lust disturbed the reason of the mind, he would surely not be an adulterer, nor, as it is written, would he gain the ruin of his soul through want of sense. And though such people are punished even here by human laws, “fornicators and adulterers,” as our Paul says, “God will judge.” The seventh plague of the Egyptians is hail mixed with fire, overthrowing not only every animal but even the trees and shrubs. And the seventh commandment is: “You shall not steal.” This is the comparison: the thief brings upon the walls and houses of others what raging hail does in the fields; and he is liable to the general law by which it is said: “What you do not wish done to you, do not do to another.” The eighth plague of the Egyptians is the multitude of locusts, covering everything and destroying it to the roots. And the eighth commandment in the law is: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” For the forger, inventing many and various things, gnaws like a locust at the reputation, life, and deeds of others, until he destroys to the roots the whole person against whom he contrives falsehoods. But a false witness will not go unpunished. The ninth plague of the Egyptians is the thickest darkness, full of deadly images and terrors. And the ninth commandment of the law is: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” What is worse than evil desire, which so blinds the whole mind that, forgetting not only the fear of God but even the very penalties of the laws and an infamous death, no light remains in the adulterer, whom deadly darkness wholly occupies? Those whom grace frees from these it admonishes through the Apostle, saying: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” The tenth plague of the Egyptians is the death of all the firstborn. And the tenth commandment in the law is: “You shall not covet anything of your neighbor’s.” That evil desire is firstborn is shown by the fact that the devil, Pharaoh, himself desired to be what he was not, and Adam, who threw himself into death through covetousness. The vices of his angels, through whom death entered the world, as the firstborn of the Egyptians in this world as in Egypt, our leader has slain, while he teaches us to renounce the devil, his pomps, and his angels: so that where sin abounded, grace may abound all the more.

Of the Passover figured, and of Christ’s passing to the Father. A promise made and figured. Believed and seen in Exodus. The Passover, which means passing over, in which is enacted every act of our faith and the sacrament of the Lord’s passion, God commanded Moses to be done thus: that the Hebrews should ask the Egyptians for vessels of gold and silver and for clothing, and, taking them, should despoil the Egyptians, who lent them under the pressure of the loss of their firstborn. Fearing for themselves, they drove the Hebrews out quickly with all they had given them, so that, as the prophet says, the reward of their labors might be paid to the just. For they had built two cities for the Egyptians, for which those spoils were not taken by theft, but a wage was paid. The mystic passing itself was this: a lamb without blemish, a year old, was to be killed by divine command in each household, and the doorposts of the house smeared with its blood; not a bone of it was to be broken; it was to be eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, with loins girded, in all haste, and nothing of it was to be left till morning. While all these things were figures, the authority of the Gospel tells how they were fulfilled, which commands us to eat the flesh of the lamb until the morning that will have no evening, that is, until the resurrection, not with the old leaven but with the unleavened bread of sincerity, with the doorposts marked with his blood, on whose foreheads his cross shines. It is said “with bitter herbs,” for those who lead a bitter life in mourning; but they are blessed, for they shall be comforted. That the Egyptians were despoiled by our people we gather in this way: all worldly knowledge, in which, born above others, they took pride, and moral wisdom, passed to Christ, so that he possesses them humbly with right faith, and the proud people rightly loses them. The Hebrews, driven out, are led through the desert, because for every Christian who renounces the world the narrow and confined way that leads to life is necessary. A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night showed this people the way, because a Christian man’s steps are directed by the Lord, and he will delight in his ways. And when the desert and the shore of the Red Sea had received the people, Pharaoh, hardened, so that he might perish entire with his own, joined chariots and horsemen and pursued the fugitives. This the raging devil does with his vices and angels, when he pursues our people as they flee from him. For everyone who renounces these, hastening to baptism as to the Red Sea, flees the enemy, so that the Savior may find him.

Of baptism, as in the Red Sea. A promise made and figured in baptism. Believed and seen in Exodus. The Lord said to Moses: “Why do you cry to me? Tell the sons of Israel to close ranks, and you, lift up your rod over the sea and divide it, and let the sons of Israel go through the midst of the sea on dry ground. For I will harden the heart of Pharaoh and of all the Egyptians, so that they will pursue them, and I will be glorified in Pharaoh and in all his army.” When this was done, the sea, carrying out the judgment of its Creator and King, fulfilled the commands of the divine sentence, punishing the rebels well: for the innocent it provided a way, the waves cut back and the flood suspended, as they walked on dry dust; and the wave, brought back on itself, sank the enemies to the bottom. And the avenging water, consecrated by the word, reddened with blood, struck by the wood of the cross in the mystery of the rod, gave salvation to those coming to the Savior, but thrust the sins, with their author the devil, like the Egyptians with their king, into the deep. This is our God, of whom the prophet Micah says: “He will turn again and have mercy on us, and will sink all our sins into the depth of the sea.” After hard exile, after the labors of the desert and the crossing of the Red Sea, the victor’s palm received the people of God; though at Marah the bitter water wearied them in their thirst, which, when wood was cast into it, became sweet, showing that the thirsty Christian, as soon as he has drunk the bitter cup of the passion, is to be freed from all bitterness by the sweetness of the wood of the cross. Hence Paul too says: “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.” For the same place which gave that people rest, with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, was consecrated in our mysteries. For after baptism the streams of pure teaching of the twelve apostles, as springs, overflow to satisfy hearts, to which the holy psalm sounds: “In the churches bless the Lord God from the springs of Israel.” And in the seventy palm trees the whole number of the holy martyrs in their thousands is marked, who, fighting for the truth even to death, receive the palm of the upward call. These too the Apocalypse of John the apostle marks, saying: “I saw a great crowd, which no one could number, from every tribe, people, and tongue. And they were clothed in white robes, and palms were in their hands,” which that palm, Wisdom, who was exalted in Kadesh, gave to the victors.

The bread of heaven in the manna, which is Christ. Manna from heaven promised. When the bread they had brought with them from Egypt was used up, the people, murmuring, asked Moses for bread, longing also for the meat of Egypt. But that mediator Moses obtained bread and meat for them from the Lord. The people are ordered to receive bread in the morning and meat in the evening. But these were figures of us. For first the people received to eat that holy bread which came down from heaven, and afterwards the flesh of Christ offered in his passion, of which the Lord himself says: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, you will not have life in you.” The holy people fed on the manna under a fixed daily measure; if anyone exceeded it, he threw it away corrupted by worms and rotten, cheated by the greed of his avarice and intemperance. Such people Paul, the teacher of the nations, reproaches, saying: “Having food and clothing, let us be content with these. For those who want to become rich fall into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge a man into ruin and destruction. For the root of all evils is covetousness.” This is the rottenness, and these the worms, of those who, while the world perishes, desire their riches to increase and are not content with daily bread. But the same people in the desert murmured again against Moses, for want of water to drink. When Moses asked the Lord, it was said: “I will go before you,” he says, “to Horeb; and I will stand upon the rock, and you, coming, shall strike the rock, and water shall come out, and my people shall drink.” This was done. And David testifies: “He split the rock in the desert, and gave them drink as from a great abyss.” What this rock is, the apostle Paul explains, assigning everything that was done then in mystery to Christ the Lord: “Our fathers,” he says, “were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.” This rock, satisfying us too, says: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; but it will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” This rock, struck on the cross, brought forth blood and water, with which they are soberly made drunk.

Of overcoming enemies by the sign of the cross. A promise in figure, by which we are commanded to overcome all our adversaries by the sign of the cross. Believed and seen in Exodus. This people, in which our whole life is figured, was met by Amalek and the whole hostile nation with its leader, declaring war on an untrained people which it believed it could easily overcome. When battle was joined and the adversaries were prevailing greatly, Moses, stretching out his hands to God, expressed the likeness of the Crucified. By this sign the enemies fell; when Moses’ hands drooped, the adversary was stronger and won. But that Moses’ hands might be steady, Aaron and Hur held up his hands and made them firm with a certain steadiness, and Amalek fell, fled, and was wholly destroyed. If we look here at the sign of our Mediator, when we recall him singing through David, “The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice,” in whose passion the sun and moon changed their aspect and course, what adversary spirit or what hostile power will be able to oppose this sign, and not rather all flee, provided the fighter’s hope hangs on the hands of the Crucified, through whom we are daily rescued from the power of darkness? Now let us run back over all the figured acts of the time before the law, since that people received the promises in all that was done in such a way that it too, looking far ahead in faith, left things to be believed for itself and to be seen by its descendants. Since, then, the people was led by sure predictions and promises to Mount Sinai, where Moses, receiving the law from the Lord, was to lay open heavenly laws for ruling the tribes (whence I suppose they are called Judaei, as bearing or following the jus, the law, of God): know, reader, that up to here the time before the law is concluded, like one day rising from the four corners of the world, namely of the patriarchs, the chief men Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the ray of the East shining in Melchizedek, king and priest, in the number of twelve hours. Those born of them are also called our patriarchs; so that, when this has closed toward evening, another time, under the law, may rise like another day, begun through the other numbers.

Of the laws given on the mountain, and of the commandments of Christ the Lord on the mountain. A prediction made and figured. Believed and seen in Exodus. God called Moses on Mount Sinai and gave him the law written on tablets of stone to hand on to the people, so that by keeping it duly they might receive the land of promise. But our Mediator, the Lord Jesus (whose figure Moses also bore), going up the mountain with his disciples, wrote the law of how men might become blessed, not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart by the Spirit of God; so that those who keep his commandments may obtain not land, but heaven and eternal life. To that same people, after the ten commandments had been set first, heavenly laws are handed down through Moses: on the succession of heirs; on the failure of an heir; that a faithful friend and member of the household should succeed in place of an heir; on restoring theft fourfold; on deposits or loans taken away by accident or by some force; on punishing adulterers; on a virgin violated in the field or in the city; on a pregnant woman who is struck; eye for eye, tooth for tooth; and the other things which the authority of divine law contains in these matters. The people under the law received them from Moses with the attestation by which it promised to do everything. So Moses, killing a calf in sacrifice and taking its blood as a testimony, with hyssop and scarlet wool sprinkled the people and the book itself, saying: “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” To this our Mediator, Christ the Lord, not making void the law but fulfilling it, consecrated the new Testament with his own blood, not only for the free and powerful but also for the lowly and slaves who do his commandments; not without hyssop, which, mixed with vinegar, he drank in his passion. In this Testament there is no distinction of persons. For the apostle Paul says: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” who is the undivided and everlasting inheritance of the faithful. Faith must be kept toward a neighbor who lends or deposits, he commands through the same Apostle: “Guard the good deposit, Timothy.” And again: “Each looking not to his own interests, but also to those of others.” And through the prophet Solomon: “To the faithful man the whole world is full of riches; but to the unfaithful not even a penny.” Again Paul: “Let the thief no longer steal.” He too fears for the chaste virgin the serpentine corruption of the devil, when, conceiving with devoted affection, he declares that he is pregnant in spirit, saying: “My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” These he desires to bring to birth unharmed in every respect, when he says: “For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” Our Mediator also added the commandments of the new law, tempering the punishment of the Old Testament. For whereas there he decreed that adulterers be punished, here he frees the adulteress with such mercy that he does not destroy the law, saying: “Go, and sin no more.” Not only must one not commit adultery, but one must not consent with the eyes to desire. Not only must murder not be committed, but whoever hates his brother is a murderer. Eye for eye must by no means be demanded, and, more, evil must not be repaid for evil. To him who takes the tunic the cloak too must be given up; to him who strikes on one cheek the other must be offered; with him who compels one to go a mile, one must go twice as far. One must do good to enemies and pray for persecutors. And the other things commanded in the Gospel by the heavenly founder of law himself are shown not to be contrary to the law from this: that there it was commanded that if an enemy’s animal falls on the road it must be raised up and not passed by; that one must not speak deceitfully with a neighbor; that a poor man’s pledge must not be kept until evening; that in the seventh year sown grain must not be reaped, and all the fruits of that year are to be left to proselytes, widows, and orphans; that in the same year freedom is to be given to Hebrew slaves; that tithes and first fruits of all produce are to be brought into the house of the Lord; that when the seventh year is completed a debt is not to be demanded back, and pledges released; and that in the fiftieth year all estates bound by securities are to be returned without the money being received. And all that the commandments of the new and the old contain, as I said, when examined, are found in no respect contrary to each other; since in the New Testament too examples of punishment, not small but terrible, have appeared: when the proud man is handed over to an unclean spirit, that he may learn not to blaspheme; when adulterers are handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus; when the deceitful liars Ananias and Sapphira are struck with sudden death; when he who did not have a wedding garment is sent into the outer darkness with hands and feet bound, the garment which is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. And whatever else from the old signs is known to be fulfilled in the new has been consecrated, as was said, together with the people itself, by the sacred blood of the Mediator.