Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 16

And God spoke in this manner, saying that his seed would sojourn in a foreign land, and they would enslave it and oppress it for four hundred years.

'And the nation to which they shall be in bondage I will judge,' said God.

'And after these things they shall come out, and shall serve me in this place.'

See how many years before, the promise and the manner of the promise; and nowhere sacrifice, nowhere circumcision.

Here he shows that God himself permitted them to suffer ill, and that these things would not go unpunished.

'And the nation to which they shall be in bondage I will judge,' said God.

Do you see? He who promised, he who gave the land, first permits the evils.

So also now: even though he has promised a kingdom, yet he permits them to be trained by trials.

If here, after four hundred years, came the freedom, what wonder if the same thing happens in the case of the kingdom? Nevertheless he did bring it to pass, and time had no power to prove the word false, and yet it was no ordinary bondage they endured.

Nor indeed did he stop at the punishment of those others, but he also promises good things to them.

And it seems to me that through these things he also reminds them of the benefit which they had received.

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and thus he begat Isaac.

And he circumcised him on the eighth day.

And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

And the patriarchs, moved with envy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt.

This also happened in the case of Christ.

For Joseph was a type of him.

Wherefore, hinting at this, he goes through the whole history.

For having nothing to charge him with, but when he came for their nourishment, they treated him ill.

And see, that here again there is a long promise, and yet it comes to fulfillment.

And God was with him.

And he delivered him out of all his afflictions.

Here he shows that, without knowing it, they were cooperating with the prophecy, and that they themselves became the cause, and the evils were turned back upon them.

And he gave him grace and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

He gave him grace, and that too before a barbarian man, to the slave and the captive.

Whom his brothers indeed sold, but that man honored.

Now there came a famine over the whole land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction; and our fathers found no sustenance.

But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers first.

And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers.

They came down to buy, and they stood in need of him.

What then did he do? He did not display his kindness only up to this point, but he also made it known to Pharaoh, and brought them down.

And Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

And Joseph sent and called for his father Jacob, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.

So Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers.

And they were removed to Shechem, and were laid in the tomb which Abraham had bought for a price of silver from the sons of Emmor of Shechem.

But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose another king who did not know Joseph.

First was the famine; second, the falling into the hands of the brother; and third, the decree being passed by the king to put them to death.

And nevertheless they were preserved out of all these things.

Then, showing the resourcefulness of God, he says:

At which time Moses was born, and he was fair before God.

If that was wonderful, that he was sold by his brothers, yet this is still more wonderful, that the king nourished the very one who was to overthrow his dominion—the one who himself was destined to perish.

Do you see how nearly everywhere the resurrection of the dead is prefigured? And yet it is not the same thing for God himself to do something, and for something to come about from human free choice.

These things, then, came not from human choosing.

And he was mighty in word and in deed.

This he said, showing that the one was a savior, and that these men were ungrateful toward their benefactor.

Just as, then, they were at that time saved by Joseph, who had been evilly treated,

so also now they were saved by the one who had been evilly treated—I mean by Moses.

For what does it matter if they did not make away with him in the deed itself? In word they made away with him, just as those others did.

And those men sold him out of their own land into a foreign and strange country;

but these drive him as a fugitive out of one alien land into another;

and there he brought them food, while here he counsels them by what means they shall be with God.

That saying of Gamaliel is proved true also from the things now being dispensed—namely, that 'If it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it.'

And do you, learning how those who were plotted against became to their plotters the authors of salvation, stand amazed at the resourcefulness of God and at His wisdom;

for unless those men had been plotted against, these would not have been saved.

There was a famine, and it did not consume them.

And not this only, but through the very one who had been expected to perish they were saved.

There was a royal decree, and it did not blot them out;

but rather the multitude increased all the more at the very time when he who knew them died.

They wished to slay their savior, and not even so did they prevail.

Do you see how by the very means through which the devil sought to overthrow the promise of God, by these it grew? This too it was fitting for them then to say, that God is full of resource and able to bring us up out of this place.

For this above all was the resourcefulness of God: that even in their being turned away the nation increased, though enslaved, and ill-treated, and put to death.

This is the greatness of the promise.

For if it had increased in their own land, it would not have been so marvelous.

And they were in the foreign land not for a little time, but for four hundred years.

From this we learn that they displayed great endurance in the love of wisdom. For not as masters over slaves did the Egyptians deal with them, but as enemies and tyrants.

Wherefore also He foretold that they should be in great liberty;

for this is what is meant by, 'They shall serve Me;'

and that they should return hither, and not unavenged.

And observe how He seems to grant something to circumcision, yet gives nothing;

seeing that the promise was before this, but this came afterward.

'And the patriarchs,' he says, 'moved with envy.'

Where it does no harm, he grants it to them.

He calls the forefathers 'patriarchs,' since in these too they took great pride.

And in another way too he shows that the saints were not exempt from tribulation, but even while set in the very midst of tribulations they obtained help.

But these men not only did not loose their afflictions, but actually joined in working with those who afflicted them, though they ought rather to have cut those afflictions short.

As, then, these men made Joseph more glorious by selling him, so did the king make Moses more glorious by commanding that the male children be slain;

for had he not so commanded, this would not have come to pass.

And consider God's providential care.

That one drives Moses into exile;

but God does not hinder it, ordering the future, that there he might be counted worthy of the vision, having become fit for it.

So too He makes the slave who had been sold a ruler there, in the very place where he was reckoned to be a slave.

And just as this man reigns there, in the very place where they sold him,

so also Christ displays His power in death itself.

This was a matter not only of honor, but also of confidence in one's own power.

But let us look at what has been said from the beginning.

'And he set him as governor over Egypt and over all his house.'

See what things He brings about by means of a famine.

'With seventy-five souls,' he says, 'Jacob went down into Egypt.'

'And he died, himself and our fathers.'

'And they were carried over to Shechem, and laid in the tomb which Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor of Shechem.'

He shows that not even as far as burial were they lords of anything.

'But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose another king, who knew not Joseph.'

Observe that not even in all those years does He increase them, but only when the end was about to draw near;

and yet already four hundred years and more had passed by in Egypt.

This, then, is the marvelous thing.

'This man,' he says, 'dealing craftily with our race, ill-treated our fathers, so that they cast out their infants, to the end they might not be kept alive.'

He said 'dealing craftily,' hinting at the secret slaying;

for he did not wish to destroy them openly;

wherefore also he added this, to make it plain:

'In which time Moses was born, and was fair unto God.'

This is the marvel: that he who was destined to be their protector is born neither after these things nor before them, but in the very midst of that fury.

'And he was nourished three months in his father's house.'

When, therefore, human hopes were despaired of and they cast him forth, then was the dispensation of God shown forth in its shining brightness.

'And when he was cast out, the daughter took him up.'

Of Pharaoh, that is; 'and she nourished him for herself as a son.'

Nowhere a temple, nowhere a sacrifice, though so many dispensations had come to pass.

And he was brought up in a barbarian house.

'And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians;'

'and he was mighty in words and in deeds.'

It comes over me to marvel how for forty years he was there, and was not caught out by reason of his circumcision;

or rather, how, while they were in safety, both this man and Joseph disregard their own interests, that they might save others also.

'And when a period of forty years was fulfilled to him, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel.'

And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended him, and avenged the man who was oppressed, striking down the Egyptian.

He supposed that his brethren understood how that God by his hand was granting them deliverance.

Observe how, for the present, he does not seem burdensome, but delivers so long an address, and they endure to listen;

so did he win them over by the graciousness of his countenance.

'He supposed,' it says, 'that his brethren understood.'

And yet the championship was accomplished through the deeds themselves, and there was no need here of any understanding;

but nevertheless not even so did they understand.

Do you see with what forbearance he reasons with them, and how, having shown his anger against the one, he displays his gentleness toward the other? 'And the next day he appeared to them as they were quarreling, and would have set them at one again in peace, saying:'

'Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying:'

'Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday?' From the same disposition they are seen to say the very same things also against Christ:

'We have no king but Caesar.'

Such was ever the custom of the Jews to do, even when they were being benefited.

Do you see their folly? They slander the very one who was about to save them, by what they say: 'As thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday.'

'And Moses fled at this saying;'

'and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.'

He flees, and not even his flight quenched the divine economy, just as neither did death.

'And when forty years were fulfilled, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.'

Do you see how not even by time is the divine economy interrupted? For when he was a fugitive, when he was a stranger, when he had spent much time in a foreign land, so as even to beget two children, when he no longer expected to return, then the angel appears to him.

He calls the Son of God 'angel,' just as he also calls him 'man.'

And where does he appear? In the wilderness, not in a temple.

Do you see how many wonders take place, and nowhere a temple, nowhere a sacrifice? And not even here in the wilderness simply, but in the bush.

'And Moses, seeing it, marveled at the sight;'

'and as he drew near to consider it, there came the voice of the Lord.'

'I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

Not only does he show here that the one who appeared to him was the Angel of great counsel;

but he also shows how great is the loving-kindness which God displays through this manifestation.

'And Moses, becoming trembling, dared not to look.'

'Loose the sandal from thy feet.'

'For the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.'

Nowhere a temple, and yet the place is holy through the manifestation and working of Christ.

This is far more wonderful than the place in the Holy of Holies;

for there God nowhere appeared in such a manner, nowhere did Moses become so trembling.

Have you seen the loving-kindness? Now behold also the providential care.

'I have surely seen the affliction of my people,' he says, 'that are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them.'

'And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.'

Observe how he shows that both through benefits, and through chastisements, and through miracles, he was leading them on;

thus from this we learn that God is present everywhere.

Hearing these things, let us also in our afflictions flee to him for refuge.

'For their groaning also,' he says, 'I have heard.'

He did not simply say, 'I have heard,' but because of their calamities.

But if anyone should say, 'And for what reason did he permit them to be so ill-treated?' let him hear that, most certainly, to every righteous man

afflictions become causes of rewards;

or else for this reason too he suffered them to be ill-treated, that he might from this also show his power shining forth, and might train those very men, through the things by which they were afflicted, to be philosophic in all things.

Observe then, when they were in the wilderness, not only did they wax fat, grow thick, and become broad, but they also forsook God.

For everywhere ease, beloved, is an evil.

For this reason also from the beginning he said to Adam:

'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.'

Therefore, lest coming out of much affliction into ease they should wax insolent, he permits them to be afflicted;

and that it is good, hear David saying:

'It is good for me that thou hast humbled me.'

But if to great and wondrous men affliction is a great thing, much more is it so to us.

But if you please, let us also examine affliction in itself.

Let there be someone rejoicing exceedingly, and merry, and dissolute with delight;

what is more unseemly, what is more senseless than this? Let there be someone in pain and downcast;

what is more philosophic than this? Therefore the wise man also exhorts, saying:

'It is better to go into the house of mourning than into the house of laughter.'

Perhaps you even scoff at what is said.

Nevertheless, let us see what manner of man Adam was in paradise, and what manner of man he was afterward;

what manner of man Cain was before, and what manner of man he was afterward.

The soul does not stand upon its own proper seat, but as though lifted up by some wind of pleasure it is borne aloft and made light, having nothing steadfast.

For indeed it is easy toward promises, and ready toward pledges, and great is the tossing of its reasonings.

Hence untimely laughter, mirth without reason, much idle and superfluous prating of words.

And why do I speak of the others? Let us bring forward one of the saints, and let us see who was living in pleasure, and who again in dejection.

Would you then that we look at David? When, therefore, this man was in pleasure and in joy from his many trophies, from victory, from crowns, from luxury, from confidence, observe what things he both said and did:

'And I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.'

But when he came to be in affliction, hear what he says:

'If he says thus: I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me what is good in his sight.'

What is more philosophic than these words? Whatsoever, he says, may be pleasing to God, so let it be.

And again to Saul he said:

'But if the Lord stirs thee up against me, let thy sacrifice be acceptable as a savor.'

And at that time, while he was in affliction, he even spared his enemies;

but afterward he spared neither friends, nor any of those who had done him wrong.

Again Jacob, when he was in affliction, would say:

'If the Lord will give me bread to eat, and a garment to put on.'

And the son of Noah, before this, had done nothing of the kind;

but when he grew confident concerning his safety, you hear what an insolent man he became.

And Hezekiah too, when he was in affliction, see what things he did for his deliverance:

for he put on sackcloth, and sat upon the ground;

but when he came to be in pleasure, he fell from the height of his heart.

For this reason Moses also admonishes, saying:

'When you have eaten and drunk and are filled, remember the Lord your God.'

For the place of luxury is precipitous, and it works forgetfulness of God.

When the Israelites were afflicted, they became far more numerous;

but when He let them alone, then they all perished.

And why do I bring forward examples from the ancients? Let us look, if you please, at our own case.

When most of us are in prosperity, we become puffed up, hostile to all, quick to anger while authority is present;

but when it is taken away, we become gentle, humble, meek, and come to a right understanding of our own nature.

And that this is so, David also shows, saying:

'Pride held them fast unto the end;

their iniquity shall come forth as it were out of fatness.'

These things I have said, that we may not seek joy by every means whatsoever.

And how is it, one says, that Paul declares, 'Rejoice always'? He did not simply say, 'Rejoice,' but he added, 'in the Lord.'

Such was the joy the apostles also had;

a joy that brings gain, that which springs from prisons, from scourgings, from persecutions, from being evil spoken of, altogether having its beginning and root and foundation in things grievous;

wherefore also it issues in a good end.

But the joy of the world is the contrary: it begins indeed from pleasant things, but ends in [things grievous].

Nor do I forbid rejoicing according to the Lord; nay, I even strongly exhort it.

The apostles were scourged, and they rejoiced;

they were bound, and they gave thanks;

they were stoned, and they preached.

This is the joy that I too desire;

it has its beginning from nothing bodily, but from spiritual things.

It is not possible for one who rejoices according to the world to rejoice at the same time according to God;

for everyone who rejoices according to the world rejoices in wealth, in luxury, in glory and power, in ostentation;

but he who rejoices according to God rejoices in the dishonor he suffers for His sake, in poverty, in want of possessions, in fasting, in humility of mind.

Do you see that the grounds are opposite? As many as are here outside of joy are also outside of sorrow;

and as many as are here outside of sorrow are also outside of pleasure.

And these things are indeed what produce true joy, since those others have only the name of joy, while the whole matter lies in sorrow.

How much distress has the boaster!

how is he cut through in his very boasting, contriving for himself ten thousand insults, much hatred, great enmity, much envy, much malice!

For if he be insulted by his superiors, he grieves;

and if he does not rise up over all men, he is stung.

But the humble man is in much pleasure, expecting honor from no one;

so then, if he be honored, he is glad; but if he be not honored, he is not pained, but rather is content that he was not honored.

Is it not then from not seeking honor and being honored that great pleasure comes?

But in the other case it is the contrary: he both seeks honor, and is not honored.

And he who seeks honor does not take the same pleasure in it as he who does not seek it.

This man, however much he receives, thinks he has received nothing;

that one, even if you give him a little, receives it as though he had received the whole.

Again, the man of luxury has ten thousand troubles, even if his revenues flow in upon him easily and as it were from fountains; he dreads the perils that come from luxury, and the uncertainty of the future;

but this other man is always in security and in pleasure, having accustomed himself to a simple manner of living.

For he does not so bewail himself that he does not partake of a costly table, as he takes delight in not dreading the uncertainty of the future.

But as for all the evils that come from luxury, no one is ignorant of them;

yet it is necessary to speak of them even now.

The war is twofold, I mean of the body and of the soul;

twofold the tempest, twofold the diseases;

and not only this, but that they are also incurable;

and these bring great calamities.

But frugality is not such; rather, the health is twofold, the goods are twofold.

'Healthy sleep,' it says, 'comes with a moderate stomach.'

For everywhere the well-proportioned is desirable, but the immoderate is no longer so.

Heap upon a little spark a great mass of wood and rubbish, and you will no longer see a shining fire, but smoke exceedingly unpleasant.

Lay upon a very strong and mighty man a burden that exceeds his strength, and you will see him lying flung upon the ground together with the burden.

Put a great cargo into the ship, and you have wrought a grievous shipwreck.

Such a thing indeed is luxury also.

For just as in the case of ships that are swamped, there is great uproar among the sailors, the pilot, the look-out man at the prow, the passengers, some casting things from above into the sea, and some from below;

so too here: vomiting up some things from above, and voiding others from below, and destroying themselves, they perish.

And what is most shameful of all, the very mouth takes up the use of the hinder parts, and becomes more dishonored than they.

But if in the mouth there is such unseemliness, consider what it is in the soul.

For there too all is gloom, all is tempest, all is darkness, much confusion of thoughts, as they are pressed and afflicted, while the soul itself cries out against the outrage.

Hence it is that these gluttons blame one another, chafe with discomfort, and hasten to void the dung within.

Yet even after it has been voided, not even so does the heaving cease;

but from this source come fevers too, and diseases.

'Yes,' someone says, 'they fall sick and are put to shame;

yet your discourse recounts these things to no purpose, cataloguing diseases for us;

for it is I who am sick, and I who am racked with spasms, and I who am put to shame—I, the man who has nothing to eat;

whereas these luxurious folk one may see faring well, full of vigour, rejoicing, borne along on horseback.'

For these words are worthy of lamentation.

But those who are gout-ridden, those carried about on litters, those bound up in bandages—whence, tell me, do we behold them? And were it not that they would count the matter an insult, and suppose me to be saying these things by way of reproach, I would even now

have brought them forward by name.

'But there are some,' he says, 'who are even in good health.'

That is because they do not give themselves over to luxury alone, but to labours as well.

For grant me to see a man perpetually pampered, lying idle, exerting himself in nothing, and yet in health.

For though a multitude of ten thousand physicians should gather together, they could by no means deliver from his maladies a man who is continually gorging his belly;

for the thing has no such nature in it.

And I will speak to you a word drawn from medicine as well:

Of the things cast down into the belly, not the whole becomes nourishment;

since not even in the very nature of the food is the whole of it nutritive, but part of it is apportioned to being passed off as waste, and part to nourishment.

If, then, giving it in due measure, it be perfectly worked up, this is what happens: it takes its proper place, and the sound and useful part runs up to its own region, while the superfluous and useless part goes out and departs;

but if there be excess, then even that portion of it which is nutritive itself becomes harmful.

By way of illustration I will speak thus, that what I say may become clearer to you:

Of the wheat, part is fine flour, part is meal, and part is bran.

If, then, the mill receive what it is able to grind, it separates all these apart;

but if you put in more, all is thrown into confusion.

Again, wine—if it meet with the fitting process and the tempering of the seasons—first indeed all comes to be together, but after this part of it settles down into the lees, part runs up into the froth, and part remains as the enjoyment of those who partake; and this is the good part, and it would never quickly turn;

but at first it is neither wine nor lees, since all is commingled together.

This too one may observe in the case of the sea, whenever an excess of storm arises.

Just as then we see the fishes floating dead upon the surface—those which by reason of the cold were unable to sink into the deep—

even so does it come to pass in our own case.

For whenever the heavy rain of gluttony streams down from above, having stirred everything up, it makes to float up dead those reasonings which till then were sound and were resting quietly within us.

...and let us weep over them for those things for which we ought rather to have called them blessed, and let us love a sufficiency.

Or do you not hear even the physicians saying that scarcity is the mother of health? But I say that not of bodily health only is want the mother, but of the health of the soul as well.

This too Paul, the true physician, cries aloud, saying, 'Having food and covering, with these we shall be content.'

Let us therefore be persuaded by him, that being in health we may do the things which we ought to do, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honour, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.