On Divine Providence 1 part 10/11

And he is proclaimed from above by the Father, and is pointed out by the Spirit.

For the Father cried out from above:

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And the all-holy Spirit, appearing in the form of a dove, drew the voice to himself, and taught those present who it was that had received the testimony from the Father.

From there he proceeds, thereafter, to the contests against the tyrant;

and the wilderness becomes the stadium of the contests, the hosts of angels the spectators, and his opponent, the adversary of truth;

who, having first heard the voice, and being reminded of the prophetic predictions, feared the wrestling-match;

and he could not bear the lightning-flash of his virtue, yet he was eager to wrestle him down, though he dreaded the contest, remembering the voice.

But he who is both creator and champion of our nature, the giver of the crown and the umpire of the contest, does not frighten away his antagonist, nor does he drive off the beast, but rather encourages and urges him on to the wrestling, that he might take away his former victory;

and he permits his body to hunger, after it had fasted for the length of forty days.

And he does not allow it to exceed the measure of those who had already fasted before, so that his humanity might be believed.

The enemy saw the hunger, and hoped for victory, and took courage for the contest, and thought he was seeing that Adam of old, having beheld the affliction of hunger.

But though he approached as though to Adam, he found the Maker of Adam clothed in the nature of Adam, and he said to him:

"If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." And he brings forward into question the voice that had been uttered from heaven, that it might be confirmed, and he asks that it be established by a miracle involving loaves.

From this it is possible to learn precisely, that the enemy takes the occasions of his deceit from us ourselves.

For having observed hunger, he launches his opening skirmish from it;

but our Savior, even though his body was hungry and in need of food, does not consent to work a miracle.

But with a word of Scripture he shoots down the tyrant, saying:

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." He made his answer in a human manner, both concealing his divinity for the time, and securing the victory for mankind by means of what is like them.

"For," he says, "bread alone is not the sole helper of human life, but every word brought forth by God likewise suffices to procure life for men who hunger."

We believe that human nature is even able to live without bread, if God so wills.

Having thus dissolved the devices of the adversary, and shown his second and third assault to be of no avail, and having made his proofs as a man, in order to recover for mankind the victory that had been lost, he routs the accursed one, and puts an end to the tyranny of the common curse of mankind, and is proclaimed victor by the angels who beheld the victory.

"For," it is said, "the angels came and ministered to him." From that point, having wrought countless miracles,

having done these things and countless others, he is envied by the Jews, and willingly accepts the plot against him, foreseeing the salvation that would come to mankind through it.

And these things he had foretold long before through the prophet, saying:

"But I," he says, "was not disobedient, nor did I contradict, but I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting." Having foretold these things, and having suffered these things, he is nailed to the cross—not paying the penalty for sins (for he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth), but paying off the debt of our nature.

For it owed this debt, having transgressed the laws of its Maker.

And witnesses to these things are Isaiah and Paul: the one having prophesied these things before the passion, the other having interpreted the prophecy after its fulfillment;

and it was the same Spirit that spoke through both.

And Isaiah cries out from afar:

"A man stricken with affliction, and knowing how to bear sickness." For he names him from what was visible, since it was the visible nature that suffered.

"This one," he says, "bears our sicknesses, and is pained on our account;"

"yet we accounted him to be in pain, and struck by God, and afflicted." For those who saw him nailed to the wood supposed that he was being punished for a multitude of sins, and paying the penalty for his own offenses.

but the Holy Spirit teaches through the prophet that he was wounded for our sins, and was made sick for our transgressions.

And he makes this yet clearer through what follows:

"For," he says, "the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripe we were healed." For being enemies of God, inasmuch as we had given offense, we owed chastisement and punishment.

But we did not experience this, while our Savior himself endured it;

and having endured it, he granted us peace with God.

And what follows makes this clearer still:

"For all we," he says, "like sheep, went astray; each man went astray in his own way."

And he becomes a sheep, not by being transformed into a sheep, nor by undergoing any change, nor by departing from his own essence;

but by clearly putting on the nature of the sheep, and becoming, as it were, the leading ram of the flock, the bellwether, causing all the sheep to follow him.

As a sheep, therefore, he also became a sacrificial victim, and was offered up as a sacrifice on behalf of the whole race.

And it is not without purpose that the prophet mentioned both slaughter and shearing together;

but rather, since he was both God and man, and while the body was being slain the divine nature remained impassible, the divinely inspired Isaiah was compelled to show us both the slaughter of the sheep and the shearing of the lamb.

"For," he says, "he was not only slain, but also shorn."

For indeed, according to his humanity, he endured death;

but as God, remaining living and impassible, he gave the fleece of his body to those who sheared it.

Thus the blessed Isaiah both showed us the saving sufferings, and taught us the causes of those sufferings.

And the most divine Paul also cries out directly:

"...from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us:"

"Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." And by saying "for us," he showed that, being himself blameless and free of all sin, he paid off our debt; and though we lay subject to countless debts, and were on their account compelled to servitude, he counted us worthy of freedom, both purchasing us and paying his own blood as the price.

"Ye were bought with a price." And again:

"The weak brother," he says, "is destroyed by your knowledge, the brother for whom Christ died." For this reason he also accepted death by the cross,

since according to the law this kind of death was accursed;

and nature too was accursed, as having transgressed the law;

"For cursed," it says, "is everyone who does not abide in the things written in the book of the law, to do them." For this reason he took upon himself the common curse, and dissolves it by his unjust slaughter,

For not being subject to the curse (for he committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth), he endured the death of sinners, and goes to law with the accursed one, the common enemy of our nature, having become at once champion and advocate of our nature, and fittingly says to our bitter tyrant:

You have been caught, thoroughly wicked one, and snared by your own nets, and your sword has entered into your own heart, and your bows have been broken;

you dug a pit, and fell into it;

the snares that you spread have bound your own hands.

For tell me, why ever did you nail my body to the cross, and hand it over to death? What kind of sin did you see in me? What transgression of the law did you observe? Examine now, then, more closely, beholding this body naked upon the wood,

See also the tongue, freed from every stain;

and the hearing, free of every harm, and the eyes, having received no defilement from without;

and the hands, far removed indeed from injustice, but adorned with all righteousness;

and the feet, which did not run to wickedness, to speak prophetically, but which completed the double-course of virtue.

Examine very precisely all the members of the body;

examine the movements of the soul;

if then even a small fault be found, you hold me rightly, and quite justly;

for death is the penalty of those who have sinned;

but if you find nothing of what the divine law forbids, but rather everything that it prescribes, I will not allow you to hold what it is not lawful for you to hold.

Rather, I will also open death's prison to the others, but will shut you alone within it, as one who has transgressed the divine ordinance.

For the divine ordinance consigned to death those who had sinned, but you handed over to death's bonds even one uninitiated in sin;

and your insatiable greed has become the cause of the utmost cruelty;

and by unjustly seizing one, you have been justly stripped of all your subjects;

and having eaten inedible food, you shall vomit up all that you had already swallowed;

and you shall teach everyone to be content with what is their own, and to abstain from what does not belong to them.

Recall for what reason the forefather Adam was handed over to death.

Having received authority over all the plants of paradise, he was not content with what had been given, nor was the enjoyment of an abundance of everything sufficient for him;

but he dared to touch the tree of knowledge, the partaking of which the Maker had forbidden.

And having fallen ill with insatiable greed, and having desired what did not belong to him, he was deprived of the whole of paradise.

I will subject you to these same penalties.

For it would be unjust that the one who was deceived should suffer such a penalty, while the one who deceived him should not undergo such a punishment.

Since, then, you too, having received authority over those who have sinned, laid hold of a body that had committed no sin, step down from your authority, depart from your tyranny.

I will free all from death;

not simply exercising mercy, but just mercy, nor by the authority of sovereign power, but by just authority.

For though not owing death, I endured death, and though not subject to death, I received death, and though blameless, I was enrolled among the guilty, and though free of debt, I was ranked with the debtors.

I have therefore paid off the debt of nature, and having endured an unjust death, I abolish the just one;

having been unjustly detained, I release from prison those who were justly detained.

Behold the bond of nature blotted out, O bitter executioner of sin.

Behold it nailed to the cross, and freed from the writings of sin.

Behold it has not received the signature of wickedness.

The eyes of this body, then, have paid the debt on behalf of the eyes that had looked evilly;

the hearing of this body, on behalf of the hearing that had received defilement;

likewise the tongue, on behalf of the tongues that had been moved unlawfully;

the hands, on behalf of the hands that had worked injustice.

And the other members, on behalf of whatever members had committed any sin.

And since the debt has been paid off, it is fitting that those who were imprisoned for its sake should be freed from prison, and recover their former liberty, and return to their ancestral homeland.

Saying these things, the Lord both raised up his own body, and sowed in human nature the hopes of the resurrection, having given to all the resurrection of his own body as a pledge.

And let no one suppose that we are idly rambling about these things in vain;

for from the sacred Gospels, and the apostolic teachings, we have been taught that these things are so;

for we have heard the Lord himself saying:

"The ruler of the world is coming, and he finds nothing in me." "For I have," he says, "none of the marks of sin; I have a body free of all transgression;"

but nevertheless, even finding nothing, he will hand it over to death, as though it were subject to countless debts;

and I submit to this, wishing justly to cast him out of his tyranny.

"Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out." For when the judgment and the trial have taken place, he will be condemned, and, having pronounced an unjust verdict against me, he will be cast out of his tyranny.

Then, teaching further that he would free not only his own body from the dominion of death, but at once the whole nature of mankind together, he immediately added, saying:

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself." For I will not be content to raise up only the body which I took, but I will procure the resurrection for all mankind;

for this reason I have come, and have taken the form of a servant.

For this reason I was led to slaughter, and, as a lamb before its shearer, was silent.

These things also the blessed Paul says, writing to the Colossians, and through them to all mankind:

"And you," he says, "being dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having blotted out the bond written against us in decrees, which was contrary to us;"

"and he took it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross; and having stripped the principalities and powers, he made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it." From this, then, we have been taught that he paid the debt on our behalf, and blotted out the bond against us, and nailed it to the cross, and made a public example of the principalities and powers, that is, of the hostile powers, triumphing over them openly in himself.

That is, having shown to them his own body and soul to be without sin, and having exposed the unjust verdict they had pronounced against him;

and having done these things, he made alive together the whole nature of mankind.

And countless other testimonies too may be found in the divine Scripture, teaching that these things are so.

But if we should wish to gather them all, and to make a fitting interpretation of each one, we would produce an endless length.

Leaving off the gathering of them, I will proceed to what follows in the argument.

"For when," he says, "I am lifted up, I will draw all to myself." So great is the God of all's care for mankind.

So great a providence did the Maker exercise for his ungrateful creation;

so great is the forethought of the archetype for its own image.

He created it from the beginning, he honored it with likeness;

but it became ungrateful toward its Maker, and, having corrupted the divine image, took on the marks of beasts, and instead of being god-like became beast-like.

But indeed there are some who, in the words of the blessed Paul, do nothing but busy themselves with other people's affairs, meddling in matters not permitted them, and contending to measure the abyss of divine wisdom by their own reasonings, and saying:

'For what reason did God not arrange these things from the beginning, but only after many thousands of years?' That to meddle so in such matters is exceedingly rash and presumptuous, and beyond the bounds of any madness, even those who pry into such things would themselves admit —

— yet he administers what is fitting at each season, and measures his teachings to the capacity of men.

For this reason he gave to Adam, as to a newborn infant, the commandment concerning the tree.

For every law proclaimed concerning adultery, murder, false witness, and injustice would have been superfluous for him.

Again, when human nature had increased, after the passing of a great number of years, he legislates to Noah concerning foods, and enjoins him to partake ungrudgingly of all meats — the clean ones, that is (for he had also taught him the distinction between these) — and forbids only the partaking of blood.

From there, after a long period of time had passed, he called Abraham, and commanded him to leave his ancestral house, and led him into the land once called of the Canaanites but now called of the Palestinians, and gave him the commandment of circumcision, so that the race descending from him might have, as a sign of piety, the removal of what was superfluous.

And bringing on the necessity of famine, he led this herald of piety about everywhere, making his own servant known to Egyptians and Palestinians alike.

And he permitted this man's wife to be seized by the barbarians, but once she was seized he shielded her, and scourged those who had seized her, and did not allow those who had become hunters of the woman to partake of their catch; rather, though they held within their nets what they had captured, they could not drive it forth —

— while they themselves were caught by invisible snares, and learned through experience the piety of this stranger toward God.

...a stranger, the kings of those nations, and they became suppliants of the sojourner.

And he, taking the occasion, offered the instruction of piety to those who were ignorant of it; thus injustice opened the way for piety, and lawless greed became the agent that procured the knowledge of God.

Thus he ordered the affairs concerning Isaac and Jacob.

For the one benefited Abimelech, while the other showed Laban the God who truly is, and exposed the powerlessness of those who are not gods but are only reputed to be.

Thus he ordered the affairs concerning Joseph.

Having first allowed him to become a slave, through slavery, false accusation, and chains he entrusted to him the reins of Egypt.

And first he proclaims the one God to the cupbearer;

then he brings this same teaching to the king.

From there, having taken the helm, he wisely steers the whole vessel.

Thus, when Israel had increased, and he willed to free them from Egyptian slavery, he freed them by means of many great wonders, thereby contriving their distinction from all other nations.

For among all the nations he ordained this nation as teacher of the knowledge of God.

And just as, for the care of this nation, he chose now Moses, now Joshua, and again Samuel, and at other times one or another of the prophets, and through one man practicing the philosophic life he benefited all his kinsmen —

— so through the one nation of Israel he called all the nations that share the same nature into fellowship with piety.

And that this is so, Rahab the harlot bears witness — though she was of another race and a harlot, yet she was satisfied with report alone, and through it received piety, forsaking her own people and entrusting herself to strangers.

The Philistines too bear witness, having feared the arrival of the ark, and having said to one another:

'This is the God who struck Egypt;

woe to us, O Philistines!' For this reason God delivered the ark into the hands of the Philistines, thereby exposing the transgression of his people;

for it was not fitting that those who had openly transgressed the law should make the law their champion.

Yet once it was delivered up, he preserved its sanctity, teaching the Philistines that it was not God whom they had conquered, but the lawlessness of men.

But they foolishly set their idol upright again, and again saw it fallen down and prostrate in worship.

Then, persisting in great folly, and unwilling to perceive the difference, they were taught prudence by experience, and having been chastened they came to their senses, and cast off the drunkenness of ignorance, and sent the ark, as was fitting, to its own worshippers; and having honored it with votive offerings, they proclaim their chastening, and teach those who receive it the manner of its return.

This also God did in the case of Belshazzar.

For since he had sent the people, who had run aground into great impiety, into Babylon as captives of war, and the sacred vessels became spoils for the enemy, Nebuchadnezzar, regarding them as divine, kept them far from common use, and brought them into the temples of the gods reckoned as such by his people.

But that man's son — Belshazzar, I mean — was not instructed by his father's calamities, nor did he consider what penalties that man paid for his arrogance; and although he had honored these things, supposing them to be divine vessels, this accursed man brought out into the open those things once consecrated to God, and drank from them, and offered to his fellow revelers what should not be touched.

And he was seized with helpless bewilderment, able neither to read nor to comprehend the meaning of what had been written.

But he [Daniel] read it and interpreted it, and explained the cause of the punishment, saying: 'We, paying the penalty of our sins, became captives of war;

and these vessels too, seeing that they had been dedicated by us, God delivered to the one who enslaved us, teaching us that, having no need of them, he had merely tolerated us as we offered sacrifice with them.

But so long as we remained pious, he accepted these things offered by us, wishing thereby to care for us;

but when we ran aground into impiety, he also cast away the gifts that we had offered.

'Now your father, having been instructed in these matters after this manner, honored these things as he thought fitting, having kept them far from human use, and having dedicated them to the so-called gods.'

'But you, without even taking into account the honor he had shown, fell into the pit of arrogance, and reveled licentiously in the sacred cups.'

This is what Daniel said, and that same night Belshazzar received his punishment.

Consider, then, how the Maker of the universe has always exercised providence over all men, and not only over those who trace their lineage from Abraham, but over all who descend from Adam;

and through the one nation he guided all the nations toward the knowledge of God.

And not only when that nation was pious did he offer through them instruction to all men, but also when he was exacting from them the penalties of their transgression.

Indeed that Nebuchadnezzar, the arrogant one, the tyrant, who set up the golden image, who commanded all to worship it, who said:

'Above the stars I will set my throne, and above the clouds I will ascend, and I will be like the Most High, and with my hand I will seize the whole inhabited world as a bird's nest, and I will lift it up as abandoned eggs' — this man the God of all did not teach to be sober-minded through angels, but through those whom he himself had made captives of war.

For when he saw the three youths — who had not fulfilled the royal decree, who had scorned that fearsome furnace as though it were mere child's play, who walked upon those coals as upon roses, and who, though delivered to such a flame, sang hymns to God — he was astounded at the marvel, and struck with awe at the maker of the marvel, and he commanded all to worship their God, and named him Most High, and called him God and King of all.

Thus too that Assyrian, who raged madly against him, and used those insane words:

'The LORD your God will surely not deliver you out of my hand — and where are the gods of the nations?' — this man too he taught his own weakness, and compelled him to flee alone, having in a brief moment of time, through a single angel, consigned to death those many thousands upon whom he had prided himself so greatly.

Thus too he sent Jonah as a herald of repentance to the Ninevites, and when Jonah was unwilling to do what had been commanded but foolishly attempted to flee, he bound him fast with the waves, and delivered him, as to a kind of prison, to the sea monster.

And the irrational creature brought back the rational man to the place where he had been ordered to preach.

But when the great mystery of the dispensation was about to be accomplished, and the preaching that comes through the divine incarnation was to be sown throughout the whole inhabited world, then at last this nation, which from the beginning he had chosen for the benefit of all the nations, he scattered throughout the whole world, so that all who were held captive by the error of polytheism might grow accustomed to hearing that there is one God, maker of heaven and earth, and that the preaching might thereby become easier for the divine apostles.

...to the teaching concerning Christ, but even opposed it vigorously, and became an obstacle to those from among the nations who wished to be persuaded.

But if anyone should wish to examine the matter closely, he will find that even the opposition of the Jews became an ally to the faith of the nations.

For the debate with the Jews, and the demonstration drawn from the Law and the Prophets, became on the one hand a clear refutation of their folly, while on the other it showed to those from the nations that the Christian way of life had been proclaimed from of old.

And the testimony coming from the enemies made the word being preached worthy of belief.

The hearers, seeing the Jews concede that these were divine utterances, and beholding also the benefactions performed in the name of Christ, and taking the signs as pledges guaranteeing the words, readily accepted the preaching, and believed in the God who was preached, while abhorring the abomination of the Jews.

Therefore the disobedience of the Jews not only did not hinder the divine preaching, but through the very means by which they attempted to resist it, they rendered the word worthy of belief.

...whereas those things refuted the falsehood, and revealed the light of truth.

From of old, then, the God of all continued to administer the salvation of mankind, and at each season brought forward the fitting remedy.

And teaching this, the blessed Paul said:

'As long as the heir is a child, he differs in nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all;

but he is under guardians and stewards until the time set beforehand by the father;

so we also, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental principles of the world.'

'But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.' And that he came to this dispensation not out of a change of mind, but had so ordained it from of old, let the same apostle himself teach as witness, writing in his letter to the Corinthians and saying:

'We speak wisdom among those who are mature;

yet a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing;

but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has known.

'For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' For, envying the prosperity of men, they would not have furnished them the occasion of so great a blessing;

But being ignorant of the end of the mystery, they raged against the Savior of our souls, yet unwillingly became agents of the highest goods for us.

Therefore the mystery was hidden, yet it had been foreordained before the ages.

Knowing these things, then, and having learned through all things the providence of God, and seeing his immeasurable loving-kindness, and beholding his boundless mercy, cease raging against the Creator; learn to hymn the Benefactor; requite his great benefactions with grateful words.

Offer to God a sacrifice of praise;

do not defile your tongue with blasphemy; make into an instrument of hymnody the very tongue that was made for this purpose.

Of the divine dispensations, worship those that are manifest, but do not meddle with those that are hidden; rather, await the learning of them that is to come in due season.

When we strip off the passions, then we shall receive perfect knowledge.

Do not imitate Adam, who was so bold as to partake of the forbidden fruits;

do not touch the hidden things, but leave the knowledge of these for the fitting time.

Be persuaded by the wise man who says: