Homilies on Exodus — Homily 6 (Exod. 14–15 — the Red Sea crossing; the Song of Moses and Miriam)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Exodus, surviving only in Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation (c. 400), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VI (GCS 29, Leipzig, 1920), pp. 145–279. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the song which Moses sang with the people, and Miriam with the women.
1. We read that many songs were made in the divine Scriptures, yet the first of them all is this song, which the people of God sang after their victory, when the Egyptians and Pharaoh had been drowned. For it is the custom of the saints, whenever an adversary is conquered, to offer God a hymn of thanksgiving, as those who know that the victory was won not by their own power but by the grace of God. And as they sing the hymn, they take up timbrels also in their hands, as is related of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. And you too, therefore, if you cross the Red Sea, if you see the Egyptians drowned and Pharaoh extinguished and cast down into the depth of the abyss, you can sing a hymn to God, you can send forth the voice of thanksgiving and say: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified; the horse and the rider he has cast into the sea." But you will say these things better and more worthily if you have a timbrel in your hand — that is, if you have "crucified your flesh with its vices and desires," and if you have "mortified your members which are upon the earth." And yet let us see what he says: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified"; as though it were not enough to say "he has been glorified," so he added "he has been gloriously glorified." For my part, so far as I can conjecture, it seems to me that to be glorified is one thing, and to be gloriously glorified is another. For my Lord Jesus Christ, when he took flesh from the Virgin for our salvation, was indeed glorified, because "he came to seek what had perished," yet he was not "gloriously glorified." For it is said of him: "We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, and his countenance was ignoble beyond the sons of men." He was glorified also when he came to the cross and endured death. Do you wish to know that he was glorified? He himself said: "Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." The passion of the cross, then, was also a glory to him; but this glory was not glorious, but lowly. Finally it is said of him: "He humbled himself even unto death, even the death of the cross," concerning which too the prophet had foretold: "Let us condemn him with a most shameful death." And Isaiah also says of him: "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away." In all these things, therefore, the Lord was glorified, but, so to speak, humbly, not "gloriously glorified." But because "it behooved Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his glory," "when he shall come in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels," "when he shall come in his majesty" "to judge the earth," when he shall also "slay the true Pharaoh, that is, the devil, with the spirit of his mouth," when therefore he shall shine forth in "the majesty of his Father" and, after the coming in humility, shall show us a second coming in glory — then not only is the Lord glorified, but he is also "gloriously glorified," when "all so honor the Son as they honor the Father."
2. "The horse and the rider he has cast into the sea; he has become for me a helper and protector unto salvation." The men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who are born in the flesh are figuratively horses. But these have their riders. There are horses which the Lord mounts, and they go about the whole earth, concerning which it is said: "And your cavalry is salvation." But there are horses which have as their riders the devil and his angels. Judas was a horse, but so long as he had the Lord as his rider, he belonged to the cavalry of salvation. For along with the other Apostles he was sent and bestowed salvation on the sick and health on the ailing; but when he laid himself down beneath the devil — for "after the morsel Satan entered into him" — Satan became his rider, and, led by his reins, he began to ride against our Lord and Savior. All, therefore, who persecute the saints are neighing horses, but they have riders by whom they are driven, the evil angels, and for that reason they are fierce. If, therefore, you should ever see your persecutor raging too savagely, know that he is being goaded by his rider the demon, and for that reason he is savage, for that reason he is truculent. The Lord, therefore, "has cast the horse and the rider into the sea, and he has become for me unto salvation. This is my God, and I will honor him; the God of my father, and I will exalt him." This one, then, is both "my" "God" and the God "of my father." Our Father, who made us and begot us, is Christ, and he himself says: "I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God." If, therefore, I recognize that God is "my" "God," I will glorify him; but if I also recognize this, in what way he is the "God" of Christ "my father," I will exalt him: for it is a loftier understanding, in what way Christ, in order to bind fast and safeguard the truth of the one God, calls him his God whom by nature he calls Father. "The Lord who crushes wars, the Lord is his name." I would not have you think that the Lord "crushes" only visible battles, but he "crushes" also those which are for us "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world." For "the Lord is his name": and there is no creature of which he is not Lord.
3. "The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he has cast into the sea, the chosen riders, the three officers he has sunk in the Red Sea." Pharaoh, as one more powerful in wickedness and holding the kingdom of iniquity, drives "chariots." It is not enough for him to mount one horse; he drives many at once, he compels many at once with the blows of the twisted lash. Whomever you see more shameful in luxury, more savage in cruelty, more foul in avarice, more disgraceful in impiety, know that these belong to the chariots of Pharaoh; upon these he sits, these he yokes to his chariot, on these he is borne and flies about, and through the open fields of crimes he drives them with loosened reins. There are others, "chosen riders" — chosen, without doubt, for wickedness. But we have already spoken above about the riders; now let us also see who the "three officers" are. It seems to me that "three officers" are so called because there is a threefold way of sinning for men; for one sins either in deed or in word or in thought. And therefore "three officers" are said to be assigned to each and every one, who besiege these three ways of sinning within us and are always on the watch and lie in ambush, so that the one may draw an evil word out of the wretched man, or another may wring out an unjust deed, or another may snatch up a wicked thought. Finally, where the seed of the word of God falls and perishes, the place is described as threefold; one is said to be "beside the way," which is trodden down by men; another "among thorns," another "on rocky ground." And on the contrary the "good ground" is said to bring forth threefold fruit, either "a hundredfold" or "sixtyfold" or "thirtyfold." For there is also a threefold way of acting well; for nonetheless something good is done either by deed or by thought or by word. This same thing the Apostle also signifies when he says: "But he who builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones," indicating a threefold way of good things. He adds nonetheless a threefold way of evil things also, when he says: "wood, hay, stubble." These "three officers," then, are the wicked angels of Pharaoh's army, who stand in ways of this kind, watching each one of us to drive us through these into sin; whom the Lord will sink in the Red Sea and hand over to the fiery waves on the day of judgment and cover with a sea of punishments, if you, following God, withdraw yourself from their power.
4. "They went down into the deep like a stone." Why did "they go down into the deep like a stone"? Because they were not such "stones as those from which sons of Abraham could be raised up," but such as loved the deep and cherished the liquid element — that is, who seized the bitter and fleeting pleasure of present things. Whence it is said of them: "They were sunk like lead in the mightiest water." Sinners are heavy. Finally, iniquity too is shown "to sit upon a talent of lead," as the prophet Zechariah says: "I saw," he says, "a woman sitting upon a talent of lead, and I said: what is this? And he answered: iniquity." Thence it is, therefore, that the wicked "were sunk into the deep, like lead in the mightiest water." But the saints are not sunk; rather they walk upon the waters, because they are light and are not weighed down by the burden of sin. Finally the Lord and Savior "walked upon the waters"; for he it is who truly knows no sin. His disciple Peter also "walked," although he trembled a little; for he was not so great and of such kind as to have nothing at all of the nature of lead mixed within him. He had some, though little. On account of which the Lord says to him: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Therefore he who is saved is saved through fire, so that, if perchance he should have anything of the nature of lead mixed in, the fire may boil it away and dissolve it, so that all may be made good gold — because "the gold of that land" is said "to be good," which the saints are to possess, and "as the furnace tests gold," so temptation tests just men. All must come, then, to the fire; all must come to the smelting-furnace; "for the Lord sits and smelts and purges the sons of Judah." But when one comes there, if anyone has brought many good works and but a little of iniquity, that little is dissolved by the fire "like lead" and is purged, and the whole remains pure gold. And if anyone has brought there more lead, he is burned more, so that he may be boiled longer, so that, even if there be but a little gold, it may nevertheless remain purified. But if anyone comes there wholly of lead, there will befall him that which is written: he will be sunk "into the deep, like lead in the mightiest water." But it is a long matter, if we should wish to expound in order; it is enough to touch on a few points briefly.
5. "Who," he says, "is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you? Glorious among the saints, wonderful in majesties, working prodigies." When he says "who is like you among the gods?", he does not compare God to the idols of the nations, nor to the demons who falsely claim for themselves the name of gods, but he calls those gods who are called gods through the grace and participation of God. Concerning whom Scripture also says elsewhere: "I said: you are gods," and again: "God stood in the assembly of the gods." But these, although they are capable of God and seem to be granted this name through grace, yet none is found like to God either in power or in nature. And although John the Apostle says: "little children, we do not yet know what we shall be; but if he shall be revealed to us" — speaking, of course, of the Lord — "we shall be like him," yet this likeness is referred not to nature but to grace. For example, as if we should say that a picture is like him whose image is seen expressed in the picture: as far as pertains to the grace of sight, it is called like; as far as pertains to substance, it is far unlike. For that is the form of flesh and the beauty of a living body, this is a tinting of colors and wax laid upon boards devoid of feeling. None, therefore, "among the gods is like the Lord"; for none is invisible, none incorporeal, none immutable, none without beginning and without end, none the creator of all things, save the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
6. "You stretched out your right hand, the earth devoured them." The earth indeed devours the impious even today. Or does it not seem to you that the earth devours him who always thinks of earth, who always has earthly deeds, who speaks of earth, disputes about earth, desires earth, and places all his hope in earth? — who does not look to heaven, who does not think of things to come, who does not fear the judgment of God nor desire his blessed promises, but always thinks of things present, and sighs after things earthly? When you see such a man, say that "the earth has devoured him." But also if you see anyone given over to the luxury of the flesh and the pleasures of the body, in whom the mind avails nothing, but the lust of the flesh has taken possession of the whole, say also of this one that "the earth has devoured him." It still moves me that he says: "you stretched out your right hand, and the earth devoured them," as though this were the cause of their being devoured by the earth, that "the Lord stretched out his right hand." If you consider how the Lord, exalted upon the cross, "all the day stretched out his hands to a people that did not believe and that contradicted him," and how the death of the crime committed crushed the unbelieving people who cried out: "Crucify, crucify him!" — you will evidently find how "he stretched out his right hand and the earth devoured them." And yet one must not utterly despair. For it is possible that, if perchance he who has been devoured should come to his senses, he may again be vomited forth, as Jonah was. But I think that all of us too, once devoured by the earth, were held in the inner recesses of hell; and therefore our Lord descended not only as far as the lands, but even as far as "the lower parts of the earth"; and there he found us devoured and "sitting under the shadow of death," and leading us thence he prepares for us no longer a place of earth, lest we be devoured again, but a place of the kingdom of heaven.
7. "You have led forth this your people in your righteousness, whom you have set free. You have comforted them by your power in your holy rest." The Lord leads forth "in righteousness" his people whom "he set free through the laver of regeneration," and he comforts them also through the consolation of the Holy Spirit in "his power and in his rest." For the hope of things to come brings rest to those who labor; just as, for those set in the contest, the hope of the crown soothes the pain of wounds.
8. "The nations heard and were angry; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the leaders of Edom hastened, and the princes of the Moabites; trembling took hold of them. All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away." As far as pertains to the history, it is established that none of these nations was present at the marvels which were done; how, then, will they seem to be terrified with trembling, or to have "hastened," as he says, or the "Philistines" and "Moabites" and "Edom" and the rest of the nations which he enumerates, to be "angry"? But if we return to the spiritual understanding, you will find that "Philistia" — that is, falling peoples — and "Edom," which is interpreted earthly, tremble, and the princes of all these run about and are afraid, gripped by pangs, when they see their kingdoms, which are in hell, penetrated by him "who descended into the lower parts of the earth," that he might rescue those who were possessed by death. Hence "fear and trembling seized them," because they felt "the greatness of his arm." Hence too "all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away," who are interpreted as changeable and moveable, when they see their kingdoms moved, "the strong one bound and his vessels plundered." "Let" therefore "fear and trembling at the greatness of your arm come upon them." What do the demons fear, what do they tremble at? Without doubt the cross of Christ, in which "they were triumphed over, in which their principalities and powers were stripped." "Fear," then, "and trembling shall fall upon them," when they see the sign of the cross faithfully fixed in us, and "the greatness of the arm" of him which the Lord stretched out upon the cross, as he says: "All the day I stretched out my hands to a people that did not believe and that contradicted me." They will not, then, fear you otherwise, nor will "your trembling come upon them otherwise," unless they see in you the cross of Christ, unless you too can say: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world."
9. "Let them become like stone, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this your people pass over, whom you have acquired." "To become like stone" is not to be by nature a stone; for it would not become that which it was not. This we say on account of those who say that Pharaoh or the Egyptians were of an evil nature and were not led into these things by the freedom of the will; and also on account of those who accuse God the creator as savage, because he turns men into stones. Let these, therefore, before they blaspheme, consider with the utmost weighing the things that are written. For he did not say "let them become like stone" and fall silent, but he set a time and decreed a measure of the condemnation. For he says: "until your people pass over," namely so that after the passing of the people they may not be "like stones." In which it seems to me that something of prophecy lies hidden. For I see that the former people, who were before us, became "like a stone," hard and unbelieving; yet not so far as to remain in the nature of a stone, but "until this people pass over, the people whom he has acquired": for "blindness in part happened in Israel" — that Israel according to the flesh — "until the fullness of the nations should enter in." For when "the fullness of the nations shall have entered in," then also "all Israel," which through the hardness of unbelief had become "like a stone," "shall be saved." And do you wish to see how it "shall be saved"? "God is able," he says, "from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham." Now, therefore, they remain stones, "until your people pass over, O Lord, this your people whom you have acquired." But if the Lord himself is the creator of all things, it must be seen how here he is said to have "acquired" those which there is no doubt are his own — for it is said also in the other song, that of Deuteronomy: "Is not this same one your God, who made you and created you and acquired you?" —; for each one seems to acquire that which was not his own. Hence finally the heretics too say of the Savior that those whom he "acquired" were not his own; for, a price being given, he purchased men whom the creator had made. And it is certain, they say, that each one buys that which is not his own; for the Apostle says: "you were bought with a price." But hear what the prophet says: "By your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I dismissed your mother." You see, then, that we are indeed all the creature of God, but each one is sold by his own sins and for his own iniquities departs from his own creator. We are, therefore, God's, according as we were created by him; but we became slaves of the devil, according as we were sold by our sins. But Christ, coming, "redeemed us," while we were serving that lord to whom we had sold our very selves by sinning. And so he seems to have received back as his own those whom he had created, but to have acquired as aliens those who by sinning had sought for themselves an alien lord. But perhaps it is rightly said that Christ redeemed us, who gave his own blood as our price — but what did the devil give of such a kind, that he might purchase us? Therefore, if it seems good, give heed. Murder is the devil's money; for "he is a murderer from the beginning." You have committed murder: you have received the devil's money. Adultery is the devil's money; for on it is the devil's "image and superscription." You have committed adultery: you have received a coin from the devil. Theft, false testimony, rapacity, violence — all these are the devil's wealth and the devil's treasure; for such money proceeds from his mint. With this money, therefore, he buys those whom he buys, and makes his slaves all who receive from his wealth of this kind even the least amount. But I fear lest even some of those who are in the church, some of those standing by, while we do not know, the devil secretly purchases; lest to some of our own also he presses this money which we enumerated above, and makes them his own again, and again writes for them the tablets of servitude and the bonds of sin, and mingles among the servants of God those whom he has made his own slaves by the price of sin. For it is his custom, since he is "the enemy man," "to mingle tares with the wheat." And yet, if perchance anyone deceived by the devil has received money of this kind, let him not utterly despair; for "the Lord is merciful and compassionate," and "does not will the death" of his creature, "but that it be converted and live." By repenting, by weeping, by making satisfaction, let him blot out what has been committed. For the prophet says: "when, being converted, you shall groan, you shall be saved." We have proceeded a little more widely, in wishing to expound how God is said "to acquire" the things which are his own, and Christ to "redeem with his precious blood" those whom the devil had bought with the cheap price of sin.
10. "Leading them in, you planted them on the mountain of your inheritance." God does not will to plant us in Egypt, nor in low and lowly places, but he wills to plant "on the mountain of his inheritance" those whom he plants. Then, besides, that he added "leading them in, you planted them" — does it not seem to you as though he were speaking of children, who are led in to schools, led in to letters, led in to all learning? Understand, therefore, through these words, if only you have "ears to hear," how God plants — lest perhaps, when you hear that he leads in and plants, you should think that he is setting fig trees or other shrubs of this kind in the ground. Hear also elsewhere how God plants. The prophet says: "You transferred a vine out of Egypt, you cast out the nations and planted it. You made a way passable before it, you planted its roots, and it filled the earth. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God." Do you now notice how God plants and where he plants? He does not plant in the valleys, but on the mountains, in high and lofty places. For those whom he leads out of Egypt, whom he brings from the world to faith, he does not will to place again in lowly places, but he wills their manner of life to be lofty. He wills us to dwell on the mountains; but even on these very mountains nonetheless he does not will us to creep along the ground, nor does he will his vine to have its fruits cast down further upon the ground, but he wills its shoots to be led upward, to be set on high, to become layered branches — and layered branches not upon any lowly trees whatever, but upon the high and loftiest cedars of God. "The cedars of God" I take to be the prophets and the Apostles, to whom if we, the vine which God "transferred out of Egypt," be joined, and through their branches our shoots be spread abroad, and, resting upon them, we become as it were certain layered branches bound together by mutual bonds of charity, we shall without doubt bring forth very much fruit. For "every tree that does not bear fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire."
11. "In your prepared habitation, which you have prepared, O Lord." See the goodness of the merciful Lord: he does not will to lead you into labor, he does not will that you should make yourself a dwelling; already he leads you to a "prepared habitation." Hear the Lord saying in the Gospel: "Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
12. "The sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have prepared." The tabernacle of God or the temple is called a "sanctuary" from this, that it sanctifies those who approach. This he says was "not made by the hand of man," but by the hand of God. What then? On your account God both plants and builds, becomes a farmer, becomes a builder, lest anything be lacking to you. Hear Paul also saying: "You are God's tillage, God's building." What, then, is this "sanctuary," which was "not made by the hand of men," but prepared by the hands of God? Hear Wisdom saying that she "built herself a house." But I think this is more rightly to be understood of the incarnation of the Lord. "For it was not made by the hand of men," that is, not by human work is the temple of the flesh built in the Virgin; but, as Daniel had foretold, "a stone cut out without hands grew, and became a great mountain." This is the "sanctuary" of the flesh assumed and "without hands," that is, apart from the work of men, "cut out" from the mountain of human nature and the substance of the flesh.
13. "O Lord, who reign unto the age and unto the age and still." As often as "unto the age" is said, a length of time indeed is indicated, but some end; and if it is said unto another age, there is set, without doubt, some longer end, yet an end; and as often as "the ages of the ages" are named, perhaps, though unknown to us, yet some limit appointed by God is indicated. But that which he added in this place, "and still," left no sense of any limit or end. For whatever you conceive, in which you think an end can consist, the prophetic word always says to you: "and still," as if it should speak to you and say: do you think the Lord will reign unto the age of the age? "And still." Do you think "unto the ages of the ages"? "And still." And whatever you say of the spans of his kingdom, the prophet always says to you: "and still."
14. "For the cavalry of Pharaoh entered with chariots and riders into the sea, and the Lord brought the water of the sea upon them; but the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea." And you too, if you are a "son of Israel," can walk "on dry ground in the midst of the sea"; if you are "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation like the light of the sun, holding the word of life unto glory," it can come to pass that, as you walk in the midst of sinners, the moisture of sin does not soak you; it can come to pass that, as you pass through this world, no wave of lust bespatters you, no heat of desire beats upon you. But he who is an Egyptian and follows Pharaoh is drowned in the waves of the vices. But he who follows Christ and, as he walked, so walks himself, for him the "waters" become "a wall on the right hand and on the left," while he himself goes forward on the middle way "on dry ground." He "turns aside neither to the right nor to the left," until he comes forth to liberty and sings to the Lord a hymn of victory, saying: "I will sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified," through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."