Homilies on Isaiah — Homily 8 (Isaiah 10:10–14)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Isaiah, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 380/381), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, Leipzig, 1925), pp. 242–289. This English translation is released into the public domain.Concerning what is written: "Wail, you graven images in Jerusalem and in Samaria," up to the place where he says: "and I will shake the cities that are inhabited".
1. Long ago, indeed, when the former people sinned, Judah fell away from religion and fashioned "graven images in Jerusalem," and he who was called Israel did so "in Samaria". But if now too someone should consider, out of the multitude of those sinners who are gathered together, he will not be reluctant to say that each one who makes for himself a god — whatever he reckons to be good — and serves sin, is accursed, making a "graven image" and casting a work of the craftsman's hands and setting it up in secret; for in the secret place of the heart we make many idols, if we sin. Hence the word teaches us to do penance and to "wail over the graven images" and idols that are "in Jerusalem and Samaria". And if indeed we sin, we who desire to be of the Church, we make "graven images in Jerusalem"; but if those who are established outside the Church — as heretics — sin, they make "idols in Samaria". Nevertheless God, according to his goodness, calls all to penance, saying: "Wail, you graven images in Jerusalem and in Samaria; for just as I did to Samaria and to the works of its hands, so will I do also to Jerusalem and to its idols". He threatens that whatever things "he did to the Samaritans" he will do also to those who are of the Church. "But when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". We are taught what shall come to be for our enemy the devil, whom the prophecy has now called a certain "great mind". For just as "the serpent was wiser than all the beasts that are upon the earth", and "the sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light in their generation", and "the steward of iniquity acted wisely" according to a wisdom that is not good, in the same way this one, who is figuratively called "the prince of the Assyrians", is a "great mind", and one may marvel at the greatness of his "mind"; which he has misused for the instructing of the wise of this world, who compose the falsehood of their sects with every appearance of truth and with all their power, and put it on display. "When" therefore "God has done all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem" and has rendered those things which have been promised to the just, then "he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". The word knows him to be "wise" as to "high things", and that the beginning of his ruin took its start from being puffed up. Hence, if we too have been puffed up, we "fall into the judgment of the devil", "into" which "the devil himself fell".
2. But let us also see how great his self-inflation is, that we may guard against it and not permit him to speak true things over us. What, then, does he say? "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He reckons that by his own might he is able to accomplish in us whatever he wishes. And truly, if we are conquered and after these words we sin — if after the Church we go again into the circus and to the horse-races and to the assemblies of the Gentiles — what else happens than that he possesses us as those he has overcome? And what the devil said, "By my strength I will act," comes to pass in us who sin, as he threatened. And also, if we commit fornication after chastity of long duration, after much holiness, what else happens than that he is proved to have spoken true things over us, he who said: "By my strength I will act"? But let us look at what else this boaster promises. "And by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He promises some kind of "wisdom" or other — the wisdom of which the prophet also speaks: "there is a certain alien wisdom in them". There is a certain "wisdom estranged" from the truth, which God destroys. Having this, he reckons himself to be "wise" and says: "By the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations, and I will feed upon their strength". For his working has reached to all the "nations", but the Savior, sending his words into all the "nations", rescues those who by the devil were held captive among all the "nations". "And I will feed upon their strength". He threatens that he will go to plunder our "strength" and to hand it over to those who war against us. And truly one may see him doing this to certain people. For when someone is conquered by the devil and handed over to demons, to most wicked spirits, to the opposing powers, what else has happened than that he who had said, "and I will feed upon their strength", has taken our "strength" and "fed upon" us? "And I will shake the cities that are inhabited". This too the devil threatens: he perceives that the "cities" — the churches of God built in Christ the Lord — are "inhabited", and he gives out that he will "shake" these. And frequently indeed he has shaken the "inhabited cities" with persecutions, frequently he has shaken them with scandals. But let us strive, having our "foundation upon the rock", to become such that this one who says, "I will shake the cities that are inhabited", may not be able to "move" us by his storms nor by his adverse spirits, but that we may persevere steadfast against all things that may befall, inasmuch as we have our edifice "upon the rock," Jesus "Christ", "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"