Homilies on Judges — Homily 2 (Judges 2:8–15)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Judges, surviving only in Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation (c. 400), from the reading text of W. A. Baehrens (ed.), Origenes Werke VII (GCS 30, Leipzig, 1921), pp. 464–522. This English translation is released into the public domain.On what is written: "and Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died".
1. The death of Jesus too has been read to us. That he, indeed, "the son of Nun", "died" is no wonder; for he paid what was owed to nature. But since we had undertaken to refer these things, which were read concerning the son of Nun, to our Lord Jesus Christ, we must see how it may fittingly be said even of him that: "Jesus died". I think — speaking this too, however, according to the authority of Scripture — that in some Jesus lives, but in some he has "died". In Paul Jesus lives, and in Peter, and in all those who can deservedly say: "and now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me". And again he says: "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". In such men as these, therefore, Jesus is deservedly said to "live". But in whom has "Jesus died"? In those, without doubt, who by repenting often and again transgressing are said as it were to insult the death of Jesus; concerning whom the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: "crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and holding him up to mockery". You see, then, that in those who sin "Jesus" is said not only to "die", but is even asserted to be "crucified" by them and "mocked". But do you yourself also consider within yourself, whether, when you think of avarice and desire to plunder what belongs to others, you can then say that "Christ lives in me". Or if you think of debauchery, if you are driven by rage, if you are inflamed with spite, if you are goaded by envy, if you rave in drunkenness, if you are lifted up with pride, if you rush on in cruelty — can you in all these say that: "Christ lives in me"? Thus, therefore, "Christ dies" in those who sin, in that righteousness works nothing in them, patience nothing, truth nothing, nor all those things which Christ is. But whatever the saints do, it is Christ who is said to work these things, just as the Apostle also says: "I can do all things in him who strengthens me, Christ". And the Lord himself too gave a most beautiful distinction concerning this in the Gospels, when he says: "whoever confesses in me before men, I also will confess in him before my Father, who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father". You have seen that of those who "confess in himself" he said "he confesses", as one who himself lives in them and works the works of life. But in those "who deny" he did not keep the same likeness of the word, so as to say that whoever denies in me, I too will deny in him, but "whoever denies me before men, I too will deny him before my Father", to show that he who indeed "denies" is outside of himself, whereas he who "confesses" is in himself. Therefore for this reason here too Scripture says that, when "Jesus had died", "there arose another generation after those, who did not know Jesus and the works which he did in Israel".
2. "And the children of Israel did what was wicked before God". Almighty God, our ruler, grant that it may never happen to us that Jesus Christ, after he has risen from the dead, should again die in us. For what does it profit me if in others he lives by virtue and in me he dies by the weakness of sin? What does it profit me if in me and in my heart he does not live, and if in me he does not accomplish the works of life? What does it profit me if in another he is nourished and refreshed by good pursuits, by good faith, by good works, but in me and in my heart he is in a manner suffocated and slain by evil thoughts and unspeakable desires, by the worst pursuits? For see what Scripture adds, that: "there arose", it says, "another generation, which did not know Jesus and the great works which he did". That "generation, which did not know" the Lord "Jesus", is the one of "evil thoughts" and the worst desires, which "proceeds from the heart". This is the "generation which does not know" the Lord "Jesus", nor "the great work which he did in Israel". You see that sinners come to such a point that they even forget that "great" and glorious "work which the Lord did", that he was crucified "for our sins, and rose again for our justification". Whence I believe that, fearing this forgetfulness, the Apostle said to his disciple Timothy, whom he held as especially dear: "be mindful that Christ Jesus has risen from the dead". For he knew that of this so great a work, that "he rose from the dead", forgetfulness could come to be, if a sinful generation should arise in the heart. "There did" therefore "what was wicked before the Lord" "another generation, which knew not Jesus" nor the elders.
3. "And it served", it says, "the Baalim, and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers". These things indeed the ancients did, but since the things that are written are said to have been written not for their sake, but "for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come", let us see whether these things may seem to be said in greater part of us than of them. And do you wish to see that not by me, but by the Apostle these things are expounded as being about us? Hear himself what he says: "but in Elijah what does the Scripture say, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal" — and he adds: "so therefore", he says, "also at this present time a remnant according to the election of grace has been made safe". You see, then, that those who "bent the knee to the Baalim" and "those who did not bend it" he interprets of the remnant of believers and of the multitude of unbelievers. And this he shows: that those who in the time of the Savior proved unbelieving and impious "bent the knee to the Baalim" and adored idols, but those who believe and fulfill the works of faith "did not bend the knee to the Baalim". For nowhere is it reported in the histories or in the Gospels or in any other writings whatever that anyone in the time of the Savior bent the knee to idols, but assuredly this is said of those who, bound and as it were fettered by their sins, were held fast. Whence it is evident that we too, as often as we sin and "are led captive in the law of sin", "bend our knees to the Baalim". But we were not called to this, nor did we believe for this, that we should again serve sin and again "bend the knee" to the devil, but that we should "bend the knee in the name of Jesus", because "in the name of Jesus every knee is bent, of things in heaven and things on earth and things beneath the earth", and that we should bend "our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named". But what does it profit me if I "bend the knees" of my body to God, coming to prayer, and "bend the knees" of my heart to the devil? For if I do not "stand firm against the wiles of the devil", I have "bent my knees" to the devil. And if I do not "stand" steadfastly "against" anger, I have "bent my knees" to anger. Likewise, if I do not steadfastly resist lust, I have "bent" the "knees" of my heart to lust. And in each single thing that is contrary to God I shall be seen to do this, unless I "stand" steadfastly and bravely, just as those also did who "worshipped the Baalim and forsook the God of their fathers", who "brought them out of the land of Egypt". Let us not therefore suppose that, because we seem not to worship idols, these things for that reason do not pertain also to some of us. Whatever each one worships above the rest, whatever he admires and loves above all things, this is his God. Indeed, this is what before all things and above all things God demands of man by his commandment: "you shall love", he says, "the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" — desiring in a manner to lay first claim to himself upon all the affections of the human mind, and knowing that whatever one "loves with all the heart and with all the soul and with all the strength", this is his God. Let each one now examine himself and silently reckon up from his own heart what flame of love above all else and beyond all things burns hottest in him, what affection is cherished in him more ardent than the rest. Do you yourselves hold judgment concerning these things, weigh them on the balance of your own examination, and if there be anything that outweighs in the scale of love, this is your God. But I fear that in very many the love of gold outweighs, and that the weight of avarice, pressing the scale down enough, sinks it. And to such a one it will surely be said: "you cannot serve God and mammon" — that is, avarice. I fear too in others that the love of lust and pleasure outweighs so far as to sink it to the ground; in others that the love of worldly glory and the desire for human dignity weighs down above all; and I think there are very few who, measuring within themselves their own affections and weighing them in the equal balance of the scale, find that the weight of the love of God outweighs above all other things that are human. I know one who had weighed these things within himself with the utmost scrutiny, and, when he had found that all the affections which were within him inclined to that side where the love of God was, said with all confidence that: "neither death nor life nor angels nor powers, neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". But this is Paul, who could so speak these things, because "neither things present nor things to come nor any other creature can separate him from the love of God". But as for us — would that we might say even this, that neither gold nor silver nor the pleasure of the flesh nor the glory of the world and fleeting, temporal dignity, nor bodily delights, nor the favor of children or of a spouse "will be able to separate us from the love of God". Surely let it at least be permitted to us to say with confidence that neither the love of secular literature nor the sophistries of the philosophers nor the deceptions of the astrologers and the feigned courses of the stars, nor the divinations contrived by the stealthy deceit of demons, nor any love of foreknowledge whatsoever, sought through those things which are not lawful, "will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus". Or did not the whole error of the heathen take its beginning from this, when they will that those things which men greatly love should be gods, and ascribe the divine name to any human vices and desires? For those greedy for money and burning with the love of avarice call Mammon, as among the Syrians, the god of that greed; the lovers of lust and pleasure ascribe to themselves Venus as the goddess of this vice by which they are driven. Likewise in the other vices too they have made this very affection, by which they are urged on, their God. Whence the Apostle also says the same thing; for he says: "and avarice, which is the worship of idols". You see, then, that not only to adore an idol, but even to be devoted to "avarice" is reckoned "the worship of idols" and slavery. So therefore we too, when we are so given over to certain vices that we "love them with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength", are said to adore idols and "to have gone after strange gods".
4. "And they adored", it says, "strange gods, the gods of the nations who were round about them, and they provoked the Lord to anger". See how much sins accomplish, that we who sin are said to provoke to anger him in whom there is not only no affection of anger, but not even any other passible movement. Truly he remains unchangeable in his nature and is never disturbed by the affections of anger; but I, through the things in which I transgress, decree anger for myself, just as the Apostle says, teaching this very thing: "but according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up", he says, "for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works".
5. Therefore "they provoked the Lord to anger, and forsook the Lord, they worshipped Baal and Astarte. And the Lord was angry with fury against Israel, and delivered them into the hands of plunderers". As long as one serves God, he is not "delivered into the hands of plunderers". But when he has "forsaken the Lord" and has begun to serve his own passions, then it is said of him that: "God delivered them into passions of ignominy", and again: "he delivered them into a reprobate mind, that they should do those things which are not fitting". Why? Because "they are filled", he says, "with all iniquity, wickedness, fornication, avarice", and all the rest that are named — just as here too now, since "they served", it says, "and adored the Baalim and Astarte, God delivered them into the hands of plunderers; and it came to pass in the hands of their enemies". For these things, as I have already often said, the Jews read as histories of deeds done and past. But "we", "for whose sake these things" are said to be "written", ought to know that, if we have sinned against the Lord and worship the pleasures of our soul and the desires of the flesh as it were as God, we too are delivered up, and by apostolic authority are handed over into the hands of the devil. Hear, then, himself saying of him who had sinned: "I have delivered", he says, "such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved". You see, then, that even now not only through his Apostles does God "deliver" transgressors "into the hands of enemies", but also through those who preside over the church and have the power not only of loosing, but also of binding, sinners "are delivered into the destruction of the flesh", when for their offenses they are separated from the body of Christ. And, as it seems to me, even now men are delivered from the church into the power of the devil in two ways: in this manner which we spoke of above, when his offense becomes manifest to the church and he is driven from the church by the priests, so that, marked out by men, he may blush, and being converted there may befall him that which follows: "that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"; but in another way one is "delivered to the devil" when his sin does not become manifest to men, yet God, "who sees in secret", perceiving his mind and his soul serving vices and passions, and that in his heart it is not he who is worshipped, but either avarice or lust or vainglory or other such things — such a one the Lord himself "delivers to Satan". How does he "deliver him to Satan"? He departs from his mind and turns himself away and flees from his evil thoughts and unworthy desires and leaves the "house" of his heart "empty". And then there shall be fulfilled in that man what is written: "but when the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he goes about through dry places: and if he does not find rest, he returns to his own house; and finding it vacant and swept, he takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering he dwells in that house; and then the last state of that man becomes worse than the first". In this manner, then, it must be understood that God "delivers up" those whom he delivers, not that he himself delivers anyone, but from the fact that he forsakes the unworthy — those, namely, who do not so cultivate themselves and purge themselves from vices that God should gladly dwell in them. When he himself flees and turns away from a soul which is set in uncleanness and vices, it is said to be delivered up from the fact that it is found empty of God and is invaded by the wicked spirit. And therefore let us with the utmost zeal be watchful and hasten to purge ourselves from vices and evil desires, that we may be able to hold God within us and that he may deign to dwell in us, while he is delighted both with our acts and our words and our thoughts, if we conduct according to his will all things that we do, so that, "whether we eat, or whether we drink, or whether we do anything else, we may do all in the name of" our "Lord" Jesus Christ, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".