Homilies on Judges — Homily 8 (Judges 6:3, 33–40 — Gideon and the fleece)
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.Concerning the sons of the East and, in part, concerning Gideon.
1. Granted, the Midianites have gathered against Israel, they who are interpreted as "outside judgment." Granted, these have gathered against Israel, who are outside the judgment of God and "who have sinned outside the law and will perish outside the law." Granted, Amalek too has gathered, who himself is likewise interpreted as "a people that licks up." Granted, this nation too, earthly and given over to the belly and the gullet, has come to make war — a carnal Israel against the spiritual Israel. But what is this, that even the "sons of the East" are mingled with them and are said to come with them to make war on Israel? For my hearer says to me: if it had been written that the "sons" of the West "gathered with them," I would ask nothing; for you would tell me by the laws of allegory that the sons of the West are the sons of darkness, and that they join themselves to those nations, whether such as are outside the judgment of God or such as, given over to the belly, make war on those who strive to see God with the mind. But now, when it is said that the "sons of the East came with Midian and Amalek," how can these things be fittingly expounded? Let us see, then, whether in passages of Scripture so difficult we can find some sense worthy of the divine pages. Everyone who in any manner takes upon himself the name of Christ becomes a "son" "of the East." For thus it is written of Christ: "behold a man, the East is his name." Everyone, therefore, who takes the name of Christ is said to be a "son" "of the East"; but not always do those who receive the name of Christ also remain in the Church of Christ. If therefore you should see heretics who are indeed reckoned by the name of Christ, yet assail the Church of Christ and bring their arms against the faith of Christ, make war on the people of the Lord, and stir up wars against the catholic faith — do not hesitate to say of these that they are indeed "sons of the East," but that they come with the Midianites and with Amalek to assail the people of God, because together with pagans and with Jews the heretics too persecute the Church of God. And I think that it is these who are designated in the "sons of the East."
2. "All Midian, therefore," it says, "and Amalek and the sons of the East gathered together and went up and came upon them and pitched their camp in the valley of Jezreel." These, who wish to assail the people of God, "pitch their camp in the valleys," in low and lowly places, "in the valley," it says, "of Jezreel." Now we find that Jezreel is interpreted as "the seed of God." Do you see where the adversaries "pitch their camp"? They did not dare to go there where the "fruits of the Spirit" are seen to have already been born, but where the seed of God still lies, where the fruit has not yet come up. For he who "went out to sow" "sows the word" over every place, but hear the Lord himself saying what the seed of God is wont to suffer: "some," he says, "fell by the wayside, and the birds of heaven come and snatch it away." Which, interpreting in what follows, he himself says: "but those who were sown by the wayside are they who hear the word of God and receive it with joy; but the devil comes and takes away from their heart what was sown." So therefore these too now come to the seed of God and wish to "take it away from the heart of those in whom it was sown," because they find them placed in the valleys and pursuing all that is lowest. For they belong to those who receive the word of God humbly and unworthily and, so to speak, with a Jewish understanding, and therefore the demons are able to "snatch it away from their heart." But he who ascends from the humility of the letter to the heights of the spirit, and, fleeing carnal understanding, pursues among the loftier things those which are of the Spirit of God — from him neither the Midianites nor the Amalekites can snatch anything, nor indeed will the "sons of the East" themselves be able to plunder him, set as he is upon the lofty summit of spiritual understanding.
3. They, therefore, "pitch their camp in the valleys." "But the Spirit," it says, "of God strengthened Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, upon the horn of the trumpet, and called Abiezer after him." The continuity of the exposition, indeed, required a different order, but because we are now speaking not so much to comment on the Scriptures as to console the people concerning those things which have been read, we treat here and there, as they occur, of individual points. "He called," it says, "Abiezer after him," who indeed was nowhere at all. Now "Abiezer" is interpreted as "the help of my father." Therefore Gideon seems to have called upon not some man, but the help of the highest Father. Meanwhile he also sends to summon reinforcements. The peoples come together, and the whole army is gathered to Gideon.
4. "And then," it says, "Gideon said to God: if you save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, behold, here I am, and I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; and if indeed dew falls upon the fleece and there is dryness upon all the earth, I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. And it was done so." Since there are so many and innumerable signs or prodigies which Gideon could have asked from God to confirm God's promise, why did it seem good to him, after the angelic voice and the heavenly promise, to ask of God this so novel a sign? For he says: "I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor, and if there is dew upon the fleece only and dryness upon all the earth, I shall be confident that you will save Israel by my hand." And when Gideon had asked this sign of God, he obtained its fulfillment. But granted, O Gideon, that you have obtained the efficacy of the sign; why do you also take the "fleece of wool" and "wring it out into a basin"? What moved you to do this? But granted that you obtained the first sign, why did you ask that a second sign also be given, in a reversed and altered order? For perhaps someone of those who listen more attentively to what is read says that these things do not seem to agree with what is written: "you shall not tempt the Lord your God," which the law commanded. But the outcome of the matter teaches that nothing was done against the commandment; for neither would God hear a petition demanding something against the law. But now, when we see that in the first sign "dew fell upon the fleece of wool, but on all the earth there was dryness," and in the second "dew fell upon all the earth, but there was dryness in the fleece" — in which Gideon also received confidence that the Lord would by his hand save Israel — the meaning of this mystery must be considered. Concerning it I recall that one also of our predecessors, in his little books, called the "fleece of wool" the people of Israel, and set down the rest of the earth as the rest of the nations, and said that the "dew" which fell "upon the fleece" is the word of God, which had been granted from heaven to that people alone. For upon Israel alone had come the "dew" of the divine legislation; but "dryness" held all the nations, because no moisture of the divine utterance was poured into them. But the meaning of the second sign, altered to the contrary, in which he says: "that upon all the earth the dew should descend, but upon the fleece dryness should remain" — such a meaning is discovered. Behold this whole people which throughout all the earth has been gathered from the nations, now having in itself the divine dew; behold it watered with the dew of Moses, bedewed with the writings of the prophets; behold it growing green also with the moisture of the Gospel and of the apostles; but that fleece, that is, the Jewish people, suffering the dryness and aridity of the word of God, according to what is written: "the children of Israel shall be a long time without a king, without a prince, without a prophet; there shall be no altar nor victim nor sacrifice." You behold how great a "dryness" abides among them, how great an "aridity" of the divine discourse befalls them. These things, indeed, as it is fitting to confess, have been furnished to us from the labor of our elders; but since we too, having heard a word from the wise, as it is written, ought to commend it and add to it, let us see what we too may build up upon such things. For indeed, when I was often examining the seventy-first psalm within myself, this moved me: that, when it describes the coming of Christ in it, in that very psalm it also asserts that this shall come to pass: "and he shall descend," it says, "like rain upon a fleece, and like raindrops dripping upon the earth." A "fleece" is named here, a "fleece" is written also in the psalms. For "he shall descend like rain," it says, "upon a fleece." He "descended," therefore, "upon" that "fleece" of the people of the circumcision, and "like raindrops dripping upon the earth," that is, upon the rest of the earth, "descended" our Lord Jesus Christ, "dripping" also "upon" us and bringing drops of heavenly dew to us also, the nations, that we too might drink, we who were dried up "over" all the "earth" by continual aridity. This order of the mystery, therefore, the holy Gideon, beholding it with prophetic spirit, not only asked the first sign of God, but also repeated a second in reversed order. For he knew that the divine "dew," which is the coming of the Son of God, was to come not only to the Jews, but afterward also to the nations, since indeed from the "unbelief" of Israel "salvation comes to the nations." And this is why, in place of the aridity of the fleece, the whole earth is watered with the grace of the divine dew. But this too, in this deed of the most faithful man Gideon, I think ought by no means to be passed over, since it can serve us as a pattern of spiritual caution. "He saw an angel," but as a learned man, and having now the example of Joshua his predecessor, he acts more cautiously. For he knew that even the angels of darkness could "transfigure themselves into angels of light," and therefore, with most cautious examination, "I wish," he says, "to test the spirit, whether it be from God," because "the spiritual man examines all things." For thus also his predecessor Joshua son of Nun had done; when he had seen "the prince of the heavenly host," he inquires and considers whether he is "ours or of the adversaries." In this manner also the most holy Gideon considers the angelic vision by the diversity and change of the signs.
5. But that also, which Gideon says: "I will place the fleece" — not just anywhere, not in a field nor in a woodland, but "on the threshing-floor" — how does it seem to you? "On the threshing-floor," where the "harvest" is: "for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." "I will place," he says, "the fleece" there, where the "harvest" is. What had moved the holy man Gideon, or what had seemed good to him, that he should do this? For he foresaw through the Spirit that Christ "gathers" his people "into the threshing-floor" and there cleanses him, "holding the winnowing-fan in his hand," and there separates the "chaff" from the wheat. Not without cause, therefore, did so great and such a man — of whom the holy Apostle too, writing to the Hebrews, makes mention in the catalogue of the prophets — choose the threshing-floor for placing the fleece; nor without cause did he "wring out the fleece into a basin and fill it with water." Let us seek concerning this also in the holy Scriptures, whether any occasion of this understanding too is afforded us. Let us come to the Gospel. We find there our Lord and Savior "putting off his garments, and, girded with a linen cloth, pouring water into a basin, and washing the feet of his disciples." You see, then, that the prophets foreshadowed these things, which were to be fulfilled in the last times through the Lord. That "water," therefore, which "Jesus poured into the basin," was the dew of heavenly grace, with which "he washed the feet of his disciples." Whence also he rightly said to them: "but you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." But we too, if only we offer our feet, the Lord Jesus is ready to "wash the feet" of our soul and to cleanse them with the heavenly dew, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the word of doctrine. For he willed that not the Apostles alone should be "clean," but also all who believe through his word. And to all believers he says that which he said to Peter: "unless I wash you, you shall have no part with me." For it is certain that no one "has part with Christ" unless he has been washed and made "clean." Come, I beseech you, Lord Jesus, Son of God, "put off the garments" which you put on for my sake, and gird yourself for my sake, and "pour water into a basin and wash the feet" of your servants, wash away the filth of your sons and daughters. "Wash the feet" of our soul, that we, imitating you and following you, may "put off" our old "garments" and say: "by night I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on?", and may say again: "I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them?". For as soon as you "wash" my "feet," may you also make me recline with you, that I may hear from you: "you call me Lord and master; and you say rightly, for I am. If therefore I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you too wash one another's feet." I too, therefore, now wish to "wash the feet" of my brethren, to "wash the feet" of my fellow-disciples. And for that reason I take the water which I draw from the fountains of Israel, or rather which I "wring out" from the Israelite "fleece." For I now "wring out" water from the "fleece" of the book of Judges, and at another time water from the "fleece" of the Kingdoms, and water from the "fleece" of Isaiah or Jeremiah; and I "pour" it "into the basin" of my soul, conceiving the sense in my heart, and I take the feet of those who offer and prepare themselves for washing, and, so far as I am able, I desire to "wash the feet" of my brethren and to fulfill the commandment of the Lord, that by the word of doctrine the hearers may be cleansed from the filth of their sins, that they may cast away from themselves all the uncleanness of their vices and have clean "feet," with which they may rightly walk "to the preparation of the Gospel of peace," so that all of us together, purified in Christ through the word, may not be cast out from the bridal chamber of the bridegroom on account of filthy garments, but, white in raiment, washed in feet, "clean of heart," may recline at the banquet of the bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".