Homilies on Numbers — Homily 9
Latin source: Origen, In Numeros homiliae (Rufinus's Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of W. A. Baehrens, GCS 30 = Origenes Werke VII (Leipzig, 1921). This English translation is released into the public domain.On the censers of Korah and the sedition of the people against Moses, and on the rods, among which the rod of Aaron budded.
[§1] With God, as we are given to understand, nothing is useless, nothing idle; but even those things which seem fit to be alienated and cast away by men are found to have some necessary function. This understanding is suggested to us by the present reading, which makes mention of the censers of Korah and of the rest who sinned along with him — that God commands that not even these be thrown away, but that from them beaten plates be made, and that the altar be encircled with them. Scripture therefore relates that, by the command of God, "Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest took," it says, "the bronze censers, which those who were burned up had offered, and they made of them plates, and set them upon the altar, for a memorial to the children of Israel, that no stranger who is not of the seed of Aaron should draw near to lay incense before the Lord, lest it should happen as with Korah and his conspiracy, as the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses." Plainly in a certain place the Lord says through the prophet: "My counsels are not as your counsels, nor my thoughts as your thoughts." If this case were being judged today among men, and an examination held among the leaders of the churches concerning those men who, teaching things at variance with the churches, endured the vengeance of divine retribution, would it not be judged that whatever they had spoken, whatever they had taught, whatever also they had left in writing, should all alike perish together with their very ashes? But the judgments of God are not as our judgments. For hear how, concerning the censers of those who had risen up against the prophet of God, plates are commanded to be made and to be fastened around the altar. Korah holds the figure of those who rise up against the faith of the Church and the doctrine of the truth. It is written, then, of Korah and of his company that they offered incense of strange fire in bronze censers. The strange fire indeed is commanded by God to be scattered and poured out, but "the censers," it says, "because they are sanctified, make of them beaten plates, and encircle the altar with them, because they were offered before the Lord and are sanctified." This therefore seems to me to be shown through this figure: that those censers, which Scripture names as bronze, hold the figure of the divine Scripture. To this Scripture heretics, laying strange fire upon it — that is, introducing a meaning and understanding foreign to God and contrary to the truth — offer to the Lord an incense not sweet but abominable. And therefore a pattern is given to the priests of the churches, that, if ever any such thing should arise, those things indeed which are foreign to the truth should be utterly thrust away from the Church of God; but if any things be found inserted even in the very words of the heretics from the senses of the divine Scripture, these should not be rejected together with those things that are contrary to the truth and the faith; for the things that are brought forth from the divine Scripture are sanctified, and offered to the Lord. But it can also be understood in yet another way, that it is commanded concerning the censers of the sinners that they be joined and associated with the altar. And first this very point, that they are called bronze, will seem not idle. For where there is true faith and the whole preaching of the word of God, they are called either silver or golden, so that the gleam of gold may declare the purity of the faith, and the silver tried by fire may signify words that have been tested. But these, which are called bronze, consist only in the sound of the voice, not in the power of the spirit, and they are, as the Apostle says, like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. These bronze censers, then — that is, the utterances of the heretics — if we apply them to the altar of God, where there is the divine fire, where there is the true preaching of the faith, the truth itself will shine the better by comparison with what is false. For if, to give an example, I set down the sayings of Marcion or Basilides or of any other heretic whatsoever, and refute these with the discourses of truth and the testimonies of the divine Scriptures as with the fire of the divine altar, will not their impiety appear more evident from that very comparison? For if ecclesiastical doctrine were simple, and were girt about by no assertions of heretical dogmas from without, our faith could not seem so clear and so well tested. But for this reason the attack of gainsayers besets the catholic doctrine, so that our faith may not grow numb in idleness, but may be filed smooth by exercises. On account of this, finally, the Apostle also said: "But there must also be heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you." This is to say: the altar must be encircled with the censers of the heretics, so that the difference between the faithful and the unfaithful may become certain and manifest to all. For when the ecclesiastical faith has begun to shine like gold, and its preaching has gleamed to those who behold it like silver tried by fire, then with greater foulness and disgrace will the voices of the heretics be sordid in the cheapness of dull bronze. But do you wish to know that the things which are good are known to be good rather from comparison with worse things? Who would know that light is good, unless we felt the darkness of night? Who would know the sweetness of honey, unless he had received a taste of bitterness? Finally, if you were to take away the devil himself and the contrary powers that struggle against us, the virtues of the soul could not shine forth without one who struggles against them. So therefore also the glory of the faithful priests will not be able to shine forth, unless the reprobation and punishment of the unfaithful commend it. But also from those things which we read, each single one of the just is seen to be held more illustrious before God by comparison with the rest. So of Noah it is written that he was "just and perfect in his generation." In which it is shown that he was not perfect absolutely, but perfect in his generation, and by comparison with the rest was pronounced just. In like manner I think it must be held also of Lot. For by how much worse the Sodomites daily became, by so much did he appear the more just. But also in this very book which we have in hand, when those who had inspected the land had returned, and ten of them had struck despair into the people by their fearful words, while the two remaining — that is, Caleb and Joshua — announced good things and exhorted the people to remain in their purpose, it was not so much their own confession as the fearfulness of their comrades that conferred upon them an immortal merit from the Lord. For the virtue of soul in them would not have shone so magnificently, had not the fearfulness of the base cowardice of the remaining ten lain open to view. These things we have said concerning the censers of those who were condemned, which are commanded to be fastened to the altar: that from comparison with the inferior the just appear more illustrious, and at the same time that an example might be given to those who come after, that no one puffed up with the presumption of a proud spirit should seize upon the office of the pontificate as a gift not given him by God, but that he should yield to that man whom neither human ambition nor corrupt favor has taken up, nor condemnable bribery substituted, but the consciousness of merits and the will of God has taken up.[§2] After these things it is related: "and the children of Israel murmured," it says, "against Moses and Aaron, saying: you have killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass, when the congregation rushed upon Moses and Aaron, they fled in the assault to the tabernacle of testimony; and a cloud covered it, and the majesty of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron went in before the face of the tabernacle of testimony." We do not read before that a cloud covered the tabernacle and the majesty of the Lord appeared and received Moses and Aaron within the cloud, except now, when the people rose up against them and wished to stone them. Let us learn from this how great is the profit in persecutions for Christians, how much of grace is conferred, how God becomes their defender, how abundantly the Holy Spirit is poured out. For then most of all the grace of the Lord is present, when the savagery of men is stirred up; and then we have peace with God, when for the sake of righteousness we endure wars from men. For where sin abounded, grace did more abound. The cloud of the tabernacle therefore covered them, and the congregation rushed upon Moses and Aaron, and the glory of the Lord appeared. However great Moses and Aaron may be by the merit of their life, however mightily they may prevail in the virtues of the soul, yet the glory of God could not have appeared to them, except when they were now set in persecutions, in tribulations, in perils, and in death itself almost at hand. And do you therefore not think that the glory of the Lord can appear to you while you sleep and are idle. Or did not Paul the Apostle also merit to obtain the glory of God in these things? Does he not, above all the rest, enumerate that he had been in tribulations, in necessities, in prisons, thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, that he had suffered shipwreck thrice, perils of the sea, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from false brethren? And the more these things abound, by so much the more do they confer the glory of God upon those who have borne them patiently.
[§3] And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: "Depart from the midst of this congregation, and I will destroy them at once." And they fell upon their face. In Sodom, indeed, at the very least, ten were required, through whom those who dwelt in the Pentapolis of the Sodomites could scarcely, if perhaps, be saved; but now even two, if however such be found as Moses was and Aaron, are able to suffice for the whole nation of the Israelites to be saved. What then shall we say is more in these two? What so great a virtue, what merit, whereby six hundred thousand and more are delivered from the destruction of the ravager? I think that in Moses the Law is signified, which teaches men the knowledge and the love of God, and that in Aaron consists the form of supplicating God and of beseeching him. If therefore it should happen at some time that God is angry with us or with the whole people, and if now the sentence of vengeance goes forth from the Lord, but the Law of God returns into our heart, admonishing us and teaching us to turn to repentance, to make satisfaction for our offenses, to supplicate for our faults—the anger will cease at once, the indignation will subside, the Lord will be appeased, as though Moses and Aaron were interceding for us and supplicating for the whole people. But if at some time the indignation of God arises and a fierce correction comes for our sins, and yet our hearts are hardened, so that we do not turn to the Lord nor humble ourselves in his sight, so as by the confession of supplications to soften his emotion and his anger, but on the contrary we say: God has no care for the life of mortals, nor do these things pertain to God, he has long since forsaken us, nor do such matters come to his knowledge—if we think such things in our hearts and these proceed from our mouth, it is certain that Moses and Aaron are not in us, namely the knowledge of the Law and the fruits of repentance, through whom we might be able to escape the destruction of the impending doom. This, I think, happened also to that people who lived before us, when "they all turned aside, together they became unprofitable, and there was none who did goodness, there was not even one." For if there had been, God would never at all have forsaken them. But let us too fear, lest perchance something similar be found in us; for I fear that sentence in which our Lord and Savior, who foreknows all things, as though in doubt says: "Do you think that the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith upon the earth?" Moses and Aaron therefore are commanded to go out from the midst of the congregation, that the congregation may be destroyed at once. But let us see what these men do; they are holy, they are perfect, and more, disciples of the Gospel rather than of the Law, and therefore they love even their enemies and pray for their persecutors. For when those men came to slay them, these fell upon their face to the ground.
[§4] And Moses said to Aaron: "Take the censer, and put fire upon it from the altar, and cast incense upon it, and carry it swiftly into the camp, and make entreaty for them; for wrath has gone forth from the presence of the Lord, and it has already begun to lay waste the people." But since we have come to these passages, I wish to admonish the disciples of Christ concerning the goodness of God, lest perhaps any of you be troubled by the heretics, if ever a controversy should arise, when they say that the God of the law is not good, but just, and that the law of Moses does not contain goodness, but justice. Let those, therefore, who alike accuse both God and the law, see how Moses himself and Aaron did earlier that which the gospel afterward taught. Behold, Moses loves his enemies and prays for his persecutors, which indeed Christ teaches to be done in the gospels. For hear how, falling on their faces upon the ground, they pray for those who had risen up to slay them. So, then, the power of the gospel is found also in the law, and the gospels are understood to rest upon the foundation of the law; nor do I call the old testament the law, if I understand it spiritually. Only to those does the law become an old testament who wish to understand it carnally; and of necessity it has become old for them and has grown aged, because it cannot retain its own strength. But for us, who understand and expound it spiritually and in the gospel sense, it is always new; and both are for us a new testament, not by the age of time, but by the newness of understanding. Or does not the Apostle John also feel the same in his epistle, when he says: "Little children, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another," though he surely knew that the commandment of love had been given long ago in the law? But since charity never falls, nor does the commandment of charity ever grow old, that which never grows old he declares to be always new; for it always renders those who observe and keep the commandment of charity new in the spirit; but for the sinner, and for him who does not keep the covenants of charity, even the gospels grow old. Nor can the testament be new for him who does not put off the old man and put on the new, who is created according to God. Moses therefore exhorts the great high priest to offer incense in the camp and to make entreaty for the people; for the people, he says, have already begun to be laid waste. In the spirit Moses saw the things that were being done. He saw the power go forth to the camp and lay waste and destroy the sinners; and because of this he exhorts the high priest to take the censer, to put fire from the altar upon it, and, with the incense cast on top, to go out and to stand between the midst of the dead and the living, that the devastation may not proceed further — or rather, as the word of Scripture more truly has it, the breaking.
[§5] But first, if it seems good, let us sketch a picture of the historical event itself, so that, once the appearance of the thing done has become clear, then at last we may also inquire whether there is anything mystical in the passage. Understand, then, that people Israel arranged in the camp by the ranks of their tribes and families, and understand that a certain power sent from God began to lay waste the people with death, not scattered here and there, but beginning from some first portion, and consider the slaughter of death advancing in order; and after this the high priest, clothed in his priestly garment, coming forward and carrying a censer and reaching out with fire and incense toward that place to which death, brought by the destroying angel, had arrived, and standing in that place in which death had made an end of the first and was near to the last. Behold the high priest standing and, by the interposition of himself, as it were, separating the living from the dead; behold that the destroying angel was put to shame by the power of his propitiation and by the mystery of the incense, and that in this death was indeed brought to an end and life restored. If you have understood the order of the history and have been able, so to speak, to behold with your eyes the high priest standing in the midst between the living and the dead: ascend now to the loftier summits of this word, and see how the true high priest, Jesus Christ, having taken up the censer of human flesh and set upon it the fire of the altar—that is, without doubt, that magnificent soul with which he was born in the flesh—and having added also the incense, which is the immaculate spirit, stood in the midst between the living and the dead and did not allow death to rage any longer, but, as the Apostle says, "destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil," so that whoever believes in him should no longer die, but should live forever. This, then, was the mystery which, though yet to come, that one who was laying waste the people already dreaded even then. For he recognized the figure of the censer and the fire and the incense; and he foresaw what sort of victim was to be offered to God by him who had stood in the midst between the dead and the living. And them indeed the prefigured image saved at that time, but to us the very truth of salvation has come. For that destroying angel would not have been put to shame by garments of the high priest woven of purple and wool and fine linen, but he understood those garments of the great high priest which were to come, and he yielded to those things to which assuredly the whole creation was inferior. But I think that this form was fulfilled not only at the first coming of our Lord and Savior, but perhaps the same will also be preserved at the second. For the Son of Man will come again, and, when he comes, he will without doubt find some indeed dead, but some living. This we can understand in this way, that some are still found in this state of life in which we now are, while many have already gone before in death. But it can also be taken otherwise, so that we understand the dead to be bodies, and the living souls. Yet some of those who before us have interpreted this passage—I remember that they called dead those who by the excess of their crimes are understood to be dead in their sins, but living those who have persevered in the works of life. But in whichever way, this great high priest and our Savior will stand also in the future in the midst between the living and the dead. But then too he is perhaps to be said to stand in the midst between the living and the dead, when he will set the sheep indeed at his right hand, but the goats at his left, and will say to those who are at his right: "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world," and the rest; but to those who are at his left he will say: "Depart into the eternal fire, you workers of iniquity, which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels; for I never knew you." And those indeed who are sent into the eternal fire are the dead; but those who are sent to the kingdom are the living.
[§6] "And the plague ceased," it says, or, as we said is read in other copies, "the breaking," which also better fits the true interpretation; for a "breaking" is what happens, as it were, in vessels of clay. Sinners, then, become vessels of clay, as the prophet Jeremiah indicates in the Lamentations, saying: "The sons of Zion, who were honorable and lifted up in gold, how are they counted as vessels of clay, the works of the potter's hands?" And: "In a great house," says the Apostle, "there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, and some indeed unto honor, but others unto dishonor." There are, then, vessels of clay unto dishonor, which also can be broken. But let us consider more carefully what the Apostle says in what follows concerning these very vessels of clay: "If anyone," he says, "shall have cleansed himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work." In which he seems to show that both the vessel itself, which is made, and the one by whom it is made, is one and the same man. Understand, therefore, that the purpose of the man is what he works, but the remaining part of the man is the vessel itself, which is made either unto honor or unto dishonor. When, therefore, our sense chooses the things that are good and draws us to a good manner of life, it makes us a useful vessel. But when our purpose has grown neglectful and has fallen away from good things, we are made a vessel unto dishonor. If, therefore, our understanding is of clay and always thinks of clay and of earthly things, we are made a vessel of clay and the work of the potter's hands. And perhaps for this reason such a man is rebuked by the Apostle, as one who, having a sense of clay and earthly, inquires about great things and about those which he cannot grasp, and says: "Why then does he still complain? For who resists his will?" To whom the Apostle, as to one of clay, replies: "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why hast thou made me thus?" Moreover, either our body is called a vessel of clay, or also the letter of the law, in that place where the Apostle says: "But having this treasure in vessels of clay"; for both may be taken in this saying: both that the Lord bestows on us, placed in a body, the treasure of grace through the Holy Spirit, and that in the words of the law, which are held cheap and in contempt because they seem polished by no grammatical art, there is stored up the treasure of the wisdom and knowledge of God, so that it may deservedly be said that in them are hidden the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Let these things have been said by us concerning the breaking, which is recorded to have ceased; but now let us also discuss a few things concerning the following narrative, in which the mention of the rods is introduced.
[§7] And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and take from them a rod according to the houses of their families from all their princes, twelve rods; and write the name of each of them upon his own rod. And the name of Aaron write upon the rod of Levi; for there is one rod for the tribe: according to the houses of their families they shall give them to you. And you shall place them in the tabernacle of testimony over against the ark, from which I shall be made known to you there. And it shall be that the man whom I shall choose, his rod shall sprout: and I shall take away from you the murmuring of the sons of Israel, in whatever things they murmur against you. Every prince of a tribe and of a people has a rod; for one cannot rule a people unless he has a rod. Whence also Paul the Apostle, because he was a prince of the people, therefore said: "What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness?" All the princes of the tribes, then, must needs have their rods, but there is one alone, as the Scripture relates, the high priest Aaron, whose rod sprouted. But since, as we have often shown, the true high priest is Christ, he alone is the one whose rod of the cross not only sprouted, but also flowered and brought forth all these fruits of the believing peoples. And what is this fruit which it brought forth? "Nuts," it says — a fruit which in its first covering is bitter, in the next is guarded and covered over, and in the third feeds and nourishes the one who takes it. Such, therefore, in the audience-hall of Christ, is the teaching of the law and the prophets: the first face of the letter is bitter enough, which enjoins the circumcision of the flesh, which commands concerning sacrifices and the rest of the things that are designated by the letter that kills. All these things cast away like the bitter husk of the nut. In the second place you will come to the defenses of the shell, in which either moral teaching or the principle of continence is designated. These indeed are necessary for the guarding of those things which are kept within, yet they must at some point be broken and without doubt dissolved. As if, for example, we should say: abstinence from foods and the chastisement of the body, so long as we are in this corruptible and passible body, is without doubt necessary; but when it has been broken and dissolved and, at the time of the resurrection, the incorruptible has been rendered out of the corruptible and the spiritual out of the animal, no longer by the labor of affliction nor by the chastisement of abstinence, but by its own quality, no corruption will any longer have dominion over the body. So, therefore, even now the principle of abstinence seems necessary, and afterwards not to be sought. And in the third place you will find hidden in these things the secret sense of the mysteries of the wisdom and knowledge of God, by which the souls of the saints are nourished and fed not only in the present life, but also in that to come. For this is the priestly fruit, which is promised to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, because they shall be filled. In this manner, therefore, in all the Scriptures the principle of this threefold sacrament runs its course. So also Wisdom admonishes that we should describe them for ourselves in our heart in a threefold way, "to answer," it says, "the word of truth to those who propose it to us." So Isaac the patriarch dug three wells, of which that third one alone is named by him "breadth" or "amplitude." But because the priestly sacrament is a rod of the nut, therefore I think that Jeremiah also, who was one of the priests from Anathoth, saw a nut rod and prophesied concerning it those things which are written either concerning the nut rod or concerning the caldron or pot set on fire, as if he showed by these that in the nut rod there is life and in the caldron set on fire there is death; for life and death are set before our face, and life indeed is Christ in the sacrament of the nut, but death is the devil in the figure of the caldron set on fire. If, therefore, you have sinned, you will place your portion with the caldron set on fire; but if you have acted justly, your portion will be made in the nut rod with the great high priest. But also in the Song of Songs the bride is said to go down into the garden of the nut, where too she is described as having found, together with the nuts, an abundance of priestly fruits, as it were. But nevertheless concerning the rods, as we had begun to say, God promised that one would sprout among the rods, and he gave more. But attend more carefully, in case perhaps we can teach that the liberality of God is more generous even than his own promises; in case perhaps from these things too we may be able to search out and investigate that ineffable goodness of God, which is always veiled in the letter of the Scripture, since we see him more generous in bestowing than in promising.
[§8] Therefore the passage of Scripture of which we now speak runs thus: "And it shall be," it says, "that the man, whomsoever I shall choose, his rod shall bud." This alone is what God promised: that the rod of the one whom he should choose would bud. But when it comes to the point, so that what was promised may be shown to be fulfilled, it is not said that only that one thing which had been promised was accomplished, but see how much is added. For it says: "And behold, the rod of Aaron budded in the house of Levi." This is without doubt that one thing which had been promised, but other things too are added, and it is said: "and it produced leaves and put forth flowers and budded nuts." Therefore, although the promise had been of budding alone, see how much God bestows: that he produced not only a bud, but also leaves, and not only leaves, but also flowers, and not only flowers, but also fruits. What then is it that we ought to gather and contemplate from these things? First of all, the mystery of the resurrection from the dead; for the dry rod buds, when the extinguished body has begun to come to life again. But what are those four things which will be granted to the rising body? That what is sown in corruption may rise in incorruption, and what is sown in weakness may rise in power, and what is sown in dishonor may rise in glory, and the body sown a natural body may rise a spiritual body. These are the four things which the rod of our dry body will put forth in the resurrection. But this too we shall say in the second place: that, just as in these matters God gave his promise fourfold and bestowed far more and more precious things than he had promised, so much more, in all the places of Scripture where any promise of God is contained—if indeed anyone should deserve to attain to it—in the future manifold provision will be made; and thus that will be truly fulfilled which the Apostle says: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him." See therefore how many and of what kind are the things which not only was no one permitted to see and to hear, but which could not even enter into the heart, that is, into human thought. Whether therefore you name the earth or the heaven, or this sun and the brightness of visible light, all these the eye has seen and the ear has heard, and they cannot be among those things which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard nor which have entered into the heart of man. Pass beyond therefore all these things and transcend everything—whatever you see, whatever you hear, whatever also you can think—and know that that is laid up for those who love God which could not enter even into the thought of your heart. Whence I judge that in promises of this kind nothing is to be thought concerning bodily things. For the account of bodily matter would not altogether escape the perception of human thought, but those are the things which can enter into no one's perception, no one's heart, which are contained in the wisdom of God alone. But indeed it will seem that, by this reasoning by which the good things of the promises are given in greater measure than they were promised, likewise also the punishments which are threatened to sinners must be inflicted with multiplied torments, just as we also expounded in the earlier passages, where a year is set for a day in respect of vengeance—unless someone should think that some third thing can come to pass, gathering some consolation from those things which are contained in that threat which was made to David, where the coming devastation of death was pronounced for three days, and within six hours the time of the punishment appears to have been shortened. But these things can avail there, where time for repentance and place for satisfaction is granted. Yet God is written of as repaying the evil indeed unto the third and fourth generation, but showing mercy to the good not only unto the third and fourth generation, but, as the Scripture says, unto a thousand generations.
[§9] But let us return to the things which we had begun to say about the rods. We can still further understand thus the differences of those things which had budded on the rod. Everyone who believes in Christ first dies and after this is born again; and this too is a figure, that the dry rod afterward buds. The first bud, therefore, is a man's first confession in Christ. Secondly it puts forth leaves, when, born again, he has received the gift of grace from the sanctification of the Spirit of God. Then it brings forth flowers, when he has begun to make progress and to be adorned with sweetness of character and to pour out the fragrance of mercy and kindness. At the last also it even brings forth the fruits of righteousness, by which he not only himself may live, but may also afford life to others. For when he has come to perfection and has put forth from himself the word of faith, the word of the knowledge of God, and has won others, this is to have brought forth fruits by which others are nourished. So therefore each one of the believers buds from the rod of Aaron, who is Christ; and these four differences of theirs are in other places of Scripture designated as it were four ages, which John the Apostle in his epistle comprehends with a mystical distinction: for he says: "I have written to you, children," and: "I have written to you, adolescents," and: "I have written to you, young men," and: "I have written to you, fathers." In which he assuredly sets forth not bodily ages, but the differences of the soul's advances, as we have observed to be designated also in this budding of the priestly rod. All these things therefore are contained not so much in the rod of Aaron as in that rod which came forth from the root of Jesse, and the flower ascended from its root, upon which the Spirit of God rests. In which this very thing too does not seem idle, that the rod is said to come forth and the flower to ascend. For although Christ is one in substance, yet to individuals he is made diverse, according as the one in whom he works has need. He therefore who is more sluggish and more negligent, for his discipline Christ becomes for him a rod, and in the rod he is said not to ascend, but to come forth. For he who is idle and sluggish must go forth from that state in which he does not rightly stand, and must pass over to another state, being driven as it were by a rod, that is, being admonished by the severity of a more rigorous teaching; but he who is righteous—because the righteous flourishes like a palm—in him Christ is said to ascend. So therefore for him who has need of stripes, the rod goes forth to him; but for him who advances toward righteousness, it ascends for him into a flower. And it ascends, until it brings forth the fruits of the spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, and the remaining virtues, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.