Joshua 13

Even before us certain men, observing the Scriptures, noted that men are called "presbyters" or "elders" not because they have led a long life, but that they are honored with this venerable title on account of the maturity of their understanding and the gravity of their life — especially when there is added to "presbyter" that expression which follows: "full of days." For if a man were to be called presbyter or elder because of the length of his years, what other man ought rather to have been reckoned by this name than the first Adam, or surely Methuselah or Noah, who indeed are declared to have lived in this world for far more years than the rest? But now we see that of these none is reported by Scripture to have been called "presbyter" or "elder," but rather he who led a life of far briefer time, Abraham, is the first in the holy Scriptures to be called "presbyter" or "elder." It was said also to Moses by the Lord: "Choose for yourself out of all the people presbyters, whom you yourself know to be presbyters." But observe also, you O hearer, throughout all Scripture, whether you can anywhere find this title, "elder and full of days," set upon any sinner. Now therefore it is the voice of the Holy Spirit that pronounces Jesus a "presbyter" — or "elder" — "and advanced in days"; for so it said: "For Jesus," it says, "was a presbyter" — or "elder" — "advanced in days." Which certainly could not be said of a sinner, because a sinner is not "advanced in days"; for he does not "stretch himself toward the things that are ahead, forgetting the things that are behind," but is always "turned backward" and "returns to his own vomit," and therefore "is not fit for the kingdom of heaven." But he who is always "stretched out toward the things before" and is borne toward perfection, that man is "advanced in his days." And now therefore the Lord says to Jesus: "You are advanced in your days." I do not know whether, in this place, it can be thought that the Lord was saying this to Jesus because all saw and all knew this concerning his aged years. And what sort of great and divine responses are these, delivered to men, that they should say to an old man: you are old — which all saw and all knew? But it seems to me that some great testimony is given by the Lord through this to the son of Nave, when it is said to him: "you are advanced in days." And as far as it is permitted us to speak forth or to disclose concerning the divine mysteries, I judge that, just as this sun makes days for this world, so also the "sun of righteousness" makes certain spiritual days, which are illumined by the brightness of truth and the lamp of wisdom. If therefore anyone shall have passed through this present life in the precepts of God — this life which, as Jacob said, is of "few and evil days" — and shall have kept himself unstained from this world and shall have subdued all his adversaries and his spiritual enemies, he is advanced from those few and evil days and is promoted to those eternal and good days, marked by the light of the eternal sun. In some such order, then, is Jesus too to be understood to be pronounced by the divine responses "advanced in days."

But since we have undertaken to refer also to our Lord and Savior the things that are said of Jesus, who is understood to be so much a presbyter and elder "advanced in days" as he himself, who is the "beginning," the "firstborn of all creation"? And therefore perhaps he alone is truly and completely called "presbyter," before whom no one is. Therefore, although there are those who are called in the Scriptures "presbyters" or "elders" or "high priests," nevertheless the Lord Jesus, just as among the high priests he is the "chief of the high priests" and among the shepherds he is the "chief shepherd," so also among the "presbyters" or "elders" he is to be considered the chief of the presbyters, and among the bishops the chief of the bishops; and whatever honorable name there is, the Savior is to be believed to be first and chief in it, because he himself is "the head of all things."

But he adds to these a divine response and says: "you are advanced in days, and the land that is left is very great." In the passages above it was said, as we observed, that "the land ceased from wars" and that "Jesus took all the land"; and here now it is written that "the land that is left is very great." Do you think that Scripture contains things contrary to itself? This is not to be suspected even lightly. But let us return to the spiritual understanding, and in it you will find nothing to be contrary. Consider the first coming of our Lord and Savior, when he came to sow his word in the world, how "he took all the land" by the mere casting of the seed, and how he put to flight from it the adversary powers and the apostate angels who had besieged the minds of the Gentiles, and meanwhile sowed the word and propagated the churches. This is his first possession of the whole land. But follow me, O hearer, along the subtle lines of the word, and I will show you how also a second time he takes this "land," which is now said to Jesus "to have been left in great part." Hear Paul saying of him: "for he must reign, until he puts all his enemies as a footstool for his feet." This, then, is the "land" which is now said "to have been left in great part," until "all" without exception "are subdued beneath his feet," and through these he may take possession of all men by inheritance. "And this is," it says, "the land which is left: all the borders of the Philistines," and very many others which follow. Much still remains, as far as concerns our times, which we see not yet "to be subjected to the feet of Jesus," who must indeed obtain all things. For there can be no end of things unless all things have first been "subjected" to him. For so also the prophet says that "all nations shall serve him," and: "from the ends of the rivers unto the ends of the earth. Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down," and: "from beyond the banks of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall offer sacrifices." Whence it is established that in the second coming Jesus will obtain this "great land which remains." But blessed are those who were obtained at his first coming; for these will be truly pleasing, who, while many adversaries resist and many enemies assail, receive by war and by arms the inheritance of the land of promise. But when someone has been subjected out of necessity — then, when even "the last enemy, death, must be destroyed" — there will no longer be favor for those who are subjected.

After these things, when he had enumerated very many nations, he said concerning the Sidonians alone: "and all the Sidonians, I myself will exterminate them from the face of the children of Israel." The "Canaanites" too were named, and those also were named who are "over against the face of Egypt," and those who are "from the borders of Ekron" and from the left parts of the rivers, and very many other nations; and concerning the Sidonians alone the Lord says that he "will overthrow" them. Now the "Sidonians," as we have already said before, are interpreted as hunters. Who then are understood to be these evil hunters, whom the Lord "exterminates," if not those adverse powers, concerning whom the prophet says that "they have prepared snares for my feet"? — with which, namely, they hunt and entrap souls unto sin. These, then, the Lord "exterminates"; for if such hunters as these shall have perished, when there is no longer anyone to "stretch out snares" and nets to entrap souls in sin, then "each one shall rest under his own vine and under his own fig tree."

But that also was read to us today, that Moses gave an inheritance to certain men; and after these things it is read that Jesus too, according to the precept of the Lord, distributed the inheritance. First, then, Moses distributed the inheritance, but second Jesus. Now understand Moses as the law. These, then, who lived according to the law received the inheritance first, but outside the land of promise. Then afterward, when they had received the land of inheritance, they do not possess it nor divide it among themselves, but they wait until it is distributed to them by lot through Jesus. Is not this evidently what the Apostle says to the Hebrews, writing about the "former fathers," whom he said "pleased God by faith"? And he added, saying: "but all these, having obtained testimony through faith, did not yet receive the promises, God providing something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us." They have therefore already their "promise" and have found rest, and have been judged worthy through Moses to take the inheritance; nevertheless they too still fight and are in the contest on behalf of those who serve as soldiers under Jesus. But you ask who these are that fight, and what is that fight which they wage. I judge it thus, that all those "fathers" who "fell asleep" before us fight together with us and help us by their prayers. For so also I heard a certain one of the elder teachers saying, in that place where it is written in Numbers that: "that synagogue shall lick up this synagogue, as a calf licks up the green grass of the field." He said: why was a likeness of this kind taken up, unless because this is what is to be understood in the passage — that the "synagogue" of the Lord, which has gone before us among the saints, shall with mouth and tongue consume the adversary synagogue, that is, shall consume our adversaries with prayers and supplications? Not therefore with arms are we to fight against our invisible enemies, but with prayers and meditations on the word of God and with right works and right thoughts. For so also the fathers were armed, conquering by faith and by works. See, finally, that it is so written of them: "they believed," it says, "God and Moses his servant"; and "then Moses sang this song" and said: "let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honored." So then let us too, cultivating full faith and perfect works, unceasing prayers, meditation on the divine word, spiritual understanding, and fortified in all these as with the arms of God, "let us stand against the wiles of the devil," calling upon God our helper in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"

Nevertheless, let us see what it is that is described through the shadow, since in the shadow of the law the truth is outlined. There is reported, then, a first and a second division of the inheritance that was made — the first indeed through Moses, but the second, which is also the more powerful, is described as made through Jesus. And "Moses" decrees a possession "beyond the Jordan to the tribe of Reuben and to the tribe of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh," but all the rest receive their inheritance through Jesus. We have already spoken about these matters before — how those who "had pleased God" through the law, going before in time those who through faith in Jesus arrive at the things promised, do not yet obtain the things that are perfect, awaiting those who, later indeed in a different time but by one faith, will please God, as the Apostle says: "that they should not be made perfect without us." Meanwhile, neither Moses nor Jesus gave the Levites an inheritance, because "the Lord God himself is their inheritance." And in this matter what else is to be understood, except that there are in the Church of the Lord certain ones who by the virtue of their soul and the grace of their merits go before all the rest, of whom "the Lord himself" is said to be their "inheritance"? And if it is permitted to venture in such matters and to open up something of a hidden secret, let us see whether perhaps this is what the figure of the priests or the Levites secretly shows — that in the whole people (I mean of those who are saved) the greater and by far the more numerous part is without doubt of those who, simply believing in the fear of God, through good works, through honorable morals and commendable deeds, "please the Lord"; but few there are, and very rare, who, giving their effort to wisdom and knowledge and keeping their mind clean and pure and cultivating their souls with all illustrious virtues, illuminate for the rest of the simpler ones, through the grace of teaching, the road on which they walk and come to salvation. These perhaps are now designated under the name of the Levites and the priests, whose "inheritance is the Lord himself," who is the "wisdom" which they loved above all others. I find, however, a certain difference in the things which Moses distributed and in those which Jesus distributed. For Moses, "distributing the land beyond the Jordan to the two and a half tribes," did not give the Levites the portion of a dwelling that fell to them; but Jesus gave it not only in those tribes which he himself apportions, but also in those which had been settled by Moses beyond the Jordan. For dwellings are decreed for the Levites in each single tribe, so that through this we might recognize a much more magnificent mystery. For this Levitical or priestly order, which devotes its effort to the wisdom and knowledge of God, could not receive from Moses a lot of habitation, because Moses was not a minister of the truth, but "of the shadow and the copy." But Jesus our Lord, who was "the Wisdom of God," himself provides dwellings for the wise. For Moses could not say: "Go, sell all your things which you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me" — for this is to give a portion to the Levites — nor could Moses say: "Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple," nor could Moses say: "Everyone who does not hate father or mother and brothers and sisters and children, and moreover even his own soul, cannot be my disciple." This Moses could not say, and therefore he himself could not apportion the dwellings of the priests and Levites. Blessed, therefore, is he who shows himself to be such and is found to be perfect in all these things which Jesus commanded, so that from Jesus he may receive the lot of a heavenly dwelling in the world to come; of whom the Lord Jesus himself says: "Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me," and: "as I in you and you in me are one, that these also may be one in us."