Joshua 18

For surely the waves of the deep, brackish and turbulent sea can signify both the sins among which the reprobate are lost in this life when they delight in evil and also the pit of the future perdition, when at the last judgment they will be sent with the devil into eternal fire.We should not forget that when the tabernacle was built on Mount Sinai it had the Red Sea to its west, and when it was brought into the land of promise and set up at Shiloh by Joshua it had the Great Sea in the same direction. Mystically, therefore, we can understand by this that the saints who serve the Lord in this life and make a tabernacle for him in their hearts despise the proud boasting of the impious, confidently mindful that it is soon to pass away: when they are established with the Lord in the future homeland, they shall look at the perpetual punishment of the impious without any interruption of their own felicity. Consequently, the elders give thanks to the Lord because they also contemplate the evil things from which he has delivered them.

In human custom, when something is divided by lot, that lot seems to fall by chance to this man and another to that man; in holy Scripture, however, it is not so. And at times I used to ask myself whether the holy fathers would have committed the decision about so great and so weighty a matter to lots; and if this had been done thus among the saints, then it would seem no wonder concerning other men, or the Gentiles, if there were nothing extraordinary in those things which are said by the saints to have been divided by lot. But let us see whether perhaps we may find something set down in the Scriptures which may make plain to us what power is contained in the lots. Let us begin, then, from Leviticus, where it is written: "and they shall take," it says, "two lots; one lot for the Lord and one lot for the apompaeus," that is, for the one who sends it away. "And upon whichever the lot of the apompaeus shall come, he shall take that goat, and shall lead it living into the wilderness, and shall let it go there in its release. But the other goat they shall offer to the Lord," and the rest that is there: things which of course they know who read them. And again, where Moses divided by lot "to the tribe of Reuben" and "to the tribe of Gad" and "to the half-tribe of Manasseh," which had asked to receive across the Jordan that land which the children of Israel had seized. But "Jesus" also "gave," according to the commandment of the Lord, "to Caleb the son of Jephunneh" and "to the tribe of Judah a lot." And he gave also to the tribe of "Ephraim" and to that which remained, the half-tribe of "Manasseh." And after these things, "he gathered," it says, "the assembly of the children of Israel" and said: "I will cast the lot and bring forth the lot in the sight of the Lord, if you first, describing the land, bring me a description of it." And thus, after these things, when the lots had been cast, the inheritance is distributed to the people of God, and this lot is set in motion not by chance, but according to that which was predestined by God. Finally, the tribe of "Benjamin" there received the first lot, where "Jerusalem" was; after this the tribe of "Simeon" the second; after this "Issachar"; then "Zebulun"; then "Asher"; after that also "Naphtali"; then "Dan." Among whom last of all come those three tribes which had descended from the concubines of Jacob.

What, then, the reasoning of the lots might be, I kept inquiring within myself, that from the many testimonies of Scripture I might come to know what lay hidden. Indeed I found in the Scriptures that even Gentile men had made use of lots, at that time when Jonah was sailing and a storm pressed upon them. For those who were sailing say: "let us cast a lot and let us know for whose cause this so great evil has come," as though the lot had such power that it could betray the one for whose cause the danger threatened those who sailed. And although they were Gentiles and strangers to the knowledge of God, yet they are not deceived in this opinion, but the lot betrayed to them what was true. Finally, "the lot came," it says, "upon Jonah." Seeking, then, concerning these things, I find also Solomon in the Proverbs saying: "the lot restrains contradictions and decides between the powerful," showing, as it were, that "contradictions" cease where the lot is cast. But since I found not a few such things about lots reported in the Old Testament, I turned myself also to the New Testament, to see whether perhaps even there lots are despised, or whether not even there is the use of them cast aside; and I find that at one time, when one Apostle was lacking from the number of the Apostles and it was necessary that another be substituted in the place of Judas, the Apostles, coming together—who indeed were far wiser than those who now ordain bishops or presbyters or deacons—chose "two" and "set them" in the midst; nor yet did they permit to themselves the judgment concerning these, so as to make him whom they themselves might have wished, but "praying," it says, "they cast a lot between those two" whom they "had set" in the sight of God, that is, "Joseph, who was called Barnabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias." "And the lot fell," it says, "upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles." For, prayer having gone before, the lot conveyed the divine judgment not by chance, but by providence. But still I kept seeking in the New Testament, wherever a lot is named in Christ or in the Church, or in mystical matters and such as seem to pertain to the soul. I find Paul writing to the Ephesians saying concerning Christ: "in whom," he says, "we were called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we may be unto the praise of his glory, we who before hoped in Christ"; but also writing these things to the Thessalonians: "giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us fit for the portion of the lot of the saints in light." Since, therefore, so many testimonies from the holy Scriptures concerning the mention of lots have been gathered together, so that from the consideration of many passages we might more diligently grasp the power of the matter, for my part out of all these either the meaning could not yet lie clearly and evidently open, or else a fear of announcing and bringing forth a secret about so great a matter took hold of me. Yet let it suffice that this much, so far as the matter allows, has come to pass, which the lot drawn by the Apostles designates to us: that, where the lot is drawn from whole faith and with prayer sent before, that which the will of God holds in secret the lot declares openly to men.

But according to the inner understanding, as Paul seems to indicate when he says: "in the portion of the lot of the saints" and: "called by lot in Christ," it must be considered whether perhaps the lot is exercised not only among men, but also among the powers above, and whether some power presides over this office, which, for example, to Jesus the son of Nave now distributing the inheritance by lot, may furnish the drawing of the lot—not toward some favoritism, but according to that which it knows to please God—and may indeed cause those things to come out first for the one whom it knows to hold the first place with God, so that this which is held in secret with God might, by the governance of the lot, be shown also to men; but may make another of the second place and another of the third. And I judge that this was done thus not only on earth, but also in the heavens, and that a lot of this kind—which with God is distinguished by the contemplation of merits—was held even at that time, "when the Most High divided the nations and scattered the sons of Adam and set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and the portion of the Lord became Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel"; for you see that here too he says that God took by lot the "portion" and the "cord of Israel." It must not, then, be thought that by chance it came about by lot for that angel to take up that nation, for example of the Egyptians, and for another that of the Idumeans, and another that of the Moabites, and another India, or any single one of those nations which are upon the earth; but there too, even if the "nations" are said to have been divided by lot "according to the number of the angels of God," yet that lot—just as we said among men that the lot spreads abroad in public the judgment of God which is in secret—such also is it to be believed to have been there, by which each angel took up in the division this or that nation according to his own merit and virtue. And why do I speak of great and general matters? when it must be said that not even through each single one of us does anything come about apart from a lot of this kind, which is dispensed by the judgment of God—for example, that one of us should obtain such or such a life straightway from his birth; or certainly that which we have often taught from the holy Scriptures to be carried on with regard to men, namely, that both good angels are present to men and adverse ones; that it was surely not by chance and without judgment that that angel was allotted to be the guardian of that soul, for example of Peter, and another of Paul, or another of one infant of the Church, concerning whose angels the Lord says that they "always behold the face of their Father who is in heaven." Concerning whom there is surely no room to doubt that, by the judgment of God—who clearly perceives both their worthiness and the quality of our soul—they are allotted the guardianship of each one of us by a certain mystical lot directed by the dispensation of Christ. But I, so far as it pertains to my own opinion, think it must be boldly said even concerning those powers which have undertaken the ministries of this world, that it is not by chance or by accident that that power presides over the germinations of the earth or of the trees, that one supplies sufficiently for the springs and rivers, another for the rains, another for the winds, another for the sea-creatures, but another presides over the land-animals or over each single one of the things born from the earth; and that in these single things there are ineffable sacraments of the divine dispensation, so that all things in their order and by a fitting office are apportioned through each single power. For thus also the Apostle Paul says: "are they not all ministering spirits, sent into ministry for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation?"

But when Jerusalem was being built, it was not built in a place where there was not a city, but there was a city at first which was called Jebus, whence the Jebusites. This having been captured, overcome, made subject, there was built a new city, as though the old were thrown down; and it was called Jerusalem, vision of peace, City of God. Each one therefore that is born of Adam does not yet belong to Jerusalem: for he bears with him the offshoot of iniquity, and the punishment of sin, having been consigned to death, and he belongs in a manner to a sort of old city. But if he is to be in the people of God, his old self will be thrown down, and he will be built up new.

And see the names of those two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is interpreted confusion, Jerusalem vision of peace. Observe now the city of confusion, in order that you may perceive the vision of peace; that you may endure the one and long for the other. By what can those two cities be distinguished? Can we in any way now separate them from each other? They are mingled, and from the very beginning of humankind mingled they run on until the end of the world. Jerusalem began through Abel, Babylon through Cain: for the buildings of the cities were erected afterwards. That Jerusalem in the land of the Jebusites was built: for at first it used to be called Jebus, from which the nation of the Jebusites was expelled, when the people of God was delivered from Egypt and led into the land of promise. But Babylon was built in the most interior regions of Persia, which for a long time raised its head above the rest of nations. These two cities then at particular times were built, so that there might be shown a figure of two cities begun of old, and to remain even until the end in this world, but at the end to be severed.

I pass from the letter—since even it has taken a way which the Word has given—to each soul already made worthy to see peace. For after divine studies, you have become Jerusalem, the prior place being Jebus. History says that the name of that place had been Jebus, but afterwards the name changed and became Jerusalem. The children of the Hebrews say that Jebus is interpreted as "what has been trampled." Jebus then is the soul which is trampled by hostile powers, has been changed and has become Jerusalem, vision of peace. If then you have sinned, when you have changed from Jebus to become Jerusalem, and you have trampled upon the Son of God and held as profane the blood of the new covenant as she had, and you have ended up in grievous sins, it will also be said concerning you, who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will feel sorry for you if you become someone who betrays Jesus? When each of us sins, and especially if he sins grievously, he sins against Jesus. But if he is also an apostate, he does spiritually even more to Jesus the things that Jerusalem did to him bodily.

In imitation, therefore, of these things, it must be believed that here too Scripture reports that lots are drawn through Jesus and that the inheritance is decreed for each single tribe by the divine dispensation, and that through the ineffable providence and foreknowledge of God there is foreshadowed in these lots the pattern of the future inheritance in the heavens. Since indeed "the law" is said "to have a shadow of the good things to come," and, as the Apostle says concerning those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, that: "you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," there is in the heavens some "city" which is called "Jerusalem" and "Mount Zion," it is surely not without cause that Benjamin received in his lot "Jerusalem" and "Mount Zion"; unless it be that the plan of that "heavenly Jerusalem" without doubt required this, that the earthly "Jerusalem"—which preserves the figure and form of that heavenly one—ought to be given to none other than Benjamin. And likewise concerning "Bethlehem" it must be said that it is not without a certain sure reason decreed in the lot of Judah, or that "Hebron" or the other single cities are assigned in writing to each single tribe, except that, as we have said, those heavenly places—in which both "Jerusalem" and "Zion" are named to be—without doubt, and the rest of the places also which are near or joined to these, contained in themselves this cause and reason in the heavens which was governed by lot to be distributed on earth. Hence, then, it is that the divine wisdom dispensed that certain names of places be written in the Scriptures which contain a certain mystical interpretation, through which it is indicated to us that these things are dispensed to be done by certain fixed reasons and not by accident or by chance. For just as it must not be thought that it happened by chance, for example, that that angel was called Michael, but another Gabriel, and another Raphael, and—to come down to human matters—just as it was not by chance that that patriarch was called Abraham and that one Isaac, and another Israel, but not even among the women did it happen by accident, but by a fixed and divine reason, that she was called "Sarah" from "Sara," or that man "Israel" from "Jacob," or that man "Abraham" from "Abram," and as it is certain that each one, whether of the angels or of men, is allotted his very names from the offices and acts which are enjoined upon him: so it follows that there are also certain heavenly places and cities—just as the "heavenly Jerusalem" is called, and "Zion"—that there are also others, of which these that are on the earth contain the type and image, which now in this Scripture are mystically designated to us through Jesus son of Nave. And concerning these very cities I think it was said: "the cities of Judah shall be built, and they shall dwell there and shall inherit it." Concerning these also the Lord and Savior says that: "there are many mansions with the Father." And concerning these very cities it must be believed that the Lord says to that servant who had traded well: "have power over ten cities" and to another: "over five cities." — These things concerning the division of the lots of the land of Judah we have dared to bring forth to you, so far as was permitted, at the prompting of Scripture, which calls "Jerusalem heavenly and Mount Zion" and the rest which are likewise written to be "in the heavens"; which gave us occasion to perceive concerning all these things that heavenly mysteries are described in them. And therefore we say to you, do not read these things with disdain and do not think that some Scripture is worthless because it is thickly sown with many namings of names; but rather know that ineffable mysteries are contained through these, greater than either human speech can bring forth or mortal hearing can hear; which, as I judge, cannot be worthily and completely explained not only by me, "the least," but not even by those who are far better than I. And I do not know whether they are fully and completely brought forth even by the holy Apostles themselves; I did not say that they are not fully known, but that they are not fully brought forth. For it is certain that these things were known and completely grasped by him "who was caught up even to the third heaven," who indeed, being placed in heaven, saw the heavenly things, saw "Jerusalem," the true "city of God," saw there also "Mount Zion," in whatever place it is, saw also "Bethlehem," saw also "Hebron," saw also all those things which are here written to be divided by lot; and he not only saw, but also comprehended their reasons in the spirit, since he himself confesses "that he heard words and reasons." But what words? "Ineffable ones," he says, "and which it is not permitted to men to speak." You see, then, that Paul knows all things and comprehends them in the spirit, but it "was not permitted" to him to bring these forth "to men." To what "men"? Without doubt to those concerning whom he said reproachfully: "are you not men, and do you not walk according to man?" But he was perhaps speaking these things to those who now did not "walk according to man"; he was speaking these things to Timothy, he was speaking to Luke and to the rest of the disciples, whom he knew to be capable of the "ineffable" sacraments. Finally, in a mystery too he admonished Timothy of something of this kind, saying: "be mindful of the words which you have heard from me, which commend to faithful men and to those who are fit also to teach others." So, then, believing these things to be divine and mystical, let us prepare ourselves by life, faith, deeds, and merits to be worthy and fit for the capacity of them, so that, when they have been worthily understood by us, we may also deserve to attain them by inheritance in the heavens, in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"