OT § 171

(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.

(Verse 16 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, the house of Israel have dwelt (or dwells) in their own land, and they have defiled it with their ways and their idols: according to the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity, their way has become before me. And I poured out my indignation (or fury) upon them, for the blood they have shed upon the land: they have defiled it with their idols, and I scattered them among the nations, and dispersed them in the lands (or regions) according to their ways, and judged them for their inventions (or sins), and they entered into the nations to which they came, and defiled my holy name, when it was said of them, This is the people of the Lord, and they have come out of his land. And I spared my holy name (that is, I spared them for the sake of my holy name) which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to whom you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. Indeed, I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in your midst (or give it to you), and I will make you walk in my precepts (or my justifications), and keep my judgments, and do (or make) them ((Vulg. is silent on them)). And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God. And I will save you ((Al. I will save you)) from all your defilements (or impurities), and I will call forth grain, and multiply it, and I will not give (or give) you famine, and I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the produce of the field, so that you will no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations. And you shall remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and your iniquities, and your abominations. And I will not do for your sake, saith the Lord God, let it be known unto you. Be ye confounded, and ashamed at your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, and shall cause the cities to be inhabited, and shall repair the ruinous places, And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in the sight of all that passed by, They shall say: This land that was untilled (or desolate) is become as a garden of pleasure; and the cities that were uninhabitable, and deserted, and ruined, are now fenced, and inhabited. And the nations shall know that those who were left all around you, who were scattered, I the Lord have rebuilt. I have replanted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God: In this I will be found by the house of Israel, and I will act for them. I will multiply them like a flock of people, like a holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem in its appointed feasts. The cities shall be inhabited again, and the waste places rebuilt with flocks of people. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. The things that are said are clear, and the whole sense of the mountains of Israel, which were previously desert, and afterwards restored, is now more clearly revealed. And God explains why He handed over the people of Israel to captivity, and promises, due to His mercy, to bring them back to the land of Judah and to give them much greater things than He had taken away. Some Jews refer this to the times of Zerubbabel, when, with Cyrus, the king of the Persians releasing their captivity, many were brought back from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin to Judah. But others refer it to a kingdom of a thousand years, when under Christ, whom they suppose to be coming, the city of Jerusalem is to be built, and the temple to be constructed, concerning which temple we shall speak in the interpretation of the last part of the book. Meanwhile, let us pass briefly through the remaining portion of this chapter, and consider what seems to be said to us according to the understanding of the Church. The house of Israel, that is, the people of the Jews, once dwelt in their land, that is, in the land of Judah, when they were brought out of Egypt. But they defiled it with their ways and pursuits, or their idols, and they became so polluted that they were compared to the filth of a menstruating woman. Because of this, God poured out his indignation upon them, for the blood of the prophets and the righteous, which they had shed on the earth, as the Savior says in the Gospel: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you (Matthew 23:37). And again (Verse 35): Amen, amen I say to you: the blood of Abel, the just, shall be required of this generation from the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the altar and the temple. Amen, I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. Therefore, behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the altar and the temple. Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate! For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! When I saw this, he said, not for their sake, but for the sake of my holy name (for I am the Creator of all), I spared them and sanctified them, and I restored them to their former glory, so that I might pour out clean water of saving Baptism upon those who believe and have turned away from error, and cleanse them from their abominations and from all the errors in which they were occupied, and give them a new heart to believe in the Son of God and a new spirit, of which David speaks: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 50:21). And it is to be considered that a new heart and a new spirit are given through the effusion and sprinkling of water. When, however, a new heart and a new spirit are given, then all hardness, which is compared to stone, will be removed from the Jewish heart, so that the heart may be a fleshy, soft, and tender one, which can receive the spirit of God within itself and be inscribed with saving words. Then they will walk in the precepts of the Lord and keep His judgments, and they will dwell in the land of confession, which He had given to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all the holy ones and prophets, and they will become the people of God, and the Lord will be their God, as is proven in the present time. And when they are saved, the Lord will call the grain and multiply it. For unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone (John 12:24). And they will not endure hunger (Amos 8:11): not hunger for bread and thirst for water, but hunger for hearing the word of God, which he who came from the Father, having received all substance, scattered: when in the necessity of hunger, he fed on the pods of swine (Luke 15). Then the fruit of the tree, that is, wisdom, will be multiplied, of which it is written: The tree of life is to all who seek it (Prov. III, 18): and the produce of the field will be like Jacob, whose scent was like the scent of a full field, to whom the Lord blessed (Genes. XXVII, 27). They will no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations, which the unbelief of the Jews suffers to this day: but after they have attained blessedness, they will imitate the Apostle who says: I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (I Cor. XV, 9). And they will remember their worst ways and their non-good pursuits, by which they offended God. And their iniquities and their crimes, by which they previously erred, will displease them. But the Lord will attribute all these things, not for the sake of those who perished by their own error, but for the sake of his holy name. Therefore, he provokes the house of Israel to be confused and ashamed about their past vices, and to understand their Creator. But after he will have cleansed the people of the believers from their iniquities, and he will have made the cities of the Church to be inhabited, and he will have restored the ruined things that had fallen in the synagogues, and the land of confession will have been cultivated with the ceremonies of God, which once seemed desolate to all the saints who pass by the works of earthly conversation: then all will say: How does the land of Judah, which once was uncultivated, now have the likeness of the paradise of God; and the cities of Judah, which were deserted and abandoned, and buried by their unbelief, now stand upright and fortified in confession, and in the name of the Lord and Savior? So that every creature may know, and the multitudes of Angels, which surround the land of Israel, that the Lord has built up the desolate cities and planted the barren regions, and that He has fulfilled what He had promised through the prophets. And this will not be the extent of His generosity towards the people He has saved, but He will provide even greater things. For indeed, He will be found by the house of Israel, who had been sought for a long time and was not found. And after he finds him, he will multiply them like sheep: not of brute animals, but of sheep of men, which are full of reason and confession, like holy sheep and flocks of Jerusalem, in which the worship of God proper and the vision of peace is, in its solemnities when we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5), and we feed on the flesh of the Lamb and drink its blood, and in the seven weeks, and in the tabernacles of this present age we celebrate the Lord's Day festivals, so that the once desolate cities may become full of flocks of men, and by this means they may know that he himself is the Lord, who has provided all things. According to the truth of history, or rather according to the faith of prophecy, it suffices to say briefly how the people of Israel are restored to their original state, and how the remnant of the people of Judah, as the Apostle Paul teaches (Rom. IX, 11), are saved in the Apostle and in all those who initially believed from the Jews and continue to return to the Church even today. Now, the same sense must be opened in this brief tropology. Whoever is from the house of Israel and perceives the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, dwells in his own land, that is, the Church, or in the temporary dwelling of the flesh, which has been given to him by God. But if he pollutes both lands with his wicked ways, and is compared to the impurity of a menstruating woman: God will pour out his indignation upon him, for the blood, either his own or those whom he has scandalized, and will pour it out upon the land, and with perverse thoughts he pollutes it. Then he will be scattered among the nations, to be leveled with the unbelievers, and will be tossed about on the earth like chaff, to be separated from the grain of the Church, and judged according to his ways. But if they have not perceived their sin in this way, but have defiled His holy name, then all those among whom they have lived will say: Behold the people of God, behold those who have come forth from their land, or rather have been cast out. But if they repent and I am sanctified in their midst, then all the multitude of the nations will know that I will remove them from the lands where they were dispersed and bring them back to the land of the Church, and I will pour out upon them not the waters of saving Baptism, but the waters of teaching and the word of God; and I will cleanse them from all their uncleannesses, and from all the idols and errors which they had secretly conceived in their hearts. And I will give them a new heart, which they had lost through sin, and I will renew a right spirit within their hearts. And I will remove the stony heart, that is, the unbelieving heart; and I will give them a fleshy heart, soft and tender; that they may receive the commandments of God; so that they may walk in my commandments, and observe my judgments; which they had previously neglected, and they shall dwell in the land which I had given to their fathers, namely, the masters and teachers; and once again, they shall be the people of God, and the Lord shall be turned to them as God, whom they had previously offended. Then they will be saved from all their sins, and their grain will multiply, from which heavenly bread is made; and they will no longer suffer from hunger for the word of God; and the tree of wisdom will multiply in them, and their hearts will be filled with offspring. They will no longer be a reproach among the nations; but after God has shown them mercy, they will remember their wicked ways and know where they have been, and they will be disgusted by their iniquities. What the Lord says is not for them, but for his own mercy. Therefore, he encourages those who are straying to be confounded and ashamed in their ways, and to be restored to the cities of the Church, which will be inhabited by them again and all that have fallen in them will be rebuilt. And they will return to the ancient ceremonies, and the once deserted land, which appeared desolate to its inhabitants and to passing strangers, will return to its former state; and all will marvel and say: This uncultivated land, this deserted land, in which all virtues once perished, has now become like a garden of pleasure and a paradise of God; and the once deserted cities, which did not have God as their guest, and were deprived of the Holy Spirit, and were buried in unbelief, will be fortified by the faith of Christ, so that all around may know that the Lord has built up scattered souls, and has planted and nurtured in them the trees of all virtues; and he himself has fulfilled the things he promised in his words. And again the prophetic word exhorts the repentant, that even when they have returned to the Church, they should always seek the Lord, and find Him: so that the flocks of the Lord may multiply with the multitude of those who return: not of horses and brute animals, but of flocks of men, who are full of faith and reason, the holy flocks, the flocks of the city of Jerusalem, on all the solemnities, which they have received through the mercy of God; so that when the multitude of such flocks has filled the cities of the Lord, then all may know that He is the Lord.

The water ought to be first cleansed and sanctified by the bishop that it may be able to wash away in its baptism the sins of the one who is baptized.

Seek the Lord, O sinners, and be strengthened in your thoughts because of hope. And seek his face through repentance at all times. You will be sanctified by the holiness of his presence, and you will be purified of your iniquity.

Careful consideration should be given to what a new heart and a new spirit is given when the water has been poured and sprinkled.

He calls the pure water the water of rebirth, because we who have been baptized have received the forgiveness of our sins.

Free will is always present in us, but it is not always good. For it is either free of justice, while serving sin, and then it is evil; or it is free of sin, while serving justice, and then it is good. But the grace of God is always good and brings about a good will in a person who before was possessed of an evil will. It is by this grace, too, that this same good will, once it begins to exist, is expanded and made so strong that it is able to fulfill whatever of God's commandments it wishes, whenever it does so with a strong and perfect will.

God by his grace takes away the stony heart from unbelievers and forestalls merit in people of good will in such a way that their will is prepared by what goes before grace, but that grace is not given through some merit of human will.

John who had been exiled by the Emperor Marcion, said, 'One day we went into Syria to see Poemen for we wanted to ask him about hardness of heart. But he did not know Greek and we did not have an interpreter. When he saw we were embarrassed, he began to speak in Greek saying, 'The nature of water is soft, the nature of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above a stone letting water drip down, it wears away the stone. It is like that with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but if a man hears the word of God often, it will break open his heart to the fear of God.'

God gives a new heart so that we may walk in his justifications, which are about beginning a good will. He also gives it so that we may observe and do his judgments, which are about doing good works.

The image of Christ is formed in us through the Spirit of wisdom and the revelation of the knowledge of Him.

We must consider the new heart and the new spirit that are given after the pouring and sprinkling of water. When a new heart and a new spirit are given, all hardness is taken away from the Jewish heart, which is compared with a heart of stone, and instead of a heart of stone there is a heart of flesh, soft and tender, which can receive the spirit of God within it and be written with the words of salvation. Then they will walk in the precepts of the Lord and will keep his judgments.

The word of God is at the same time the seed and the water; and even though we have a heart like stone, it will be softened and split up by the water of the Spirit, so that it can bring forth holy fruit that is pleasing to God.

He means by these things a change of attitude. Your heart, he says, will incline to better things, no longer following your previous preference for what is worse. That "I will give" in no way damages free will, for by words and deeds and endless miracles, not only among them but in all races, so that they start to live piously; he persuades, he does not compel. And although he does not compel but persuades, he says that he has inclined their minds toward better things.

God promises that he will cause them to do those things that he commands to be done. Nor indeed does he here overlook the merits, but rather the evil deeds, of those to whom he shows that he will return good things for evil, by the very fact that he causes them to have good works from that point on, when he causes them to carry out the divine commands.

I will certainly not pour on them the waters of baptism but the waters of the teaching and the Word of God, and I will purify them of all their iniquities and from every single one of their idols and from the errors that they make in their hearts.

These things did not happen before the coming of the Lord Christ. Since they had three prophets after the return to Jerusalem, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, they were immediately deprived of the gift of prophecy. But after our God and Savior was made man and ascended into the heavens, and the Holy Spirit came on the holy apostles, through them grace was given not only to the Jews but also to all those from the peoples who came to faith. He calls a heart of stone one that is antagonistic and rebellious, and a heart of flesh, one that is compliant and obedient to what it is told, and is able to draw out the meaning of the divine writings … this is the mark of a spirit of grace, which assists our free will and ensures that what has been said proceeds in due course.