OT § 20

Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. [Genesis 12:1] Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.

Abraham represents the mind. In fact Abraham signifies passage. Therefore, in order that the mind, which in Adam had allowed itself to run to pleasure and to bodily attractions, should turn toward the ideal form of virtue, a wise man has been proposed to us as an example to imitate. Actually Abraham in Hebrew signifies "father," in the sense that the mind, with the authority, the judgment and the solicitude of a father, governs the entire person. This mind then was in Haran, that is, in caverns, subject to the different passions. For this reason it is told, "Go from your country," that is, from your body. From this land went forth the one whose homeland is in the heavens.

Some were reached by the Word of God through the law of promise and the discernment of the good inherent in them from their first formation. They did not hesitate but followed it readily as did Abraham, our father. Since he offered himself in love through the law of promise, God appeared to him, saying, "Go from your country and your kindred and from your father's house to the land that I will show you." And he went without hesitating at all but being ready for his calling. This is the model for the beginning of this way of life. It still persists in those who follow this pattern. Wherever and whenever souls endure and bow to it they easily attain the virtues, since their hearts are ready to be guided by the Spirit of God.

The right thing to do, brothers and sisters, is to believe God before he pays up anything, because just as he cannot possibly lie, so he cannot deceive. For he is God. That's how our ancestors believed him. That's how Abraham believed him. There's a faith for you that really deserves to be admired and made widely known. He had received nothing from him, and he believed his promise. We do not yet believe him, though we have already received so much. Was Abraham ever in a position to say to him, "I will believe you, because you promised me that and paid up"? No, he believed from the very first command given, without having received anything else at all. "Go out from your country," he was told, "and from your kindred, and go into a country which I will give you." And he believed straightaway, and [God] didn't give him that country but kept it for his seed.

And the Lord said to Abram, "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." For, speaking distinctly, the Lord mentions land, kindred, and father's house. The land of Abram must be understood as the region of the Chaldeans from which he had already departed: his kindred, the family of his brother Nahor, whom he had already left behind: the father's house, in which he was then dwelling in Haran. How then is it that he is now commanded to go out from his father's house as well as from the land and kindred from which he already seemed to have come forth? Unless perhaps it should be understood that he had left his land and his kindred with his parent with the intention, as we have previously mentioned, to return to it after reconciling with the Chaldeans in the following age: he is now commanded by the Lord to turn his mind away from the purpose of returning to Chaldea, and to take away his mind and body from the habitation of Mesopotamia as well. Leaving behind the land in which the city of pride was made, and confused by the judgment of the Lord, he was to come into the land in which he would receive the grace of the heavenly blessing and would create a new and better progeny by merit of his faith and obedience. For what he says, "And I will make you into a great nation," properly pertains to the people of Israel. For concerning the generation of other nations that were likewise to arise from him—namely the Ishmaelites, Edomites, and the peoples from Keturah, his second wife after Sarah—he says in subsequent words to him, "I will make you grow exceedingly, and I will place you among nations, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." This is a promise of blessing greater and far superior to the former. That one indeed is earthly, this one is heavenly: because the former signifies the propagation of carnal Israel, this one of the spiritual. The former pertains to the people who were born from him according to the flesh; this one to those who are saved in Christ from all the families of the earth, among whom are indeed those who are born from him according to the flesh and also wish to imitate his faith's piety. To all these, the Apostle Paul says, "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed" (Gal. 3:19). Therefore, what he says, "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" is as if he were saying, "And in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed." For, to speak in the words of the Apostle, Mary was already in the loins of Abraham at that time, from whom Christ was to be born, when these things were said to him. And the wondrous disposition of heavenly severity and piety: for men gathering for a proud work deserved to be divided from one another through different languages and kinships. But leaving that province alone and willingly going into exile at the command of the Lord, he heard that all the nations divided into various provinces and languages would be gathered in him by a common blessing. Note indeed that although the world's third age is usually computed from the birth of Abraham, yet by this special oracle of the Lord to Abraham, the beginnings of the third age are consecrated according to the sufficiency of the matters themselves. For at that time, the holy seed was separated from the nations, and the Savior of all nations, who was to be born from it, was foretold. Until this time, all the faithful and righteous used to make use of that knowledge of moral life which they either knew naturally by guidance or drew originally from the doctrine of their parents. But now the knowledge also of the coming Savior in the flesh, in whom blessing and salvation were to come to all the holy ones, both those who would precede his incarnation by being born earlier and to us who believe we can be saved later by the name of the same Lord Jesus, as Peter says, in the same way as they.

When the sacred lesson was read just now, we heard the Lord say to blessed Abraham, "Leave your country, your kinsfolk and your father's house." Now everything that was written in the Old Testament, dearly beloved, provided a type and image of the New Testament. As the apostle says, "Now all these things happened to them as a type, and they were written for our correction, upon whom the final age of the world has come." Therefore, if what happened corporally in Abraham was written for us, we will see it fulfilled spiritually in us if we live piously and justly. "Leave your country," the Lord said, "your kinsfolk and your father's house." We believe and perceive all these things fulfilled in us, brothers, through the sacrament of baptism. Our land is our body; we go forth properly from our land if we abandon our carnal habits to follow the footsteps of Christ. Does not one seem to you happily to leave his land, that is, himself, if from being proud he becomes humble; from irascible, patient; from dissolute, chaste; from avaricious, generous; from envious, kind; from cruel, gentle? Truly, brothers, one who is changed thus out of love for God happily leaves his own land. Finally, even in private conversation, if one who is wicked suddenly begins to perform good works we are inclined to speak thus of him: He has gone out of himself. Indeed, he is properly said to have gone out of himself if he rejects his vices and delights in virtue. "Leave your country," says the Lord. Our country, that is, our body, was the land of the dying before baptism, but through baptism it has become the land of the living. It is the very land of which the psalmist relates: "I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living." Through baptism, as I said, we have become the land of the living and not of the dying, that is, of the virtues and not of the vices. However, this is true only if after receiving baptism we do not return to the slough of vices, if when we have become the land of the living we do not perform the blameworthy, wicked deeds of death. "And come," says the Lord, "into the land which I will show you." It is certain that then we will come with joy to the land that God shows us if with his help we first repel sins and vices from our land, that is, from our body.

"Leave your kinsfolk." Our kinsfolk is understood as those vices and sins that are in part born with us in some way and are increased and nourished after infancy by our bad acts. Therefore we leave our kinsfolk when through the grace of baptism we are emptied of all sins and vices. However, this is true only if later we strive as much as we can with God's help to expel vice and to be filled with virtues. If after being freed from all evil through baptism we are willing to be slothful and idle, I fear that what is written in the Gospel may be fulfilled in us: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he roams through dry places in search of rest and finds none. If after he returns he finds his house unoccupied, he takes with him seven other spirits more evil than himself; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." Therefore let us so go forth from our kinsfolk, that is, from our sins and vices, that we may never again wish to return to them as a dog to its vomit.

"Leave your father's house." This we ought to accept in a spiritual manner, dearly beloved. The devil was our father before the grace of Christ; of him the Lord spoke in the Gospel when he rebuked the Jews: "The father from whom you are is the devil, and the desires of your father it is your will to do." He said the devil was the father of humanity, not because of birth from him but because of imitation of his wickedness. Indeed, they could not have been born of him, but they did want to imitate him. This fact that the devil was our first father the psalmist relates in the person of God speaking to the church: "Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear, forget your people and your father's house."

Abraham, styled "the friend," [Isaiah 41:8] was found faithful, inasmuch as he rendered obedience to the words of God. He, in the exercise of obedience, went out from his own country, and from his kindred, and from his father's house, in order that, by forsaking a small territory, and a weak family, and an insignificant house, he might inherit the promises of God. For God said to him, "Get you out from your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, into the land which I shall show you. And I will make you a great nation, and will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be blessed. And I will bless them that bless you, and curse them that curse you; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." [Genesis 12:1-3] And again, on his departing from Lot, God said to him, "Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you now are, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, [so that] if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered." [Genesis 13:14-16] And again [the Scripture] says, "God brought forth Abram, and spoke unto him, Look up now to heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them; so shall your seed be. And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." [Genesis 15:5-6] On account of his faith and hospitality, a son was given him in his old age; and in the exercise of obedience, he offered him as a sacrifice to God on one of the mountains which He showed him. [Genesis 22:9]

It is not by chance that God orders Abraham to leave his land and his relatives but because he sees in him something that makes him worthy of being the object of divine concern, that is, his faith in God. But it was not fitting that the one who had faith in God should remain among perverse people—the father of Abraham was in fact an idolater—because the company of the wicked often does harm to zealous people, especially to those whose zeal is new. That is why the Savior also proclaims, "If anyone wishes to follow me and does not hate his father, his brothers, his sisters, and even his wife and children, he cannot be my disciple." The Lord did not say that in order to provoke hatred of one's relatives, but if one of them becomes an obstacle to virtue, it is necessary to hate him for virtue's sake. That is what the apostles did, who said, "Look, we have left everything in order to follow you." Such is the order given now to the patriarch, and God tells him that he will show him a land in which to live, that he will make of him a great nation, that he will bless and magnify his name.

Abraham, who was called, went forth after God, and he was not a judge of the voice which came to him, and he was not held back by race and kinsfolk, nor by country and friends, nor by any of the many other human ties. Immediately he heard the voice and knew that it was of God, he despised everything and went forth to Him, and hearkened unto Him with simplicity. And he held Him to be certain and sure in his mind by faith, and by the natural simplicity which acteth not cunningly with evil things; and as a boy after his father did he run towards the voice of God, everything being despised in his eyes immediately he heard the word of God.

And there was in him also the knowledge and discretion of nature, but he shewed his discernment in that he found it right to hearken unto God, Who had called him, as a servant to his lord, and as a slave to his Creator. And also to that knowledge in which he was placed he did not give power to investigate and to enquire why and for what reason he had been called by God, "Go forth from thy country, and from thy kinsfolk, and come to the land which I will show thee." And God did not reveal to him what the country was, in order that his faith might be the more victorious, and his simplicity appear.

As for the promise to make of him "a great nation," is it necessary to give a meaning other than the literal one? Because it is clear that it was realized in its historical sense. But, having become a people, it is truly great when it is adorned with virtues. And it is manifest that when the progress becomes more important in the soul, there is established in it a grandeur which is no longer earthly but heavenly. And this soul is a blessing that is not simply offered but realized, because the name is made great and becomes celebrated because it is accompanied by virtue and by that beauty which confers a spiritual blessing. It is worth more to have a good name than to have riches.

The scope of the promise is extraordinary: "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and magnify your name." Not only will I place you at the head of a great nation and cause your name to be great, but as well, "I will bless you, and you will be blessed." I will favor you with so much blessing, he says, that it will last for all time. "You will be blessed" to such an extent that everyone will be anxious to thrust themselves into your company in preference to the highest honor. See how God right from the beginning foretold to him the honor he would later confer upon him. "I will make you a great nation," he said; "I will magnify your name; I will bless you, and you will be blessed." Hence the Jews too found in the patriarch grounds for self-importance and endeavored to establish their kinship with him in the words "We are the children of Abraham." For you to learn, however, that on the basis of their evil ways they are in fact unworthy of such kinship, Christ says to them, "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." John too, the son of Zechariah, when those anxious to be baptized flocked to the Jordan, said to them, "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that benefits repentance, and don't presume to say, 'We have Abraham for our father.' I tell you, after all, that God can raise up children to Abraham even from these stones." Do you see how great his name was in everyone's estimation? For the time being, however, before the sequel the just man's God-fearing qualities are demonstrated in the way he believed the words coming from God and accepted without demur everything, difficult though it seemed.

Perhaps only a single people, as a people, took the new step with perfect decision--I mean the Jews: but great individuals in all times and places have taken it also, and only those who take it are safe from the obscenities and barbarities of unmoralised worship or the cold, sad self-righteousness of sheer moralism. ... And if revelation, then it is most really and truly in Abraham that all peoples shall be blessed, for it was the Jews who fully and unambiguously identified the awful Presence haunting black mountain-tops and thunderclouds with 'the righteous Lord' who 'loveth righteousness'.

So Abram departed as the Lord had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. It is clear from this number of Abraham's years that he left Haran while his father was still alive, as was explained above. There is no doubt that the number seventy-five is mystical, since in it he received the promise of divine blessing and left Isaac, the heir of the same blessing, when he was dying. To speak briefly, seventy, because it is seven times ten, represents the perfection of good actions, when we fulfill the commandments of the Decalogue through the grace of the Holy Spirit, which the prophet describes as sevenfold. To these are added five, so that in all the senses of our body, we may fulfill the same divine commandments with the help of the Spirit's grace. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran at the command or promise of the Lord and entered the Promised Land; to show that he himself, through the help of the Spirit, having anathematized the errors of Babylonian conduct, would keep God's commandments; and this in all that he did with his body, whether living, hearing, tasting, or touching, so that there might be nothing in his body that was not enlightened and aided by the gift of the Spirit to obey the heavenly commands. And he marked that all his heirs of the promise should live in a similar manner. It is also to be imitated by all the sons of the promise, among whom we are, that he was ordered to leave his land, his kindred, and his father's house. For we depart from our land when we renounce the pleasures of the flesh; from our kindred, when we strive to strip ourselves of all the vices with which we were born, as far as is possible for humans; from our father's house, when we contend to leave the world itself with its prince the devil out of love for heavenly life. For we are all born into the world as sons of the devil because of the guilt of original transgression; but through the grace of regeneration, we belong to the seed of Abraham and become the sons of God, as our Father in heaven says to us, that is, to His Church: "Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, forget your people and your father's house" (Psalms 45:10). Thus it is well that Haran, from which Abraham departed, is interpreted as Wrath. Canaan, to whose land he was invited, is called the Changed or Merchant. Therefore, not only did Abraham and his brother Lot leave Haran to go to the land of Canaan, but all the elect who are born through the laver of regeneration certainly depart from Haran and come to the land of Canaan; and all the chosen, with the wrath of original sin repudiated in the state of their life and having abandoned the habit of vices, apply themselves to virtues and labor in the most blessed commerce of temporal works to attain eternal rewards; they spurn earthly riches to receive heavenly ones; they disdain the joys of human reign to deserve a share in the kingdom of God. For this is the land that the Lord promised to show His followers: because it cannot be discovered by human wisdom how to walk the way of good deeds, but His guidance must be sought in all things, as the Psalmist says: "You held my right hand, you guided me according to your will, and took me with glory" (Psalms 73:23-24).

(Chapter 12, Verse 4) Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. There arises an unsolvable question: for if Terah, the father of Abram, when he was still in the land of the Chaldeans, at seventy years old begot Abram, and afterwards died in Haran at the age of two hundred and five: how is it now mentioned that Abram, after the death of Terah, when departing from Haran, was seventy-five years old? Since from the birth of Abram until the death of his father, it is said that one hundred and thirty-five years passed. Therefore, that tradition of the Hebrews, which we mentioned above, is true: that Thara went out with his sons from the fire of the Chaldeans, and that Abram, surrounded by the Babylonian fire, was liberated by the help of God because he refused to worship it; and from that time, the days of his life, and the reckoning of his age, are considered from when he confessed the Lord, rejecting the idols of the Chaldeans. However, it is possible that because the Scripture left it uncertain, a few years ago Thara set out from Chaldea and came to Haran, where he died. Certainly, after the persecution, he came to Haran and stayed there for a longer time. Therefore, if anyone is opposed to this explanation, they will seek another solution and then rightfully reject what we have said.

Therefore, Sarai took his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had made in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. The phrase "the souls that they had made" is used to mean the children they had begotten. For in the Scriptures, a man is sometimes indicated by the name of the soul alone, sometimes by the name of the flesh alone. By "soul," as it is said: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20); by "flesh," as in the Psalm: "Unto thee shall all flesh come" (Psalm 65:3), since neither flesh without the soul can come to God, nor can the soul sin without the flesh, but the whole man is signified by one part. Nor do those who believe that as the flesh is generated from flesh, so the soul is generated from the soul have any support from this sentiment: for by the term "soul," as we have said, the whole man is understood. However, that they made souls, that is, procreated souls in Haran, should be understood not of Abraham and Lot, but of their household and servants: for the sacred history following this testifies that the patriarchs themselves still remained without children.

And when they had come to it, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. It is read above that while Abram was still living in Haran, the Lord spoke to him, promising manifold blessings, commanding him to leave there and come into the land that He would show him. When he did this and willingly obeyed the divine commands, he was immediately deemed worthy of greater grace from God, so that not only would he enjoy His speech, as before, but also merit His vision. When, through the same divine vision and speech, he knew that this was the land promised to him for possession, he quickly, as a man devoted to God, built an altar there to dedicate and consecrate it for offering sacrifices to Him. But because sacred history is full of mystical types, it should be noted that the Lord's appearance and the erection of the altar are recorded as having taken place at Shechem and at the oak of Moreh. What illustrious valley, if not humility, is figuratively understood? When called by the Lord from the labors and burdens of this world, we must have humility as the first among virtues, as He Himself says: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29). The place Shechem mystically fits this bearing of the burden because it translates into shoulders in Latin, for it is necessary that with the humility of mind we take up the burdens of good works to be carried. When we diligently strive to do this, we will immediately merit the grace of the Lord's visitation and consolation, so that we may gradually be able to ascend to higher degrees of virtues. Hence rightly, about the advancements of Abram's journeys, which signify the progression of good works, it is added:

Please note that the same Moses says in another passage that God appeared to Abraham. Yet the same Moses hears from God that no man can see God and live. If God cannot be seen, how did God appear? If he appeared, how is it that he cannot be seen? For John says similarly, "No one has ever seen God." And the apostle Paul says, "Whom no man has seen or can see." But certainly Scripture does not lie; therefore God was really seen. Accordingly this can only mean that it was not the Father, who never has been seen, that was seen, but the Son, who willed to descend and to be seen, for the simple reason that he has descended. In fact, he is the "image of the invisible God," that our limited human nature and frailty might in time grow accustomed to see God the Father in him who is the Image of God, that is, in the Son of God. Gradually and by degrees, human frailty had to be strengthened by means of the Image for the glory of being able one day to see God the Father.