OT § 54

Some one perhaps will enquire whether he does not seem to have been wanting in faith, seeing that after being instructed by many signs he asked still more. But how can he seem to have asked as if doubting or wanting in faith, who was speaking in mysteries? He was not then doubtful, but careful that we should not doubt. For how could he be doubtful whose prayer was effectual? And how could he have begun the battle without fear, unless he had understood the message of God? for the dew on the fleece signified the faith among the Jews, because the words of God come down like the dew.

But what does this mean: "Until the day on which the Lord shall send rain on the earth"? except that he, too, "shall come down like rain upon a fleece, and like the drops that water the earth." In this passage the mystery of the old history is disclosed where Gideon, the warrior of the mystic conflict, receiving the pledge of future victory, recognized the spiritual sacrament in the vision of his mind, that that rain was the dew of the divine Word, which first came down on the fleece, when all the earth was parched with continual drought, and by a second true sign, moistened the floor of all the earth with a shower, while dryness was upon the fleece.

Again on this subject it is written: "For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from the law, the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." When he says "made manifest" he shows that it had existed but was like the dew for which Gideon asked; then it was not visible on the fleece, but now it is made manifest on the ground around. Therefore, since law without grace could only strengthen rather than kill sin—as it is written: "The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law"—and as many flee to grace for refuge from the face of sin which had been so enthroned, to grace lying manifest, as it were, on the ground, so at that time few fled to it [grace] for refuge, invisible as it were, on the fleece. Indeed, this division of times belongs to the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God, of which it is said: "How incomprehensible are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!"

"And he shall come down like rain into a fleece, and like drops distilling upon the earth." He has reminded and admonished us that what was done by Gideon the judge has its end in Christ. He asked the Lord for a sign, that a fleece laid on the floor should alone be rained upon and the floor should be dry; and again, that the fleece alone should be dry and the floor should be rained upon; and so it happened. This dry fleece, which lay upon a floor in the midst of the whole round world, signified the former people Israel. Therefore, Christ came down like rain upon the fleece while the floor remained dry; concerning this he said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." There [in Israel] he selected a mother through whom he would receive the [bodily] form of a servant in order to appear to humanity: there he gave this command to the disciples, saying, "Don't go in the direction of the nations or enter into the cities of the Samaritans: go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." When he said, go "first" to them, he also showed that afterward, when the floor was to be rained upon, they would also go to other sheep who were not of the former people of Israel. Concerning these he says, "I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I need to bring in them also, that there may be one flock and one Shepherd." For this reason the apostle also says, "For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the patriarchs." Thus rain came down upon the fleece, while the floor remained dry. Regarding this he continues, "so that the nations should glorify God for his mercy," and, when the time arrived, that what he says by the prophet should be fulfilled, "a people whom I have not known has served me, in listening attentively it has obeyed me." We now understand that the nation of the Jews has remained dry of Christ's grace, and all the nations throughout the whole round world are being rained upon by clouds full of Christian grace. He has indicated this rain with another phrase, as he says that "drops [are] distilling" no longer upon the fleece but "upon the earth." For what else is rain but drops distilling? I think that the above [Jewish] nation is signified as a fleece either because they were to be stripped of the authority of teaching—just as a sheep is stripped of its skin—or because he was hiding that same rain in a secret place and did not desire that it should be preached to those who were not circumcised, that is, to be revealed to uncircumcised nations.

What did Gideon's fleece signify? It is like the nation of the Jews in the midst of the world, which had the grace of sacraments, not indeed openly manifested, but hidden in a cloud or in a veil, like the dew in the fleece. The time came when the dew was to be manifested in the floor; it was manifested, no longer hidden. Christ alone is the sweetness of dew: him alone you do not recognize in Scripture, for whom Scripture was written. But yet, "they have heard all the words of your mouth."

But some, like the Jews in former times, both wish to be called Christians, and—still ignorant of God's righteousness—desire to establish their own, even in our own times of open grace, of the full revelation of grace that was previously hidden, that is, in the times of grace now manifested in the floor, which had before lay hidden in the fleece.… Gideon, one of the righteous men of old, asked for a sign from the Lord, and said, "I pray, Lord, that this fleece which I put on the floor would be wet with dew, and that the floor would be dry." And it was so. The fleece was wet with dew while the whole floor was dry. In the morning he wrung out the fleece in a basin—since grace is given to the humble—and you know what the Lord did to his disciples [with water] in a basin. He asked for yet another sign: "O Lord, I [pray] that the fleece would be dry, and the floor wet with dew." And it was so. Consider how, in the time of the Old Testament, grace was hidden in a cloud, as the rain in the fleece. Note also the time of the New Testament: if you consider the nation of the Jews, you will find it like the dry fleece, whereas the whole world, like that floor, is full of grace, not hidden but manifested. Therefore we are greatly compelled to grieve for our brothers who strive against openly manifested, rather than hidden, grace. There is allowance for the Jews, but what shall we say of Christians? For what reason are you enemies of Christ's grace? Why do you rely on yourselves? Why are you unthankful? Why did Christ come? Wasn't [human] nature here before, which you only deceive by your excessive praise? Wasn't the law here? But the apostle says, "If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." What the apostle says of the law, we say regarding nature concerning these people. "If righteousness comes through [human] nature, then Christ died in vain."

Now, although Gideon was brave and confident, still he sought fuller proofs of victory from the Lord, saying, "If indeed you are going to save Israel through me, as you promised, O Lord, I am putting this woolen fleece on the threshing floor. If dew comes on the fleece, while all the ground is dry, I shall know that you will save the people through me, as you promised." That is what took place. Afterwards, he added that the second time dew should pour over all the ground and only the fleece be dry; and so it happened. The dew on the fleece was faith in Judea, for the words of God descend as dew; for this reason Moses says, "May my discourse be awaited like the rain, and my words descend like the dew." Thus, when the whole world was dried up from the unproductive heat of Gentile superstition, then there was the dew of a heavenly visitation upon the fleece, that is, in Judea. However, after "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (foreshadowing, I think, the figure of the fleece of the Jews) refused the fountain of living water, the dew of faith dried up in the hearts of the Jews, and that divine stream turned its path to the hearts of the Gentiles. For this reason, the whole world is now moist with the dew of faith, but the Jews destroyed their prophets and advisers. It is no wonder that they submit to the dryness of faithlessness, since the Lord God deprived them of the fruitful rains of the prophets, saying, "I will command the clouds not to send rain upon that vineyard." Salutary is the rain of the prophetic cloud, as David said: "He shall be like rain coming down on the meadow, like showers watering the earth." The sacred writings of the whole world promised us this rain which watered the world at the advent of our Lord and Savior with the dew of the divine spirit. Thus, the dew has already come, and also the rain; the Lord came and brought with him heavenly showers. For this reason, we who thirsted before now drink, and by an interior drinking [we] absorb that divine spirit. Therefore, holy Gideon foresaw that by perceiving faith, even tribes and nations would drink the true heavenly dew.

"And then," it says, "Gideon said to God: if you save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, behold, here I am, and I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; and if indeed dew falls upon the fleece and there is dryness upon all the earth, I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. And it was done so." Since there are so many and innumerable signs or prodigies which Gideon could have asked from God to confirm God's promise, why did it seem good to him, after the angelic voice and the heavenly promise, to ask of God this so novel a sign? For he says: "I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor, and if there is dew upon the fleece only and dryness upon all the earth, I shall be confident that you will save Israel by my hand." And when Gideon had asked this sign of God, he obtained its fulfillment. But granted, O Gideon, that you have obtained the efficacy of the sign; why do you also take the "fleece of wool" and "wring it out into a basin"? What moved you to do this? But granted that you obtained the first sign, why did you ask that a second sign also be given, in a reversed and altered order? For perhaps someone of those who listen more attentively to what is read says that these things do not seem to agree with what is written: "you shall not tempt the Lord your God," which the law commanded. But the outcome of the matter teaches that nothing was done against the commandment; for neither would God hear a petition demanding something against the law. But now, when we see that in the first sign "dew fell upon the fleece of wool, but on all the earth there was dryness," and in the second "dew fell upon all the earth, but there was dryness in the fleece" — in which Gideon also received confidence that the Lord would by his hand save Israel — the meaning of this mystery must be considered. Concerning it I recall that one also of our predecessors, in his little books, called the "fleece of wool" the people of Israel, and set down the rest of the earth as the rest of the nations, and said that the "dew" which fell "upon the fleece" is the word of God, which had been granted from heaven to that people alone. For upon Israel alone had come the "dew" of the divine legislation; but "dryness" held all the nations, because no moisture of the divine utterance was poured into them. But the meaning of the second sign, altered to the contrary, in which he says: "that upon all the earth the dew should descend, but upon the fleece dryness should remain" — such a meaning is discovered. Behold this whole people which throughout all the earth has been gathered from the nations, now having in itself the divine dew; behold it watered with the dew of Moses, bedewed with the writings of the prophets; behold it growing green also with the moisture of the Gospel and of the apostles; but that fleece, that is, the Jewish people, suffering the dryness and aridity of the word of God, according to what is written: "the children of Israel shall be a long time without a king, without a prince, without a prophet; there shall be no altar nor victim nor sacrifice." You behold how great a "dryness" abides among them, how great an "aridity" of the divine discourse befalls them. These things, indeed, as it is fitting to confess, have been furnished to us from the labor of our elders; but since we too, having heard a word from the wise, as it is written, ought to commend it and add to it, let us see what we too may build up upon such things. For indeed, when I was often examining the seventy-first psalm within myself, this moved me: that, when it describes the coming of Christ in it, in that very psalm it also asserts that this shall come to pass: "and he shall descend," it says, "like rain upon a fleece, and like raindrops dripping upon the earth." A "fleece" is named here, a "fleece" is written also in the psalms. For "he shall descend like rain," it says, "upon a fleece." He "descended," therefore, "upon" that "fleece" of the people of the circumcision, and "like raindrops dripping upon the earth," that is, upon the rest of the earth, "descended" our Lord Jesus Christ, "dripping" also "upon" us and bringing drops of heavenly dew to us also, the nations, that we too might drink, we who were dried up "over" all the "earth" by continual aridity. This order of the mystery, therefore, the holy Gideon, beholding it with prophetic spirit, not only asked the first sign of God, but also repeated a second in reversed order. For he knew that the divine "dew," which is the coming of the Son of God, was to come not only to the Jews, but afterward also to the nations, since indeed from the "unbelief" of Israel "salvation comes to the nations." And this is why, in place of the aridity of the fleece, the whole earth is watered with the grace of the divine dew. But this too, in this deed of the most faithful man Gideon, I think ought by no means to be passed over, since it can serve us as a pattern of spiritual caution. "He saw an angel," but as a learned man, and having now the example of Joshua his predecessor, he acts more cautiously. For he knew that even the angels of darkness could "transfigure themselves into angels of light," and therefore, with most cautious examination, "I wish," he says, "to test the spirit, whether it be from God," because "the spiritual man examines all things." For thus also his predecessor Joshua son of Nun had done; when he had seen "the prince of the heavenly host," he inquires and considers whether he is "ours or of the adversaries." In this manner also the most holy Gideon considers the angelic vision by the diversity and change of the signs.

Nor was it without a reason that he put the fleece neither in a field nor in a meadow, but in a threshing-floor, where is the harvest of the wheat: "For the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few;" because that, through faith in the Lord, there was about to be a harvest fruitful in virtues.

Nor, again, was it without a reason that he dried the fleece of the Jews, and put the dew from it into a basin, so that it was filled with water, yet he did not himself wash his feet in that dew. The prerogative of so great a mystery was to be given to another. He was being waited for Who alone could wash away the filth of all. Gideon was not great enough to claim this mystery for himself, but "the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Let us, then, recognize in Whom these mysteries are seen to be accomplished. Not in holy Gideon, for they were still at their commencement. Therefore the Gentiles were surpassed, for dryness was still upon the Gentiles, and therefore did Israel surpass them, for then did the dew remain on the fleece.

Let us come now to the Gospel of God. I find the Lord stripping Himself of His garments, and girding Himself with a towel, pouring water into a basin, and washing the disciples' feet. That heavenly dew was this water, this was foretold, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ would wash the feet of His disciples in that heavenly dew.

A figure preceded in the fleece and dew of Gideon. The history is that Gideon asked of the Lord that the dew falling would be entirely on the fleece, and the threshing floor would remain dry; and he filled a basin with dew. Who brought it about that the Virgin conceived? Certainly the Holy Spirit, who is a love fervent, fruitful, undefiled, virile, incorrupt, and deifying. That he is an undefiled love is signified in the completed fleece, because the dew did not soil the fleece but cleansed it.

Rightly, then, do we compare Mary with fleece—she who conceived the Lord in such a way that she absorbed him with her whole body; nor did she undergo a rending of that same body, but she was tender in submission and firm in chastity. Rightly, I say, is Mary compared with fleece—she from whose offspring saving garments are woven for the people. Clearly Mary is fleece since from her tender womb came forth the Lamb who himself, bearing his mother's wool (that is, flesh), covers the wounds of all peoples with a soft fleece. For every wound of sin is covered with the wool of Christ, tended by the blood of Christ, and, so that it may receive health, clothed in the garment of Christ.

But that also, which Gideon says: "I will place the fleece" — not just anywhere, not in a field nor in a woodland, but "on the threshing-floor" — how does it seem to you? "On the threshing-floor," where the "harvest" is: "for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." "I will place," he says, "the fleece" there, where the "harvest" is. What had moved the holy man Gideon, or what had seemed good to him, that he should do this? For he foresaw through the Spirit that Christ "gathers" his people "into the threshing-floor" and there cleanses him, "holding the winnowing-fan in his hand," and there separates the "chaff" from the wheat. Not without cause, therefore, did so great and such a man — of whom the holy Apostle too, writing to the Hebrews, makes mention in the catalogue of the prophets — choose the threshing-floor for placing the fleece; nor without cause did he "wring out the fleece into a basin and fill it with water." Let us seek concerning this also in the holy Scriptures, whether any occasion of this understanding too is afforded us. Let us come to the Gospel. We find there our Lord and Savior "putting off his garments, and, girded with a linen cloth, pouring water into a basin, and washing the feet of his disciples." You see, then, that the prophets foreshadowed these things, which were to be fulfilled in the last times through the Lord. That "water," therefore, which "Jesus poured into the basin," was the dew of heavenly grace, with which "he washed the feet of his disciples." Whence also he rightly said to them: "but you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." But we too, if only we offer our feet, the Lord Jesus is ready to "wash the feet" of our soul and to cleanse them with the heavenly dew, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the word of doctrine. For he willed that not the Apostles alone should be "clean," but also all who believe through his word. And to all believers he says that which he said to Peter: "unless I wash you, you shall have no part with me." For it is certain that no one "has part with Christ" unless he has been washed and made "clean." Come, I beseech you, Lord Jesus, Son of God, "put off the garments" which you put on for my sake, and gird yourself for my sake, and "pour water into a basin and wash the feet" of your servants, wash away the filth of your sons and daughters. "Wash the feet" of our soul, that we, imitating you and following you, may "put off" our old "garments" and say: "by night I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on?", and may say again: "I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them?". For as soon as you "wash" my "feet," may you also make me recline with you, that I may hear from you: "you call me Lord and master; and you say rightly, for I am. If therefore I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you too wash one another's feet." I too, therefore, now wish to "wash the feet" of my brethren, to "wash the feet" of my fellow-disciples. And for that reason I take the water which I draw from the fountains of Israel, or rather which I "wring out" from the Israelite "fleece." For I now "wring out" water from the "fleece" of the book of Judges, and at another time water from the "fleece" of the Kingdoms, and water from the "fleece" of Isaiah or Jeremiah; and I "pour" it "into the basin" of my soul, conceiving the sense in my heart, and I take the feet of those who offer and prepare themselves for washing, and, so far as I am able, I desire to "wash the feet" of my brethren and to fulfill the commandment of the Lord, that by the word of doctrine the hearers may be cleansed from the filth of their sins, that they may cast away from themselves all the uncleanness of their vices and have clean "feet," with which they may rightly walk "to the preparation of the Gospel of peace," so that all of us together, purified in Christ through the word, may not be cast out from the bridal chamber of the bridegroom on account of filthy garments, but, white in raiment, washed in feet, "clean of heart," may recline at the banquet of the bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".

The truth of the Lord reaches even to the clouds. The clouds are the apostles and prophets; to them he gave the command not to rain upon Israel. This is in agreement with history as recorded in the book of Judges, where it speaks of the fleece that was dry while rain fell upon the rest of the world. It means that Israel is dry and the rain is pouring down over the whole world.