LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON,
OKLAHOMA
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HOMILY
47
1.
The glory of Moses which he received on his countenance was a figure of the true
glory. Just as the Jews were unable “to look steadfastly upon the face of
Moses” (2 Corinthians 3:7), so now Christians receive that glory of light in
their souls, and the darkness, not bearing the splendor of the light, is blinded
and is put to flight. They were manifested as the people of God from the
circumcision. But here the people of God, being very special, receive the sign
of circumcision inwardly in their heart. For the heavenly knife cuts away the
excess portion of the mind, that is, the impure uncircumcision of sin. With them
was a baptism sanctifying the flesh, but with us there is a baptism of the Holy
Spirit and fire. For John preached this: “He shall baptize you in the Holy
Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). 2.
They had an inner and an outer tabernacle, and into the latter the priests went
continually, performing the services. But into the former the high priest alone
went once a year with the blood, the Holy Spirit signifying that the way into
the holiest was not yet made manifest (Hebrews 9:6 ff). Here, however, those who
are deemed worthy enter into “the tabernacle not made with hands, whither the
forerunner has entered for us” (Hebrews 6:20), namely, Christ. It is written
in the Law that the priest should receive two doves and should kill one, but
sprinkle the living one with its blood and should let it loose to fly away
freely (Leviticus 14:4, 22). But that which was done was a figure and shadow of
the truth. For Christ was sacrificed and his blood, sprinkling us, made us grow
wings. For he gave to us the wings of the Holy Spirit to fly unencumbered into
the air of the Godhead. 3.
To them the Law was given, written on stone tablets, but to us, the spiritual
laws written “upon fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). For it
says: “I will put my laws in their hearts and upon their minds will I write
them” (Hebrews 10:16). But all those things were done away with and served for
a time. But now all are fulfilled truthfully in the inner man. For the covenant
is within and put briefly: “Whatsoever things happened to them were done in a
figure and were written for our admonition” (1 Corinthians 10: 11). For God
foretold the future to Abraham: “Your seed shall be a stranger in a land not
theirs and they shall afflict the seed and make it serve four hundred years”
(Genesis 15:13). This fulfilled the image of the shadow. For the people became
foreigners and were enslaved by the Egyptians and were afflicted “in clay and
brick” (Exodus 1:14). Pharaoh placed supervisors and taskmasters over them in
order that they should do their works under compulsion. And when “the children
of Israel groaned to God by reason of their tasks” (Exodus 2:23), then he
visited them through Moses (Exodus 2:25). After having inflicted the Egyptians
with many plagues, he led them out of Egypt in the month of flowers, when the
most pleasant spring appears and the sadness of winter passes away. 4.
But God spoke to Moses to take a spotless lamb and to slay it and to sprinkle
its blood on the lintels and doors so “that he that destroyed the firstborn of
the Egyptians might not touch them” (Hebrews 11:28). For the angel that was
sent saw the sign of blood from afar and departed. But the angel entered into
the houses not signed and slew every firstborn. Besides, God also ordered all
leaven to be removed from the house and commanded that they should eat the slain
lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exodus 12:13). He ordered them to
eat with their loins girded and shoes on their feet and holding their staves in
their hands. And so he commands them to eat the Passover of the Lord with all
haste in the evening and not to break a bone of the Lord. 5.
“He brought them forth with silver and gold” (Psalm 105:37), ordering each
of them to borrow from his Egyptian neighbor golden and silver vessels. But they
left Egypt while the Egyptians were burying their firstborn. And joy was theirs
because they were throwing off their squalid slavery, but grief and wailing were
the lot of the Egyptians because of the loss of their children. Wherefore Moses
says: “This is the night in which God promised to redeem us” (Exodus 12:42).
All these things are a mystery of the soul redeemed at the coming of Christ. For
Israel is interpreted as being the mind contemplating God. Therefore, it is set
free from the slavery of darkness, from the spiritual Egyptians. 6.
For after man in disobedience died the grievous death of the soul and received
curse upon curse: “Thistles and thorns shall the ground bring forth for you”
(Genesis 3:18), and again: “You will cultivate the earth and it shall not
yield henceforth unto you its fruits” (Genesis 4:12), thorns and thistles
sprouted and grew up in the earth of his heart. His enemies took away his glory
through deceit and clothed him with shame. His light was taken away and he was
clothed in darkness. They killed his soul and they scattered and divided his
thoughts. And they dragged down from on high his mind and Israel became the man
who is slave to the true Pharaoh. And he set over him his supervisors and
taskmasters, to do his evil works and to complete the construction of mortar and
brick. And these spirits led him away from his heavenly wisdom and led him down
to the material and to earthly and muddy evil works and to words and desires and
thoughts that are vain. Having fallen from his proper height, man found himself
in a kingdom of hatred toward humanity and there bitter rulers forced him to
construct for them the wicked cities of sins. 7.
But if man groans and cries out to God, he sends him the spiritual Moses, who
redeems him from the slavery of the Egyptians. But man first cries out and
groans and then he receives the beginning of deliverance. And he is delivered in
the month of new flowers (Exodus 13:4), in the springtime when the ground of the
soul is able to shoot forth the beautiful and flowering branches of
justification. The bitter winter storms of the ignorance of darkness have
passed, as also the great blindness that was born of sordid deeds and sins. Then
he commands that all “old leaven” (1 Corinthians 5:7) be removed from each
household, to cast away the acts and thoughts of “the old man that waxes
corrupt” (Ephesians 4:22), the evil thoughts and sordid desires. 9.
And it says that he ordered this to be eaten toward evening, a time that is
between light and darkness. So also the soul, being brought to deliverance, is
found between light and darkness, while the power of God stands by and does not
allow the darkness to enter the soul and swallow it up. And just as Moses said,
“This is the night of God’s promise” (Exodus 12:42), so also Christ, when
he was given the Bible in the synagogue, as it is written, called it “the
acceptable year of the Lord” and “the day of redemption” (Luke 4:19;
Ephesians 4:30). There it was a night of retribution, here it is a day of
redemption. And justly so. For all those things were a figure and shadow of the
truth and in a mystical way were prefigured and they sketched out the true
salvation of the soul, locked up in darkness and secretly bound “in the lowest
pit” (Psalm 88:6) and shut up behind “gates of bronze” (Psalm 107:16) and
unable to be set free except by the redemption of Christ. 10.
Therefore, he leads the soul out of Egypt and the slavery in it. The firstborn
of Egypt are killed in the exodus. Already a certain part of the power of the
true Pharaoh is done away with. Grief overcomes the Egyptians. Grieving, they
groan at the salvation of the captive. He commands them to borrow from the
Egyptians vessels of gold and silver to take with them as they depart. The soul,
leaving the darkness, takes back its silver and golden vessels, namely, its own
good thoughts, “purified seven times in the fire” (Psalm 12:6), by which
thoughts God is served and finds rest. For the demons that were its neighbors
pillaged and took possession and wasted its thoughts. Blessed is the soul who is
redeemed from darkness and woe to the soul who does not cry out and groan to him
who is able to liberate it from those harsh and bitter taskmasters. 11.
The sons of Israel, after having observed the Passover, leave. The individual
person progresses, once he has received the life of the Holy Spirit and has
eaten the Lamb and has been anointed by his blood and has eaten the true Bread,
the living Word. A pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud went before those
Israelites, protecting them. The Holy Spirit strengthens these, enkindling and
guiding the soul in an awareness. When Pharaoh and the Egyptians learned of the
flight of the people of God and of their loss of their slavery, he dared to
pursue them, even after the killing of the firstborn. For he hastily yoked up
his chariots and with all his people he followed after them to destroy them. But
just at the time that he was about to pounce upon them a cloud stood between
them, impeding and obfuscating the Egyptians but guiding by light and protecting
the Israelites. And so as not to prolong this discourse by developing the whole
story, take the parable from me in all the details according to the spiritual
realities. 12.
For when first the soul escapes from the Egyptians, the power of God approaches
to help and leads it to the truth. But the spiritual Pharaoh, the king of
darkness of sin, when it knows that the soul is in revolt and is fleeing out of
his kingdom, pursues the thoughts which he so long held in his power. For these
belong to him. The deceitful one plans and hopes that the soul will return back
to him. Having learned that the soul is for good fleeing from his tyranny, a
more impudent action than the slaughter of the firstborn and the stealing of the
thoughts, he chases after it because he fears that should the soul escape
completely there would be found no one who would fulfill his will and do his
work. He pursues it with afflictions and trials and invisible wars. There it is
put to the test; there it is tried; there appears its love toward God who led it
out of Egypt. For it is handed over to be put to the test and to be tried in
many ways. 13.
The soul sees the power of the enemy, seeking to pounce and kill it, and yet the
enemy is unable. For between it and the Egyptian spirits stands the Lord. It
looks before itself at a sea of bitterness and affliction or despair. It is
powerless to retreat back, seeing the enemies ready, nor can it advance forward
for the terror of death and the grievous and manifold afflictions surround it,
making it look at death. Therefore, the soul despairs of itself, “having the
sentence of death in itself” (2 Corinthians 1:9), because of the swarming
multitude of evils around it. When
God sees the soul, overwhelmed by fear of death and the enemy, he helps and
deals patiently with the soul and tests it to see whether it remains faithful,
whether it has love for him. For God has planned such a road, leading to life
(Matthew 7:14), to be fraught with affliction and narrow escapes, in much
testing and extremely bitter trials so that from there the soul may afterward
reach the true land of the glory of the children of God. When, therefore, the
soul gives up all opinion of itself and renounces itself, because of the
overwhelming affliction and the death before its eyes, in that moment, with a
strong hand and an uplifted arm, God splits through the power of darkness by the
illumination of the Holy Spirit and the soul passes through as it avoids the
fearful places and traverses the sea of darkness and of the all-consuming fire. 14.
These are mysteries of the soul which truly happen in a person who diligently
seeks to come to the promise of life and is redeemed from the kingdom of death
and receives the pledge from God and participates in the Holy Spirit.
Consequently, the soul, having been rescued from its enemies and having passed
through the bitter sea by God’s power and seeing its enemies to whom it
formerly was enslaved killed before its eyes, “rejoices with joy unspeakable
and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8), and is consoled by God and at rest in the
Lord. Then
the Spirit, whom it has received, sings a new song to God with the timbrel,
which is the body, and with the spiritual strings of the cithar, which is the
soul, and with the most subtle thoughts and with the key of divine grace to
pluck the strings. The Spirit sends up praises to the life-giving Christ. For as
it is the breath that speaks as it passes through the windpipe, so it is the
Holy Spirit through holy men who are endowed with the Spirit who sings hymns and
psalms and prays to God with a pure heart. Glory to him who rescued the soul
from Pharaoh’s slavery and established it as his very own throne and home and
temple and pure spouse and led it into the kingdom of eternal life, while being
still in this world! 15.
In the Law, irrational animals were offered in sacrifice, and, unless they were
slain, they were not acceptable as offerings. Now, unless sin is slain, the
offering is not acceptable to God nor is it authentic. The people came to Marah
(Exodus 4:25) where there was a spring giving forth bitter water, unfit to
drink. Therefore, God orders Moses in despair to throw a tree into the bitter
water. And when the tree was thrown into the water, the water was made sweet.
And having been changed from bitterness, it became useful and drinkable for the
people of God. In the same way also the soul has become bitter by drinking the
poison of the serpent and becoming like to its bitter nature and becoming
sinful. Wherefore God casts the tree of life into the very bitter spring of the
heart and it is made sweet, having been changed from the bitterness and having
been mingled with the Spirit of Christ. And so it is made very useful and goes
on in the service of its Master. For it becomes spirit enfleshed. Glory to him
who transforms our bitterness into sweetness and goodness of the Spirit! Woe to
that one in whom the tree of life has not been cast! He cannot obtain any change
for the good. 16.
The rod of Moses bore two images. To the enemies it appeared as a serpent,
biting and destructive. To the Israelites, however, it was as a staff on which
they found support. So also the true wood of the cross, which is Christ. For the
enemies, the spirits of evil, he is death. But for our souls he is a staff and a
safe refuge and life upon which they rest. For the figures and shadows of
earlier time were of true, present realities. For the ancient worship is a
shadow and image of the present worship. And the circumcision and the tabernacle
and the ark and the pot and the manna and the priesthood and the incense and the
ablutions and, in a word, all such things done in Israel and in the Law of Moses
and in the prophets were done in reference to this soul, made according to the
image of God and fallen under the yoke of slavery and under the kingdom of the
darkness of bitterness. 17.
For God desired to have fellowship with the human soul and espoused it to
himself as the spouse of the King and he purified it from sordidness. Washing
it, he makes it bright from its blackness and its shame and gives life to it
from its condition of death. And he heals it of its brokenness and brings it
peace, reconciling its enmity. For, even though it is a creature, it has been
espoused as bride to the Son of the King. And by his very own power God receives
the soul, little by little changing it until he has increased it with his own
increase. For he stretches the soul and leads it to an infinite and unmeasurable
increase, until it becomes the bride, spotless and worthy of him. First he
begets the soul in himself and increases it through himself, until it reaches
the perfect measure of his love. For he, being a perfect Bridegroom, takes it as
a perfect spouse into the holy and mystical and unblemished union of marriage.
And then it reigns with him unto endless ages. Amen.
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