Pay attention to what comes next: Without love, a measure of money is sufficient for present needs, because he himself said, ‘I will not forsake you; I will not desert you.’^[1] You were afraid of all kinds of evils, against which you were saving money; count me as your guarantor. That’s what God says to you. God—not a man, not your equal or you yourself—says to you: I will not forsake you; I will not desert you. If a person made such a promise, you would trust him. God makes it, and you hesitate? He made the promise, put it in writing, made out the bond; you needn’t worry at all.

Moses again, when about to depart from this life, sang a fear-inspiring canticle in Deuteronomy. He left the song as a sort of testament to the people of Israel, to teach them the kind of funeral they should expect, if ever they abandoned God.

By heavens he means the order of the clergy and by earth the people subject to them. For Listen, O heavens, and I shall speak was addressed not to insensible but to rational creation.

Therefore let us seek in the Scriptures what is the rain which is given only to the saints and concerning which it is commanded to the clouds that they do not pour their rain^[1] upon the unjust. Therefore Moses and the Lawgiver himself teach us what this rain is. For he himself says in Deuteronomy, Consider, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words from my mouth; let my speech be awaited like rain. Are these words my speech? Do we pervert violently the meaning of divine law by arguments of rhetoric? Is it not Moses who says that it is rain of which he speaks? He says, Let my speech be awaited like rain and my words descend as dew, as a storm upon the grass and as snow upon the hay. See also

Behold the nature of the rain which is given only to the just and denied to sinners. Therefore the rain is the Word of God. Only the just are prepared to receive it. Lovers of the world, however, who are proud, dissolute or avaricious are unwilling to receive the rain of God’s Word even if it is forced upon them. Why is this? Because they are unwilling to hunger or thirst after justice. Those who are saturated with the filth of dissipation do not deserve to be refreshed with the rain of God’s Word.

All of us wish to have refreshing waters in our gardens. If there are no waters in them, we draw them from the sea with great effort in order to provide vegetables for our bodies. If so how much more solicitous should we be for the Lord’s garden, that is, the church of God, that the dry places be watered and the hard places softened by the rivers of sacred Scripture and the spiritual streams or fountains of the ancient Fathers, so that afterwards what is harmful may be uprooted and what is useful planted?

But he who is on the white horse is called faithful,^[1] not so much because he trusts as because he is trustworthy, that is, he is worthy of being trusted. According to Moses, the Lord is faithful and true. For he is also true in contradistinction to a shadow and a type and an image, since the Word that powers from heaven is true. For the Word on earth is not like the Word in heaven, inasmuch as he has become flesh and is expressed by means of a shadow and types and images.

But if the Lord himself is Creator of all things, we must consider in what manner he is said to have acquired what is without doubt his own. It is said also in another song in Deuteronomy: Is not he himself your God who made you and created you and acquired you? For each one appears to acquire that which was not his own. Indeed, on this basis the heretics also say of the Savior that he acquired those who were not his; for with the price which was paid he purchased men whom the Creator had made. And it is certain, they say, that everyone buys that which is not his own; indeed, the apostle says, You have been bought with a price.^[1]

Who then would be so presumptuous and blind as to dare to trust in his own judgment and discretion when the vessel of election^[1] testifies that he needed to confer with his fellow apostles? From this it is clearly proven that the Lord shows the way of perfection to no one who has the means of being educated but who disdains the teaching and the instruction of the elders and who considers as insignificant that saying which ought to be diligently observed: Ask your father, and he will declare it to you, your elders, and they will tell you.

This is he who bestows on the Greeks also their philosophy through the inferior angels. For by an ancient and divine ordinance angels are assigned to the different nations. But to be the Lord’s portion is the glory of believers.

Someone might ask why it was that only the Hebrew people were lifted up to the divine enlightenment. The answer to this is that the angels have done their work of guardianship and that it is no fault of theirs if other nations wandered off into the cult of false gods.^[1] Indeed, it was on their own initiative that these others abandoned the good uplifting toward the divine.

As far as I can see, Scripture is undoubtedly presenting a picture of the educator of children and describing the guidance he imparts.

He supported them like the eagle, which was accustomed to examine its progeny, so as to keep and to bring up those whom it observed to possess the qualities of a true offspring and the gift of an undamaged constitution and to reject those in whom it detected weakness of a degenerate origin even at that tender age.

Like an eagle, the Lord spreads his wings over us, his nestlings. There the Lord is compared with the eagle guarding its young. The simile therefore is appropriate that God protects us as a father and as a hen guarding her chicks lest they be snatched away by a hawk. Nevertheless a different interpretation is also permissible. With his pinions he will cover you:^[1] he will be lifted up on the cross; he will stretch forth his hands to shelter us. And under his wings you shall take refuge.^[2]

The song in Deuteronomy says that he bore the people of Israel upon his shoulders and like the eagle guarded them. This same versicle may be interpreted also of the Savior because on the cross he gave us the shelter of his wings. Under his wings you shall take refuge.^[1] All the day long I stretched out my hand to a people unbelieving and contradicting.^[2] The hands of the Lord lifted up to heaven were not begging for help but were sheltering us, his miserable creatures.

The Lord protects us, his little ones. He nourishes us and restores us—not in a heavy and burdensome way but with gentle and kind protection. He shows his mercies toward us, as if extending his wings over us as a bird does.

Nothing like this is ever found in Scripture in the literal sense, even if one reviews the whole body of the Old Testament. People never sucked honey or oil from a rock. But since, according to Paul, the rock was Christ,^[1] they did suck honey from a rock, because they beheld the deeds and miracles of that same Redeemer of ours. They did suck oil from a solid rock, because after his resurrection they deserved to be anointed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Lord gave them honey in the solid rock when he, still subject to death, showed his disciples the sweetness of his miracles. And the solid rock poured forth oil, because after his resurrection, when he became impassible, he founded the house of holy anointing by the outpouring of the Spirit. The prophet says of this oil, The yoke will fall from before the oil.^[2] We were held under the yoke of demonic domination, but we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. And because the grace of liberty has anointed us, the yoke of demonic domination has fallen.

One must not so much admire those saints who in the height of sorrow were so pious and lovers of wisdom as those who, even when the turbulence subsided and tranquility ensued, remained in the same goodness and earnestness.

For we have continuous need for a curb to keep us walking straight on the path, since even the Jews wandered from the path and drew down upon themselves the anger of heaven. When they enjoyed considerable ease and had become free after their harsh bondage in Egypt, they should have given greater thanks and been more eager to offer their praise to the Master. They should have been better disposed toward him who had bestowed such benefits upon them. But they did quite the opposite and were ruined by the ease which was theirs in abundance. On this account the Holy Scripture accuses them and says, Jacob ate his fill; the darling became fat and frisky.

They ate and drank and kicked. When fed with their manna, they ought not to have asked for luxury, seeing they had known the evils which proceed from it. And they acted precisely as if a free child, when sent to school, should ask to be reckoned with the slaves and to wait on them. So did these people also in seeking Egypt. While receiving all needful sustenance, such as becomes a free person, and already sitting at his father’s table, he still has a longing for the ill-savored and noisy one of the servants.

There is peace and joy in the hearts of those upon whom the face of the Lord looks. But for those from whom he turns away there is an accumulation of evils. He does not desire to look upon evil, because he is good. But if he deliberately looks toward evil, then wickedness takes root, because of humankind’s infidelity.

The Divinity is not angry, as some suppose, but when he makes so many threats he is only making an appeal and showing humankind the things that are to be accomplished. Such a procedure is surely good, for it instills fear to keep us away from sin.

It was the work of the good God, indeed, to destroy the land of the Sodomites and to dry up all its remaining moisture, so that there might no longer be a vineyard of the Sodomites, or a vine branch of Gomorrah, or grapes of gall, or a cluster of bitterness, or wine, the wrath of dragons and the incurable wrath of asps.

Since God said in the Old Testament, Vengeance is mine, I shall repay, he says in the Gospel that we should pray for those who harm us, in order that he who promised vengeance might not seek revenge against them. For [God] wants to forgive by your will, which is fitting according to his promise. But if you seek revenge, you have it, since the unjust man is punished more by his thoughts than by judicial severity.

In order that the godlessness of the heretics may not perhaps apply the meaning of these words to the unbegotten God the Father, the sense itself of the words and the authority of the apostle come to our aid. He, as we have already explained, interprets this whole passage as pertaining to the person of the only-begotten God.

We are sure that he causes to die. We see it. Just so also is it sure and worthy of belief that he makes alive. And from all that I have explained to you, receive and believe that in the day of the resurrection your body shall arise in its entirety, and you shall receive from our Lord the reward of your faith. And in all that you have believed, you shall rejoice and be made glad.

He himself permits the suffering which he again restores. The One who strikes is the One who heals. The afflictions precede in order that the graces may be lasting. Only then do we exert ourselves exceedingly for the preservation of what has been given.

It is not possible for the good to exist in me unless it is made to live through the death of my enemy. As long as we keep grasping opposites with each of our hands, it is impossible for there to be participation in both elements in the same being. For if we are holding evil, we lose the power to take hold of virtue.

He is God, so he also takes pity. He gets angry, and he takes pity. He gets angry and strikes; he takes pity and heals. He gets angry and does to death; he takes pity and brings to life. In one person he does this. It’s not that he does some people to death and brings others to life, but in the same people he is both angry and gentle. He is angry with errors; he is gentle with bad habits put right. I will strike and I will heal: I will kill and I will make alive. One and the same Saul, afterward Paul, he both laid low and raised up. He laid low an unbeliever; he raised up a believer. He laid low a persecutor; he raised up a preacher.

[Paul’s conversion] fulfilled in him what was written in the prophet, I will strike, and I will heal. What God strikes, you see, is that in people which lifts up itself against God. The surgeon isn’t being heartless when he lances the tumor, when he cuts or burns out the suppurating sore. He’s causing pain; he certainly is, but in order to restore health. It’s a horrid business; but if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be any use.

So the apostle was petrified, knocked down and laid low, raised up and patched up. The words, you see, were realized in him: It is I that will strike and I that will heal. You see, it doesn’t say, I will heal, and I will strike, but I will strike, and I will heal. I will strike you and give myself to you. Thus being laid low, he was horrified at his own justice, in which he was certainly without reproach, praiseworthy, great, even glorious among the Jews. He reckoned it was waste, he thought it was loss, he counted it dung, that he might be found in him, not having his own justice, which is from the law; but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is, he says, from God.^[1]

The sword of God consumes flesh, because at the last judgment his sentence slays those who think carnally.