Who is speaking when the prophet says, Woe is me, soul, for I have become one as gathering straw in harvest? For did the prophet literally gather or even want to gather? Does the prophet have a farm? Anyway, the only one who rightly gathers from what has been planted for harvest is not the prophet but the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Since there are many faults among the pagan nations but also among those who are supposed to be from the church, the prophet laments and mourns for our sins when he says, Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers straw. Let each of us scrutinize himself. Is he an ear of corn? Will the Son of God discover something in him to pick or harvest? Do we find that some of us are those swept by the wind? Even as we have still a little in ourselves, two or three kernels, our sins are many against us. Seeing that the churches, or those so-called, are filled with sinners, he says, Woe is me, for I have come as one who gathers straw in the harvest and as one gathering grape gleanings in the vintage. [The Lord] comes seeking fruit on the vine, for each of us is planted also as a vine in a fertile place^[1] or as a vine transplanted out of Egypt,^[2] yet planted to bear fruit.^[3] He comes, he seeks in what way to pick, he discovers some grape gleanings and a few clusters, neither flourishing nor plentiful. Who among us has clusters of virtue?

The unjust are winnowed away as lightweight chaff, while the just are saved as heavier wheat. Therefore heed the Lord as he says to Peter, Behold, Satan has desired to winnow you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.^[1] Those who are winnowed as chaff fail, but that one does not fail who is like the seed that fell and sprang up, augmented and increased by very many fruits.^[2] And so the prophet says, Woe is me! For I am become as one who gathers the stubble in the harvest. Thus wickedness is compared with the stubble, which is quickly burned, and with the dust. And so, Job said subsequently, They will be like chaff driven by the wind,^[3] and at once he added a brief line and said, or like dust that the wind has carried off. Indeed, so that you may know that the wicked person swiftly crumbles and vanishes like dust, you find it said in the first psalm, Not so the wicked, not so,^[4] that is, not like the just, but like the dust, which the wind drives from the face of the earth.

Cain and Abel followed in the generation of humankind, and Cain was the first murderer. Afterwards a deluge engulfed the earth because of exceeding wickedness of humanity. Fire came down from heaven upon the people of Sodom because of their corruption. Subsequently God chose out Israel, but even Israel became perverse and the chosen race was wounded. For, while Moses stood on the mountain before God, the people worshiped a calf in place of God. In the days of their lawgiver Moses, who said, You shall not commit adultery,^[1] a man dared to enter a brothel and be wanton. After Moses, prophets were sent to heal Israel, but in their exercise of healing they deplored the fact that they could not overcome evil, so that one of them [Micah] says, The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more! The psalmist says, All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one who does good, not even one.^[2] And again, Cursing, and theft, and adultery, and killing have overflowed^[3] upon the land. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.^[4] They engaged themselves in auguries and enchantments and divinations; and again, They fastened their garments with cords and hung veils next to the altar.^[5]

[In spiritual discipline], the disposition of the doer is given more weight than the thing that is done. Even the truth at times is found to have harmed some people and a lie to have helped them. For one time King Saul was complaining in the presence of his retainers about David’s flight, saying, Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards and make all of you tribunes and centurions, since you have all conspired against me, and there is no one to inform me?^[1] What but the truth did Doeg the Edomite tell him when he said, I saw the son of Jesse in Nob, with Ahimilech the son of Ahitub the priest. He consulted the Lord on his behalf and gave him provisions and he gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistines as well?^[2] For this truth he deserved to be uprooted from the land of the living, and of him it is said by the prophet, Therefore God shall destroy you forever, pluck you up and remove you from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living.^[3] For indicating the truth, then, he was everlastingly uprooted from the land in which Rahab the harlot was planted, along with her family, because of her lie. In the same way we remember that Samson in most ruinous fashion delivered over to his wicked wife a truth that had long been concealed by a lie. Therefore the truth that he had very heedlessly disclosed to her brought about his own undoing, because he failed to keep that prophetic command: Keep the doors of your mouth from her who sleeps at your breast.

A man, then, who remains the same and yet prattles to himself about the change for the better that he has undergone in baptism should attend to what Paul says: If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.^[1] For you are not what you have not yet become. The Gospel says of the regenerate, however, that he gave all those who received him the power to become God’s children.^[2] Now the child born of someone certainly shares his parent’s nature. If then you have received God and have become his child, let your way of life testify to the God within you. Make it clear who your father is! The marks by which we recognize God are the very ones by which a son must show his relation to him. He opens his hand and fills everything living with joy.^[3] He overlooks iniquity.^[4] He relents of his evil purpose.^[5] The Lord is kind to all and is not angry with us every day.^[6] God is straightforward, and there is no unrighteousness in him.^[7] This is what fathers do for children. Similar sayings are scattered through Scripture for our instruction. If you are like this, you have genuinely become a child of God. But if you persist in displaying the marks of evil, it is useless to babble to yourself about the birth from above.

Just what is the work of the axe? The excision of the soul that is incurably fruitless, like the tree even after the dung has been applied.^[1] And what does the sword do? The sword of the Word cuts through defenses. It does the work of separating the worse from the better.^[2] It actually creates a division between the faithful and the unbeliever.^[3] It may even stir up the son and the daughter and the bride against the father and the mother and the mother-in-law, the young and fresh against the old and shadowy. Accordingly, what is the latchet of the shoe, which you, John, who baptized Jesus, may not let loose?^[4] You who are of the desert, without food, you, the new Elijah,^[5] you who are more than a prophet, inasmuch as you saw him of whom you did prophesy, you the mediator of the Old and New Testaments. What is this latchet? It is precisely the message of the advent, the incarnation. No one can make it happen—neither those yet carnal and babes in Christ nor those who are akin to John in spirit.

The fall of infirmity is not grave if free from the desire of the will. Have the will to rise. He is at hand who will cause you to rise.

We sometimes bear illness as a punishment for sin intended for our conversion, for whom the Lord loves, says the Scripture, he chastises.^[1] Again Scripture teaches, Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and some have died. But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, we are chastised by the Lord that we be not condemned with the world.^[2] Consequently, when we who belong to this class have recognized our transgressions, it may be fitting that we should simply bear in silence and without recourse to medicine all the afflictions which come to us, remembering the words of the prophet: I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him. We should, moreover, give proof of our amendment by bringing forth fruits worthy of penance, remembering the words of the Lord: Behold, you are made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to you.^[3] Sometimes also, when sickness afflicts us at the request of the evil one, our benevolent master may condescend to enter combat with him, treating him as if he were a mighty adversary and confounding his boasts by the heroic patience of his servants.

Hear what is even more wonderful, that the hidden and veiled mysteries of the ancient books are in some degree revealed by the ancient prophets. For Micah the prophet spoke thus. According to the days of your coming out of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous things. . . . Our sins are overwhelmed and extinguished in baptism, just as the Egyptians were drowned in the sea. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. . . . You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

For what was it Jesus’ detractors said? No man can forgive sins, but God alone.^[1] Inasmuch then as they themselves laid down this definition, they themselves introduced the rule, they themselves declared the law. He then proceeded to entangle them by means of their own words. You have confessed, he says in effect, that forgiveness of sins is an attribute of God alone; my equality therefore is unquestionable. And it is not these men only who declare this but also the prophet Micah, who said, Who is a God like you? and then indicating his special attribute he adds, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression.

Let us not listen to the devil when we are caught in the troubles of the world, whether the bodily pain or the loss of children or amid other struggles. Let us not listen to the adversary as he says, So where now is the Lord your God?^[1] When we suffer severe pain we must then beware of his temptations, for he is trying to lead astray the weary soul. Seeing the wonderful works of God, the soul will behold itself already as if in heaven, with the devil creeping around like a snake on the earth. Thus the prophet said, Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?

We should give a tunic to one who has none at all. Who is the person who does not have a tunic? It is one who utterly lacks God. Therefore we should divest ourselves and give to one who is naked. One has God; another does not have God at all. We give to the one who does not have God. The prophet in Scripture says, We should cast our sins into the depths of the sea. John continues, He who has food should do likewise.^[1] Whoever has food should give some to one who has none. He should generously give him not only clothing but also what he can eat.

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood.^[1] A flood is an overflow of water that causes all lying below it to disappear. It cleanses all that was previously filthy. Therefore he calls the grace of baptism a flood, so that the soul, being washed well of its sins and rid of the old person, is suitable henceforth as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Further, what is said in the twenty-first psalm agrees with this. For after he has said, I have acknowledged my sin, and my injustice I have not concealed, and also, For this shall every one that is holy pray to you, he then said, And yet in a flood of many waters, they shall not come near him.^[2] Indeed, sin shall not come near to one who received baptism for the remission of his transgressions through water and the Spirit. Something akin to this is found in the prophecy of Micah: Because he delights in mercy, he will turn again and have mercy on us. He will put away our iniquities and will cast them into the bottom of the sea.