Homilies on Joshua, Homily 13

“All these things that happened to them in figure were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” When one who is a Jew outwardly, who has circumcision visible in the flesh, reads this, not knowing what it is to be a Jew inwardly in the circumcision of the heart, he thinks it is nothing other than an account of wars and slaughter, and of Israelites conquering under the leadership of Jesus and plundering the kingdoms of the nations. But he who is a Jew inwardly, that is, a Christian, who follows not so much Jesus the son of Nun as Jesus the Son of God, understands all these things to be mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and says that even now my Lord Jesus Christ makes war on the hostile powers and casts them out of the cities they possessed, that is, out of our souls; and he kills the kings who reigned in our souls, so that sin may no longer reign in us; so that, after he has killed the king of sin from the city of our soul, our soul may become the city of God, and God may reign in it, and it may be said to us: “Look, the kingdom of God is within you.” This, then, is a work of the highest mercy, which the heretics accuse of cruelty: that what the Lord Jesus foreshadowed earlier through the son of Nun in each of the cities, he now fulfills in truth in each of the souls of believers: so that, once the evil and most wicked kings have been driven out and destroyed—those who acted under the prince of the power of the air of this world, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience—he may graciously make the cities they possessed into a dwelling place of God and a temple of the Holy Spirit; so that the members which under the wicked king had served lawlessness leading to uncleanness may now serve righteousness leading to sanctification. In this way, then, understand that Jesus killed the king of Jericho and the king of Ai and the king of Libnah and the king of Lachish and the king of Hebron, so that all these souls, which formerly kept the law of sin under the most wicked kings, may now live under the laws of God.

And if we examine the interpretations of the names themselves more closely and diligently, it will be found that the meaning of the names can be applied now to the understanding of the evil kingdom, now to that of the good. For instance, Libnah is interpreted “whiteness.” But whiteness is understood in different ways: there is the whiteness of leprosy, and there is the whiteness of light. It is possible, then, that the very interpretation of the name indicates the difference between the two states: that Libnah had the whiteness of leprosy under the evil kings, and when that was destroyed and overthrown, and Libnah came into the kingdom of Israel, it received the whiteness of light; for whiteness is set down in the Scriptures as both praiseworthy and blameworthy. Again, Lachish is interpreted “way.” And a way is held in the Scriptures as both praiseworthy and blameworthy. This is not hard to prove, as it is said in the Psalms: “And the way of the ungodly will perish”; and elsewhere, on the contrary: “Make a straight way for your feet.” It can be understood here too, then, that the city of Lachish was at first a way of the ungodly, and when that was destroyed and overthrown, it was afterwards, when the Israelites reigned, brought to the straight way. And likewise Hebron, which they say is interpreted “joining” or “marriage.” Our soul was first joined to an evil man, the devil, a most wicked husband; when he was destroyed and extinguished, the soul was freed from the law of its former and most wicked husband and joined to a good and lawful husband, the one of whom the apostle Paul says: “I have resolved to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ.” So, then, the understanding of the names themselves also fits this twofold state of each city.

I think that it is better to understand the wars of Israel in this way, and better to think that Jesus fights in this way and destroys cities and overthrows kingdoms. For in this way that saying too will appear more devout and more merciful which says that he so overthrew and laid waste each city that nothing was left in it that breathed, neither anyone who was saved nor anyone who escaped. May the Lord so cast out and extinguish all former evils from the souls that believe in him and that he claims for his kingdom, and from my own soul, that no sense of malice might breathe in me any longer, no impulse of anger, no impulse of any evil desire be kept alive in me, and no evil word remain to escape from my mouth! For in this way, purified from all my former evils under the leadership of Jesus, I will be able to be made one of the cities of the sons of Israel, of which it is written: “The cities of Judah will be built, and they will dwell in them.” For now Jesus destroys and builds up the soul of each of us; and as we said then, when we were discussing Jeremiah, that he had received words in his mouth by which to overthrow and to build, to uproot and to plant, so also now, in the passage before us, I think it must be understood — not as the heretics or the Jews understand it — but as it was said there to Jeremiah: “Look, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root up and to overthrow and to destroy, and after this to build and to plant.” So too we must believe of the things written as done through Jesus, or rather of the things that are done in us even now through our Lord Jesus. For the first work of the Word of God is to root up the evils that were there before, the thorns and thistles of the vices. For while the roots of these evils hold the ground occupied, it cannot receive good and holy seed.

This, then, is the necessary and first work of the Word of God: to root up the plant of sin, and to uproot and consume with fire every plant that the heavenly Father has not planted. The second work then is to plant. What is it that God plants? Moses says that God planted a paradise. But God plants now too, and plants daily in the souls of believers. For in the soul from which he cuts out anger he plants gentleness; in the soul from which he cuts out pride he plants humility; in the soul from which he roots out wantonness he plants chastity; and in the soul from which he roots out ignorance he implants knowledge. Does it not seem to you that the planting God plants should be of this kind, rather than of physical, earthly trees? Likewise among the first works of the Word of God is to destroy the diabolical buildings that the devil has constructed in the human soul. For he had built towers of pride in each of us and walls of arrogance; the word of God overthrows and undermines these, so that, according to the Apostle, we may rightly become God’s field and God’s building, set on the foundation of the apostles and prophets by Christ Jesus himself, the chief cornerstone, from whom the joining of the building grows into a temple of God in the Spirit; and so at last we may be found worthy to be made sharers in the inheritance of the holy land, in the portion of Israel, when all our enemies have been extinguished and destroyed, so that none of them is left to breathe in us, but only the Spirit of Christ breathes in us, through our mouths, our words, and our spiritual understanding, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is power and might for ages of ages. Amen.