Homilies on Joshua, Homily 2

We must also tell of the death of Moses; for if we understand how Moses dies, we will be able to perceive how Jesus reigns. If you consider Jerusalem overthrown, the altar deserted, nowhere sacrifices, nor burnt offerings, nor drink offerings, nowhere priests, nowhere high priests, nowhere the ministries of the Levites — when you see all these things cease, say that Moses the servant of God is dead. If you see no one coming three times a year into the sight of the Lord, nor offering gifts in the temple, nor killing the Passover sacrifice, nor eating unleavened bread, nor offering first-fruits, nor dedicating the firstborn — when you do not see all these things celebrated, say that Moses the servant of God is dead. But when you see the Gentiles coming into the faith, churches being built, altars sprinkled not with the blood of cattle but consecrated with the precious blood of Christ; when you see priests and Levites ministering not the blood of goats and bulls but the word of God through the grace of the Holy Spirit, then say that Jesus has taken command and holds it after Moses — not Jesus the son of Nun, but Jesus the Son of God. When you see that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed and we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; when you see the fruits of the good land in the church, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold, that is, widows, virgins, and martyrs; when you see the seed of Israel multiplied from those who were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God; and when you see the children of God who were scattered gathered into one; when you see the people of God keeping the Sabbath, not resting from ordinary life, but resting from the work of sin; when you see all these things, say that Moses the servant of God is dead and Jesus the Son of God holds the command. Indeed, in a certain little book too, although it is not held in the canon, a figure of this mystery is described. For it is related that two Moseses were seen: one alive in the spirit, the other dead in the body. What is foreshadowed in this is surely that if you look at the letter of the law, empty and void of all the things we mentioned above, that is Moses dead in the body. But if you can remove the veil of the law and understand that the law is spiritual, that is Moses who lives in the spirit.

“And the Lord,” it says, “said to Jesus son of Nun, the servant of Moses: Moses my servant is dead. Now get up and cross this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I give you.” You will perhaps ask how our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, too was the servant of Moses: because when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, made under the law. By being placed under the law, he became the servant of Moses. But God says that they are to cross into the land, not one which Moses gave, but which, he says, “I give you.” You see, then, that when Moses was dead God gives the land to the people through Jesus. What land? Undoubtedly that of which the Lord says: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

“Every place,” it says, “on which you go up with the soles of your feet, I will give it to you.” What are the places we go up with the soles of our feet? The letter of the law lies at ground level, down below. So he who follows the letter of the law never goes up. But if you can go up from the letter to the spirit, and climb from the literal account to a loftier understanding, then you have truly gone up to a high and lofty place, which you will receive from God as an inheritance. For if in the things that are written you understand types and perceive that they are figures of heavenly things, and use your mind and understanding to seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, then you will receive that place too as an inheritance, as our Lord and Savior says: “Where I am, my servant will be there too.” If, then, by faith, purity of life, and virtue you reach Christ seated at the right hand of God, and walk there on the feet that Jesus washed, God will give it to you; and then you will be not only an heir of God but also a co-heir of Christ.

“As I said to Moses, the desert and this Anti-Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.” God subjected to Jesus the desert, that is, the deserted places of which the prophet says: “Rejoice, thirsty desert”; and: “Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.” And again he did not say Lebanon but Anti-Lebanon, which Jesus received from God. Anti-Lebanon is so called as if “in place of Lebanon.” If, then, you look at that former people, Israel according to the flesh, which was the true olive, I understand that it was the true Lebanon; but when you see that because of its unbelief the kingdom is taken from it and given to a nation producing its fruit, take that people which is brought into the kingdom in place of the one expelled to be the Anti-Lebanon, which is the church of God gathered from the Gentiles through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ages of ages. Amen.