Homilies on Joshua, Homily 22

The Canaanites are said three times to be among the sons of Ephraim; but let us observe what the order of the statements is in each case, that is, what the first statement contains, which says that the Canaanites are with the sons of Ephraim, and what the second and third contain. For if we observe more carefully how the Canaanites are said three times to be with the sons of Ephraim, and if, by the Lord’s gift, we can investigate the order and what is related as done the third time, I think we will not be unbelieving that these things were truly written not merely so that a narrative of events might be handed down to us, but that they are filled with divine sacraments worthy of God. First, then, it was said that “Ephraim did not destroy the Canaanite who lived in Gezer, but the Canaanite lives in Ephraim until this day, and became a slave under tribute, until Pharaoh king of Egypt went up and took the city and burned it with fire, and slaughtered the Canaanites and the Perizzites and those who lived in Gezer, and Pharaoh gave it as a dowry to his daughter.” Second: “And it happened,” it says, “when the sons of Israel grew strong, that they made the Canaanites subject, but they did not utterly exterminate them.” Third, when the men of the tribe of Ephraim spoke against Jesus, wanting to receive a larger lot of inheritance in proportion to their numbers, because they were many and strong; and they are told to go up into the forest and take a larger place for themselves; and, so that they may occupy wider spaces, they are told to exterminate the Canaanite.

Let us see now, then, what this threefold account of the Canaanites means. At first the Canaanite is indeed with us and under tribute, yet he is not obedient to us, nor a slave. Second, he is also made a slave and obedient. Let us take the Canaanite here to be our flesh, or the things that belong to the flesh. At first it is with us, that is, joined to the soul, but not obedient, except only that it pays tribute: that is, it provides the service of doing or moving something; yet it lusts against the spirit and does not obey the soul, but gives way to its own desires. But if we have now made some progress, the flesh becomes our slave, obedient and submissive to the will of the soul. And this is the second advance of the soul, when it has made the flesh both serve and obey it. But the third is what is perfect. For if we now come to perfection, the Canaanite is said to be exterminated by us as well and handed over to death. And how this is fulfilled in our flesh, listen to the apostle Paul saying: “Put to death your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness,” and the rest that follow. And again he says: “And those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and desires.” So, then, the third time, that is, when we come to perfection, put our members to death, and carry about the death of Christ in our body, the Canaanite is said to be exterminated by us.

But this too must not be passed over idly, that Pharaoh is said to have come and taken the city of Gezer, in which the Canaanite lived with Ephraim, and to have given it as a dowry to his daughter. Gezer is interpreted “building.” If, then, the body and the soul live in one and the same building, that is, joined and allied with each other, so that the body lives carnally and the soul does not hurry to make the flesh obedient and subject to itself, it is to be feared that Pharaoh may come from Egypt and lead the unhappy soul captive, so as to hand it over as a dowry to his daughter. For if you consider what the Apostle said, that another law rises up in our members and leads us captive in the law of sin, you will find how that Pharaoh, who is the instigator and ruler of sin, will force the soul that has lived carnally to be given as a dowry to his daughter, who is the law of sin.

After this we must also note that the sons of Joseph raise a question about the inheritance and seek a larger lot, saying to Jesus: “Why have you given us one lot of inheritance and one portion? But I am a great people; the Lord has blessed me.” If, then, we too are a great people and the Lord blesses us, we will hear from Jesus: “You are a great people; go up into the forest and clear it for yourself, and prepare a place in the land. Clear out the Perizzites and the Rephaim.” We must, then, drive out the Perizzites. And we find that Perizzites is interpreted “fruitfulness.” But, as we have often said of other names, there is a double interpretation in this one. For there is a good fruitfulness and an evil fruitfulness, as is indicated in the Gospels, that “a good tree bears good fruit, and an evil tree bears evil fruit.” We must, then, drive out from ourselves everything that does not bear fruit well, cut off the fruit of sin, and clear out the fruits of injustice. “And the Rephaim,” it says, “clear out,” or rather, clear them out from yourself. We find Rephaim interpreted “a mother loosened.” There is in our soul a power that also gives birth to thoughts, and is, as it were, the mother of the thoughts or understandings that proceed from us, according to what is said in a mystery of the soul as of a woman: “But she will be saved through childbearing, if she remains in faith and chastity.” These mothers, then, that is, this generative power, in those in whom it is strong, vigorous, and robust, generates strong and powerful thoughts that cannot be overcome by an opponent. But in others this power is loosened and slack, as is shown by their thoughts, when some weak and inept thoughts are produced that have no strength in them. This, then, is signified under the name of Rephaim: that we should clear out from ourselves such slack mothers, which give birth to untrained and useless thoughts. And the spiritual understanding has kept the exact sense well. For it did not say that the Rephaim were to be exterminated, but cleared out. For we are not commanded to overturn and exterminate the natural movements of the soul themselves, but to clear them out, that is, to purge and drive away the filth and uncleanness that have come upon them through our negligence, so that the natural vigor of their own inborn power may shine forth.

After this the sons of Ephraim say to him further: “The mountain is not enough for us, and the Canaanite who lives in me has chosen horses and iron.” You will never find an Israelite who has a horse; but the Canaanite has that horse which is a vain hope for safety. The Canaanite also has the iron of war. But what did Jesus answer them? “If you are a great people and have strength, you will not have one lot, because the forest is yours, and you must clear it.” You see what is said to us through the spiritual understanding: that we should clear the forest that is within us, and, cutting down the useless and fruitless trees from ourselves, make there a newly broken field that we may always renew, and from which we may gather fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold? Does not the word of the Gospel announce the same thing to us, saying: “Look, the axe is already laid to the root of the tree; every tree, then, that does not bear fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”? This is what Jesus the son of Nun commanded our ancestors about cutting down fruitless trees; this is what the Lord Jesus sets down for us as commands in the Gospels: and how is it not true that the shadow went before and the truth followed?

And what is it that Jesus added: “If you clear the forest,” he says, “it will be yours, when you have exterminated the Canaanite”? We have already said above how the Canaanite who lives with us first only pays tribute, second becomes obedient and subject, and third, in the putting to death of our members, is even said to be exterminated. If we understand these things rightly, and the Lord has granted us by his grace to understand them in this way, it may be something worthwhile to have brought these things out of their secret and hidden places into public view, and that what was kept covered has come to our knowledge. And let us try, according to what we have said, quickly to subject to ourselves the Canaanite who is with us and make him obedient, and after this also to exterminate him; because if we let him be and neglect him, Pharaoh will come from Egypt and begin to give our place as a dowry to his daughter and to hand us over captive to the law of sin. But it is beneath Israel’s nobility for an Israelite to serve Pharaoh’s daughter — that one whom God has already brought out of the land of Egypt should serve again that Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea! Let us take care, then, as Jesus says here too, that we prevail against the Canaanites; so that, if they defeat and overcome us, they will not make us Canaanites instead of Israelites, as happened to that man whom the temptation of the flesh had overcome, to whom the prophet says: “Seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you.” May we never hear “seed of Canaan,” because “cursed be Canaan; he will be a servant to his brothers.” But may the Lord grant us to be sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, heirs according to the promise, and for this raised up from stones, so that we may be sons of Abraham through Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.