Numbers 14

Now the Lord said to Moses, "I will strike them with death and wipe them out. Then I will make the house of your father a nation, greater and mightier than they." This threat is not a sign of wrath but a prophecy. Another nation was to be taken over, that is, the people of the Gentiles, but not through Moses. Moses excused himself, for he knew that the great nation which was promised was not to be called through him but through Jesus Christ. Those people would not be called Mosaic but Christian.

Twelve observers were sent from the sons of Israel to examine the land which had been promised to them, and these, returning after forty days, reported diverse things. For ten of them cast the people into despair, so that they wished to reject Moses, choose another leader, and return to Egypt. But the other two brought good tidings and exhorted the people to remain in faith, saying: "If the Lord loves us, let him bring us into this land." But the people, driven headlong by the despair of unbelief, rushed forward to stone those who brought good tidings; the majesty of the Lord, however, protected them in the clouds. And the Lord says to Moses: "I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and the house of your father into a great nation, more numerous than this one." This great threat, then, comes from the Lord, not that the divine nature should be shown as passible and subject to the vice of anger, but that through these things both the love which Moses had toward the people, and the goodness of God, which is above all understanding, might be made known. For God is written to be angry and to threaten destruction upon the people, so that man may be taught how great a place he holds with God and how great a confidence, so that, even if there be some indignation in God, it is softened by human entreaties, and man is able to obtain so much from him that God even changes his own decrees. For the goodness which follows upon the anger both shows the confidence Moses had with God and teaches that the divine nature is a stranger to the vice of anger. At the same time the utterance contains a mystery to be fulfilled in the ages to come, through which God promises that, when this people is rejected, he will raise up another people. For he says: "I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and the house of your father into a great nation, far more than this one." This threat, therefore, is not anger but prophecy. For another nation was to be taken up, that is, this people of the nations, but not through Moses; for Moses excused himself. For he knew that that great nation which is promised was not to be called through Moses, but through Jesus Christ, and that the people was to be named not Mosaic but Christian.

The attitude [of one brother] was like that of Moses and indeed of God himself in that he did not in any way wish to be saved alone. Because he was spiritually bound to them by holy love in the Holy Spirit he did not want to enter into the kingdom of heaven itself if it meant that he would be separated from them. O sacred bond! O unutterable power! O soul of heavenly thoughts, or, rather, soul borne by God and greatly perfected in love of God and of neighbor!

Moses was often scorned by an ungrateful and faithless people and almost stoned, and yet with mildness and patience he prayed to the Lord in their behalf.

That is to say, God will not punish us at once for our thoughts and resolves but will send retribution upon their offspring, that is, upon the evil deeds and habits of sin which arise out of them.

We must also consider the words "as I live, says the Lord." Perhaps living in the proper sense, especially on the basis of what has been said about living, occurs with God alone. And see if the apostle … considered the superiority of the life of God to be beyond comparison and understood the words "as I live says the Lord" in a manner worthy of God. Can [he] for this reason have said of God, "Who alone has immortality," because none of the living beings with God has the life which is absolutely unchangeable and immutable? And why are we uncertain about the remaining beings, when not even the Christ had the Father's immortality? For he tasted death for all.

Of such inflexibility were those youths of twenty years, who foretokened in figure God's new people; they entered the land of promise; they, it is said, turned neither to the right hand nor to the left. Now this age of twenty is not to be compared with the age of children's innocence, but if I mistake not, this number is the shadow and echo of a mystery. For the Old Testament has its excellence in the five books of Moses, while the New Testament is most refulgent in the authority of the four Gospels. These numbers, when multiplied together, reach to the number twenty: four times five, or five times four, are twenty. Such a people (as I have already said), instructed in the kingdom of heaven by the two Testaments—the Old and the New—turning neither to the right hand, in a proud assumption of righteousness, nor to the left hand, in a reckless delight in sin, shall enter into the land of promise. [There] we shall have no longer either to pray that sins may be forgiven to us or to fear that they may be punished in us. [We have] been freed from them all by that Redeemer, who, not being "sold under sin," "has redeemed Israel out of all his iniquities," whether committed in the actual life or derived from the original transgression.

For this reason, therefore, Moses entreats the more on behalf of that people. But the Lord dispenses the measure of correction with balanced moderation and says that the men, indeed, who went out of Egypt and tempted me and remained unbelieving, shall fall in this desert and shall not see, he says, the land which I swore to their fathers; "but their sons, who are here with me, whosoever know not good or evil." Perhaps there may be something even of a more hidden mystery in the words of the Lord when he says: "their sons, who are here with me." Where "here," or how "with me"? Let him who has ears to hear, hear. We, meanwhile, say that our fathers were that former people, but we are their sons. They, therefore, because they sinned, were rejected and fell; but we, their sons, have risen up and been raised erect in their place, we who knew not good or evil. For we are of the nations, we who knew neither the good things that come from God nor the evils that are begotten from sin — provided, however, that, succeeding into the place of those who were rejected, we fear the example of so great a fall, hearing the admonition of Paul who says: "Behold then the severity and the goodness of God: toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you remain in that goodness — otherwise you too shall be cut off. And they, if they do not remain in unbelief, shall be grafted in."

After these things the Lord adds and says: "But your sons shall be dwellers in the desert for forty years." And he declares what mystery this number holds, saying: "According to the number of the days," he says, "in which you examined the land, forty days, a day for a year, you shall receive your sins for forty years." I am afraid to examine the secrets of this mystery; for I see that in this the reckoning of sins and of punishments is comprehended. For if to each sinner a year is assigned for punishment for a single day's sin, and according to the number of the days in which one sins the same number of years must be spent in torments, I fear that perhaps for us, who sin daily and perhaps pass no day of our life without sin, not even the ages themselves, or even the ages of ages, may suffice for paying the penalties. For in the fact that that people is tormented for forty years in the desert for the transgression of forty days, and is not permitted to enter the holy land, a certain likeness of the future judgment seems to be shown, where the reckoning of sins is to be examined — unless perhaps there will be also some compensation from good works, or even from the evils which each one receives in his own life, as Abraham taught concerning Lazarus. But these things it belongs to none to know fully save to him to whom the Father has handed over all judgment. But that a day of sin is reckoned as a year of punishment is shown not only in this book, in which there is nothing at all that can be doubted, but also in the little book of the Shepherd, if indeed that writing seems to anyone worthy to be received, similar things are indicated. But perhaps someone may deny that it befits the goodness of God to repay a year of punishments for a single day's sin; nay rather he will say that, even if he repays a day for a day, though just, yet he does not seem to be clement or kindly. Hear, then, in answer to these things, if perchance we may be able to explain the difficulty of the matter by clearer examples. If a wound is inflicted on the body, or a bone is broken, or the joining of the sinews is dissolved, such wounds are wont to befall bodies within the space of a single hour, and afterward, with very many torments and pains endured, are scarcely healed over a long time; for how great swellings arise in the place, how great torments are generated? But now, if it should happen that in the same wound or in the same fracture one is wounded again and more often and is broken more frequently, with how great penalties can this be cured and with how great torments be medicined? And over how long a time, if indeed it can be, is it brought to health? And scarcely at some point will it be so cured that it escapes either weakness of the body or ugliness of the scar. Pass now from the example of the body to the wounds of the soul. As often as the soul sins, so often is it wounded. And lest you doubt that it is wounded by sins as by darts and swords, hear the Apostle admonishing us to take up the shield of faith, in which, he says, "you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." You see, then, that sins are the darts of the evil one, which are aimed at the soul. But the soul suffers not only the wounds of darts, but also the fractures of the feet, when snares are prepared for its feet and its steps are tripped up. These, therefore, and such-like wounds, over how long a time do you think they can be healed? O if we could see, through each single sin, how our inner man is wounded, how an evil word inflicts a wound! Have you not read, they say, that swords wound, but not as the tongue does? The soul, therefore, is wounded also through the tongue; it is wounded also through evil thoughts and lusts; and it is broken and crushed through the works of sin. And if we could see all these things and feel the scars of the wounded soul, it is certain that we would resist against sin unto death. But now, just as those who are either filled with a demon or deranged in mind do not feel if they are wounded, because they lack their natural senses, so too we, made senseless either by the desires of the world or intoxicated by our vices, cannot feel how great wounds, how great contusions of the soul we acquire by sinning. And therefore it is a most consistent reckoning that the time of punishment — that is, of cure and of healing — is extended, and that for each single wound, according to the quality of the blow, the spaces of healing also are prolonged. Thus, therefore, both the equity and the kindness of God will become evident even in the very punishments of the soul; and he who has sinned, hearing these things, may come to his senses and sin no more. For conversion in the present life, and repentance fruitfully carried out, will confer a swift medicine on wounds of this kind, because repentance not only heals the past wound, but also does not allow the soul to be wounded by sin any further. Indeed, I will add this also: for the sake of argument, if I am a sinner, will the same punishment be mine if I have sinned once as if I sin a second and a third time and more frequently? It will not be so, but according to the manner and number and measure of the sin the quantity also of the punishment must be measured. For God will give us the bread of tears and will give us to drink in tears, but in measure. And this will be the measure which each one has procured for himself in this life by sinning either less or more. But also the cup in the hand of the Lord is said to be full of pure wine mixed. It is mixed, therefore, without doubt for each one, and his judgment will be made not only from the evils which he has done, but also from the good things. And yet, though both are mixed together, its dregs — which I think are said to be the portion of the evils — will not be emptied out to the full. But these things, as we have said, are in the hand of God; but it is ours to hasten more quickly to amendment, to turn to repentance without dissimulation, to mourn the past, to beware of the future, to invoke the help of God; for as soon as you, converted, have groaned, you will be saved. For you will find an advocate who intercedes for you with the Father, the Lord Jesus, far more excellent than Moses was, who nevertheless prayed for that people and was heard. And perhaps it is for this reason that Moses is written to have interceded for the sins of the former people and to have obtained pardon, that we might all the more trust that our advocate Jesus will grant us undoubted pardon from the Father — provided, however, that we turn to him and our heart does not go back behind, as John also says in his epistle: "But these things I say, little children, that you sin not. And if any of you has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the just, who intercedes for our sins." To him be glory unto the eternal ages of ages. Amen.

For my part I am afraid to examine the secrets of this mystery, for I see comprehended in it the calculation of sins and punishment. If each sinner is assigned punishment for the sin of one day and according to the number of days he sins must spend so many years in punishment, I fear that perhaps for us who sin daily and spend no day of our life without offense, even ages and ages will not suffice to pay our penalties. In the fact that for forty days of sin those people were afflicted in the desert for forty years and not permitted to enter the holy land, a kind of similarity to the future judgment seems to be evident. At that time the number of sins will have to be calculated, unless perchance there is the balance of good works or of evils which a man has suffered in his life, as Abraham taught concerning Lazarus. However, it is within the power of no one to know these things perfectly, except him to whom "the Father has given all judgment."