THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Why, then, do you still introduce the mediation of angels here? "Of which I," he says, "became a minister." Why do you still introduce others here, the angels? "I" am "a minister."
Then he shows that he himself did nothing, although he is a minister. "Of which I became a minister," he says, "according to the divine economy of God, which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God."
"According to the divine economy." By this he either said this: He willed that, after His departure, we should become successors in the ministry of the divine economy, so that you would not be left abandoned.
He Himself suffered, and He Himself was also the messenger. Or he expressed this thought: to me, the fiercest persecutor of all, God permitted the persecution of Christ, so that I might become worthy of credibility in preaching.
Or he mentioned the divine economy in this sense: it required not works, or contests, or merits, but faith and baptism. Otherwise you would not have received His teaching.
"For you," he says, "to fulfill the word of God." He uses the word "fulfill" with reference to the Gentiles, showing that until then they were still wavering.
That the Gentiles could receive such lofty doctrines was not Paul's work, but the work of God's divine economy. "I myself," he says, "would not have had the power."
After pointing to the more important thing, namely that his sufferings are Christ's sufferings, he then presents what is easier to understand. The fact that he also "fulfills the word of God for you" is likewise God's work.
Here, though not plainly, he shows that the divine economy was also manifested in this, that you have now been recognized as capable of hearing the word of God.
This was not from neglect, but so that you might become capable of receiving it. God does not do everything all at once. In His great love for mankind He adapts Himself to us.
This is why Christ came now, and not in ancient times. So also in the Gospel, God shows that He first sent servants so that the Jews would not be moved to murder the Son.
If they were not ashamed before the Son when He came after the servants, much less would they have been ashamed if He had come before them.
If they did not obey the lesser commands, how would they have obeyed the greater? What, then, does he say? Are Jews and Gentiles not still in a worse condition than they were before?
This is finally the height of carelessness! After such a long time, after so many instructions, still to remain imperfect is extreme negligence.
Therefore, when the Gentiles ask why Christ came only now, we shall not allow them to say this. We ourselves shall ask: did He not accomplish His work?
If He had come from the beginning and had not accomplished His work, it would not have been enough, for His justification, to point to the time of His coming.
So now, when He has accomplished His work, it would be unjust for us to demand an account of the time of His coming.
No one will demand from a physician, who has healed a sickness and restored health to the patient, an account concerning the treatment.
No one will question a general, who has won a victory, about why he did it at this time and in that place. One might ask this if he had not done it. But if he has done it, one must accept it.
Tell me, what is more worthy of belief: your inventions and reasonings, or the accomplishment of the work itself? Tell me this: did He conquer, or not? Did He prevail, or not?
Did He bring to completion what He said, or not? This is what the account must consist in. Tell me, you surely confess that there is a God, even if you do not acknowledge Christ?
I ask you: is God without beginning? You will surely affirm this. Tell me, then: why did He not create men thousands of years earlier? Then they would already have lived longer.
If existence is a good, then to exist longer is a greater good. But have they suffered any harm for the time when they did not exist? No, they suffered no harm. Why this is so, He who created them knows.
Again I ask you: why did He not create all at once? Why did He arrange it so that the soul of one who was created first has existed so many years, while another soul, not yet born into the world, receives less time to live?
Why did He order it so that one comes into the world first and another last? Such things are indeed worth investigating, but not out of idle curiosity. The latter, by itself, is not even investigation.
But I shall show you the true reason for what I began to discuss, namely why Christ appeared late. Agree that human nature has its ages.
In the first times our race was in a state of infancy. In the times that followed it was in the condition of youth. In the times approaching old age, it was in the condition of an elder.
Finally, when the members of the body had grown weak and the battle had ceased, the soul grew strong. Then we reached philosophy. You will say: on the contrary, we teach children from early years.
True, we teach them, but only unimportant subjects, and perhaps only how to speak correctly, developing in them the gift of speech. Even that we do only when they begin to grow older.
See, God acted in exactly the same way with the Jews. Just as with children, He set over the Jews a teacher of letters, Moses.
He led them, as we lead children, toward the gradual learning of written characters, setting them forth on a tablet. "The law has a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things" (Heb 10:1).
As we buy treats for children and give them money, asking only one thing from them, that they go immediately to school, so God at that time sent the Jews abundance and prosperity.
In return for such care for them, He wished to receive only this, that they would listen to Moses. For this reason He entrusted them to a teacher, so that they would not neglect him, but would look upon him as a tender father.
And see, they feared him alone. They did not ask, "Where is God?" but, "Where is Moses?" By his mere presence he inspired fear in them.
When they behaved badly, see how he punished them. God wished to reject them, but Moses did not allow it. More precisely, all this was God's work.
He uttered threats as a father does. Moses, like a teacher, entreated Him and said, "Leave them to me. From now on I take them into my own hands."
Thus the wilderness was a true school. As children, after spending some time in lessons, try to run away, so they at that time constantly longed for Egypt.
They wept and said, "We are lost, we are ruined, we have perished." Moses also broke the tablet on which he had written for them, as it were, the names of things.
He acted exactly like a teacher who takes a tablet, sees bad writing on it, and throws it down, wishing thereby to show strong anger.
Even if he breaks it, the father will not be angry, because the teacher made the effort and wrote, while they were not looking at him. They were only gazing around and misbehaving.
As children strike one another during their lessons, so he at that time commanded some to strike and kill others. And again, he punished them like a teacher who gives lessons and, on questioning them, finds them unprepared.
I shall give an example of what lessons these were. There were letters that pointed to the power of God manifested in Egypt.
Yes, you say, but these letters told of the Egyptian plagues, that God punishes enemies, and contained a lesson very instructive for the Jews.
What else was the punishment of enemies for you, if not a benefaction? He also benefited you in other ways.
It is just as if someone claimed that he knew the letters, but when he was questioned out of order, he could not answer and was punished for it.
So they said that they knew the power of God, but when they were required to show this knowledge in various circumstances, they were not found able to answer and were punished for it.
Do you see water? You should remember the water of Egypt. He who turned water into blood can do this also. It is just as we often say to children: when you see the letter "A" in a book, remember that it is the same sign as on your tablet.
Do you see hunger? Remember that He destroyed in Egypt everything that had grown. Do you see wars? Remember the flood. Do you see that strong nations inhabit the land?
They are not stronger than the Egyptians. He who took you out from among them can much more easily save you when you are not in their hands.
But they did not know how to answer, out of order, all the questions concerning their alphabet, and for that they were punished. They knew only how to eat, drink, and riot.
Having suffered harm from pleasures, they should not have sought them in the manna. They acted exactly as if the son of free parents, when being sent to school, wanted to live with slaves and serve them.
It was as though, while receiving everything necessary for a free man's upkeep and having a place at his father's table, he found the disorderly and noisy table of slaves pleasant for himself.
So they all longed for Egypt, though they said to Moses: "Yes, Lord, all that You have spoken we will do, and we will be obedient" (Ex 24:7).
As happens with very unruly children, whose father sometimes wants to kill them while the teacher constantly entreats him for them, so the same occurred then.
But why has this been told to us? Because we are no different from children. Do you wish to hear further about their teaching, to see how much of it is childish?
"An eye for an eye," it says, "and a tooth for a tooth" (Lev 24:20). This is natural. Nowhere is the inclination to revenge so strong as in a child's soul.
Since vindictiveness is the most irrational passion, and irrationality and lack of deliberation are especially characteristic of that age, it is understandable why anger has unlimited dominion over children.
The rule of anger is so strong that they often throw themselves on the ground. Then they leap up and strike their own knees in rage, or overturn benches.
Only after this does the tormenting passion begin to subside in them and their frenzy cool. God acted in this way when He permitted them to pluck out an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
He acted so also when He struck the Egyptians and Amalekites for the wrongs they inflicted on the Jews. God grants permission to act in this way, as a father does when some little one says, "Father, so-and-so hit me."
The father answers, "He is a bad man. We shall not love him." In the same sense God also says, "I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will hate those who hate you."
And again, when Balaam prayed, the same condescension was shown to them as to children.
With children it happens that when they see something that in itself is not at all frightening, such as wool or something similar, they suddenly become afraid.
In order that this thing not terrify them, we bring it near to them and put it in their hands, or have the nurse show it to them. God acted in the same way.
Since the diviner was frightening to them, He turned their fear into boldness. And as children being weaned from the breast are given a horn for consolation, so God refused the Jews nothing and sent them full abundance.
But even after this the child still asks for the breast. So they also kept seeking Egypt and Egyptian meat.
Thus a man would not be mistaken if he called Moses their teacher, educator, and guide. And this man was very wise.
It is not the same thing to guide people already capable of mature reasoning and to govern irrational children. If you wish, one may say something further.
As an educator says to a child, "When you go for a natural need, be careful and guard your clothing while you are sitting," so Moses also acted.
As all passions rule in children, who do not yet have a charioteer, vainglory, self-will, irrationality, anger, envy, so all these passions ruled over the Jews.
They spat upon Moses and struck him. As a child lifts a stone against someone, and all of us cry, "Do not throw it," so they also lifted stones against their father, though he escaped them.