Sacrificial Death and Divine Slumber

Upon itself. And the shadow of the stone does not do what the stone itself has done, from which even God is delivered. It has been said: 'The rising sun appeared to those in darkness and the shadow of death' (Psalm 98:2).

If we have forgotten the name of our God and if we have stretched out our hands toward a foreign god, then these things are no longer said toward God himself. Previously, it was said toward God himself: 'You turned our paths from your way; you humbled us in a place of affliction' (Psalm 65:5). Therefore, they say to others that they have become in these things through sin and lawlessness, and they say: 'If we have forgotten the name of our God and if we have stretched out our hands toward a foreign god,' that is to say, if we have worshipped a foreign god. But all those called gods according to the Scripture who are falsely named should be considered foreign gods; for it has been said: 'All the gods of the nations are demons' (Psalm 95:5).

Not toward our own belly, nor toward mammon, did we stretch out our hands, which are allegorically called our deeds. We stretched them out toward a foreign god and toward the enemies who seem to have prevailed. God will not fail to seek these things. They were saying, in this way of reading: 'Will God not seek these things?' (Psalm 94:8) and they were saying, in this way of reading: 'Will God not seek these things?'

He says: do not think it a small thing to forget the name of God or to stretch out hands toward a foreign god. For God also seeks these things. And you know that some, especially in persecutions, were saying this: that it is possible to do things without acting with the heart. Indeed, many died saying this, and they silenced the name of God as if forgetting Him. He says, not even this is enough to hide God, who is invisible, and He seeks these things. For does He not seek? The following text does not permit this way of thinking. For He himself knows the secrets of the heart.

Let him who is ignorant of the secrets of the heart seek first whether he acted thus or like that. For instance, if someone, pretending to be wise, says: 'I did not stretch out my hands toward a foreign god,' I say: 'I, who am ignorant of the secrets of the heart, am examining these things.' But God does not seek; for He knows them. And He says, therefore, what He knows as secrets:

"Because of you we die all day, we were counted as sheep for slaughter" (Ps 54:3). Because of you we die all day, we were counted as sheep for slaughter. Those dying all day for God and counted as sheep for slaughter have no doubt whether they have come to the name of God or stretched hands toward a foreign god. Therefore, one does not seek these things from a heart that is manifest. "We were counted" then "as sheep for slaughter." Everyone who wishes to slaughter us can do so. And this is possible; even if some fight us, we consider ourselves as sheep being ritualized, as being sacrificed to God for a "pleasing sacrifice" (Ps 50:5). Indeed, in the Revelation of John, "the souls of those being persecuted for the testimony of Jesus" (Rev 6:9) appeared dancing under the altar of the heavenly God, clearly as victims having come there.

"Arise; why, Lord, do you sleep? Arise and do not cast us away to the end" (Ps 44:23). It seems that God sleeps when He is long-suffering toward the wrongdoing of His own holy men and the groaning of those made according to Him. Indeed, they send up a prayer saying: "Cast the hands toward their pride to the end" (Ps 54:5), and: "May the pride of those hating you ascend to you always" (Ps 54:6). And it seems God sleeps when He is long-suffering, when He overlooks His own being afflicted. "Arise and do not cast us away to the end" (Ps 44:23). For if even we have become captives and are being afflicted in the place of ill-treatment, being human, mortal, and liable to fall, we fear being cast away to the end. Israel was cast away in Babylon, when they worshiped Bel and had made the image of Nebuchadnezzar and other things of the Babylonians; they were cast away to the end. But those around Daniel, even if they were cast away locally, they were not cast away to the end; for they remained in the same godliness. It seems they were cast away, but they were not cast away to the end, the lions being silenced and him ascending unhurt.

"Why do you turn your face away, forgetting our poverty and our affliction? For our soul has been humbled into dust" (Ps 40:12-13). This is the same as sleeping and seeming to turn the face away. Appear to us, rescuing and saving us from the...