The Oak and the Doors of Lebanon

Men with arrogance will fall when God opposes the proud, according to what is said in the writing of the Divine Proverbs: 'God opposes the proud' (Proverbs 16:5).

Regarding those thus exalted, those who are making blindness right through God send up a prayer, saying: 'Stretch out your hands against their pride to an end,' and with other things in the same Psalm: 'The pride of those hating you continually shall ascend to you' (Psalm 18:5).

Concerning the Lebanon which is given a double meaning, the divine word stands to open its gates. For when pride and idolatry have been opened and spread out, the fire of punishment will consume the cedars—those men who were exalted and the demons who look down upon others, not being other than 'the rulers of this age,' human and, as the Scripture says, 'fleshly wisdoms' (2 Corinthians 10:5), teaching 'heights puffed up according to the knowledge of God' (2 Corinthians 10:5).

When the cedars are devoured by fire, the firs lament, falling because of the stronger ones called cedars. And perhaps the unspiritual evil powers are called cedars, with the firs being the names of the heterodox and wise of this world and age who work under them.

The enigmatically spoken thing is released by the following word: 'Greatly the magnates were afflicted.' These are the ones swelling at the beginning, not men alone, but also the unspiritual rulers of this age.

Concerning these arrogant leaders, and in Nahum the prophet—and this is the seventh among the Twelve Prophets—it is said to Nineveh: 'And upon your glorious things they shall cast a lot, and all your magnates shall be bound in fetters' (Nahum 2:9), so that they might not do the forbidden things with easy release and hands not hindered; for it is for good to be hindered by 'hands entwined with iniquities.'

Having been greatly afflicted, the Basanite trees, the intertwined grove is torn down; and a grove is a place of wild trees bearing no nourishing fruit. And this is torn down, as its thickened vegetation is consumed by fire.

Lamenting trees do not turn out to be soulless plants, but, being led up allegorically, the souls of men who...

And opposing powers. It is not to be ignored that oaks, at times, signify all kinds of wood, and at other times a specific kind of wood. For when we call all woods oaks, the one cutting them is called a wood-cutter, and those made from them are called oak-wood, from which the name for oak-planks is derived, and the fruits of trees are called acorns. Regarding the general name, there is a specific kind of wood that is an oak, just like cypress, fir, or boxwood.

The doors of Lebanon, which the divine word protects from being opened, are the same as those of death, concerning which the singer in the ninth Psalm says about God: 'He lifts me up from the gates of death' (Psalm 9:13). Regarding these, as being the presence of evil, it is proverbially said to the wise: 'Do not approach the doors of her house' (Proverbs 7:18), and also concerning all false glory and impiety: 'A foolish and impudent woman becomes a loud-mouthed vessel, who does not know shame; for she sat on a seat by the doors of her own house, openly calling to those passing by' (Proverbs 9:13).

He who has drawn near to these doors strikes the doors about which the Savior said: 'Knock and it shall be opened to you' (Matthew 7:7), concerning which Wisdom says in Proverbs: 'Blessed is the man who listens to me, and the man who keeps my ways, staying awake at my doors every day, guarding the weights of my entrances' (Proverbs 8:34).

He who stays awake at these doors every day does not approach the doors of the prostitute and foolish woman who pretends, nor the doors of Lebanon which ought to be opened, the perceived security being destroyed, so that those lying within may appear as to what formlessness they possess, being hated and abandoned, for no one who wishes to see them is sober.

That which has been said concerning various woods is not spoken about soulless things, and it can be seen from many scriptures, especially prophetic ones, the exposition of which has already partially occurred; but it is sufficient to remember the prophet Ezekiel, as if Pharaoh and Assyria were woods. These are evil powers, the one the tyrant of Egypt and the other of Assyria, having roots and shoots raised up from much water, which, in imitation, envied the trees of the paradise of the enjoyment of God.