First part.
Of Isaac's journey to Gerar, and how the Lord appeared to him and raised him up with a new promise.
V. 1: And there came a tempest into the land from the former tempest, which was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines to Gerar.
It has often been said that in this whole book the histories of the fathers are described as on a very bad bark or leaf, and that they are held up to us without any pretense or outward show of religion, righteousness and wisdom, yes, in a very despised form of housekeeping and this bodily life. For what else does Moses tell of Isaac?
For that he was born of his father Abraham, that he begat children, that he pastured the cattle, and that he wandered about in this country and in another? There is little or nothing taught about prayer and the adventurous religions of the monks. But what is it to me that he was a husband and slept with his wife? Should this be taught in the church? For so the flesh, looking at the life of the fathers, clings to this outward and very lowly despised figure, and is not at all improved by it, but only annoyed.
2) But after that it thinks how it may learn to understand the life of Bernard, Anthony, and the like of other monks, in which wonderful and unbelievable works are found, how they abstain from some food and other things more, how they are used, and how they are used.
fasting and watching; since no wives or servants, much less cattle, are found to have dealt with them. These mean and despised things in the household of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, I say, the flesh despises, and therewith does its washing, and meanwhile follows other works, which have a great appearance and are glorious. Or when these histories are read in the church, no one is surprised at them, for no one looks at their proper dignity and the proper adornment, from which such histories have their honor.
(3) Therefore we teach, and this should also be diligently impressed upon the people, that in the examples of the holy fathers this should be regarded as the right principal and highest praise, that God spoke with them, that they had God's word. This is the right piece that adorns these histories, and gives the right understanding of what and how great these yeasts and seemingly contemptible figures of holy men are. For where God's word is, there is also right faith, and there are also right good works; for there all things are done in the word and under the word. The other things that happen outside of and without the Word, only according to our own will and discretion, are truly nothing but vapors and only vain filth before God.
Therefore, the life of all monks, however delicious it may seem to the eyes of the flesh, is nothing. There has been a great semblance of holiness in Antony, Hilarion, and many others, some of whom have spent their lives in fasting, some in miraculous vigilance, until the seventieth year; and the flesh, the heart, and the eye of man delight in such miraculous works. But see if the word of God is also present. Ask Antony if he also has a word that has called him to go into the wilderness and mortify his flesh? He will say no, but it has seemed good to me and pleasing to God. Yes, dear Antony, this is the main thing that should be seen in your works, without which the whole life you lead is death, and only a choice of the flesh, your own good will, and a
loud boasting and Bethörung of carnal people.
(5) Therefore the Scriptures, in the histories of the fathers, praise above all faith in the Word, because the Word of God sanctifies all things, since it is holy, indeed, it is holiness, truth and wisdom itself. And the life that is governed by the Word is a true, righteous, wise and eternal life. But if it does not have the Word, it has no truth, no light, no wisdom before God, and all its works are works of darkness.
6. So, although the married state is an unclean state (because the union of a man and a woman cannot take place without carnal uncleanness), and also an unclean thing, herding cattle; and also the life of the rulers and subjects is almost unclean and full of infirmities, where many sins come together, and also special transgressions and infirmities that are in the persons, even above the common infirmities: God has gloriously adorned and ordained all these things in His Word, and if you adhere to the Word, you are already cleansed from all your uncleanness.
7 Finally, there is no man who lives without sin; but the word has such great power that it swallows up all this, that you may say, "I live in married life with my wife and children in good peace, in the fear of God and trust in Him, and so I know that all is right and well; for thus says St. Paul of the life of married couples, 1 Tim. 2:15: "The wife is saved through childbearing." But how? "If she continue in the faith," etc. This is the first power of the word.
(8) Then the word does not give only that the state may be holy and pleasing to God, but it also awakens you to all kinds of virtues and lovely good works. For it does not celebrate where it is only in your heart according to the right mind, but it will remind you to remember how to call upon and praise God; it will make you a priest and prophet of God, whose sacrifices will be very pleasing to God, for His eyes look upon faith. And this fruit and power of the word the vile monks do not see either.
Third, when the devil feels and realizes that you have the word and trust that your life is pleasing and acceptable to God because of the word, he will not rest, but will cause all kinds of trials and crosses to occur even in the smallest things. In the household you will experience great unfaithfulness of the household, hatred and enmity of the neighbors, item, that your children or wife dies. You will encounter all this so that your faith will be exercised and tested. But where the word is not, impatience and wrath follow for the sake of this state, which is so vexatious and troublesome. As we hear many of them crying out that they were not led by God but by the devil when they entered the marriage state.
(10) The same is true of the rulers. When they see the untamed wickedness of their subjects, as well as usury, avarice and fornication, and would like to correct and punish them, they must incur the hatred and enmity of the people. Then they also rage and curse, no less than happens in the married state. And if such people are papists who know nothing of God's word, they will run away and leave the married state or the regiment, and perhaps go to a desert, so that they may serve God there in peace and quiet, but all without the grace and will of God. For God has held out His word to all men and commanded that each one should wait for his calling and serve Him in it.
(11) Therefore, so that you may overcome difficulties and hardships in marriage or in the office of the temporal government, you should first of all take care to remember the word of God, so that the authorities may be abundantly confirmed, Rom. 12:8 and Cap. 13:1-4. If you only accept the word and do righteous fruit of the word, you will see that the cross and temptation will soon follow. But after that comes prayer,
The prayer is followed by the redemption, the redemption is followed by the sacrifice of thanksgiving, so that one praises God. So you can carry the cross and offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving at the same time, which the monks do not want to do and cannot do, who only seek external peace and good days, and that they may fill their belly and live in pleasure.
In this way Moses describes the legends of this holy father Isaac according to the one main part, namely, that he spent his life in many tribulations. He does not write of brooding, contemplative life and hypocrisy of self-chosen works, but he describes in him great excellent virtues of faith and right godliness, which the wicked and carnal men do not see.
013 And let this contrast of the life which hypocrites lead, and the life of these fathers, be well and diligently observed. The hypocrites choose outward works that have a great appearance, do not drink wine or eat meat, walk and hang their heads, have special clothes in front of other people, and are careful about the toil and work in the household and worldly affairs. On the other hand, the fathers of the households wait, deal with their wives and children, with the servants and cattle. There is no outward appearance of religion or spirituality, but only a rough sack of the life of the common household. The hypocrites put on gilded garments so that they may appear before the world when they are away from the common life and fellowship of other people. But under the coarse sackcloth of the common household, in which the fathers lived, shines the sun, moon and stars, that is, the most excellent virtues. On the other hand, under the very glorious garment of the hypocrites, which outwardly has such a great appearance, lie hidden the hideous abominations of unbelief, spiritual hopefulness, envy, impurity, and yet has the name and appearance of a spiritual life.
14 But let us open our spiritual eyes, and judge of their spiritual wickedness according to the rule and example of this
History. For Moses remembers no fasting or watchfulness or the like. Only this you hear, that Isaac goes from Hebron to Gerar, that he suffers hunger, seeks a place where he may dwell. But behold, what great faith there is, what invaluable patience! What incredible longsuffering, kindness and goodness have been seen and felt in him! What virtues all shine like the sun and moon. It would be impossible for me to render such great obedience. If I had two sons and a wife, and a household, and so many cattle and servants, and had not a foot of land to set a foot upon, what should I do? I would certainly run away and leave the regiment and the housekeeping. For if a man should go astray and sit in the unknown, and yet remain with his wife and children, and with his household and cattle, it requires a wonderfully great faith, which could make bread of stones. But the wicked do not see this.
(15) But it was indeed a grievous affliction that he had to go every day to another place, seeking always a new lodging. For this is to dwell in the world, and yet to be miserable and a stranger in the world. And Isaac might well have sung with Christ the little song, "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head," Luc. 9:58. For this reason it is not easy for anyone to see, who only reads quickly about it, how such great faith is praised in the patriarch Isaac; and if one were to compare caps, orders and works with the faith of all papists, they must disappear before it. For there is none of them who would one day renounce his bed, his dwelling, or his food. But how beautiful a religion is this to me! But the patriarch Isaac's condition is so much harder, because he is not alone, but is bound to his wife, children and servants, whom he had to provide with food in a foreign country. Truly, his faith was almost severely challenged and tested.
(16) Therefore let us learn to magnify the histories of the patriarchs, and to
praise highly against the adventurous works of the hypocrites and monks, who say that it is a life of pleasure to have a wife and children, and therefore it cannot be a spiritual or holy life. For behold, is not all cause of joy and bodily pleasure cut off and taken away from Isaac, since he was uncertain all hours where he should set his foot? No monk will follow him; indeed, in this world they lead a good quiet life, full of pleasure, they have their exquisite houses, they are under the protection and umbrella of the pope, and they are lords over the whole world.
(17) Therefore, this pilgrimage puts to shame all the religion and supposed worship of the papists, and in it shines the highest worship, which is true faith in God. He goes about in foreign lands, and has no certain lodging, has no pasture, and not a drop of water. Yes, where shall I take it? another would say. Answer: "I believe in God the Father" etc. For so Isaac thought: God will provide me with lodging, so that I may wander about; he will give pasture to my cattle, he will provide food and drink for my household. So Isaac lives by daily offering the supreme sacrifice of faith to God and lives in the world without the world and outside the world.
(18) This faith, which was very great in the fathers, the wicked regard not; they look only to the wife, and to the servants, and to the cattle; they see not the faith that sustaineth all these things. In our time, if one were to wander about in this way, he would have neither menservants nor maidservants to follow him, since he would go from one place to another. But faith does miraculous works, which makes the servants suffer such great misfortune, affliction and poverty with patience, and show themselves obedient in all things. I could not get such servants and those who would be so pious, because I do not have such great faith. And there is not a saint in the New Testament who can attain these great glorious virtues that were in the fathers; they are quite little and immature children, if you compare them with
these old fathers. They have no holiness anymore, but only their celibacy or celibate state. But even this Isaac surpasses with his pilgrimage, yes, his married state is even far better than all the celibate state of the monks; as the light of the sun is much brighter and clearer than all other lights.
19 Therefore, their whole life is full of miracles. For they live simply by the hand of God and almost by nothing; they cling only to the goodness and promise of God, and hold fast to this hope, so that they can say: If I have nothing today, or even if I do not see anything from which I can live, I will certainly get it tomorrow or the day after. Such virtues are to be diligently considered in the history of Isaac, but first of all that he was full of faith in God, who fed and sustained him.
(20) After this, he undoubtedly trained his heart to patience, longsuffering and kindness toward his neighbor. He has learned to suffer injustice, whether it be to himself or to his household. He did not hate again those who hated him, nor did he desire to take revenge on them. For the holy fathers were hospitable and merciful people, and kind to friends as well as to enemies. For there shone in them an excellent faith, which brought about such glorious virtues; of which the sophists clumsily and ungodly dispute, namely, whether they are precepts or counsels, and conclude or take it for granted that they are only counsels. The theologians of the Sorbonne in Paris say: People can be blessed, even though they have done nothing good to each other. And such a life is indeed the life of the monks, namely, only an outward hypocrisy, which despises these virtues as if they were mere counsels.
(21) But these examples teach that it is the highest service of God, and that it is most necessary, namely, that one clings to the promise and providence of God with right faith. For he has promised that he will be our Father, and that we hope in him and expect help from him. This does
not a monk, if he is a right monk. But after faith follows love toward the good and the bad, and being charitable toward the grateful and the ungrateful. These virtues, I say, follow from faith as the good fruits follow from a good tree.
(22) Now Moses tells of an excellent occasion by which the faith of this very holy man is tested and proved. For a flood comes into the land, which not only affects Isaac with his two sons, his wife and all the household, but also goes over the whole country near Hebron. In this great and common calamity, his faith is tested and praised so highly that we all marvel at it, but we cannot easily follow it.
(23) Here it should be especially noted that commonly, where the word is in flow and in pregnancy, when the Lord gives spiritual food in abundance, the bodily trouble falls in immediately; for the devil deprives the church of food and wants to kill it with hunger. And this must truly have been a great affliction, because Moses compares it with the previous affliction, which had been in Abraham's time, whose memory was almost gone at that time. For about a hundred years or more had passed since that theuration. Therefore Moses remembers this former trouble and compares it with this present trouble, so that he may show that there was great sorrow and lack of all things.
24. But how is it that such holy men have not obtained from God needy food for themselves and also for other people? For not only Abraham and Isaac, but also other high patriarchs and prophets, such as Jacob, Joseph, Elijah and Elisha, and finally also St. Paul and other godly people had to bear more such common damage of theurge at the same time as other people. Answer: God sends torment, war, pestilence and other such plagues and misfortunes first of all so that the godly may be tried and tested by them, so that they may learn how to
They will certainly consider that they should be nourished even in the time of the drought; however, they will experience many hardships and will also have to seek unknown and uncertain accommodation.
25. After this, God causes such plagues to come for the offense and punishment of the wicked. For where the word is abundantly revealed, people become ungrateful, yes, they persecute and hate the word. The others, with whom it can be seen that they accept it, nevertheless come to the point that they soon get tired of it and gain a disgust at this loose food, despise and plague the ministers of the word. With what contempt and hatred they provoke God to anger, so that he says: "If you will not be fed and satisfied with the food of my word and with spiritual life, then I will also take this bodily life from you and let you die of hunger. Therefore, if people despise the immense treasure of the word, they also lose the welfare and benefit of this present temporal life; and as the godly are preserved in theuration, so the ungodly are oppressed because of calamity and despair, and being without the word, they thus perish.
26 Therefore the devil has cause to blaspheme the word and to speak evil of it, who delights in this offense and can take advantage of it to turn men's hearts away from the word. For what can we think that the Canaanites thought otherwise, who, before Abraham came to them, had had all kinds of rich blessings, but now had to suffer hunger with him and bear the burden of the famine: what could they, I say? What else could they think but that this Chaldean must be the cause of all this misfortune and misery? This is the other cause, that the devil and the wicked have opportunity to blaspheme the gospel, so that they become more and more angry.
(27) As in our times we have to hear and suffer such a complaint from time to time, namely, that before this time everything was left enough and everything was well done, and that there was good fortune everywhere; but now
but the grain is so much more expensive and is very bad everywhere. Although I do not think that this is because there is less fruit or grain, but rather because of the avarice and malice of men, who make a fuss about everything according to their own liking. But it is not a small misfortune that the poor and also the servants of the word are hard pressed and burdened. The others, who are very rich, have less need. For this reason there are many who wish and desire that they may return to their former state, and that they may have the same happiness as they had before; and they add to this blasphemy, saying that nothing good has come from this teaching of the gospel, and that the people have become much worse than they were before.
Thus the doctrine of the gospel is blamed to be the cause of all misfortunes. At the time of Augustine, when the Goths devastated Italy, all the blame was laid on the apostles in Rome, namely on St. Peter and Paul. For ungodly men do out of sight and do not want to see the sin of the world, and so the Word of God, which is completely pure and holy, must unjustly bear the blame that all sins should come from it. For it does not teach that one should be usurious, stingy, indulgent, and practice other sins, shameful and deceitful, so that the world may go about: but contends and cries out against all these sins. Why, then, is the gospel weighed down with such abominable blasphemies? Answer: Because this is the wickedness of the devil, by which he delights to blaspheme the gospel, and to bring up against it all manner of invective, whence he may.
29. Help God, how frightening it is, and how weeping, that while this light of the gospel shines, people should still be so exceedingly wicked and wanton! But you shall be taught from the word and be told that the gospel does not permit to do wilfulness with willfulness.
The same is the case with gambling, robbery, eating and drinking, and other such sins and disgraces. But if thou layest this blame on the gospel, thou shalt now be judged out of thine own mouth, and shalt be overcome, that thou must be possessed of the devil, which is a founder of such blasphemy. For you well see that the contradiction is taught, and that those who obey the teaching recognize and feel salvation and blessedness, yes, that they also begin to lead a godly and Christian life. And you cannot deny that it is the truth, and yet you want to ascribe all the sin and shame that you see in the Epicureans and the ungodly to the teaching of the gospel. You do this out of the devil's malice, so that you and all who are hostile to the truth may be judged.
30 Augustine recounts many horrible sins and vices of the Romans, such as murder, fornication, usury and others. Should not such sins be punished by God? Therefore, it is a devilish thing and cannot even be thought of without an abominable sin, that people can forget all this and want to place the cause of all misfortune and punishment only on the word.
(31) Now all this is written for our learning, that we should not be offended at such blasphemy. For so have all the godly at all times suffered and borne the blasphemy of the ungodly, and the more holy they have been, the more punishment and calamity has been in the world; not that they have caused such things and confused the world, but because the world has despised the light of the gospel and followed idolatry; as Elijah answered King Ahab 1 Kings 18:18. 18, 18: "I do not confound Israel, but you and your father's house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and walk after Baalim" etc.
(32) In this way we also want to answer the blasphemous complaints in our time and say to the people: Since the gospel shines before you and shows you the way to salvation, you are ungrateful, despise and persecute this pure doctrine; that is why the punishments come upon the world, that is why the Turk comes and all kinds of misfortune.
(33) The godly are also punished, just as Isaac also suffered and endured hardship in his time; he was a stranger and miserable, and thought he would have to bear the present misfortune with patience. But let it be diligently noted what is the ultimate cause of such afflictions as the godly must suffer. The common misfortune also befalls the saints and prophets; but this does not happen to them as punishment or out of anger, as it happens to the wicked and ungrateful, but to them for their blessedness, and that they are thereby proven and tested in faith, love and patience, so that the godly learn to endure and bear the hand of God in stewardship. For God has promised them that He will feed them in theuration. As Ps. 37, 25. is written: "I have never seen the righteous forsaken"; item v. 19.: "In the theurung they will have enough." God confirms this promise with such examples of the saints, and with such domestic tribulations and hardships He instructs the godly in the Word, in faith, in spiritual humility, in love and other virtues.
(34) But the wicked are afflicted with punishment and vexation, so that they are hardened and become more and more angry; for by good they are not improved, but by evil they become worse. Therefore one does nothing with it and does not help them at all; one sings to them sweetly or sourly, one speaks kindly or harshly to them, as Christ also complains Match. 11, 17.
35 Now behold and consider this low and contemptible figure of Isaac's household, and hold it against all the works of the monks, of Anthony or Hilarion. For what is all the fasting and hard mortification of the monks against this few theurings? It seems like a small and minor challenge, if you consider it only externally and above; but suppose you were in Isaac's house, who has a wife and children, item, a large amount of servants and cattle, in such great lack, since he lacked food and fodder. Suppose you hear the lamentation of the servants, who desire and demand that they be fed.
bread or fodder for the cattle; and where you will answer there: I have neither bread nor fodder, I will run away and leave the servants, then God's commandment is in your way, who wants you to remain in your profession and in the place where he has appointed you.
(36) Yea, sayest thou, wherewith then shall I keep the servants, and feed the cattle? Answer: You should and must understand what kind of fast this is, since a poor householder must not only suffer hunger for himself, but must also see before his eyes that his wife and dear little children are dying of hunger. Yes, add to this the fact that Isaac was miserable and a stranger in that place and had no certain place to stay. No doubt he would have liked to stay in Hebron, but because the people of the place themselves were afflicted with the disease, they sent him away, because they could not feed him with such a large household, and because they themselves had hardly enough to support themselves and their livestock.
37 Because of this, he must leave, and his misfortune will be so great once again, because in addition to his misfortune, he must also go into misery. Isaac's heart must have been pounding and he must have cried out, because he could not give up the care of the house or let it go, because of God's commandment, 1 Tim. 5:8: "If anyone does not provide for his own, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than a pagan. And yet he has nothing to live and sustain himself with them.
(38) Now give me an example that would be like this patience. You will not find one among the Carthusian monks, or among the other hypocrites; they would say, in short, that it is an impossible thing. But why do they say that it is a contemptible and impious thing for a husband to lie with his wife and govern his household? Yea, behold ourselves also, how we keep ourselves in such distress and peril; how despondent we are in our hearts, if we have not grain or money full.
How easy it is for us to fall into despair or impatience. Now Isaac was in the greatest distress and extreme danger, yet he does not run away and does not abandon faith and hope.
39 And from this it can be seen what it means that one is a devout and godly husband. Isaac is not only struggling with poverty and theuration, but also with despair and impatience, but his strong and unconquerable faith shines out. For he remains a householder, does not abandon his wife, does not leave his household, but goes with them to another place, that there he may seek his sustenance. Although he has not been without danger and harm, he nevertheless straightens up and holds on to the comfort that he has thought: God has called me to be a husband and has given me two sons; I know that this is his work, therefore he will not abandon me.
(40) These domestic works do not teach us that there is only pleasure and carnal joy in them, but they give us examples of a holy battle and strife that these fathers waged against unbelief and mistrust, and against contempt and impatience, where people murmur against God. The monks know nothing of this difficult struggle and seek only a full belly with their holiness; they do not want to and cannot trust God in adversity.
Here is a good example of such a faith that is in battle and cries out to God, because where the word is, there also follows the call. And how great this struggle was is indicated by the journey he undertakes as he passes through Palestine to Egypt. Therefore, God took pity on him and strengthened him with a new word. But God's word does not come, especially to the new ones, only to those who are very distressed and in need of special comfort. It does not come to those who are full and weary, for it has no place with them.
42. over which his two sons and Rebekah his wife will also give him some pain.
have multiplied. Esau and Jacob were about eighteen years old at that time, who no doubt did not like the journey to the unknown land and the great hardship that lay upon them, and they would have said to their father: Dear father, where do you want to go? So also Rebekah will have said: My dear Isaac, behold what thou doest. How Job's wife reproached him for his misfortune and blasphemed him about it; for though they are holy women, they are not without temptation. So he strengthened their hearts to wait a little and bear this cross with patience. This temptation was one of the reasons for the many beautiful sermons Isaac preached to keep his household and his wife and children in the faith.
(43) But at the very moment when the children, the wife, and the household were almost despondent because of trouble and affliction, and had begun to murmur, or to think of running away, heaven was opened, and there came a new and glorious promise. Since he intends to go through Palestine to Egypt and wants to go into the misery in God's name, and God also allows this to happen so that he prepares himself for the journey; since the cord or rope is so tight that it now almost wants to break: then a necessary and excellent comfort comes down from heaven, that God says to him: "Do not go down to Egypt.
V.2-5. Then the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt, but stay in the land I tell you. Be a stranger in this land, and I will be with thee, and bless thee; to thee and to thy seed will I give all these countries; and I will confirm my oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father, and will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries. And by thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed: because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my statutes, and my commandments, and my ways, and my judgments.
44 This must have been a great distress and affliction, which is also evident from the fact that Isaac could not be satisfied with the previous promise he had from his father Abraham and the patriarch Shem: "The greater shall serve the lesser. etc. For his heart still beats in his body and his faith is in fear that God must raise him up with a new comfort.
For this reason this example is held up not only to us, but also to the apostles and saints themselves, so that we may learn to strengthen our hearts for patience and not grumble against God in any temptation, no matter in what state we live. The state of the church, household or worldly regiment is truly almost miserable, especially if you want to be pious and godly; for "all who want to live godly in Christ must suffer persecution," 2 Tim. 3:12. In the household, one must always quarrel and fight with the servants. In worldly government honor and power shine forth, and therefore it can be seen that it is a pleasant life: but if you will be a pious judge, a godly ruler, you will feel what a great burden this outward appearance of honor, glory, and great good, which is outwardly seen in the rulers, has upon it. If you are a pious, godly preacher, even with a godly and grateful audience, you will have to suffer great ingratitude from the heretics, as well as hatred and endless deceit of the devil, so that he will secretly pursue you.
46 Therefore do not regret your position, knowing that it has been given to you by God and that it is as low and despised as it can be: but boast in God the Lord, who called you, who governs you, and that you also have the Word present. For "if God be for us," as Paul says Rom. 8:31, "who may be against us?" If there is any bitterness or distress, pour good wine on it and drive away the bitterness, which wine is the Word of God, so that your faith may be increased or strengthened, and that you may say: I
I am certain that the state in which I now live is godly and Christian, and I will remain and persevere in it, that I may praise and glorify God and teach other people.
47 We see that all the promises that God had made to Abraham in various places are repeated and summarized here: all of them are brought together here in one summa. For God spoke to Abraham many times, but to Isaac hardly two or three times, and that is enough. For He confirms here in one summa all the promises, so that the holy patriarch may not begin to doubt God's will through the inducement of the devil. For Satan does not cease to attack even the most holy men and those who are completely perfect with his fiery and poisoned arrows, and thus to inflict hard upon them.
48 This promise has two parts: the first is temporal, namely, of the inheritance or possession of these lands. I will be with thee," says God, "fear not, thou shalt be driven into misery, and shalt be afflicted with tribulation, but there shall be no distress or danger; thou shalt not die of hunger, neither shall the enemy hurt thee in foreign lands. So God comforted him in the very hard trial to strengthen the hearts of his wife, the children and the servants in the crowd, to whom Isaac would have held up this comfort and said: God the Lord is with me, and has promised to deliver me from all distress and calamity; therefore I will have peace, and protection and shelter, and my daily bread in the midst of enemies and tribulation. For this promise he firmly believed, even though he had been challenged and provoked beforehand to doubt. But hereafter we shall hear how he feared death, and how he denied that he had a wife. For the holy men had flesh and blood as we have; therefore they also sometimes felt weakness of faith as we do.
49. but he repeats what he said before, "I will give all these lands to you and your seed," and here he omits the little word "you," for he says only, "I will give all these lands to you.
give all these lands to your seed," and interprets the promise. For neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob had or possessed any part of this land; as it is said above (Cap. 23, v. 16, 17) that Abraham bought a field for his money for the burial of Sarah. Otherwise God did not give him a foot wide in the land that was promised to him until his descendants were brought into it. And the first promise of this land was made to Abraham for the sake of the seed given, by which all nations were to be blessed, that there might be a certain and appointed land and place, whereunto to expect the Lord Christ, who would bless the whole world and all nations: That the gospel might not go forth into the world without a certain testimony, but that the whole world might be assured that this was the right Saviour, who would bring the right blessing, that is, who was born in this land according to the promise.
(50) And yet, because Abraham and the seed were first put together, the eternal life and resurrection of the dead are made known to the faithful, namely, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are heirs of this land, even though they did not have a foot wide in it. For though they are dead, yet they are alive, and therefore this inheritance is theirs also, because Abraham is not dead, but alive. After this also is signified, when he saith, To thee and to thy seed; that the seed could not possess the land, where the fathers had not received the promise; and in the faith of the fathers the seed obtained the possession of the land.
The other part of the promise is spiritual, for the sake of which the bodily promise was given, as just said. But these are the same words and the same meaning as in the 22nd chapter above. V. 18, and what can be said here to interpret and explain this promise has all been said above, just as the meaning of the word "blessing" is explained there. For this word belongs to the fourth order of tense words (as one speaks according to grammar), which meaning the Latins have with such a kind of
and manner of speaking, that they say: gloriari in Domino, laudari in Domino, boast in the Lord, be praised in the Lord. When I bless myself in the Lord, I do not make you bless others, but I exalt and praise myself, not in myself, but in the seed of Abraham; for I am condemned and cursed in Adam, I have fallen under the power of the devil, who holds me captive under the yoke of sin, death and condemnation; there no one can bless or boast, but is vain groaning, crying and great unending sorrow with us.
52 But when the seed of Abraham shall come, then shall all nations become other people. They will have nothing to boast of in themselves, but will have to say of themselves that they are cursed and wretched people: nevertheless they shall reign, rejoice and be blessed, not in themselves, but in this seed. And so it comes to pass this day of all them that believe on Christ. So the scripture has been fulfilled. For thus all Christians hold and say, Though I am condemned in myself through Adam, yet am I righteous and holy in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is my life, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So I bless myself for the sake of another thing and through another, not with my blessing, but with the blessing of the seed of Abraham. And if I take hold of the same through the word and believe in him, then I can boast, as it is written in the 34th Psalm v. 2. 3: "I will praise the Lord, and my soul shall boast in the Lord," namely, that against death I have life, against condemnation I have blessedness, and against the tyrant and my enemy the devil I have God for my Father.
These are great and glorious things, and they cannot be sufficiently repeated and impressed upon the people, for they are words of comfort and eternal life: just as Christ often and diligently impressed the same upon His disciples, as John 14:1: "Let not your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, you also believe in me"; item v. 19: "I live, and you also shall live";
item John 16:33: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" and the devil. But by what? Through my victory, which is yours. This is the highest and most noble teaching in all the Scriptures, namely, of the promise and faith of Abraham, as the same Christ also boasts Jn 8:56: "Abraham was glad that he should see my day; and he saw it, and rejoiced." For he well understood that this would be the blessing by which all peoples in the whole world would be blessed, that this glory would not only concern the descendants of the flesh, but all peoples throughout the whole world. This is a remarkable word, which the prophets and apostles have diligently taught.
(54) What is more understood in these words, all of which has been interpreted above, namely, the resurrection of the dead, the victory or overcoming of sin, death, the devil, and the eternal kingdom. Item, that this seed is the Son of God and man. For if he were not God, he could not bless us cursed people: and if he were not man, the blessing would not come to us.
55 The passage has also been explained, because the text says, "Because Abraham obeyed my voice," etc. above in 22 Cap. For this blessing was not given to Abraham to make him righteous, but since he was already righteous by faith, he received this blessing as a very good reward. He is righteous, obedient and holy. And because he is so obedient, therefore he will be exalted so high that Christ has taken his humanity from his seed, as Rom. 9:5. says. This is truly a great honor, that he comes from Abraham's seed, who is the Son of God, who destroys hell, overcomes death, abolishes the law and brings eternal life again.
(56) There are four words in the text, which we will explain. For the Jews want to conclude from this that the Law of Moses was also before the time of Moses; and indeed almost everything that is written in Moses is taken from the fathers and their books. But there is a difference among them. The
Word mischmar, in Latin observantia, which we have given, rights, is a common word, often used in the third book of Moses. For it is said of the Levites that they keep the Lord's ordinances, as we say in German, Wait, what I shall call thee: there I command one to be ready, and to wait for the ordinances. So the Levites sat in the tabernacle, waiting to see what the high priest would call them. In the same way it is said: Abraham waited for me and did what I told him to do. When he was commanded to slaughter his son, he was obedient. The Hebrew word mizva in Latin actually means praecepta, commandments, and that one should keep for and for, as the toes are commandments.
The word chok means the order of the way that belongs to worship, when God orders something to be worshiped. This is not a commandment, but an appointed service of God. As, in the 2nd Psalm v. 7.: Praedicabo statutum etc.: "I will preach of such a manner" etc., that is, of such a service of God; he wants to say, God will establish and institute another service of God through His Son, Torah means what belongs to good
mores serves. To this also belongs mischmar, Latin jura, rights. So Abraham always waited for what the Lord would call him, also concerning good manners: he kept the Ten Commandments, the way of the Sabbath and the law of circumcision at the same time.
Now this is the difference between the law of Moses and the law of the fathers: Moses had a certain commandment to establish the Levitical priesthood, which also had a certain people, person, place and time until Christ; this is the most important part of the law of Moses. After this he also ordained the kingdom and the twelve princes in the temporal government. The Ten Commandments and other laws of the fathers are not really Moses' own laws. But what concerns the ceremonies, which were put on certain persons, that is Moses law. But when the time was fulfilled for all these things, the sacrifices and all the ordinances of Moses came to an end, so that they were no longer valid.
the priesthood with its sacrifices and the kingdom were no longer valid, because the end of Moses had come. But the kingdom and priesthood of Christ followed without place or time or person, without all outward appearances, as Christ says Luc. 17:20.
Finally, we must also say something about the divine appearance. There are two kinds of appearance in the holy scriptures, namely in a dream and in the face or visible form and manner. It is also said of God that he appeared when he spoke through Shem or Eber, who lived at that time and were high priests. But since nothing is added here, but only said: "The Lord appeared to him," it is understood here that the appearance did not happen in a dream, but in a visible form, that is, it was an angel who appeared to him in the form of a man; as to the Virgin Mary Luc. 1, 26, 27. 12, 7. and to Abraham the angels came, as in the 18th Cap. V. 1. about Abraham. And this appearance was indeed a great honor for Isaac. For though he heard his father's preaching of the promises, yet his heart trembled and was troubled in his distress and affliction. Therefore God comes with a new confirmation of the promises.
(60) And it is truly a great thing that God appears to a man and directs His promise to a man in particular. That is why it is considered by many that the holy fathers were much more blessed than we are, because they had such certain and special comfort and manifestation from God through the ministry of angels. For someone might now say: If God were to appear to me in a human form, how would that bring such great joy to my heart! Yes, then I would not refuse to suffer all kinds of danger and adversity for the sake of God. But it does not become so good for me. I only hear the sermons, read the Scriptures and use the sacraments; I have no apparition of angels.
(61) To this I answer thus: You do not have to complain that you are less afflicted than Abraham or Isaac were. You also have apparitions, and they are stronger and clearer, and you have more of them than they had, if you could only open your eyes and heart and accept them. You have holy baptism, the Lord's Supper, where bread and wine are the form, figure and shapes in which and under which God presently speaks and works in your ears, eyes and heart. Then you have the ministry of preaching and such teachers through whom God speaks to you; you have the ministry and the use of the keys through which He absolves and comforts you. He also says to you, Isa. 41, 10: "Fear not, I am with you"; he appears to you in baptism, and it is he himself who baptizes you and addresses you; he not only says: "I am with you", but: I forgive thy sin, I bring thee salvation, that thou mayest be saved from death, and deliverance from all the terrors and powers of the devil and hell; and I am not alone with thee, but also all the angels that are with me. What more could you desire? It is all full of divine appearances and conversations, so he holds with you.
(62) Now we should lament and groan over our poisoned flesh, which is drowned in sins, which does not allow us to believe and accept such great benefits, and moreover causes us to argue and still doubt whether all this is true. I am now speaking of us who are true Christians, who teach and believe this ourselves. I not only believe in Christ, but I also know that he sits at the right hand of the Father, that he is our mediator and may represent us. I know that the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper is the true body and blood of Christ, that the word of the pastor when he preaches or absolves is the word of God; and yet the flesh is burdened with doubt that it does not believe this. This is a great sorrow and heavier than death itself; indeed, death is bitter and heavy because we do not believe because of the hindrance of our flesh. Otherwise, if we believed, tribulation would be joy and death would be sleep.
We should lament this misfortune, which was inflicted on us by the original sin through Adam, and pray that God will increase and strengthen the faith in us, and keep us under the heaven of forgiveness of sins, as Christ taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses. For it is a great misfortune that we are overloaded and overwhelmed with so many and great glorious appearances, conversations, and various forms in which God reveals Himself, and yet we do not believe; and may we justly say with St. Paul, Rom. 7:22, 23: "I delight in God's law according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, which is contrary to the law in my mind"; item v. 19: "The good that I want I do not do, but the evil that I do not want I do." I would like to believe what is true, and so believe as it is in truth; I would like my faith to be as sure and strong as the thing itself is; but sin in the flesh is contrary to the spirit, so that I cannot believe so strongly. But whoever could marvel at holy baptism according to its dignity and elevate it high enough in his heart, would mock death and all devils; the Turk would be to him cammoz (as the Hebrew word reads), that is, as nothing but "chaff", as the 1st Psalm v. 4. says, "which the wind scatters".
(64) Therefore we should always read and consider these things, and pray that our faith may be increased day by day. That which we believe is certain and cannot fail us. Therefore, we should not be so surprised at the special appearances or visions that the fathers had, nor should we desire them for ourselves. Abraham will say at the last day: If I had been a Christian in the New Testament, I would have believed this with much stronger faith. I believed only the one promise; I was the example and the first, you have innumerable examples, you have your parents, your brothers who absolve you and present you these visible figures.
65 Therefore, it is a disgrace that we have
are even weaker in faith than the patriarchs were, who overcame kings and kingdoms on one promise. They believed in one word, but we, who are helped by so many examples of the previous and present saints, the longer we preach, the lazier we become, alas! And we are actually confronted with the same thing that Pythagoras wrote about the course of the heavens, that he had the same from himself, or from the fathers, namely, that the movement or course of the stars always gives off a lovely song; but the hearts and ears of men are said to be frozen by the fact that this happens for and for, so that they no longer hear such a song.
So we see God baptizing, absolving, comforting and administering the Lord's Supper, but who is there who listens or is surprised? We let his threats, promises, consolations and sacraments move us nothing or even little. For this reason, we are justly to be punished, who ask nothing of the so lovely and beautiful song of the kingdom of heaven. And even if we heard the angels preaching in their majesty, we would not respect it any more than we do now when we hear the priest or other church servants. But if we were sure that it was God's word that we were hearing, we would not snore like that and be so sure and lazy. But because we think that only men talk to us, and that it is a man's word that we hear, we become unreasonable animals.
67 Here we should sigh and lament that original sin, alas! is so strong and powerful even in those who are born again. Otherwise there are enough of them and enough left who blaspheme and persecute the Word. Even though we are not good, as Christ says Luc. 11, 13: "You who are evil," we should make an effort not to persecute the word, and we should recognize the wickedness of our flesh; as St. Paul cries out in Rom. 7, 24: "I wretched man, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" The body is mortal, poisoned, corrupt, and altogether hellish. If we are well, then we can easily boast and
bless us in the Lord; as it says in Psalm 30, v. 7: "But I said, when I was well: I shall never lie down": but v. 8: "But when thou hidest thy face, I was afraid." There the flesh comes again and drives away all joy.
68 Therefore, I say, all these things are written for our learning, that we may not only punish and refute the arguments of the adversaries, but also resist the flesh, which weighs us down with the heavy burden of sin and fear, that we may not say: In the seed of Abraham I am righteous, blessed, a master of death, the devil and the Turk. Therefore we should learn and love the word which teaches that one should believe in the promised seed. And after that we must also tame and compel the flesh, which opposeth the law in the mind, and taketh us captive. And when we are overcome, faith must soon be restored and strengthened, so that the flesh will not oppress the spirit.
(69) But since we cannot come to perfection so soon that we do not feel or sense sin, death, and hell, and that we cannot become perfect dialecticians and rhetoricians, let us be ABC disciples or donatists until we may come to dialectics and rhetoric. For this is a life of firstfruits and not of tithes. That is why St. Paul himself complains, as said before: "I see another law in my members, which is contrary to the law in my mind, and it takes me captive"; I would gladly do good, I would gladly be such a man, who did not doubt, who did not worry because of any trouble or affliction. That which we are to believe is certain in itself, and the Scriptures are true, but the flesh is in our way, hindering us everywhere.
But what shall I do? If I cannot believe and grasp it so strongly in my heart, then I am angry with the flesh, and say with St. Paul Rom. 7:24: "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" For this body and flesh makes death bitter and terrible, but the life that is in
What is bitter through sins and many thorns becomes sweet through faith. And this is how the Holy Scriptures everywhere deal with teaching us how to recognize the seed of God and ourselves, that is, to recognize the old and inherent curse of Adam and the blessing begun through Christ.
Second part.
How Isaac disowns his wife, jokes with her, and Abimelech sees this joke.
V. 6, 7: So Isaac dwelt at Gerar. And to whom the people of the same place asked of his wife, he said, She is my sister. For he feared to say, She is my wife: they would slay me for Rebekah's sake, because she was fair of face.
At this point, one may ask: Why should the Holy Spirit write such useless things? For what is the purpose of holding up such an inconsistent and foolish thing to the congregation of God? Is it to teach the people of God that Rebekah was called Isaac's sister and not his wife? To this I answer thus: In this way God makes the world a fool with all its wisdom. If any Greek or Roman should read this, he would scoff at it as such a thing that was not worthy to be heard. But God wants to declare that the wisdom of men is pure foolishness and that it will be disgraced.
Seventy-two years ago Moses described how Isaac had a divine conversation and a heavenly promise, and made him strong and quite invincible against the infernal gates and all calamities; here we see in him such great weakness and such shameful inability that nothing more shameful could be conceived. For is this not a shameful example, that he denies that Rebekah is his wife?
The theologians dispute about it: Whether
he has not sinned by denying his wife and lying that she is his sister? This is truly a shameful weakness. For he says, "I will say that she is my sister, or they will strangle me. As if he wanted to say, "Whoever wants to take the woman and rape her, if I only want to live; if I say that she is my wife, they will think that they cannot take her from me unless they first strangle me. But is this not a foolish, clumsy and unreasonable thing from such a great man? Should he not have said freely: She is my wife, you may strangle me or not? "Isaac was afraid," says the text. Egg, that such a man should fall into such shameful fear as to be afraid of death! So Elijah had slain eight hundred false prophets with great zeal and strong courage, and no one's power was so great that he was afraid of it; but when Jezebel threatened him, he was so terrified that he fled from it; before he was not afraid of the king, now he flees from a woman.
74. Now all this, as it seems on the surface, is almost foolish, but nevertheless very fine and salutary. For it is written for the comfort of the church and congregation of God, so that we may know how gracious and merciful God is. We may be bad and weak, but not to be found among those who persecute, hate and blaspheme God; God is pleased to bear with our weakness.
(75) Though I cannot excuse the fathers, as others do, neither will I; yea, I gladly hear that the saints have fallen and become weak: not that I would commend them, as if it were well done, and as if they were virtues; neither do I excuse the apostles, that they have departed from Christ, and that St. Peter denied him, and other weaknesses, foolishness, and ineptitude of them. And this is not written for the sake of hard, trusting, and hardened men, but that it may show how the kingdom of Christ is, who is poor in his little host,
He is a king of the strong and at the same time also of the weak and stupid; he is hostile to the hopeful, he denies the strong, he wants to fight against them. He punishes the Pharisees and the secure people, but he does not want to break or disgrace the frightened, fainthearted, afflicted and sorrowful hearts: he does not want to extinguish the smoldering wick, Isa. 42, 3. This is his way and use for and for.
He has done this from the beginning of the world to the end. He is strong and almighty, but he will not extinguish the smoldering wick, and also commands us to receive the weak in faith. For it is a great thing to believe that Christians enter into life through death. The flesh is frightened where death, judgment and eternal fire are thought of; otherwise it is strong and undaunted where it is without great tempests that are contrary to it.
Therefore, the kingdom of Christ is such a kingdom, which at the same time has people who are always or temporarily weak or strong; however, there are few of them who are always strong and courageous. But those who are somewhat weaker than such strong ones should not be dealt with too harshly. For this kingdom is a kingdom of comfort to the wretched and afflicted. It is not set to rule and to terrify in it, except the hopeful and hardened minds, which must be terrified every way; but to those who are terrified, let them be comforted, and say to them, Thou art a smoldering wick; God would not have me quench thee. For Christ is a King of poor, miserable, afflicted and weak hearts.
78 Here belong the examples of the holy Scriptures, which mention the very great and holy men, Abraham and Isaac, as having overcome death, the devil and hell, and which make them friends and prophets of God, as it is written in the 105th Psalm v. 6. 8. 9. And yet they describe the same, how they were also so very weak and feared shamefully. So David says of himself in the 30th Psalm
V. 7. 8: "But I said: I shall never lie down," death and the devil find nothing with me; "for, O Lord, by thy good pleasure thou hast made my mountain strong; but when thou didst harden thy face, I was afraid." When God strengthens us and gives us courage, it is good to be strong and undaunted; but lest we become proud and attribute such strength to our own strength, He causes us to fall. This is exactly what happened to the patriarch Isaac.
This is good and useful to teach the church and the congregation of God, namely, that such very great and holy men, who have had the divine promises and have triumphed and prevailed over sin and death, fall so miserably, and then become children and fugitives. Fear of death is in itself evil and a sin, but if it happens in such a way that your wife is endangered in her chastity, it becomes even more evil. And this teaching the Holy Spirit holds out to us in such a low and contemptible form.
80 For this reason we should bring all this upon ourselves. For this day we also strengthen the godly who are in danger because of the Turk, and we say to them: If the Turk strangles you and devours you, what will he do? What can he do more than strangle? "Do not be afraid of those," says Christ Match. 10, 28, "who kill the body" etc. If he takes your body, your house and other things by force, what is the point? All this must be left, and I would think that it would do me good if the devil strangled me for the sake of God's Son. Yes, that is how we are when we are courageous and the Holy Spirit strengthens us. But in the other hour, the same thing can happen to me or to any other person that happened to Isaac.
81 Therefore, I say, this is written for our learning, that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we may have hope, Romans 15:4, that we may not think: I am not so holy or strong in faith as Isaac or Jacob were. They are indeed strong and steadfast.
They have been fearful when God held them and made their mountain strong; but when He hid His face, they were terrified, Ps. 30:8. And we may also say of them the same thing that St. Peter says to Cornelius in the stories of the apostles in 10 Cap. V. 26: "I am also a man." For neither Peter nor Paul, though they were holy, had better flesh than we: they also were Adam's children, as we are. St. Paul sometimes boasts and is so hopeful, as if he had already overcome all misfortune; sometimes he also complains quite pitifully about the terror he had inwardly, and about the strife or battle he had to fight by heart. Where was the great unconquerable hero who overcame the whole hell?
(82) Therefore, in the evil day, when there is calamity and adversity, we should not lose hope and despair; and in the good day, when we are happy and well, we should not become proud and hopeful. For those who were strongest in faith, as Abraham and Isaac, fell into such shameful weakness, for our hope and comfort, that we may learn what is the way and use in this kingdom and with this king. For there is seen an insurmountable strength, and again a most surmountable weakness, that I speak thus, which is all to the end that God alone should be honored and praised. For we do not boast of our own strength, but because our King sits at the right hand of God the Father, we boast in him and exalt ourselves; his strength is mighty in our weakness, 2 Cor. 12:9, as may be seen from time to time in all the examples of the fathers.
The world knows nothing of this wisdom; the Holy Spirit alone has it, and keeps it in the church under a very poor and small covering. And we are to read the histories of the fathers in such a way that the examples of faith strengthen us and make us courageous; but the examples of weakness are to comfort us, so that we do not despair nor become hopeful, and so that we may have faith.
comfort others as well. When thou art dismayed, do not add one calamity to another; do not flee from the Lord Christ, nor deny him. For though I am weak, thou shalt say, I would not that Christ my Lord should be blasphemed or reviled, but I would that his glory should be perfect, and his kingdom established and remain firm: though I am fallen, what shall I do? shall I therefore despair? Not at all, for the same thing happened to the great archfathers from whom Christ came.
84. Moses diligently expressed that Isaac was afraid of death. "He said," he says, "she is my sister." But why does he say this? "They would strangle me for Rebekah's sake." Therefore, out of fear of death, he put his wife in danger, that she might lose her chastity, so that only he might remain fresh and healthy and alive.
(85) He that would magnify this sin of Isaac, and make it very great and grievous, would find many reasons for it. For in denying that Rebekah is your wife, you deny God, who caused her to be your wife and blessed you with two sons; then, through the sin you commit with the lie, you lead your wife into danger and betray her, so that she may lose her chastity. This is the devil's rhetoric. But let us remain in the rhetoric of the Holy Spirit.
However, this weakness of Isaac's would have brought about, if God had not prospered and prevented, that his wife would have been weakened and would have fallen into adultery, and that otherwise much more evil would have happened. But God lets His saints fall in such a way that He still preserves them.
I do not know what the customs of the inhabitants of Palestine were and what kind of life they led, and I do not understand the fact, of which Moses speaks, that Abimelech was pious and forbade adultery with a life sentence. Why is Isaac afraid of him? He must have seen above (Gen. 12, 11. ff. Cap. 20, 2.) the example of Abraham, how they forcibly took each other's wives.
If someone has had a woman who was a little beautiful in appearance, he must have kept her mean, as they say; and if he could not tolerate that, he was strangled by the adulterers, which happens in many places in Italy. Therefore, it is a strange description of this country.
(88) It is probable that he will have seen or heard from others several examples of this sin before; but if they had other customs and did not lead such a life, and Isaac feared that they would be such people, since he had no example anywhere, it can be assumed that there must have been a great incredible weakness in him. He may have thought or imagined: The inhabitants of this land are godless people and ask nothing of God; therefore they also despise people and treat them unjustly.
(89) Hence this sorrow and distress came, because Rebekah was beautiful in appearance. For this is what the text says, and it seems very ridiculous to worldly people. For Isaac was at least eighty or ninety years old. In the sixtieth year of his age two sons were born to him, and fifteen years later his father Abraham died, and she, Rebekah, was seventy years old. For the women were ten years younger than the men; as was said above (Cap. 17. V. 17.) of Sarah, who, though she was already ninety years old, was nevertheless still beautiful in appearance.
90 Because of this, men were not only more beautiful in those days, but also stronger in body than they are now, because at such an age they can beget children and women can become pregnant, at which age we no longer have any hope that they can be fertile. But Rebekah, an old woman of seventy years, is still so beautiful in appearance that she has preceded the others and that she has come into danger of her discipline and chastity for the sake of beauty. This praises the time that was then, namely, that the people
lived more moderately and have also been stronger of the body than today. Now follows a game or joke with Rebekka, so beyond measure clumsy and unrhymed.
V. 8 When he had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through the window and saw Isaac joking with Rebekah his wife.
91. Such a great man, who is almost eighty years old, still jokes with his wife, who is also almost seventy years old. Does the Holy Spirit then desire to write such foolish works, and thus lower himself to speak of such small jesting, which takes place in wedlock? Why does he not rather tell the fast of the forty days, as it is written of Elijah? 1 Kings 19:8 But first, let us reject the opinion of the Jews, which is gross and insolent, after the manner of the Cynic philosophers. For these rude and impudent Jews say that Isaac had a marital jest with Rebekah in public, that Abimelech had looked on; as if this so holy father had been a Cynic or Diogenes, who had lain in public on the gaff with his wife.
(92) The Holy Spirit used to cover and gloss over the intercourse of the spouses, and so did not bring it out in the open; and Isaac and his Rebekah were more shameful than that they should have committed such a great disgrace; for they were brought up in the fear of God, and that they honored God with due reverence, and also understood original sin well, so that the work of child rearing was disfigured. For this reason, God wanted it to be hidden and adorned it with clothing and nuptial cheerfulness. However, he is hostile to the unruly nature, as the unreasonable animals do with each other, and he cannot stand it.
But the text secretly indicates, if you consider the circumstances diligently, that this joke came more from sadness of heart and that they were somewhat frightened than from lust or fornication, before-
Namely, to Rebekah. Since she was almost despondent from so many misfortunes and miseries, she may have said to her husband: Oh, my dear Isaac, look where we have come to, how miserable and wretched we are wandering in the land. As Job's wife also advanced to her husband his grievous accident, saying to him Job 2:9, "Bless God and die" etc. Behold, we have two sons, and also sheep and other cattle with our household; we are strangers and in misery; and about that we are now forbidden to go into Egypt, I must now also lose the name of a wife.
(94) This, I say, may truly have occurred to the poor woman that she would have thought and said this to her husband, because she was not very stouthearted and struggled with the anger and impatience she felt in such adversity. For who could endure and bear such things without groaning? Therefore, so that Isaac would strengthen her, he may have taken her around the neck and kissed her, and she would have been happy and comforted; he would have said to her: My dear Rebekah, bear this misfortune with patience; God has appeared to me and promised to save me and to protect and shield me. So we could defend Isaac, or excuse what he has done, that we do not make a Cynic or Diogenes out of him with the coarse unruly sows, the Jews.
95 But I will leave these thoughts undecided, I will not press them hard, and I will not even reject them. Nevertheless, it can be seen that they are almost similar to the truth, since no one else shows desire that he should kiss his wife in a foreign country, where he is among the enemies. But she needed to be comforted and told that God was present with them and promised to save and protect them, and the same was done with such coasts and jokes.
This is an honest joke, which is good for a pious, honest husband to play with his wife. If he jokes with his sister or servants in the house like this
It would not suit him well if he wanted to do so. For there it is proper to tell them what to do and what not to do, and to be serious about it, even if one comforts them. But with the one whom God has given me, I may joke, play and speak kindly, so that I may live with her with reason and modesty. As St. Peter 1 Ep. 3, 7 admonishes men, that they should give honor to the female, as the weakest instrument, as also joint heirs of the grace of life, and who are mothers and the other part of the human race, although the weakest part, as far as the body is concerned.
We men are somewhat stronger, therefore we are also commanded greater works in our ministry, in which a female heart is often flushed out in us. But there is a difference between the male and female mind. Women are burdened with housework, childbirth and the need to raise children, and they also have to take care of the house; we, however, have the world and church government upon us, because we are somewhat stronger. But we can see how we hold ourselves in the church and world government. In the government, which men have to administer, there is often no less weakness.
98 Therefore I will follow these thoughts, and will admit that she kissed Isaac kindly, not only for the sake of comfort, but that he might thereby indicate the gesture of a pious husband, so that he may show himself jokingly and kindly toward his honest wife; as one may often see such gestures in husbands who are somewhat kind.
The king was not so wise that he could have understood such important causes as I have told before, why Isaac would have kissed his wife; but he understood that he would have had the common causes of husbands, which may well be shown publicly.
And it is very fine when a husband shows kindness to his wife even in outward manners. On the other hand, it is disgraceful and annoying where there are some men who behave strangely, whimsically, harshly and unkindly.
They do not show any sign, either in words or deeds, that they love their wives or are friendly toward them. One should be serious toward strangers or also toward the servants. So we often hear that the wives praise such things and that they rejoice when they see that the husband lives friendly and in good harmony with his wife. O a good marriage is that, there is right love, so one has to the other, and a happy unity; of it the men also use to boast. But how would they know this if they had not seen that such joking and conjugal friendliness is almost rare among many husbands and wives?
(101) And there is no harder and more abominable discord and strife than between husband and wife and brothers; but if they love one another, jest with one another, and live in friendship, such a marriage is loved and now and then praised by everyone. For it is a rare thing for the devil's sake, whom the married state has for and for an enemy, who presumes to confuse those whom God has joined together, as he only can and may. Although the world does not understand it, but lets itself dream that the marriage state is nothing else than only coitus, and that man and woman kiss each other and outwardly cultivate such love.
(102) The marriage state is not such that they should be joined together only in the body, but also in the heart, which can be seen in certain signs and emblems. And although such outward signs seem clumsy and ridiculous, they are nevertheless appropriate to a good marriage. I have often heard pious, honest matrons praise other husbands for their kindness and composure, and that they were so quiet and pious that they praised it as a special miracle if a woman had such a pious husband or a man had such a pious wife.
103 Therefore, I will interpret and interpret this joke of Isaac's according to this understanding, although I have not forgotten the previous thoughts.
and does not want to have her defended because only against the shameful Jews. These are certainly fine and godly thoughts, namely, that a husband should be kind to his wife not only in the bedchamber but also in other public places in praise of the married state; he should not be whimsical, angry and unthoughtful. For examples of discord, and where one party injures or enrages the other, are very easy to see, and they are also very annoying; especially where jealousy is added, there is hell itself.
(104) Therefore it is good and useful that such examples of kindness and love should exist among husbands and wives, so that others may also become accustomed to kindness, love and patience when any offense or misfortune occurs. For the marriage state is a divine order. And of the woman it is said in Genesis 2:18: "Let us make man a helpmeet, that she may be with him. Therefore, there must be an outward sign of kindness for the sake of others, especially since we have such excellent saints as Isaac in our company. For this life is full of innumerable impulses, so that one may easily anger the other, as may be seen especially in housekeeping. Therefore, pious husbands and wives should be prepared to forgive one another and soon forget where one has hurt or angered the other, no matter how hard or severe the hurt may be, and should again resort to their usual kindness, even outwardly.
For this reason the Holy Spirit does not disdain to describe and praise such a small thing, so that he may first meet with it the coarse, unfilial sows who seek only carnal pleasure, but show themselves almost rough and unthoughtful toward their wives. Then he also wanted to counter the enemies of the married state, as the papists, who have forbidden the married state as if it should be condemned by God, so that we have an example by which we can see that even a certain light sense in the married state does not displease God: which state is otherwise disfigured with the impurity of original sin, therefore the married state is not condemned by God.
The man has a woman, or the woman has a man. But God uses them to join the man and the woman together, and calls the woman a helpmate for the man. Therefore God joins them together, as Christ says Matth. 19, 6: "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
(106) And it is a great comfort that we know that God dislikes where husbands and wives divorce each other, and that He wants them to practice love and kindness among themselves, to kiss kindly and to joke with each other, contrary to the devil, who is a founder of all disunity.
But those who find themselves in the impure marital state will reproach us with what St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 7:1: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman"; and the marital state, they say, is an impure state. Item, the others say: Should I deal so kindly with woman and tolerate and endure all her strange, whimsical customs? In short, I want to be feared by her, I want to rule and reign over her by force, so that she sees that I am a man. How will you bring such great honor, if you break the poor weak instrument and weigh down the conscience with unreasonable bitterness, which you have practiced on your sister and co-heiress of the kingdom of God, as she is also in the same community of baptism, and of all the benefits of God and the whole Christian church? Consider what a woman is, who you are; or if you want to argue, why don't you argue against your own kind? What great honor do you think you will gain by dealing so tyrannically with the weak instrument? It is truly unjustly done by any man, and much more by a Christian, and is indeed a very small, indeed, no honor at all, to conquer such a weak race. That is why I am very hostile to those who are so stouthearted against poor women and, as they are wont to say: Domi leones, foris lepores, that is, who in the house are lions, and outside are as stupid and despondent as hares. I do not speak of the wicked and shameful women, who are
You can't make them better or more devout in any way.
(108) But we should thank God that we know that the married state is instituted by God, and that it pleases God, the angels and all creatures. It pleases God that I am kind to my wife, but it does not please Him at all if I am strange and whimsical, and if I show bitterness toward her; but God is much less pleased with those who forbid and condemn the married state. And such a commandment, so that they have forbidden the marriage state, has indeed been punished with it horribly, since the devil, instead of the divine order, has introduced the wild being with all kinds of fornication and unseemly mingling, and also with unspeakable sodomitic sins. And the same has happened by God's righteous judgment, because they have violated and reviled the holy estate, which God Himself has ordered and also blessed.
(109) Although this state has its own infirmities or impurities, God tolerates such infirmities in the marriage state and acts as if He did not see it. Where the right natural order is kept to beget children, then God acts as if he does not see it, and forgives pious spouses such infirmities and impurity; or as Lucas in the stories of the apostles uses his Greek word very much, since he says in 13 Cap. V. 18, how God tolerated the Jews' ways in the desert for forty years. So he will also put up with this way here in marriage and tolerate it, so that the human race may be preserved. I know well, says God to you, that you are conceived in sins, but I will forgive you and allow you to have your own wife as a helpmate; in her alone you shall have your pleasure, and you shall also tolerate it and bear it well in silence, if any sorrow or hardship occurs. I will, he says, also bear with it patience; either you touch your wife kindly at night while she is naked, or in the daytime when she is clothed.
110. if god is not out of peculiar
If the Lord had appointed that a man and a woman should be joined together in matrimony, how should the whole world have so great a desire for it, that by this means and help it might be delivered from unseemly mingling and impurity! But now we despise this lawful union, which he has confirmed with a constant and immovable commandment, by which he has forbidden fornication and other unseemly mingling. He commands that you should choose one who is pleasing to you, with whom you may spend your life. It is indeed a sin, but I will permit you, says God, to jest and laugh with your own wife and to abstain from strange women. As it is written in the Proverbs of Solomon, 5 Cap. V. 18, 19: "Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is as lovely as a hind, and as lovely as a deer. Let her love satisfy thee at all times, and delight thyself in her love continually."
So we are comforted by this text, in which it is written how Isaac joked with his dear Rebekah in his old age, not only because of need and comfort, but also with marital jesting, which is good for this state, so that he might indicate with such outward friendliness that they loved each other dearly. And this is written to the comfort of the spouses, and to the annoyance, contempt and refutation of the shameful unholy enthusiasts who condemn the marriage state.
I still remember how before that time, before the gospel came to light again, husbands often complained in confession about such marital jokes, as if about a grave sin. Yes, that is very unreasonable and thus the Creator is also reviled, if any honest matron or pious virgin had gone over the churchyard of the barefoot monks, the monks immediately swept the churchyard with brooms and cleansed the holy place with fire again. Dear Lord God, they are our mothers, and the flame or heat of fornication, which man has received through original sin, cannot be swept with a broom.
or sweep out the fire, but by such means they are inflamed and lured more and more; and if one cannot have a wife, the heat is still increased by this. But these hypocrites did not understand original sin, therefore they did not know about the help and remedy that God Himself has shown and given us against it.
(113) Christ would have us first be baptized, that the heart may be improved and made perfect; then, if thou canst not have the gift of virgin chastity, thou mayest choose the chastity that is in widowhood or matrimony; for there is flesh in both male and female: therefore they also have seed, and feel in themselves the heat and desire to beget children. What then is one to advise here? Answer: This is the advice to follow: If you have the gift of chastity, keep it; but if not, take a wife, lest you be defiled with unseemly mingling and cardinal fornication, and so be eternally lost and damned.
The Hebrew word zachak is no less general in its meaning than the word laugh is in the German language and the word ridere is in the Latin language. For the word ridere, to laugh, is sometimes used in its proper meaning, but at other times it is used by the figure called antiphrasis for a bitter laughter (that is called in the Latin proverb risus Sardonius) which is more bitter than all weeping can be. And still another time it is called cheerfulness or cheerful gesture and when one looks at one cheerfully; and this is also understood by creatures that have no life. As when we say: The field, the meadow, or the forest laughs, this is just as much said as that it is funny and lovely to look at; so in German we also say: He laughs that he shakes himself, that is, he is cheerful; and by the figure called antiphrasis one says: He laughs at my fist; item: How mockingly he laughs at me! This indicates a very bitter and sour laugh.
115 This is the meaning of the Hebrew word in Psalm 2, v. 4: "But...".
He who dwells in heaven laughs at them, and the Lord mocks them. Item, so Abner said to Joab 2 Sam. 2, 14: "Let the boys make themselves out, and play before us"; as if he wanted to say: Let them have a good courage (per antiphrasin); that is also called jesting, when the sword goes through your belly, that is especially a horrible playing or laughing. Therefore, in this place the word ridere, to laugh or joke, does not mean to sleep with the woman, but means just as much as what is said above in Genesis 18:12, where Sarah also laughed. Item, so Ishmael also laughed at Isaac Gen 21, 9, that is, he mocked him. Thus it is written in Exodus 32:6: "Then the people sat down to eat and to drink, and stopped to play," which does not mean to practice idolatry, as the Jews dream, but it means to laugh and be merry. In Hebrew, however, there is a subtle allusion, which is subtle and points to the name Isaac, which cannot be rendered in any language, but if one wanted to say in Latin, Isaac isaacabat, Isaac, that is, he who laughs, who is kind, did kindly toward his wife; he who is lovely and lovable, loved his wife; he presented himself like a true Isaac, and he did the same with such certainty and confidence as befits a husband.
Therefore, in this example, Christian spouses are given a good teaching and consolation, and after that, a refutation of the shameful and harmful papists and heretics, who have made mortal sins out of all the words and deeds of spouses. And I myself, when I was still a monk, was also of the same opinion, namely that the married state was a damned state. We used to discuss whether it was proper for a man to love a pious, honest virgin and desire her as his wife. Item: Whether it would also be a sin for a man to joke with his wife? And I wondered greatly at the saying of Bonaventure, who was the holiest among the monks, when he says: "It is not a sin for anyone to court a virgin and desire to have her as his wife; indeed, one may justly do so. For this reason, one should not discuss it.
The man who jokes with his wife should not doubt it. Item, he also says that a husband may joke with his wife. I would have had a different saying or opinion about him, which would have rhymed better with his monastic profession; for I did not understand this at that time in any other way than how the Jews interpret it.
117 Therefore consider, ye young men, who are now growing up, that ye shall come to the marriage state, and be drawn to common offices, that ye give thanks unto God for this divine light and blessing, that we know now that the marriage state is a holy thing, and that we may laugh with our wives, and shun them, and hold ourselves friendly unto them, whether they be naked or clothed; only that we abstain from strange wives. This is a great threat to us, and there is also the testimony of St. Paul. Although he would like us to abstain from marriage altogether, he nevertheless allows us to do so because God Himself permits it, 1 Cor. 7:2, 9.
But from this one can also take an admonition as to how married couples should keep themselves moderate and chaste. For some are such coarse, insolent sows that they think they have the power to do anything they want with their wives while they are married. They are very far wrong, and should know that they are only allowed the same wretched lust, and that they may be friendly with their wives; not as if such lust and sexual intercourse were pure in the flesh, for the spouses are poisoned by both parts with original sin, disease and lust pestilence, but because God has said: I will not impute this uncleanness to you, provided that you leave it with the helpmate who is around you.
For this reason we must live in this state with integrity and the fear of God. I have a wife by divine permission, but it is sin in both our flesh: shameful lust and fornication are not good. For though by nature a husband with a better conscience keeps to his wife, than if the seed were otherwise shed in vain, or if he were to engage in fornication and adultery, yet such is not done.
without impurity. For this reason, the men who practice shameful and unspeakable things with their wives in the bedchamber according to their will are to be punished. For God has granted and permitted them a security, but this is only a permission and one must not abuse it.
120 And so we must understand the saying of Augustine, when he says: He who loves his wife may freely expect the last day. But how? Answer: By special permission; if not, it would be adultery and impurity. But because God has ordained it and joined husband and wife together, God does not impute to them what is shameful or unclean there. Nevertheless, evil in marriage and in conjugal relations should not be defended as if it were something good. The pagans said that it was a natural thing and that it was not dishonest for a young man to love a virgin, as the old man says in the comedy. But God wants us to have a mind in marriage, and to be in our right mind, and to know that we shall not be condemned or accused at the last judgment: but we shall not excuse the evil desire and shame that is in marriage. We shall not say, It is well that I have slept with my wife; but we shall recognize our uncleanness, and yet take it for granted that in wedlock all things are pure, because God has joined husband and wife together, that we may possess our vessels in fear and due honor. And where something evil has been committed, that it may remain within the bounds of the marriage state.
121 Thus shall we rightly understand and consider the kingdom of Christ. For it is another to be justified by the law, and another to be justified by grace. I use the law and the ordinance of matrimony, not that I am worthy of it; yea, I am not worthy of the bread that I eat, nor of the money, nor of all the goods that I use. For the creature is subject to vanity, Rom. 8, 20. The woman serves me as one who is not worthy of it, in all praedica.
mentis, as one is wont to speak in the schools according to the dialectic, substantives, quantitatis, qualitatis, that is, it is equal according to the essence, according to the size, or also according to the skill: but in praedicamento relationis there I am worthy, that is, I am not worthy that I should have a wife or children, according to the essence and according to the thing in itself; for I am a poor sinner: But then I become worthy of it, when God says: I will allow it to you and let it happen this way, because I have decreed it this way; but you shall know yourself and live in this state in the fear of God and with due reverence.
So all of us are not worthy of either the marriage state or the world or church rule. I am not worthy to do a lection or sermon. But we have a gracious and merciful God, who forgives our sin and unworthiness, who has transferred us from the realm of wrath to the realm of grace, and has commanded us that, protected under this cover of grace, we should come to him, however unworthy we are, and should thus use and enjoy the divine goods by his grace.
Third part.
How Abimelech confronts Isaac, punishes him severely with words, and issues a command
Isaac's sake.
V. 9 Then Abimelech called unto Isaac, and said, Behold, it is thy wife. How then hast thou said, She is my sister? Isaac answered him, I thought that I might die for her sake.
All this is only such a thing as belongs to the house and world government, and nothing is taught here of great and right spiritual things, of which the gospel preaches and teaches, but of faith in Christ, of the Trinity, of the resurrection of the dead, of the overcoming of sins, death and the devil. Therefore, this is despised by the hypocrites who claim to have a great spirit and holiness.
think. What, they say, do these carnal things concern us? As if they lived without flesh; as if they did not drink, eat, or sleep, and had no male or female sex; as if they had no need of fleshly things at all, or as if they asked nothing at all about them. But they do not understand and do not know what is spirit or what is flesh.
For the sake of such enthusiastic opinions, the Holy Spirit writes such childish things and those that belong to the house government, indicating that he also governs the bodily things, without which this life cannot be governed or sustained. For although the enthusiasts or heavenly prophets themselves do not seem to ask anything about carnal things, they nevertheless need food, drink and clothing. Why then should we not discuss and talk about how to eat and live in right godliness and with a good conscience? For in the church and congregation of God we are not only to teach about the life to come, as the gospel teaches, without regard to this present life, although it does not despise this life at all: but we are to live it according to the law, and teach people from it how to live a godly and honest life to their last end. For we are born daily, and we die daily.
For this reason the people must be taught and told how the wife should behave toward the husband, and how the servant should behave toward his master, that one should not steal, not commit adultery etc. Yes, will the enthusiasts and sour saints say, But this is a vain carnal thing. Answer: It is rightly said; if then it does not please thee to use such carnal things, leave off and abstain from eating, drinking, clothing, and such other things. These are all ordinances and creatures of God, which he has given us for this life, which we are to lead honestly and godly, and to endure until death. This must be said for the sake of the hostile people, who are afraid of another and
The people of the world let themselves dream of a supernatural life, as it were, high above the clouds, even though they cannot do without this present life.
016 Now therefore let us see what hath followed, that Isaac hath denied that Rebekah was his wife. Abimelech called him to him and said, "I saw that you were joking with Rebekah, so I can conclude that she is not your sister but your wife, because a brother is not in the habit of joking with a sister. Why then did you lie to me and say that she was your sister? Isaac answered him, "I thought that I might die.
In this place we must speak of the lie, as we have just heard (in chapter 12), of which Augustine sharply disputes with Jerome because of Paul's words to the Galatians in chapter 1, v. 20. V. 20, where he says: "But what I write to you, God knows, I do not lie." There he says that Paul did not punish Peter in earnest, but only posed outwardly as if he were punishing him. But he distinguishes three kinds of lies. A harmful lie is when one speaks lies with the intention of deceiving someone in order to harm his neighbor, either in his good or his life. And this is even the worst, when lies and false teachings are spread under the name of God, which God has forbidden in the eighth commandment, when He says: "You shall not bear false witness" etc., 2 Mos. 20, 16.
The other kind of lie is called a mendacium officiosum, a lie in which someone is served, or a lie of love or mercy. For example, if the authorities are looking for a thief to punish him, and I know where he is, but I deny it and say that I do not know, I lie, not to harm my neighbor, but to help him. Or, if I saw that someone was going about with it and wanted to stalk some virgin or matron, and I pretended to know nothing about her, then I would also be lying to save the virgin and keep her in honor. So-
Michal also lies to her father in 1 Sam. 19:17 that David has left, but she does this for David's benefit to save him. Therefore, if it can be done without harming the authorities or the parents, those who seek or attack them may be hidden or protected. Rahab also tells a similar lie in the book of Joshua, in chapter 2, v. 5. Therefore, this is a white lie (mendacium officiosum) to help and serve others so that they are not harmed or damaged in their good name or reputation, or even in life and limb.
On the other hand, the harmful lie harms all this, just as the lie of necessity defends it, and is therefore not really called a lie, but a false and abusive lie; for it is a very beautiful protection against the danger of life and limb, and also of good. Therefore, it is an honest and good lie, and should rather be called a work of love; although Augustine calls it a lie, yet he alleviates it with the addition that he calls it mendacium officiosum, that is, a white lie. For the persecutor is thereby deceived, so that the devil and the malice of the persecutor may be hindered and the innocent defended. This means to keep the commandments of God and not to transgress them. Yes, someone would like to say, one should not conceal the truth. To this I answer that in such cases one should not tell the truth unless you are compelled and forced to do so by force.
The third kind of lie is called in Latin mendacium jocosum, a joke lie, when one jokes with the other, that nevertheless godliness and faith remain unharmed, and that such seriousness is still felt as befits a Christian. Like this joke Rebekah and Isaac had with each other, or when a husband jokes with his wife or son and deceives them, so that they laugh at it and become happy. When such deceit is uncovered and revealed, then the lie ceases, and is nothing but a jest and such a thing, at which one is merry and of good cheer. And this is also a useful
ly, mainly among acquaintances, and who are related to each other and good friends.
(131) Therefore it is asked of this deed of Isaac, Whether it be a sin that he hath done it? To this I answer thus: It is no sin, but is a white lie, that he might prevent himself from being slain by those with whom he was staying at that time, if he had said that Rebekah was his wife; although it is a weakness of faith that he did not freely and continually confess it and despise death. For this would have been a beautiful, glorious virtue and constancy, befitting a great, valiant hero.
But God wanted him to be a little weak, so that an example might be made of him, from which the church and congregation of God might be instructed and taught, namely, that God would not be angered by you confessing with great steadfastness, which is fitting for a brave hero, or else that you are a little weak. For God will be patient with you and bestow it upon you. And from this we clearly see that we have a gracious God who can forgive us our weakness, overlook it and forgive our sins, only that we do not lie harmfully.
133 Now Isaac had no small cause to be afraid. For even though he found a king in the land who was righteous, holy and pious enough, he thought, "Behold, I am compelled by reason of the evil that I must be a stranger among the nations, who have not this promise which I have, that the Lord will be my God, and that I shall believe, and continue and abide in the faith of him. These people have neither word nor faith. Therefore it is to be presumed, or at least it is to be feared, that they are godless people, and that they deal in murder, adultery and fornication, and must be afflicted with such things. And if they are not in fact adulterers and murderers, an opportunity could easily present itself by which they could be induced to fall into such sins. But now
My wife is beautiful to look at, and might tempt some ungodly man to love her for her beauty; therefore I am in great danger.
This is a legitimate fear, and such a fear as may well befit an honest and steady man, as lawyers or jurists are wont to say. If a despondent and frightened man is afraid, it is a useless fear; but the fear of a brave hero or a bewitched man is legitimate and reasonable. Therefore such fear is praised by lawyers and also by theologians. For it is not the sign of a brave hero or a strong man of courage that he is not at all afraid or anxious about any danger and would foolhardily put himself in unnecessary danger. Those who do this are foolhardy and daring people and not brave or courageous. He who is quite strong and courageous knows how to keep boldness and fear in check and thus the right measure. In necessary danger he is not afraid, since necessity, respectability and common utility require that one should have a strong and undaunted courage: but outside of necessity he does not put himself in danger so easily or foolhardily. And so a pious honest man may well be justly afraid. For this does not befit a courageous man who is steadfast. In this way Isaac is also afraid and weak, and yet he is excused because he is fearful and a steadfast man.
But I allow myself that we take cause from this text to dispute about doubt, since one doubts God and His will. For I hear that from time to time, among the nobility and other great lords, evil words are said and spread about the predestination or providence of God. For so they shall speak: If I am endowed, I may do good or evil, and I shall be saved; but if I am not endowed, I shall be damned, regardless of my works.
136 I would gladly argue at length against such ungodly words, if it were up to me.
for the sake of his faltering health. For if the words are true, as they appear to be, then the incarnation of the Son of God, his suffering and resurrection, and all that he has done for the sake of the world's salvation and blessedness, are completely annulled and taken away. What use will the prophets and all the Scriptures be to us then? What will the holy sacraments serve us for then? Therefore, let us reject all this and trample it underfoot.
These are devilish and poisoned arrows, and is the very original sin itself, so that the devil deceived our first parents when he said: "You will be like God", Gen. 3, 5. For they were not satisfied with the divinity that was revealed to them, through which knowledge they were blessed, but they wanted to penetrate into the depth of the divinity. For they reasoned thus: There must be some hidden cause underneath, why God forbade them not to eat of the fruit of the tree that was in the midst of paradise; this cause they wanted to know.
As these people of the present time also speak of it: What God has ordained must come to pass; therefore it is all uncertain and vain that we should be much concerned about religion or the salvation of souls. But you are not commanded to judge, for the judgment of God is inscrutable. Why do you doubt or reject the faith that God has commanded you? For to what end did it serve that God sent His Son to suffer and be crucified for us? Of what use was it that he instituted the holy sacraments, if it is all uncertain and in vain for our salvation? Otherwise, if someone had been given salvation, he would have been saved without the Son and without the sacraments or the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, according to these people's blasphemy, God must have been an abominable fool to have sent His Son, to have given the Law and the Gospel, and to have sent the apostles, if He only wanted us to be uncertain and still doubt whether we would be saved or damned.
But this is the devil's specter and deceit, by which he presumes to make us doubtful and unbelieving, when Christ came into this world to make us completely sure of our salvation. For such a blasphemous opinion must finally be followed either by despair or contempt for God, the Holy Bible, baptism and all divine benefits, so that he would strengthen us against doubt and that we should not be uncertain of our salvation. For the blasphemers will finally say with the Epicureans: "Let us live, eat and drink in ease, for we will have to die tomorrow. They will, as the Turks are wont to do, fall foolhardily on the sword and in the fire, since, as they think, the hour is already determined in which you will either be laid low and slain or else escape.
But against these thoughts one should hold the true and certain knowledge of Christ; as I often admonish that it is primarily useful and necessary that the knowledge of God be completely certain in us, that we grasp it firmly in our hearts and cling to it; otherwise our faith will be in vain and in vain. For where God does not keep His promises, our salvation is lost. On the other hand, this is our comfort: that even though we change, we have recourse to Him who does not change, but always remains constant. For thus he says of himself in the prophet Malachi in 3 Cap. V. 6: "I am the Lord who does not lie." And St. Paul says Rom. 11, 29: "God's gifts and calling may not make him sorry."
That is why, in my book De servo arbitrio (that free will is nothing), I have taught against Erasmus, and in other places, that one should distinguish when dealing with knowledge or rather with the essence of the Godhead. For one must either speak of the hidden God or of the revealed God. Of God, if he is not revealed, there is no faith and no knowledge, and one can know nothing of such God, and there one must adhere to the saying: Quae
supra nos, nihil ad nos: What is above us is none of our business. For such thoughts, which want to investigate something higher above or outside the revelation of God, are even devilish thoughts, so that nothing more can be done, except that we plunge ourselves into ruin; for they hold before us such an object, which is inscrutable, namely, God, who is not revealed. It is much better to let God keep His conclusions and secrets hidden. We must not make such an effort that the same should be revealed to us.
142. Moses also desired in Ex. 33, 18. that God would let him see His face or glory; but the Lord answered him thus, v. 20: "You will look behind me, but my face cannot be seen. For this forwardness is original sin itself, by which we are driven and provoked to seek a way to God by natural speculation. But it is a great sin and a useless and futile thing that one wants to subject oneself to it. For thus says Christ John 6:65, Cap. 14:6: "No one comes to the Father except through Me." Therefore, when we come to God who has not revealed Himself, there is no faith, no word, and no knowledge. For it is an invisible God, whom you will not make visible.
According to this, God has also very seriously forbidden that one should not be so tempted to recognize His divinity. As Christ said to the apostles, Acts. 1, 7, when they asked: "Lord, is it not appointed that at this time the kingdom of Israel shall be established again?": "It behooves you not to know the time or the hour" etc. Let me, saith God, be hidden, since I have not revealed myself unto thee, or thou shalt be unto thyself a cause of thine own destruction, as Adam fell horribly. "For he that searcheth hard things shall find it too hard," Prov. 25:27.
In the beginning, God wanted to prevent this joke. For thus He has held out His will and counsel to us, saying thus: Behold, man, I will give thee the provision and prede-.
stination gloriously; but not in the way of your reason and carnal wisdom, as you dream and think. I will do this: from a God who is not revealed, I will become a revealed God, and yet I will remain the same God. I will become man, or I will send my Son, who shall die for your sin and rise again from death; and so I will fulfill your desire, that you may know whether you are provided or not. "Behold, this is my Son, whom thou shalt hear," Matt. 17:5; behold him lying in the manger, and on the manger's lap, and also hanging on the cross; behold what he doeth, what he speaketh. There you will surely seize me. For "he that seeth me," saith Christ John 14:9, "seeth the Father." If you hear this, and are baptized in his name, and love his word, then you will surely be provided for and assured of your salvation. But if you blaspheme or despise the word, you are condemned: "For he who does not believe will be condemned," Marc. 16, 16.
The other thoughts and ways, which your reason or flesh puts before you, you shall kill. For God is hostile to them. Let this alone be your concern, that you accept my Son, that Christ may be pleasing to your heart in his birth, miracles and cross. For there is the book of life in which you are written.
And this is the only and most certain counsel against this dreadful plague, so that people will always want to continue their speculation and high thoughts of investigating God in His high majesty, and finally fall into despair or contempt of God. If you want to escape the despair, enmity and blasphemy of God, let go of speculation and high thoughts about the hidden God, and stop vainly desiring and striving to see the face or glory of God; otherwise you will forever remain in unbelief and condemnation and be lost. For he who doubts does not believe, and he who does not believe will be condemned.
Therefore we should be hostile to these shameful evil words and beware of them, which the Epicureans use when they say: If this must necessarily happen, then let it happen anyway. For God did not come down from heaven for the purpose of making you uncertain of the truth, and teaching you to despise the sacraments, absolution, and other divine ordinances more; indeed, he instituted all these things for the purpose of making you completely certain, and removing from your heart the great defect and error of doubt, so that you might not only believe in your heart, but also see with your bodily eyes and grasp it with your hands. Why then do you reject all this, and complain that you cannot know whether you are provided for salvation? You have the gospel, you have been baptized, you have absolution, you are a Christian, and yet you still doubt and say that you do not know whether you believe or do not believe, whether you believe what is said and preached to you in the Word and Sacraments of Christ to be true.
But you will perhaps say: I cannot believe; as there are many who are plagued with this challenge. And I remember that in Torgau a poor woman came to me and complained with bitter tears that she could not believe. When I recited the articles of faith one after the other, and asked her about each article: "Does she also believe that all this is true and therefore has happened, or not? she answered me and said: "I certainly believe that it is true, but I cannot believe it. This was a devilish deception. Therefore I said to her, "If you believe all this to be true, you have no reason to complain about your unbelief, for if you do not doubt that the Son of God died for you, then you certainly believe. For believing is nothing else than taking this for certain undoubted truth.
God says to you, "Behold, you have my Son, hear him and accept him; if you do this, you are already assured of your faith and your salvation. Yes, you say, but I do not know whether I am in faith or not.
can remain? Nevertheless, accept the present promise and provision, and beware that you do not search rashly or too closely for the secret counsels of God. If you believe in the revealed God and accept His word, the hidden God will also be revealed to you. For "he who sees me," says Christ John 14:9, "sees the Father." But he who rejects the Son loses with the revealed God also the hidden God, who has not revealed Himself. But if you cling to the revealed God with strong faith, so that your heart is set on not losing Christ, even if you are otherwise deprived of everything you have, then you will certainly be provided for and will understand the hidden God, yes, you already understand Him: If you recognize the Son and His will that He reveal Himself to you and be your Lord and Savior, then you are certain that God is also your Lord and your Father.
Behold, how God so kindly and graciously delivers you from this most terrible temptation, which Satan is now driving exceedingly hard, so that he may make people doubtful and uncertain, and finally even turn away from God's word. For why would you want to hear the gospel, say the Epicureans, since it is all in the providence? So Satan takes away by force the assurance of which we are assured by the Son of God and by the holy sacraments, and makes us uncertain, since we are quite certain beforehand: and when he attacks the poor frightened consciences with this challenge, they die in despair; as would almost have happened to me, if Staupitz had not saved me, since I had just the same challenge. But if they are despisers who are thus challenged, they become the very worst and most shameful epicureans.
151 Therefore we should rather engrave these sayings in our hearts than John 6:44, where Christ says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." By whom does he draw
him, though? Answer: Through me. "For he who sees me sees the Father." And to Moses God says: "You cannot see my face, for no man will live who sees me", Ex. 33, 20. Item, Acts. 1, 7. Christ says to the disciples: "It is not for you to know the time or hour which the Father has reserved for His power"; but go ye, and execute what I have commanded you. Item, Sirach speaks at the 3. Cap. V. 22. 23. 24.: "Do not stand on high, and do not think about your wealth; but what God has commanded you, always take care of it," etc., "and what is not in your office, leave your arrogance." Listen to my Son, says God, who became man, and the provision will come from Himself.
D. Staupitz used to comfort me with these words and said to me: "Dear, why do you bother yourself with these speculations and high thoughts; look at the wounds of Christ, and his blood, which he shed for you, and from it the salvation will shine forth. Therefore hear the Son of God, who was sent into the flesh, became man, and for this reason appeared to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8, and to make you sure of salvation. And therefore he also says to you: You are my sheep, because you hear my voice; and no one will snatch you out of my hand, Joh. 10, 29.
There are many who have not resisted this temptation in this way and have been brought to ruin and eternal damnation. For this reason, the hearts of godly people must be diligently strengthened so that they may always be prepared against it. As a hermit or a hermit in the book "Lives of the Fathers" admonishes that they should abstain from such speculation and high thoughts, and thus says: "If you see that anyone has set his foot in heaven, withdraw it again. For thus the saints or Christians, who are still newcomers, are wont to think of God apart from Christ; and it is they who are wont to go up to heaven and set both feet there; but they are soon cast into hell and sunk.
Therefore, the godly must beware of this, and be careful only to learn to cling to the infant and to the Son of God, Jesus, who is your God and who became man for your sake: you must know and hear him, have your delight in him, and also give thanks to him. If you have him, you also have the hidden God together with the revealed one. And this is the only way, the truth and the life: outside of the same way, truth and life, you will find nothing but vain destruction, damnation and death.
For this reason He has revealed Himself in the flesh, so that He might snatch us out of death, out of the flesh and out of the devil's power, and deliver us. From such knowledge must surely come great joy and delight that God is unchanging and that He works according to unchanging necessity, and cannot deny Himself, but faithfully keeps His promise.
Therefore we are not at liberty to entertain such lofty thoughts, and to doubt the providence thereof; but these same thoughts are ungodly, wicked, and devilish. Therefore, when the devil challenges you, say only, "I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord," in whom I have no doubt that he became man, suffered and died for me, into whose death I was baptized. With this answer, the temptation will disappear and Satan will turn his back on you. As I have often told a remarkable example of a nun in other places, who also had the same temptation. For under the papacy there have also been many godly people who have felt these spiritual temptations, which are true infernal thoughts and those of damned men; for there is no difference between one who doubts and one who is damned. Therefore, as often as the same nun felt that she was attacked with the fiery arrows of Satan, she said nothing else but: I am a Christian.
157 We must do the same. We must stop disputing and say: I am a Christian, that is, the Son of God.
God became man and was born into this world, he redeemed me and sits at the right hand of the Father and is my Savior. So drive the devil away from you with as few words as you can, and say: "Get thee away from me, Satan", Matth. 4, 10. Do not make me doubt; the Son of God has come into this world, that he may destroy your work and doubts; then the temptation ceases, and the heart comes again to peace, rest and love of God.
But if one doubts the will of any man, it is no sin; as Isaac doubted whether he would live, or whether he would have a good and pious host. I may and should doubt a man, for he is not my Savior. And in the 146th Psalm v. 3. it is written, "Rely not on princes." "For all men are liars," and cannot help. But with God one cannot act so in doubt. For he will not, nor can he, be changeable or a liar; but the highest service of God, which he requires and will have, is that you should hold him to be true. For this is why he has given such strong arguments and signs of his truth, and that all things are certain with him. He has given his Son in the flesh and in death, and has instituted the sacraments for this purpose, so that you may know that he is not a liar but true.
159 And this he proves and confirms, not with spiritual, but with tangible arguments and signs. For I see the water in baptism; I see the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper; I see the minister of the word: which is all bodily; in which bodily figures or images he manifests himself. When dealing with men, one may doubt what or how far you may believe one, and how others may be disposed against you; but of God you shall hold this certain and undoubted, that he is gracious to you for Christ's sake, and that you are redeemed and sanctified by the precious blood of the Son of God; and so you shall be sure of your provision; you shall leave off all forward and dangerous questions of the secret counsels of God, to which the devil has submitted himself.
is to drive us, as he drove and brought our first father Adam to do.
(160) How blessed he would have been if he had diligently kept God's word in mind and had eaten from all the other trees, except the one from which he was forbidden to eat! But he wanted to find out what God meant by forbidding him not to use the only tree and not to eat from it. In addition, the mischievous master, Satan, came to him, who increased the pride and helped him to do so. Thus he was plunged into sin and death.
God reveals His will to us through Christ and the gospel. But we despise this, and let ourselves lust after the example of Adam above all other trees of the forbidden tree. We all have this affliction by nature: if paradise and heaven are shut up, and the angel is set there to keep them, we undertake in vain to come thither. For Christ rightly said John 1:18: "No one has ever seen God." And yet God has revealed Himself to us out of immeasurable grace, so that He might fulfill our desire and do enough for it. He has presented a visible image to us, saying, "Behold, you have my Son; whoever hears him and is baptized is written in the book of life; I reveal this to you through my Son, whom you can touch with your hands and see with your eyes.
I have therefore gladly and diligently wanted to remind you of this. For after my death, many will bring forth my books and cite them, and will want to prove and confirm all kinds of errors and their own imagination. Now I have written, among other things, that everything is necessary and must happen; but at the same time I have also added that one should regard the God who has revealed Himself, as we sing in the 46th Psalm: "He is called Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts, and is no other God," and in many other places. But they will pass by all the places, and accept only those where the hidden God is spoken of.
For this reason you should remember, who are also now hearing, that I have taught this, namely, that one should not search for the provision of the hidden God, but that one should be satisfied with the same provision, which is revealed through the calling and through the ministry; for there you can be sure of your faith and salvation, and say, "I believe in the Son of God, who said, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life," John 3:36. 3, 36. Therefore there is no condemnation or wrath in him, but the pleasure of God the Father. And I have also publicly taught the same in my other books and still teach it with a loud voice. Therefore I will be excused.
V. 10, 11 Abimelech said, "Why did you do this to us? It would have been easy for one of the people to lie with your wife, and so you would have brought guilt upon us. Then Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, Whosoever toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
The king is shown here as a particularly pious man who loves righteousness and godliness. Therefore Peter says Ap. 10, 34, 35: "God does not look at the person, but in all the people, whoever fears him and does right, he is pleasing to him." For although this king is not Abraham's son, yet he is holy and hopes in the righteousness of God, as Cornelius also did. Therefore Isaac came to him, as Abraham came to the previous Abimelech, and he was instructed by Isaac in right godliness and knowledge of God; for he will undoubtedly have preached God's word there. But it can be seen that the name Abimelech was the king's name and not the name of his person; as the name Pharaoh was also a common name of all kings in Egypt.
Now behold how fiercely hostile the king is to adultery. For this reason this is an excellent text, when he says, "Why have you done this to us? As if to say, Would you have me and the whole kingdom so
that we should ignorantly anger God with such a grievous sin? For not only I, but also the whole of my kingdom was in danger, if any of the subjects had laid with her. He would have said this with great anger; and I believe that he is speaking of such sexual intercourse, which is honest, and of male and female companionship, and not of unseemly intermingling, of which Isaac was especially afraid. But I believe that this was the king's opinion, that he meant to say: If any man had taken away thy wife, as though she were free, and had brought her home, and laid with her, as a husband is wont to lay with his wife, there would have been a secret sin of adultery: and though he dwelt honestly with her, as a husband, yet would he have been found out, and might justly have been accounted an adulterer.
These are the words of a man who fears God and is godly. And this is fitting for a prince and king who is also hostile to secret adultery, and it is probable that he would have punished public adultery and unseemly mixing even more. And if it had been inflicted on another without the king's knowledge, he would not have been guilty of it.
You will not find anything in our kings and princes at this time that would be like this example. They should say: She may be his sister or his wife, one may deal with her honestly or dishonestly, what is it to me? But in this Abimelech one feels that he had the fear of God; therefore he feared that in his kingdom also no secret adultery would be committed. No doubt the other princes and rulers in the land would have felt the same way.
Therefore, it was a great grace and blessing that at that time God gave such pious and godly lords to host the church and congregation of God, as Abraham had Escol, Aner and Abimelech (Cap. 14, v. 13). For the church and apostles must have had
have some corner where they can live and sustain themselves. Such a king was this Abimelech, who took in and cared for the holy apostle and prophet of God, Isaac. Therefore, I believe that he was one of the pious holy kings. For even though he was not a child of the promise, he nevertheless received it, just as many Gentiles were saved at that time.
The Hebrew word ascham was interpreted by Jerome in Latin: peccatum grande, a great guilt. This indicates that at that time adultery was not considered a joke or child's play; as today among Christians the marriage state is considered a joke, especially among the great lords. And the papists consider adultery and fornication to be nothing but a joke and make a mockery of it. Now, if we take it to mean adultery or fornication, we can truly conclude that the king's heart must have been full of godliness and fear of God, who could not let any of these sins go unpunished; for he is very angry about it: he truly does not consider it to be a joke, but considers it to be a sin, since our Lord God has a promise to (in Hebrew ascham, in Latin reatus); as we ask in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses", and in the 34th Psalm v. 22: "Forgive us our trespasses". Psalm v. 22: "They that hate the righteous shall be in debt." Hence it comes that hostia means so much as delictum, guilt-offering; and in the 5th Psalm v. 11.: Judica illos, Deus: "Blame them, God"; there Jerome has interpreted it in Latin: Condemna eos, non justifica eos: Condemn them, do not justify them, but consider them reprobates, guilty and lost. It is almost the same as the word that St. Paul uses in 1 Cor. 4, 13, in Greek katharma, in German Fegopfer.
170 Therefore the king says: "It would have been easy for you to have brought such guilt upon us. He not only fears and dreads God, but is also frightened by the danger that has come upon him and the entire kingdom.
would have been, if another had taken her away or taken her as a wife.
After that, he does not leave it at that, that he punished or scolded Isaac severely, but also testifies with a special edict or command, that he was displeased with it, and that he wants to punish those seriously, who will do violence to these foreign guests. For the sake of these strangers he makes a law of his own, and also adds a corporal punishment, which is to be inflicted on those who violate the commandment; he also increases the commandment by saying, "Whoever shall touch not only the woman but also the man"; whoever shall injure or harm him in his body, household goods, property and good name, "he shall die"; for I want him to be free and safe from all danger in my kingdom.
Now you see how kind and gracious the Lord is toward His saints: He tempts them, sends them into misery, puts them in danger for their good name and life, and causes them to suffer all kinds of calamities; but He provides them with a peaceful and safe place to stay, and gives them peace even in the midst of their enemies.
All this is written to strengthen our faith, when all kinds of danger and misfortune occur, as Isaac is in the greatest danger: that God is nevertheless the one who wants to govern and preserve us. For the church must have a place and a nest here on earth where it can sustain itself. If this prince or another does not want to protect us, God will provide another who will kindly and gladly shelter us; and he is in the habit of choosing a host without our advice or thought, yes, without and against all our hope and expectation, where his own may have their lodging.
In this way Isaac obtained security, peace and tranquility in the same land, and afterwards he became very rich, so that even the inhabitants of the land begrudged him such great fortune and envied him for it, and he had to move from there to another place. This
is taught that we should believe in God, who governs and sustains us. For if we have the Word, we are indeed tempted with many dangers, but in such a way that we do not perish or despair in the temptation, but that we may rejoice in peace and give thanks to God.
Fourth Part.
How God blesses Isaac in Gerar; how Isaac is envied by the Philistines, leaves Gerar, digs three wells and goes to Bersaba.
V. 12-14 And Isaac sowed in the land, and in the same year he multiplied an hundredfold; for the Lord blessed him. And he became a great man, and went and increased until he was almost great, that he had much substance of cattle, both small and great, and a great household.
(175) All this that Moses says about Isaac seems to have been hyperbolic and could not have been possible, since it is said about a poor, miserable man who was a stranger and did not have a foot of his own in the land, neither a field nor a barn, nor a poor shepherd's hut.
We have often said that these so holy fathers are described in such a way that we should have an example in them of a Christian and godly life, how we should lead it soberly, chastely, justly and godly for the sake of the life to come. For thus we see how this patriarch Isaac, so holy, tried many ways, and yet lived only finely simple in the word of God, which was abundantly given to him in the promises, namely, when God said to him, "I will be with you, I will give you all these lands, and through your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed"; these same words he well considered and held fast in his heart. We hear it drowsily and with deaf ears; we esteem the word so highly and
not great, as the fathers did. Therefore, God wanted to show us how these holy men lived, "not only from bread, but from every word that goes through the mouth of God", Matth. 4, 4. For it was impossible that flesh and blood could have tolerated and endured such great hardships and burdens of this life, as are described here.
Whoever has not tried this thing at the present time and reads it or judges it according to the flesh, to him it seems to be all bad, small and temporal things, such as food, wives, servants, pasture and cattle. What is that? There is nothing glorious or delicious that has a special appearance. But who considers it rightly and considers, how large these things are, to him they will seem to be in truth quite heavy, important and large. For after the promise so rich, temptation followed, and he and his wife, she for her discipline and he for his life, came into danger. Nevertheless, he holds fast to the word of promise that was given to him above (vv. 3, 4), and is a stranger in the land that was promised to him by God and was his own, like an exile and a stranger, and suffers with patience that strangers rule and reign in it. But now consider the circumstances, and suppose that the same thing were to happen to you. For what would you do if you were to suffer a foreign master in your house, and if you were to be cast out of all your possessions and other goods? You would certainly never suffer such a thing.
Now Isaac must have been miserable and a stranger in the land given to him by God, and so he had to worry that his wife would be in danger because of her discipline and chastity, that is, that his whole house would be destroyed and he himself would perish. For if he had been strangled, his household would have been in great danger and distress. We are tender martyrs, we sit idle and have good peace and rest, we use our goods, we eat and drink in peace: but this is a great temptation, namely
It is a great pity for a man to live in a foreign land with his wife and two sons, with such a large household, and with so many cattle, large and small, when he has to buy food and all the necessities of life for money. There is no greater misery than to move about in the whole world and have nowhere a certain dwelling or a house of one's own; as the sayings of all peoples testify, and especially this saying, which the Saxons are accustomed to use: Eigen Wat (garment), gut is dat. But where one is to live at the mercy or favor of friends and enemies, which is almost uncertain, that is a very heavy challenge.
The life of the holy fathers was like this, full of temptations, which also happened to them externally and in bodily things, so that their faith in the divine promise might be exercised and tested. For Isaac remains attached to heavenly things while he is still here on earth; but without faith he could not have led such a hard life. I wonder where he could have gotten servants and servants from, unless he got them from Arabia, which had many servants. But there will undoubtedly have been much quarreling and strife, much toil in the housekeeping, likewise much thievery, and that the shepherds and the servants will always have followed each other secretly. Isaac, however, is patient and always waits for help, for he has a God who has promised him help and who, although he is invisible and tends to leave his own for a while, will certainly help in due time.
180 But this temptation is now followed by consolation. Consolation, so that it will not be considered as if Isaac had waited and hoped in the Lord in vain; afterwards he will be tempted again, but will also receive consolation once more. For these things are always mixed together in such a way that one always follows the other, namely, temptation and comfort, just as night and day always follow one another; for in this way the word of promise and faith are exercised and tested. For this reason Isaac sowed in
the foreign country, which is nevertheless his own, and gets the same year a hundredfold.
181 There is a special piety in King Abimelech, for he not only takes Isaac under his protection and protection, and forbids anyone to do violence to him or his wife under corporal punishment, but he also gives him a portion of the land, fields and meadows for his cattle and servants. And though he lent him this for a certain sum of money, yet it is honest and well done; for this might not have been allowed Isaac in other places. Therefore Moses praises this king that he was pious and godly, and I do not doubt that he will be blessed like his father, if it is not the same Abimelech who lived in the time of Abraham, but I do not consider him to be, because Isaac is now almost a hundred years old.
This is so that we may learn from it the goodness and grace of God, who comforts His own: when He has afflicted them and tested their faith and steadfastness, He again causes the light and sun of His grace and mercy to shine upon them; He gives them a good lodging place, that they may not only live in peace, but that they may also receive great good.
The Jews say that this year the whole land was very barren, and only Isaac's field, which he had cultivated for the interest, brought forth such abundant fruit. But there is no need for the Jewish addition to make this great; otherwise it is great enough in itself that one bushel yielded a hundred bushels, and it will undoubtedly have been a great miracle and unusual in the land that the field yielded such abundant fruit. A hundred bushels give a thousand, and so on and on, without end and without number. I will not mention the other goods that come from agriculture and animal husbandry, such as butter, milk, eggs and the like. In our country it is an incredible and incomprehensible thing. It is considered a rich crop if a bushel yields five or six bushels, but that is not yet a thirty-fold or sixty-fold harvest.
Fruit that is reported in the Gospel in the parable of the sower, Luc. 8, 8.
184 Let us learn from this that we persevere in faith and remain steadfast, that we do not doubt or waver when any challenge arises. For behold, how graciously God repaid and restored the former temptation to Isaac, that we might know that He would not be angry for ever; and if we have His promise, let us persevere in the temptation, and stand fast, and so conclude, saying, The Lord that said unto me: Believe thou me, he will surely keep his promise; I will wait for him, and wait for him. As it is written in the 27th Psalm, v. 14: "Wait for the Lord, be confident and undaunted"; item in the 31st Psalm, v. 25: "Be confident and undaunted, all you who wait for the Lord." The godly should persevere and remain steadfast even in the greatest danger and distress, for he has promised to take care of us, as St. Peter says in 1 Epist 5:7: "Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you." etc.
This exercise and testing of faith is necessary for the godly, for if they were without it, their faith would become dull and cold, and finally it would even be extinguished. But when they are thus tested by trials, they learn what faith is; and when they are tempted, they grow in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become so strong and vigorous that they cannot rejoice and boast less in adversity than in happiness and when they are well; indeed, they consider every trial to be but a cloud or mist, which will soon vanish and pass away.
How many bushels Isaac sowed, Moses does not tell; he only says that one bushel yielded a hundred; if he sowed a hundred, he received ten times a thousand bushels. This is a special blessing, according to the promise made to him above (v. 3), and Moses still insists on making this miracle great, saying that Isaac received a lot of goods. And where this abundant fruit and income lasted two or three years
he would have become exceedingly great and rich from it. He would have been satisfied if one bushel had yielded ten or even less; but God does not only satisfy him, but showers him with rich blessings, Psalm 21:4, and gives him much more than he needs for his house and servants, however much he had, for he hardly needed the twentieth part. Therefore, God can easily make His own rich by giving the husbandman ten times a thousand bushels for a thousand bushels, which he had plenty of before; and Isaac still has nothing of his own in the land, he lives in his own land as if it were not his own.
Therefore, this is a great comfort, if only we understand and accept it correctly. For God gives all this so that we may learn to believe and wait for the help of the Lord in adversity and hardship, but in happiness and when we are well, thank God for His good deeds; for this is the life of the saints. The 104th Psalm v. 8. says: "The mountains go up, and the broad places come down" etc. Now it is day, soon it will be night. Today we have honor, tomorrow shame, 2 Cor. 6, 8. But at all times we should fix our eyes and heart on the promise and keep it, which will surely come and not be forgiven. Now another challenge follows so that Isaac's faith is challenged and tested anew.
V.14-16 The Philistines envied him, and stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and filled them with earth; so that Abimelech also said unto him, Depart from us, for thou art become too mighty for us.
After the divine consolation, the so holy patriarch is again thrown into various and severe hardships and tribulations. For this is how godly men must live their lives, so that, although they make use of this world, marriage, eating, drinking and all the other necessities of this life, they still
Nevertheless, they are attached to the heavenly goods with their hearts. Those who do not do so remain belly servants and servants of Mammon. But the devil leaves us no peace in this life, it is impossible that we can have peace with him, because he is God's rejected enemy and because enmity is also set between the children of the serpent and the seed of the woman.
The first challenge is that the Philistines, out of hatred and envy, stop up all the wells and fill them with earth, so that they move him and cause him to go away on his own. But Isaac endured all this with patience, using the water he bought from others for his money.
(190) Because they cannot drive him out in this way, they go and persuade the king to tell and command him by a special commandment to go out of the country; then he must depart and go away, and leave not a foreign country but his own. Therefore, this challenge is harder and more distressing than it appears outwardly, if one only looks at it from above. Origen brings up in this place, I do not know what kind of wisdom, about the clogged wells, of which wisdom Erasmus is highly astonished; but in the meantime, the doctrine of how to live a Christian life is lost, and history is not dealt with, in which we have fine Christian doctrines.
Isaac is rich and has much grain; he teaches his servants patience and godliness; but what happens to this holy man and priest of God? Since it can be seen that he had gotten everything he needed superfluously, the Philistines were moved by hatred and envy and took the water from him by force, so that they could not enjoy it themselves. If they had only forbidden him the water, he could have taken it secretly and used it; but they close and block up the wells and fill them with earth, so that they all cannot use the water at the same time, without which one nevertheless cannot survive, especially with the
Cattle. Depriving one of water is as much as depriving him of life, for both men and cattle must die from it.
Therefore this was a very bad and heavy challenge with such a large number of servants and cattle, and it is an extremely great wickedness to forbid one to drink water in such great distress. What else could Isaac have thought but that he would have to die of thirst with his cattle and his household? He had only this one consolation, that he could send his servants to Gerar, and therefore had them fetch water in jars and bottles, which he bought for his money, as we buy wine: and yet it added to his grief, that he had to buy his own water; for he was really the rightful master of the water, of the well, and of all the land, and his father Abraham had dug the same well.
Therefore let us learn from this that our trials are much less and easier than the hardships and tribulations of the holy patriarchs. We are, after all, tender martyrs, who have all things to the full. Therefore, these histories have no equal example, and there is no one today, even among the most holy people, who would be able to suffer and endure this. These good people had to go astray from time to time from one village to another as far as Hebron, perhaps even as far as the desert to the well of the Living and Seeing One (for Moses does not write where they got the water from), and from there fetch drink for themselves and for the cattle. What man should not be moved by such a great injustice? It is probably believable that sometimes Rebekka will have said out of impatience: If we are masters of this land, where is the divine promise? Will it be fulfilled, then, that strangers shall enjoy our goods and we shall be driven out? or else that everything we should have and enjoy for our need shall be taken from us?
194 For this reason, the water and the well that are mentioned here are not such ridiculous things as the flesh thinks of them; rather, they are not ridiculous.
but it all served to test faith. For Isaac had a divine promise, since God had said to him: I will be with you; but now the opposite is happening to him, as if he had been abandoned by God, who had made the promise to him.
195. Therefore, we should also learn to wait on the Lord when we have His promise, that whatever happens, persecution will come upon us instead, since we thought that God would be with us according to His promise, or that instead of grace we feel and experience His wrath; that we nevertheless say: I believe, I am baptized, I am absolved, I have the divine promise of his grace and mercy; I have had enough of it; whether it be day or night, tribulation or gladness, I will not forsake his grace and mercy, neither will I despair in my heart.
The other challenge is this. After they have taken away his water and deprived him of it, the harassers come and tempt the king to turn his heart away from him and revoke the agreement he made with Isaac to rent him the meadows and fields at interest. And now these scoundrels are taking all the fields and meadows for themselves; they do not understand that it is a special miracle and blessing of God, but think that the field would otherwise be so fertile by itself that it would bear so much rich fruit: Therefore, they would rather use the same field for themselves than let a stranger use it, who would soon after, if he became rich, be able to take over all the fields and meadows of the inhabitants by force or money, and after that the whole country. But by doing so, they brought the curse upon themselves. For it does not rhyme that the same fertility, which Isaac had before by divine blessing, was also given to them.
197 Perhaps the Philistines may have learned and understood something from the words of one of his servants,
That this stranger should boast that the dominion of the same land was promised to him. They thought that this was very unfair, and they thought that they would be justly hostile to him and drive him into misery. For this reason he is expelled, first by private power, but now by royal power and by a public edict. For this was their plan when they stopped up the wells, that because he would lack water, he should leave the country of his own accord, even though no one would force him to do so.
198 But the challenge is even more severe, that he is expelled by the command of the king, of whom he had hitherto thought that he was favorable and well-disposed, by which protection and shield he would be safe against all kinds of violence, and must now hear from him that he says to him, "Depart from us, for you are too powerful for us," too strong and too rich, you have more servants and more cattle than we. So Isaac is driven out, because they begrudge him the rich blessing and therefore envy him, and cannot bear that he should become rich there, so they forbid him first the water and then the land.
This is the other temptation, which is directly contrary to the promise; but Isaac nevertheless clings to it and holds fast to it, thinking thus: God has delivered me from death, he has preserved my wife in her discipline and chastity, he has also given me an hundredfold fruit of what I had sown: therefore I will not complain to leave this dwelling, and yet I will remain near; for the Lord has called me to be a pilgrim or a stranger in this land.
Then Isaac departed, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there, and digged up the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines stopped up after the death of Abraham, and called them by the same name that his father had called them.
200 Isaac left and moved to another place, which was not far from the previous one, no doubt not without great pain and temptation of the flesh. What kind of field he had, however, the scripture does not indicate, the text only says: "He pitched his tent at the bottom of Gerar", in the same corner. In these three places, namely in Hebron, Bersaba and Gerar, three patriarchs lived, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: from this it is clear that God must have had special pleasure in these places. And these places were situated in the tribe of Judah toward the south; they were four or five miles wide. There the holy patriarchs wandered about, sometimes dwelling in Gerar, sometimes also in Bersaba, and Moses calls it a ground; for the field there was not cultivated or fertile in the valley of Gerar; for in the grounds near the water brooks the land tends to be dry and arid.
For this reason it was a great trial in which Isaac learned to live not only on bread, but on every word that comes through the mouth of God, Matth. 4, 4. But the Philistines did not envy him because of the place, since he did not have a good field in which to sow and reap. For the waters make the fields desolate with their overflowing. How then did he support himself and his servants? If he had money, he could have bought provisions for his food. Then they dig other wells, which the Philistines will fill with earth again and block up, as they did before, and Isaac will still overcome such enmity and envy, and will remain unconquerable and steadfast.
(202) Although one temptation followed another after the consolation he had; as Moses describes with an emphatic and emphatic word, how he had such a strong and constant courage on this journey: Isaac goes from thence, is driven and driven out of his land, and yet pitcheth a tent. This is also a warlike word, which is also used in the 34th Psalm v. 8:
"The angel of the Lord encamps" etc. The Hebrew word ohel in Latin means tabernaculum, hut; but chanah means, castra figere, to pitch camp. According to this it is also used to mean a dwelling; but it is actually understood of such a hut or tent as one has in war.
For this reason Moses wanted to show that the patriarch Isaac had an undaunted heart in so many great tribulations, and that he was quite sure of it, in which place he now dwelt, there was a castle or strong fortress, in which he would be preserved by God. So strong and powerful are the divine promises that it is as if Isaac had mocked the devil and his members who had driven him out of his very beautiful seat. For he thus concluded: If I cannot have a hundredfold fruit in this place, but must leave what I have a right to have here, yet I shall have my living and my need, yea, I shall live securely and dwell in my tent; if I cannot dwell in the fruitful fields of Gerar, I will dwell in the ground, which shall be my tent or my camp, not kept or fortified with wood or stones, but with the host of the holy angels.
204 Thus Moses describes Isaac as having been almost frightened and almost in the greatest affliction and fear, and yet describes him in such a way that he still had strong courage like a hero, and that he despised the world and held fast to the hope of God, thereby being so minded that he said, "I will not only have my food for my need, but also shelter and a safe dwelling place.
This is held up to us as an example and comfort. For where we have a divine promise, it must certainly follow and cannot be lacking that the holy angels are also with and around us. And this is the reason for the verse in the 34th Psalm v. 8: "The angel of the Lord is encamped around those who fear him" etc., and in the 91st Psalm v. II: "He has commanded his angels over you" etc. The fathers believed this firmly and without any doubt. Therefore, where we godly
If we are people, we should also believe in the promise of Him who cannot lie, and then we will surely be under His protection and protection, and it is also certain that the holy angels will be with us.
206. But where we encounter any accident over or against such trust and protection, it happens out of God's special counsel, which is hidden from us and of which especially the adversaries know nothing. So the godly should comfort themselves and say: I know that I have the holy angels as guardians; but that I still have to suffer adversity, I command the will of God; for I am in the camp of the holy angels: God is no liar, therefore He will not leave me.
For this reason Moses admonished us with this example, that we should be hopeful for the sake of the divine promise, which we also have in abundance in the gospel. For since I know that I am absolved from my sins by the ministry of preaching, and that I have been baptized, I should also have a strong and undaunted courage in all kinds of trouble and danger, no matter whether my body or soul suffers extreme hardship.
208 Yes, you say, but I cannot believe this, I cannot be so strong. Answer: I admit that, because the flesh is contrary to the promise; as St. Paul also says of himself Rom. 7:23: "I see another law in my members, which is contrary to the law in my mind. There he speaks of the general sin and the corruption of the whole nature, from which it comes that we do not so strongly and constantly resist the law in our members and cling to the law in our minds. And this is what all the godly complain about while they are still living in this flesh. Although we have this wisdom and understanding that we grasp the divine promises to some extent and timidly, and we groan daily that our flesh, which hinders faith, may become ashes, we must make every effort to grow and increase in this strong knowledge until we finally become perfect.
209. But if we are without contestation,
we learn nothing, nor do we increase at all. For this is the knighthood and training of Christians, by which we recognize that we are under the protection of the holy angels, and although we are exercised and tempted with hard and severe temptations, that they nevertheless do not harm us. This is our theology, which cannot be learned so easily and so soon, but we must remember the law of the Lord, speak of it day and night, always be in the field, and fight against the devil who tries to draw us away from the Word and how he may weaken our faith. Isaac, having been violently afflicted by the Philistines in such a way, rises up again and concludes with himself thus: I will dwell in this land, though they all be sorry that cast me out: for the land is mine according to promise: it shall be a royal seat unto me at the bottom of this brook. But I believe that it was a valley like the one in Saxony between Düben and Eilenburg near the water called Mulde. Even though he will not have a seat or dwelling there yet, he still said so in faith in the promise and believed that he lived in the camp of the angels. For God does not lie, therefore we will not perish, he thought, because he promised me this land. Therefore, even if we should perish, we shall not perish. Isaac learned this from his father Abraham, who also encountered the same thing and overcame everything with equally strong faith.
210 Now here the water wells are remembered, which the servants of his father Abraham dug and which the Philistines had blocked after Abraham's death. This still belongs to the 21st Cap. V. 25, where it should be taken; for here it is interpreted and explained, what is said there only about one well, which the servants of king Abimelech took by force, since Abimelech excuses himself before Abraham that he did not know anything about it, and then makes a covenant with him. Then it may have occurred to Isaac that he had
He thought that he would be plagued by the inhabitants of the land in the same way as Abraham was plagued before. But it is harder and more burdensome that the king himself calls him out of the country. Not only do the servants do violence to him, but the king himself, having allowed himself to be seduced by the false accusation of the courtiers, drives him out of the country. For although we consider him to have been pious, he had to follow the advice of the princes in his kingdom.
V. 19-21 Isaac's servants also dug in the ground and found there a well of living water. But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds, saying: The water is ours. So he called the well Esek, because they had wronged him there. Then they dug another well, and there also they quarreled: therefore he called it Sitnah.
211 Now this is a new blessing, so that God, out of special grace, has showered Isaac with water after the previous affliction he had; for He not only gives him such wells of water as were again cleared up, but also a new well of living water, which had not been seen before in the valley. Isaac loves this well very much and praises it, calling it "a well of living water. For it is a very good comfort to have a well flowing for and for; and it may have flowed out of mountains.
Augustine makes a distinction between the two Latin words puteus and fons (we call it both a fountain), and says that puteus means such a fountain, which we use to draw with buckets, in which the water is as it were dead and does not flow; but fontes, he says, are the fountains that flow, and by flowing indicate that they are alive, and are like the animals that live there.
So God gave this living water to Isaac as a consolation, but it was just as it is said in Proverbs: Some work, but others enjoy the work: Some sow, but others reap. For since the Phi-
When the Philistines see that Isaac has found the fountain of living water and the beautiful, beautiful vein of water, they soon understand how much it can be used, because it not only gives water to the people and keeps water in the fountain, but it also flows out and moistens the whole land. That is why the Philistines like it so much, even though they have not found it or dug it; indeed, they have not even seen it in their country, and yet they want to appropriate it for themselves.
214 Moses is silent about the king and the princes and says only about the shepherds of the village, as if they had started the quarrel about the well. But it was a serious quarrel, because they rightly presume to do so, and they use the text to say, "The land is ours; therefore all that it has made, and all that the land contains, is ours.
What shall Isaac do now? He is a good, pious and upright man and is not quarrelsome; therefore he bears and suffers this violence with patience. Although it is a grievous affliction that the wickedness of these people is so great that they also begrudge him the drink he had of the water given him by God and take it by force. For it was not given to them, neither had they found it, but it was given by special blessing to this holy man. The lawyers would have had cause to quarrel in this place for a whole hundred years; but Isaac gives way to time and person, and also leaves the matter and leaves the well. I would have asked God to let the vein and the well, which was invented without their work, pass away together.
216. but Isaac does not avenge this violence in any other way, except by giving the well a name and calling it Esek as an eternal memorial of the great wickedness, so that he may show that the wrong came from them, but that in him innocent patience was flushed out, which is a very holy virtue, and upholds himself with a good conscience, which knows itself to be innocent and has done nothing wrong, does not injure or harm its neighbor, much less God in His
Saints. Therefore Isaac does not revile the Philistines; it is enough that he leaves behind the shameful name of Ezek as a testimony to the great wickedness of this people.
217 For such unjust robbery is commonly followed by vengeance and punishment; as Augustine's saying testifies, when he says: Lucrum in arca, damnum in conscientia: Profit in the box, damage in the conscience. No unjust gain goes without very unjust harm. For he who takes away another's good has already lost faith; with the good one gets the devil and loses God with faith and with righteousness. If you take away my good and leave me faith and a good conscience, you have the chaff, but I have the good grain. Whatever you steal, rightly or wrongly, you have already lost your faith and have God as your enemy, and after that you will be thrown into eternal damnation with the chaff.
218 This is often said and inculcated in people, but it is not heard or believed. It is a common saying among all peoples: Male parta male dilabuntur; item: Male partum male disperit; item: De male quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres. These German sayings are: Wie gewonnen, so zerronnen; or: Uebel gewonnen, böslich zerronnen; item: Unrecht Gut wudelt nicht (that is, gedeihet nicht) und kommt nicht auf den dritten Erben. And yet we do not cease from robbing and stealing with false measures, false weights and all kinds of cunning and deceit.
I myself, after I had completed my twentieth year (for before that time man does not see or understand anything in common dealings), have thereafter within forty years seen many robbers of chairs, misers and usurers, who, having gathered together great money and goods, have nevertheless hardly been able to keep them for thirty years.
In this way, I think that this king and his great followers will have had little benefit or pleasure from this unjust gain. Therefore one should well keep the saying in the 37th Psalm v. 16: "The little that a righteous man can gain.
is better than the great good of many wicked men." For unrighteousness does not make the conscience happy or peaceful. He who gathers great goods cannot rejoice over them, and he who inherits such unrighteous goods becomes poor and corrupt over them. For in the house of the wicked all things melt away. Mau gathers great wealth there, but it must melt away and perish; for God blows into it, and he who gathers it gathers it into a bag with holes in it, as the poets have a fable about the sieve of the Danaids.
Therefore let him who is godly and pious be content with a little, according to the saying in the 37th Psalm, v. 16, and use it with his wife and children and abstain from unjust gain. The same is taught in the histories and books of all nations, namely, that it is much better for you to live on one or two florins, which you have earned with honor, than on many thousands of florins, which have been earned shamefully with other people's harm.
And I have heard a story, which is very strange, of a pious and honest citizen, who, when he had betrothed his daughter and wanted to give her her dowry, said to his son-in-law: See, there you have thirty florins, which I have acquired with God and with honor without any harm or damage to any man. This dowry I wanted to have taken for thirty thousand florins. For God blesses the well-earned property in such a way that one heller brings more than a whole florin of a robber or usurer.
Therefore, this is a grave sin of the people of Gerar, so that they bring upon themselves the curse of God, because they do violence and injustice to such a pious guest. He does not take revenge on them because of such violence, nor does he curse them; indeed, he would much rather bless them. And he would almost like to thank them for the well they have taken from him, but this thanksgiving is almost unfortunate and there is no happiness in it; it is an unfortunate valet when such people, who are full of the Holy Spirit, go away and say to the country from which they go, Esek and Sitna. There follows shortly the curse. For
This is what Isaac wants to say: There is nothing here but Esek and Sitna. He would have liked to say something else, but he could not approve or justify the violence they had done to him in Gerar. Therefore, he takes leave of them, reproaching them for the sin and violence he had suffered at their hands. He wishes them no evil, but prophesies evil that will come upon them, namely, that the wells there are Ezek and Sitna.
The Holy Spirit has written this as a lesson for us, so that we may know that we should not take revenge on ourselves because of violence. One may complain about it, but one may not take revenge. That is why Isaac does not take revenge; he only shows his pain and leaves the names behind as a testimony to the violence, namely that they are men Ezek and Sitna, that is, that they are unjust and quarrelsome people. In Hebrew it does not read well. Esek, Zank, quarrelsome people, who are not at peace, are not children of love, but of quarrels and strife, to their neighbor's harm and damage. It means doing violence and injustice to another, but with a semblance of justice. "The land," they say, "is ours": that is the appearance of right. "Therefore the well is ours also": that is the violence and injustice. And this is a common and very wicked way in the world, that he who cannot harm another by force sees how he may harm him secretly by cunning and deceit. The Germans call it and say of it thus: Violence and doing wrong, that is vinegar. And this is an evil valet and brings no happiness to those in Gerar. God protect me and keep me from hearing such a blessing or valet from a pious and godly person.
(225) From the word sitna Satan comes, and will say this much to Isaac: Not only do they drive me out and take the well from me by force under the appearance of justice, but they also persecute me in a hostile manner and are my enemies: not only do they want to have the well and the new well vein, which I found before and which I have now also granted to them, but they also take this well from me by force. But what is the cause? Answer:
They are angry with me, they hate me. Now they do not need this well; they can be content with the beautiful flow of water from the new well's vein; why then do they take this well from me? They do not begrudge me that, that they do not need nor have desire for it. I have given them no cause for enmity, and they themselves do not use this well, but it is only violence; it is a stubborn will and the utmost malice. Therefore he says to them: Farewell to good night, and only be Esek and Sitna; take the well under the fine appearance that you yourselves have no need of it, nor do you have any desire for it, nor do you use it for that purpose.
226 These are the very worst of men, to whom neither pleasure nor profit gives occasion to robbery and sin. For they would never have desired this well or asked for it if someone had offered it to them for free; but when someone else uses it, especially Isaac, they are inflamed with hatred and envy. Isaac, however, suffers this with patience and says, "Keep the ezek because you are so angry with me.
227 And this has happened to us as an example, so that we may also learn to be patient when others do us violence and injustice. For he now gives them the valet and says, "Keep Ezek and Sitna anyway, I cannot stay in this valley;" and so he goes away and is well satisfied in his heart. This is, first of all, a great patience that has no equal, and in addition an insurmountable faith, of which neither the law, nor the arts, nor even medicine or medicine teach anything. Only the holy scriptures have these examples and teachings for us.
V.22. 23. Then he departed, and digged another well, and they quarreled not: therefore he called it Rehoboth, saying, Now hath the Lord made room for us, and caused us to grow in the land. Then he departed from there to Bersaba.
028 Then Isaac went to another place, and digged another well, over which they had not quarreled. There the
Now the Lord again gives him a new well, which he calls Rehoboth, and says: "Now the Lord has made room for us. These words came from faith in the promise. For he thought thus: I must have left very good wells, Ezek and Sitna; but I will not drop faith because of this, but one must persevere, and hold firmly to the promise of God, who does not lie. Now at last we want to become rich, he says, because we have our own well.
229. But behold, how God leads and tests His saints; sometimes He makes them sweet, sometimes sour. Whoever is truly a Christian will experience just such a change as is described in the fourth Psalm: Fear, consolation, tribulation, and consolation again upon it. But he gives this well a name of consolation, as if he wanted to say: It should be called a well of consolation, a well of pleasure, as the other wells of sorrow, hatred and envy have been. So we have found at this well not only bodily but also spiritual comfort, so that we may praise God who does not forsake us. Now we will grow, become great and rich in this land.
230 But this joy did not last long; for another journey followed, that he went to Babylon. Although Moses does not think that he changed this dwelling place because the Philistines persecuted him, he may have left of his own accord, and may have been moved to do so either by others or by other reasons, so that he sought a better place. No doubt his servants complained about the great wickedness of the people of Gerar, because they had driven away such a pious and holy man. But God praises the great patience of Isaac, which He held up as an example to all of us, for He again provides him with other hosts who receive and accommodate him kindly and gladly.
231 And so far we have heard about the three wells and external temptations of the holy patriarch Isaac, so that the Lord tried and tested him. It shines
But in him a fervent and unconquerable faith, by which he persevered and overcame the hardest temptations, is an example to us that we should not despair in any trouble or danger. For as long as the Lord lives, who has given us his promise, we shall not be forsaken; but if he dies, the promise and all things shall perish with him. As long as he lives, we must not despair, and we must take care that our faith does not faint and our hope does not cease. This pleases him and is useful and salutary for us, and no adversity or challenge, no matter how severe, can last so long that it could kill God.
In such trust all the saints have had their hope and have thus remained steadfast. So shall we do this day also. If the Turk or any other calamity comes, whatever it may be, we should think: He who has set us apart and placed us in his church, that we should believe in him and hope in him, will keep what he has promised us, and will preserve us until that day. Thus Isaac and all the patriarchs believed, and were also preserved through faith unto salvation.
233 Now the outward temptation has come to an end, and it can be seen as if Isaac had conquered the world with his patience and overcome the outward enemies; but soon after he will be plagued with domestic temptation by his son Esau, because he will lead his two wives home. But before this temptation there is another great and glorious promise.
Fifth part.
How the Lord appeared to Isaac, and how Isaac builds an altar, and the Lord's
Name preaches.
V. 24. 25. And the Lord appeared to him that night, saying: I am your father Abraham's God. Fear not, for I am with you, and will bless you and your seed.
for the sake of my servant Abraham. Then he built an altar there, and preached of the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and his servants digged a well there.
I have often admonished that in the histories and legends of the holy patriarchs, attention should be paid primarily to the word, and that we should diligently distinguish the works of the patriarchs and the word of God as the most distinguished part of the lives of the fathers, namely, that we should pay attention and see primarily what and how often God speaks to them; for God's word is greater and more than the works of all men, and moreover of the most holy, even of angels.
This is the one and most beautiful gem in the histories of the fathers, namely, that God speaks to them and to us. The world does not see this gem, nor does it understand how precious and valuable this treasure is, nor do we ourselves pay enough attention to it, namely, that in the whole of life the word is the right measure and the most precious thing that governs our life, that you can say: This I do in the word of God; this the Lord has called me to do; this is pleasing to God; as we can be sure of it from the highest state to the very lowest: God has commanded it, God has said it.
But where the word is not, let him who can flee flee. Even if the life is to be seen outwardly as if it were an angelic life. Even if that which one undertakes is already to be regarded as pleasing to God and as a very spiritual and holy thing, always throw away the outward appearance or good judgment when you are not sure of the word. For why would you want to toil in vain and spend your time in such a miserable and evil way, as the monks in the papacy, item, the Turks and Jews go along in the human delusion that they think they please God when they torture themselves to death with fasting and mortification of the flesh?
Chore could not have suffered with him for the sake of his stinking breath. So he wanted to keep the evil desire for fornication in check and extinguish it. And so are all the works in this life of men, which are done without the word of God.
237 Therefore I do this admonition so diligently and often, and it must always be inculcated in people that we do not let our own delusions or thoughts lead us and govern us, even if they were already divine, angelic and heavenly; as St. Paul Col. 2, 18 also admonishes when he says: "Let no man shift his aim according to his own choice, in humility and spirituality of angels. Paul Col. 2, 18. also admonishes, when he says: "Let no man shift his aim, who walketh after his own choice in the humility and spirituality of angels, which he hath never seen, and is puffed up without matter" etc. For such thoughts are without word. For this is why God speaks to us and acts with us through the ministers of the Word, through our parents and through the authorities, so that we may not be weighed and swayed by all kinds of winds of doctrine. Children should listen to their parents, citizens and subjects to their authorities, a Christian to his pastor and the ministers of the Word, a student to his schoolmaster. Outside the Word, all life is condemned, and is lost with all sects and orders: but where the Word is, then I have a certain comfort, whether I be father or mother, or a child in the house, there I hear the Word, and know what I should believe and do. For God speaks to me even in the state in which I live.
238. But where one falsifies and perverts the word, this is a terrible wrath of God, and is a severe retribution and punishment on those who have despised the word. For if you do not want to hear God when he tells you the certain truth, you may hear the lie under the appearance of truth; as St. Paul 2 Thess. 2, 10. 11. also speaks of this punishment of despising the word, and the miserable and sorrowful examples of it also prove this. Greece must hear Mahomet this day; those who live toward the evening or the setting of the sun must hear the pope.
239. although the works and examples in the legends of the patriarchs should also be
praise and wonder at them, for they walk in the words of God: but more attention must be paid to the word that guides and governs the lives of the patriarchs. This is the right rule and guideline from which I can conclude: I am a preacher, a husband, a wife, a servant, a maid, or a child in the house: this God has commanded me to do, and therefore it is pleasing to Him, not for works in themselves, for we are flesh, but for the sake of Him who guides and governs us, which is the Word under which I walk. When I die, I do not die in the Rule or the Order of Franciscus, but in the Rule and the Word of the Holy Spirit.
240 Now let us also look at the words as they are. Ego, dii Abraham: I,
the gods of Abraham. For in Hebrew the word elohim is written, which means gods in the plural; as it is written above in the 1st Cap. V. 1: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" etc. There Moses also uses the word elohim. We Christians should and must not doubt the unity of God, that there is only One God; but what kind of unity this is, is beyond our reason and human wisdom; for it is a revelation of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
The Jews and Turks mock us and tell a shameful and impudent lie about us, as if we should accept many gods and believe that there are three gods. Therefore they boast that they are God's people, that they are blessed and graced with many glorious victories and riches of the whole world, because they believe in One God; but we, they say, have suffered so many defeats and have been defeated so often, therefore we lie that we should be many gods; and therefore they call us idolatrous people, and blaspheme the Son of God atrociously, as all their histories testify.
242 Therefore, we must arm ourselves in our hearts against such blasphemous words and against the glory that (as it is in the sight of reason) is the only thing that can be said to be true.
seems) is all too true and tangible. For it is certain that we believe that there is only one God, who is pure and clean from all composition and mixture; but that the Turk does not understand our faith or doctrine correctly, and does not hear who this one God, this pure, clean and unmixed divine being is, that is his own fault and not ours.
For we teach and believe not only that there is One God, but that He is absolutely pure and clean from all composition and mixture, and so perfectly united that apart from Him there can be no God; we do not divide or separate these Three from each other, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; we do not make different gods: but believe that in right unity there is one God, one pure, pure, and unmixed divine Being.
Yes, someone wants to say, I don't understand this thing. Answer: That is right, you should not understand it either. We believe that there is One God, who is wont to speak of himself and to count himself as if he were many; as it is often said above, "through thy seed," etc., there the seed is of necessity and truly true God, because he is without sin, and has power and authority to destroy and abolish sin. Just in this way, in this place, God is also called "Gods of Abraham". And we ask nothing of the rude oxen and asses, the Turks and Jews, who say that they cannot understand it with human reason; nor shall they understand it with it, since such great things are known only from divine revelation.
After this, if we look at these words a little diligently, we will see that it can also be concluded and assumed that there is a resurrection of the dead. For as it is said in the common proverb, One must read the letters of princes three times: so much more must one read the holy scriptures a thousand times and repeat them again and again. For we know that Abraham died and that his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him. But now God says here: "I am Abraham's God", and
Christ says Matth. 22, 32: "God is not a God of the dead"; therefore he makes Abraham alive and raises him from the dead. This is the conclusion and proof that Christ gives in Matth. 22, 32, when He says: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: but God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." GOtt is not of that GOtt which is not in itself. None and none do not worship GOtt and GOtt does not rule over them. Abraham died and God is Abraham's God: so it follows that Abraham must live. Though he died and was buried, yet unto me, saith God, who am God, Abraham liveth, and hath known the Trinity of persons, and Christ his seed. For God is not a God that is nothing.
This argument was gloriously seen and well understood by the prophets through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The Turk does not see this, and the pope and his great doctors have never understood it; for they go into the Scriptures according to the mind of a horse and a mule, as the 32nd Psalm v. 9 says. When they read Matth. 1, 2: "Abraham begat Isaac" etc., they thought that these were good, simple, pious men and husbands, and that there was nothing to be surprised about. But when the Holy Spirit comes to enlighten the hearts, then the light of immortality and eternal life will shine forth. For where Abraham has a God, and God in turn has an Abraham, it necessarily follows that God and Abraham must live at the same time; for these two stand and fall together, since God has nothing to do with the dead.
This doctrine, that there is more than One Person in the Godhead, and of the resurrection of the dead, Isaac understood, and no doubt also taught and preached. For it is the word that belongs to the church and is the preaching of the gospel. He first prayed, and then preached, and will have said: It has been revealed to me by God that my father Abraham lives in God's grace and mercy; the-
hal so we will not die either. For though we die before the world, yet shall we be separated from the ungodly, who in this world have the appearance of living, and of having a God favorable and gracious unto them: but they have a wrathful God; but we have here, and shall have there, a gracious God also.
248. Therefore also belongs that he adds: "For the sake of my servant" etc. For how is Abraham a servant of God after death? Will God not finally be able to forget Abraham? He truly still serves God today, as Adam, Abel and Noah serve God. And this should be diligently noted, for it is the divine truth that Abraham lives with God, serves Him and also reigns with Him. But what kind of life it is, whether he is asleep or awake, that is another question.
How the soul rests, we shall not know, but it is certain that it lives. Look at men who are raptured or asleep. Of them no one can say what they are, even if they are asleep in the flesh; for they are without sensation and as if they were dead, and yet it cannot be said: This one is dead, but he lives in sleep or in a dream, as the whole world must testify. But I do not feel that I am alive when I am asleep; for then all the senses and reason itself are quite still, and do not judge the things that are their office: there no one knows where he is. If we lived in sleep, we could also think in sleep: I am in this house, in this chamber. But it often happens that in my sleep or dream I let myself think that I am in hell, in heaven, in Venice or in other places. Therefore, this is a great sign that I am alive and yet not alive.
How can we think that it is about the soul, how it may rest or live? It will undoubtedly have its own way of sleeping, which I do not know, just as I cannot understand bodily sleep. For I have often wanted to pay attention with diligence to the moment when I fell asleep, and to the moment when I was asleep.
I, in turn, would turn it off; but before I paid attention to it, I already woke up. Such examples of our sleep, which is also a kind of death, prove that the souls of the saints rest. Such examples of our sleep, which is also a kind of death, prove that the souls of the saints rest, as is said in Isa. 26:20 and 57:2, and much more quietly and peacefully than those who sleep. These also rest, and for the sake of rest men never live more than when they sleep. For the life of those who are awake is full of worry, sorrow, distress, toil and labor: but bodily sleep changes and overcomes sickness; as the disciples say of Lazarus, John 11:12, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will be better." Therefore we rightly say that we live most when we sleep and die, for the living breath is then most powerful. But the souls also sleep in this way, but how this happens we do not understand.
251 And this is no wonder, because we do not understand other things either, which should be known to us, in which we were born and brought up. For look at your childhood, and consider whether you also know how to remember that you were in your mother's womb, that you lay in the cradle, that you sucked your mother's breasts, cried, and ate porridge, and how you grew etc. Now we live truly also in the first year, since the fruit is carried in the mother's womb; but how we have lived, of that we know nothing at all. So also after birth a year-old child knows nothing of life, it does not know that it lives, it cannot consider life, we see in such children life without life. So I have lived sixty years and have also lived in my mother's womb, but afterwards I have never known anything about this life. And that the fruit in the womb must nevertheless certainly and vigorously live, is indicated by the fact that it often moves, moreover, that also the child cries when it comes out of the womb.
But since we cannot achieve this with our thoughts, we will understand much less how life is after death, and yet it is certain that we live. Therefore one should
218 L. VI. WI. S32. Interpretation of Genesis 26, 24. 25. W. n. SI7-ÄA. 219
Let the investigation be interrupted and command it to God; just as one should not investigate the previous article about the Trinity, namely, how God may be at the same time one and threefold according to the persons. But do thus: hear the word, let it guide and rule you, but close your eyes and always follow the word, and then you will find how God is one and threefold.
In this way I also hear here that in death and after death there is life and that there is a resurrection of the dead; but how this will happen, you do not worry, because you do not know that you live when you are asleep, and yet you still live; so you also lived in your mother's womb, and when you were a little child, that you yourself knew nothing about it. For should not our Lord God have more ways to live than these two alone, that a life is without life and understanding? So the soul can also have its own way of living, which is above our understanding.
254. we should hold on to this comfort and wait for it with firm trust, which God's word from heaven holds out to us, saying: I am your God, I am the God of Abraham, you are my servants etc. Thus it is written in Isa. 26:19: "Awake, and glorify, ye that lie under the earth: for thy dew is the dew of the green field." There God speaks to the dead no differently than if they were alive.
And the same word is a very strong testimony that we are not mortal, but immortal even in death. And this is the cause, because God speaks to us also in our language and how we use to speak. God knows that this life is transient, but why would he speak to us, and in the same way, also use our language, if we did not live forever? because otherwise he would speak his word in vain, only for the sake of a short time and moment. But now he does not speak in vain, and does not take the voice of the ox or the ass to speak with it: he does not roar with them; he speaks only with man. Wherever and to whom God speaks, let him be whoever he will, and let him speak in wrath or in grace with
him, the same is certainly immortal. The person of God who speaks and the word indicate that we are such creatures with whom God wants to speak for eternity and immortally. Abraham had such a God or gods (as it says here according to the Hebrew text), and whoever adheres to the promise of Abraham also has the same God and is a servant of God, and will finally, when he has died, also live in sleep.
God repeats the blessing because this holy man Isaac has been afflicted in many ways, and no doubt he will have thought in the affliction: Alas, I poor wretched man, what shall I do, where shall I turn? For the past temptations make us anxious and distressed, so that we think: How long will I have this peace? Perhaps it will last a month or two at the longest? For he also had to leave the well of Rehoboth. And perhaps Rebekah may have begun to complain and to be angry because of the misfortune, and that it changed with them so often and in so many ways. She will have said: Who will be able to endure and suffer this at length, to wander so long in error, and to have no certain seat or dwelling? For though this is a carnal thing, yet faith is greatly challenged by it.
257 Therefore I think that Isaac will be tired of so much misfortune, and that Rebekah will also have grumbled because of impatience, as Tobiah's wife gave him his alms. 2:15, 22, 23, where she says, "Then it is seen that your trust is nothing, and your alms are lost. With these and other words she reproached him for his misery. So I think that Rebekah and Isaac will have become tired and weary, and this will have been increased by the lamentations and cries of the servants. Therefore the Lord comforted him and all his servants, saying, "Do not be afraid. From this it follows that Isaac was fearful and terrified and his faith was challenged. For the
The devil not only wearies the godly with the greatness and severity of the temptations, but that he also keeps on with them and afflicts them forever does not give them any rest. Therefore God says to him, "My dear Isaac, be strong, do not be afraid," and so He raises him up and restores him, because he was almost tired in spirit. He does this with a very beautiful consolation, namely, with the revelation of immortality, and says: "You will live and live forever; for I am your father Abraham's God who lives, therefore you will also live.
258. These words should be diligently remembered; for God does not speak in vain. He says to the first: I am with you, but secretly and hiddenly. Yes, Isaac would like to say: "I do not feel it; you stand far away from me. As Jeremiah also laments in 12 Cap. V. 2. of the wicked: "You let them boast much about you and do not discipline them", as if he wanted to say: The others are happy, jumping and rejoicing, you are almost close to them.
How the Turk now boasts that God is on his side and is with him; how he has been blessed by God with so many victories and such great wealth. For he has a great rich blessing from God. In the meantime, it can be seen that the devil is close to the Christians who are captured and miserably strangled by the Turks, and that God is very far from them. With the wicked, the devil has died and, as they make believe, God reigns among them alone. But he is actually very far from them, and they are, as it says in the prophet Jeremiah in 46 Cap. V. 20. 21, they are "fattened calves" for the day when they are to be slaughtered and sacrificed. The same will be the case with the Turk and the Pope, whether they interpret their happy events as signs of grace and not of God's wrath.
But you, when God tempts you and afflicts you, believe and be satisfied with the word that you have, for God says in Psalm 91:15, "I am with you in trouble; I will deliver you," not only from trouble, but also from death,
Sickness, shame and disgrace etc., I will take care of you. The eyes do not see the same, nor do the hands grasp it, but all things are possible for the faithful.
261 And what was said to the patriarch Isaac in this place, the same is also said to us, namely, that God says: I am with you, and I will keep what I have promised; you shall expect from me not only bodily goods, but also eternal goods. Yes, Isaac would say, "But I see the opposite; it seems as if you are cursing me; I am dying of thirst with my wife, my children and all the household: is this a divine blessing? Then God answers and says, "Fear not," you shall not die of thirst. And says still further, "I will multiply thy seed, for my servant Abraham's sake." I will not only multiply you now, but also your seed and your descendants.
This is a repetition of the blessing with a multiplication of the same, thereby strengthening him and making him certain of eternal life and immortality. But why does he say "for the sake of my servant Abraham" and not for the sake of Isaac? Answer: He wants to praise the example of his father Abraham and hold it up to him that he should follow the same. As if he wanted to say: Even though you do not deserve that I should speak to you, I still want to speak to you for the sake of your father, whom I love so much. This is a very sweet consolation, and is much more pleasant, than if he had not taken the example of Abraham, and said, For thy sake, Isaac, I will multiply thy seed etc. And this is the last promise, that Isaac might be upheld and comforted unto the end of his life.
For this reason, he built an altar there and remained at Bersaba until his death, and was buried in the cave mentioned in Chapter 23, vv. 17, 19. V. 17. 19. and was buried in the cave. He built an altar there, not for the sake of the sacrifice, but for the sake of the preaching of the Lord.
For the word's sake. For in all places where they are thought to have erected altars and made tabernacles, there it is shown that they have erected a little church in such places, where people have come together to teach, to hear God's word, to pray, to praise and to sacrifice to God. So our churches are also such places, where people come together for prayer and to praise and glorify God. For an altar is not a place or site in the home, but in the church, and the works to be done in the church are to teach and hear God's word, and to praise and thank God etc.
There Isaac preached many beautiful sermons for almost seventy or eighty years. There he preached about the mystery of the Trinity, item, about the incarnation of Christ, about immortality, and about all the things that are now read and taught in the gospel. It must have been a small church, erected under a tree, under which he, his servants and neighbors gathered. I would certainly have liked to look at it, for it was not adorned with gold, silver or precious stones, but God spoke there with a living voice. Neither was the tabernacle precious, that it had a great appearance, but was built up of trees and set upright. But it was glorious and splendidly large, because a great prophet and a prophetess, Rebekah, lived there, and many holy people from his household came to Isaac when he was teaching and preaching, and listened to him with great reverence, thanking God for these teachers and preachers.
Thus Moses, having set forth the bodily and outward things that pertain to the body, in which are many beautiful examples of faith, love, hope, humility, and patience, sets forth in history the things and works pertaining to religion and faith, such as the promises, the sermons, and how they praised God and sang spiritual psalms.
with which the saints strengthened themselves in their faith and comforted one another in adversity. For this is the end to which all preaching and all heavenly teaching is to be directed, namely, that faith may be increased, the promise of God's grace glorified, extended, and planted in the hearts of men; moreover, that patience and other fruits of faith may also be increased.
266 But we keep in this place the common distinction between these two pieces, as, "to call upon the name of the Lord" and "to call upon in the name of the Lord"; for the first is to call or pray, as, in the 50th Psalm, v. 15, "Call upon me in trouble." But "to call in the name of the Lord" is as much as to preach in the name of the Lord; as, above in the 4th Cap. V. 26. of this first book of Moses: "In the days of Eno they began to preach the name of the Lord" etc. The Hebrew word kara actually means to call, to name, to read from the book, to preach. Sometimes it also means to meet. I believe, however, that Mahomet gave his book its title and name, that he called it the Alkoran, namely, that it is a textbook, in which his teachings are compiled, and, as it were, his Bible, as the pope calls his Decretals. Therefore, we understand the word in this place to mean teaching or reading something publicly in the common sermon; where they had other books.
But at the same time it is also described here what kind of preaching it was, namely, that he preached in the name of the Lord, that one preached about our Lord God; it was a teaching from God. It was not a loose, useless preaching of the doctrines of men, as is the teaching of the priest, but it was a right, true and pure teaching, which taught purely and unadulteratedly of the Lord and his name out of the promise, so that faith might be exercised, which is a work of the first table.
268 After this, in the other tablet, was the teaching of good works. For we have two kinds of teaching: one is about the divine promises, which are in the first tablet.
The other part of the doctrine is about good works and the fruits of faith, because God speaks to us and promises to be our God, so that we may have faith, love and hope in God; and this doctrine extends very far and goes through all works. The other part of the teaching is about good works and fruits of faith. These are the most important parts of the Christian doctrine, namely, the promise and the law.
Thirdly, there are also the ceremonies, such as circumcision, which Isaac had from God; he also presented them to his listeners. And he will undoubtedly have been a very pure teacher, who diligently taught and instructed the church and congregation of God in the word of faith and truth.
270 And he was able to do this rightly and well in the time of peace. For where there is no peace and quiet, there is no time and no place to build huts or erect altars, nor can people be taught, nor can the world or domestic government be properly administered. For this requires a quiet place and a peaceful time. But in times of trouble we should use what we have learned in peace. As Isaac did, when he saw that he had peace and rest by the grace of God, he was not slothful and idle, nor did he let idleness spoil his life, nor did he make any effort to accumulate much money and goods, but rather he used the time so that he would have the most work to do in his rest, for he understood that the rest was given to him so that the church might be taught and instructed in it for the sake of the descendants.
271 We should do the same, since the monks and tamer monkeys are lazy rogues, and only eat and drink, and enjoy peace and good days, the rehoboth and abundance of all things. But they abuse all these things shamefully, namely, that they only live in pleasure and indulge in all kinds of devilish sins and disgraces; although the treasures of emperors and kings are not given to the churches and monasteries for this purpose, but that the works belonging to godliness should be done and preserved with them. As if you
If you have peace and tranquility, you should use it, as Isaac did, to improve and expand the worship of God. In the same way, the bullwhistles should read and learn the Scriptures, so that they themselves could teach others about religion by praying, serving the altar and preaching in the name of the Lord.
Sixth part.
Of the covenant of Abimelech with Isaac; of the new well of Isaac, and of Esau's marriage.
V. 26. And Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahusath his friend, and Phichol his captain of the field.
This history is the same as the one in the 21st chapter above. V. 25. 26. that it almost seems as if it is one and the same story. For there Abimelech and Abraham also quarrel about the well, and Abimelech excuses himself that he knew nothing about it and that the well was taken from Abraham without his knowledge. But this history is still a little clearer and explains the previous one; for the gloss is added that the well was many.
Now this also serves for the comfort of Isaac. For God had already raised him up with the promise and given him peace and rest, so that he would be safe and quiet to set up the altar and the tabernacle. He now uses this rest in such a way that he does not want to have rest and good days and live in idleness, but that he may do what is proper for a prophet and priest of God to do: he works in the word and in teaching, is doctrinal, is skillful and ready to administer the teaching office; therefore now follows an increase of comfort, namely that Abimelech himself, who had driven him out before, now makes peace and a covenant with him of his own accord and voluntarily. However, I believe that this Abimelech is his son, whose name was mentioned above (Cap. 20). But he is
more cunning than his father; for he expels Isaac, and pretends not to know that his servants have taken Isaac's well.
Therefore it must first be recognized that it is a blessing and grace of God that Isaac is reconciled to the king. For thus Solomon says Prov. 16:7: "If a man's ways please the Lord, he also makes his enemies content with him.
(275) Then this example clearly proves the great power of patience to soften the hearts of men, for it is an almighty power that can turn an enemy into the best of friends. This Abimelech, who before had been an extreme enemy to Isaac, who could not stand him even in his kingdom, comes of his own accord, uninvited, with his princes and other great lords to Isaac again, not with the common rabble, but with his friend Ahusath and Phichol, his field captain, offering him peace and desiring to have friendship with Isaac, and promising him security and all kinds of benefits, so that they will serve him. This is a great boon and honor, so that God may favor Isaac, so that he may have abundant comfort, peace, protection and protection not only from the king, who now no longer listens to the slanderers and the evil mischievous shepherds, but he also has the princes and nobles in the kingdom as friends, so that this protection is now certain and strong enough, without all fear and danger.
276 All this is because Isaac remained patient and did not cease to do good to the ungrateful, and he himself did not become worse because of the ingratitude and wickedness of others. As a vineyard or fig tree, though it be torn up and evil dealt with, yet becometh no thorn hedge, but remaineth a good tree: so Isaac also is like a good tree planted by the rivers of water, which bringeth forth his fruit abundantly and blessedly, Psalm 1:3. 1:3; for because he is so patient, and hath borne the iniquity that is done him, he openeth the eyes of his neighbors, and stirreth up and softeneth their hearts, that they acknowledge and confess their sin which they have committed against him, and consider how they have sinned against him.
how much and how unfairly he had to suffer from them until now, through no fault of his own or his pious, honest wife and all the servants, in all of whom they felt at all times a special kindness, weariness and hospitality, and also saw in his servants and maids that they had good manners, and were rightly and well taught and instructed; therefore they recognize that with such honest and godly servants God is present with his blessing. Thus Isaac's patience and kindness brought his enemies to repentance and to the realization of themselves, so that they now punish themselves and blame themselves for having driven away the pious holy man with his servants.
277. and does this agree with the saying of Paul Rom. 12, 20. which he took from the proverbs of Solomon Cap. 25, v. 21. 22. where he says: "If therefore thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: and thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." For however much the heart of man is embittered, yet it can be softened and reconciled, where it is not at all hardened and hardened in malice, as Pharaoh's heart was. But if it is provoked and moved to anger by human weakness, or by some ignorance, or by the false accusations of other people, or by other right causes, it can be softened by charity and patience that it is heated and inflamed within itself, and recognizes the goodness and kindness of the one it considers its enemy, and punishes itself, thinking: "Why have you hurt and harmed this righteous man? Why did you persecute him who is so innocent? These are the coals that heat up and begin to burn from such patience, kindness and benevolence.
278 In this way Isaac also moves and overcomes the king, since he persists in faith, hope and love, and that he is hospitable, that he has not only reconciled himself to him, but is also thereby converted to the right worship and true knowledge of God. For he has undoubtedly heard the sermons and has entered the tabernacle of Isaac.
that he might learn God's word from him. Thus, God won the king and other people through the word that Isaac taught and brought them to the right knowledge. For he has given us his word not only for our sake, but also for the sake of others, namely, that we should communicate it to other people.
In this way the good smell of both, the pure healthy teaching of Isaac and also of his innocent life, has been spread among the king and the princes, so that they will have said: Ah, why have we driven out this pious holy man, who teaches rightly and gloriously, and also leads a holy life; whose wife is a very pious matron, in addition charitable, mild and adorned with all kinds of virtues! And so the hearts of the people throughout the kingdom and in the neighborhood have been converted. Therefore be patient, whoever you want, who suffer violence and injustice from other people, and wait for the Lord. For all this is sent and governed by God, since Isaac himself sits quietly and does nothing against the king, nor does he make a treaty with him; for he suffers only with patience and in silence, which he was commanded to do, preaching, setting up a tabernacle, and carrying on the word diligently.
280 So now we are also quiet and do not fight, but many of them have come to us, even from the enemies, and have been converted, which I neither forced them to do nor ever thought of doing. Therefore, this is a very sweet consolation, which rhymes nicely with the saying of Solomon in his Ecclesiastes in chapter 7. V. 9: "A patient spirit is better than a high spirit." Therefore let us also accustom our hearts to be patient, and always persevere in this, that we may carry out our office, punish the vices, and always diligently practice the word. Then the neighbors and enemies will hear, and the good smell of Christ will come to them, catching and drawing them in. Just as Abimelech comes to Isaac of his own accord and becomes a holy king, just as his father was, even though he is not circumcised.
281. for circumcision goes to the Gentiles
It belongs only to the house of Abraham, to the descendants and to his household: it is only commanded for those who are Abraham's people. But that the Jews also circumcised their fellow Jews (proselytes), they did not do right; for they had no commandment or commandment concerning it. For even at the time of circumcision many Gentiles were saved through the house of Abraham alone, in which was the word, the true religion and altar of God, where the word was heard in the name of the Lord, and where the word of promise, "through your seed," rang out. For this reason God gave circumcision to the house of Abraham, so that there would be certain descendants and a certain place where God's word and Christ the Lord would also be found by the Gentiles. He did not say in Genesis 22:18, "Through your seed all nations will be circumcised," but "will be blessed"; therefore they were able to receive the blessing without circumcision.
Therefore, this whole history is a confirmation of the comfort that the church and congregation of God must have. For it must have protection and shelter in this life. Therefore, Abimelech is again brought by the Word to assume the most noble and highest office of a king, which is to administer the law, to keep the peace, and also to administer and uphold justice and judgment; above all, however, he is to keep the service of God, to protect the prophets and teachers, to nourish and maintain Isaac, so that the knowledge of God may remain in his land.
This is the highest and most glorious work of man, which fills the hearts with true joy, and also with favor with God and man; as David is also joyful about it in the 60th Psalm, v. 8, when he says: "I am glad, and will divide the Savor, and measure the valley of Shushoth. But why? Answer: Because "God speaks in His sanctuary, I am glad," he says. That is to say: We hear God's word in my kingdom; the church and congregation of God has its
Tabernacle, worship, priest etc. Therefore, the most noble and right royal office of a king is to handle the word and see to it that it is also inherited by the descendants and spread among them.
But such kings and princes are almost few. For the majority of kings and princes in the world hate and persecute the Word at all times, destroy the churches and afflict the godly. Therefore, this is held up to us as an example and as a consolation, that we should know that God chooses one or the other from such a large number of princes who are enemies of the Word, who take care of the church, love the Word of God and learn it. So Abimelech is baptized in the Holy Spirit and circumcised with spiritual circumcision, and believes in the God of whom is preached and who is honored in the house of Isaac; becomes a disciple, a friend and patron of Isaac. For this is the blessing of the godly, which God has promised; as it is written in the 1st Book of Samuel in the 2nd Cap. V. 30: "Whoever honors me, I will also honor" etc.
The Hebrews dispute about the name achusath, whether it is a proper name of a man or a generic word? Jerome holds that it is a generic word, a collectivum, as it is called in grammar, and that it means not only one man, but a whole crowd of good friends who stood around the king and came with him. The Hebrew word achas means to grasp; as good friends are wont to shake hands with one another, to hold one another's hands, and to lend one another a hand and help one another; that this is the meaning and the opinion: Abimelech has come, and a whole company of his friends, who held one another by the hands, like a company of people or a whole multitude, that is, Abimelech has come to Isaac with the whole company of his good friends, who were either in the country or outside the country. For no doubt many of the neighbors around, who had not sat under Abimelech in his land, but had been their relatives or other good friends, came to Isaac's house.
have come. To all of them the good sweet odor of Christ came, that they exhorted one another, saying, Dear, let us go to the holy man, let us hear his preaching etc.
286) Then it may be seen what a useful person a prophet is in the world; as the words of Christ John 15:16 indicate, when he says to his disciples, "I have chosen you, and ordained that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. For here the great lords and princes in the same kingdom come to Isaac with their blood relatives, brothers-in-law and friends. He is held in such high esteem by them, and thus the patience of the holy man is crowned and rewarded, because he overcame evil with good, according to the teaching of Paul, Rom. 12:21.
V. 27-31 But Isaac said to them: Why come ye to me? ye hate me, and HM me driven from you. They said: We see with eyes that see, that the Lord is with thee. Therefore said we: Let there be an oath between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, that thou do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done thee nothing but all good, and let thee go in peace. But thou art now the blessed of the Lord. Then he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And early in the morning they arose, and sware one to another; and Isaac let them go, and they departed from him in peace.
Isaac punished them and reproached them for their sin, so that they had severely injured and angered him and his servants. From this punishment we may take a lesson that serves good manners, namely, that we should live in faith, godliness and patience, so that we do not flatter the great Hansa and do not cover up and conceal their sin. For if we do, we burden ourselves with the sins of others. The old, however, should not be punished with bitter words, but they should be admonished, so that the younger may not be proud against the old, as Isa. 3:5 says. And in our times such things are creeping up on us.
Evil corrupt manners will enter in general. There should be a difference between the highest and the lowest, between parents and children. The father is more and greater than the son because of power and need; therefore the son shall not stand against the father as the father stands against the son; and God's word says Deut. 19:32: "Before a gray head shalt thou rise, and the old men shalt thou hide."
So Isaac does not hide the sin of the king and his friends, he does not pretend to them, but punishes them with due reverence, saying: "Why do you come to me, if you hate me? Do you not know that you have sinned? For why have ye driven me from you? I will not refuse to talk with you, but I know that you are full of hatred and envy.
In this way one should not justify sin, nor should one praise the one who has sinned; but if it is some old man who has committed a sin, one should admonish him kindly. As when a son punishes his parents for some sin, he should say: "My dear father, my dear mother, this may be regarded as not befitting pious and honest people. It is evil for an old man to commit fornication, adultery, or other such sins and disgraces. But it behooves a prophet or preacher to punish a little more harshly and severely at times, as can be seen here in the example of Isaac.
But because the king and his friends see that the punishment is just and right, they confess their sin and call him blessed of the Lord. As if to say, "We recognize that we have done wrong because we have hated you unreasonably, for we did not know that you were a blessed one of the Lord. We have indeed seen that you have grown and become rich, but we did not think that this should be attributed to the divine blessing: but now our eyes are opened, and also our hearts and ears, and we gladly recognize that we have unjustly offended and driven you away.
291. although they excuse and deny
They do not confess their sin, but alleviate it somewhat; but they confess sufficiently that they are guilty, because they say: "We see with our eyes that the Lord is with you. So they understand together and summarize the confession of their sin and the recognition of the divine goodness and grace in Isaac; for he was still of the opinion that they were not yet reconciled with him, but were still enemies. Therefore Abimelech says: "We are not displeased with you now, because we see with our eyes that God is with you. And we also want to be with you in the fellowship of One Church and One Faith, to know and honor your God: therefore let there be an oath between you and us. For even though we are not circumcised, we still want to learn the right faith from you and want to be partakers of temporal peace and fellowship; only be our friend and do us no harm, we never want to offend you; as we have done nothing but good to you until now.
So Abimelech excuses himself as much as he can. He did not take Isaac's property, did not steal anything from him by force, so that this reduction of his debt seems fair and just; but his heart was so embittered by the servants that he commanded Isaac to leave the country. Otherwise, says Abimelech, while you were a stranger in our land, we let you go with kindness and good peace, we did you no harm at all, and though the shepherds took away your wells of water, yet such wrong and harm was amply repaid to you by the divine blessing. Therefore, we ask that you forgive us for what has happened.
This is the humility and conversion of Abimelech the king: neither does Isaac quarrel, nor argue with him, nor dispute about any matter, but rejoices because of the good will of the king and his friends, and prepares a banquet, that the oath, peace and protection between them may be constant and sure. And so Isaac, having been tested, is now exalted above those who hated and persecuted him before.
On the same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug and said to him, "We have found water. And he called it Sheba; therefore the name of the city is Bersaba, unto this day.
Here comes another blessing. After making peace with Abimelech, God gives him a new well. By which example we are admonished to wait for the consolation that will come after the tribulation. For this change lasts in the lives of the saints for and for, namely, that after the tribulation follows consolation, and again after the consolation another tribulation; but as long as God lives, it is certain that we will also live: "For ours is not living to Himself, nor is anyone dying to Himself. If we live," says St. Paul, Rom. 14, 7. 8: If we die, we die to the Lord." Whether day or night, cross or joy, all is God's: no one is sick to himself, but to the Lord; he who sleeps, sleeps to the Lord; he who eats, eats to the Lord; all is well if you hear God's word.
295 The Hebrew word schibea was mentioned above in chapter 21, namely, that it has two meanings, namely, of the number, which means seven, and of the oath; and the Latin word septem can be regarded as having come from the Hebrew; as we Germans also pronounce the same word, seven. Jerome wants it to be interpreted in this place, that it means as much as saturitas, fullness, because the same is also called schibea; that it should mean here as much as when one says, puteus saturitatis, a well of fullness or a full well. But the rabbis of the Hebrews hold hard about it, that it should be interpreted according to its right proper meaning, that it should be called, puteus juramenti (fountain of oath). And the same I like better, that it be called a fountain of oaths, and not of abundance. As it has been called above a Schwörborn; which name one has also given to a well in Erfurt.
Finally, one should also look for the secret interpretations of the wells in this place. But I do not have as much desire for this as Origen and Jerome. I do not ask anything about it, because only if they adorn the mind of history, which one can take from the simple history. And there the allegories or secret interpretations are like flowers, which are scattered among the simple understanding of the histories; but one can prove nothing with them, which Augustine also said about the figures.
297 But if any man would have a secret interpretation, let him draw the three wells to the three principal pieces of holy scripture, namely, to the law, to the prophets, and to the gospel. For the law is esek, that is, as they say in the German language, it is vinegar: yea, in the soul or conscience it is vinegar; for "the law worketh only wrath," Rom. 4:15. The prophets are sitna; for where they press upon the law, there is the wrath and enmity of God; not that such should come from the law, but for the Philistines' sake; out of good cometh evil. But the gospel is righteous: when it is spread throughout the whole world, it enlarges consciences and brings them comfort. This may be the secret interpretation of this text. Whoever wants to, may use it.
V. 34, 35: When Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beri the Hittite, and Basmath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. Both of them made Isaac and Rebekah miserable.
These are examples of the holy patriarchs, in whom we see not only how they had such a good faith, but also how they took such great care to practice the works of love, patience and all kinds of virtues. So far we have seen how much severe affliction Isaac suffered, being afflicted with temptation from the strangers; how he wandered among the Gentiles as a stranger, which Gentiles, though they were not openly his enemies, yet they gave him with.
The people of the country have made a lot of trouble and work out of their secret enmity and bitter hatred, and that they have secretly pursued him. And these were still external temptations.
But here follows the beginning of a much more terrible misfortune, after he has overcome all temptations, so that he, together with his wife, children and servants, has been very severely afflicted, from which he has already learned perfect patience. And the heathen among whom he lived are now reconciled to him, and the church or congregation of God has grown in good peace and tranquility and has increased, so that more and more listeners have come from all around, over which he is also pardoned with bodily blessings. For God gives him the fruits of the earth in abundance, along with fine fountains and all kinds of necessities. In sum, he has peace and rest and everything in full measure.
But now the temptations in his house begin, and they are much more severe than the previous ones. In sum, now comes ginger, pepper, cellar neck, sorrow and heartache, since he is now old, and hopes that the temptations will end, because he is tired and exhausted from so much sorrow and misery that he has suffered. For he is now almost a hundred years old; which may be inferred from the fact that Esau and Jacob were born when Isaac was in the sixtieth year of his age, and Esau, when he was forty years old, takes a wife: therefore, I say, Isaac is a hundred years old. The same old man is now again afflicted and chastened with heavy trials in his own house; since it seems that all misfortune is now over and conquered, a new cross and anguish arise.
301. but because the same thing tends to happen to us, we should think that this is written for us as an example, so that we may see how God tries His saints, to whom He has given the Word and promised eternal life, in so many ways and so hard in this miserable life, that the saying of St. Paul in the book of the apostles' stories in chapter 14, v. 22, is true. V. 22. is true, when he says, "that we must go through much tribulation into the kingdom of God.
302 For Isaac suffered many grievous miseries in his house from the hundredth year of his age unto the fiftieth year of his age. He had to suffer all this and eat it up until the time when Joseph, his son Jacob's child, was driven away to Egypt. For in that year or about that time he died, and saw and suffered all the same miseries that were to follow in Jacob his son, in Joseph Jacob's son, in Esau who went astray, in Dinah who was put to sleep, in Reuben who went up to Jacob his father's bed. These many, great and severe afflictions, with which he has been afflicted these eighty years, have finally worn him out.
For this reason these patriarchs are true saints, and if we should be compared with them, we are nothing at all; indeed, all the bishops, martyrs, and apostles have marveled at them, and thought, We are indeed in the first degree, and must suffer much, but all this is nothing compared with the trials of the patriarchs; and therefore they have so honored them, that they have been ashamed of themselves, compared with the patriarchs. For a martyr can do with one or half an evil hour, but here there is no end to the temptation, the toil and the daily miseries. For, dear God, how great a lamentation and misery it is that he has had to watch and suffer such misfortune in his house with the greatest pain for the whole eighty years. And this was not a common misery and misfortune, but a special and the highest misery and misery.
There is no one so eloquent who could sufficiently explain the patience of Isaac, just as the patience of Abraham and Jacob is highly praised. From this it can be sufficiently seen that these three patriarchs were especially dear to God, and therefore they are well worthy of the name of the patriarchs and the most holy martyrs. And we would like to call them, among all the other saints, a trinity of saints (if one wants to speak in this way); for they have neither the greatness, nor the quantity of the temptations, nor that they are granted for and for themselves,
but with great strong courage have overcome all these challenges manfully and chivalrously and triumphed over them; and we shall finally see the glory of such overcoming at the last day, and marvel at it; now we may signify and behold it to some extent.
But all this is hidden from the papists for the sake of the certain astonishment that they have been husbands, have had wives and children, and have not led an unmarried life. For this alone has been holiness in the papacy, where one has lived in celibacy; therefore they cannot see these beautiful lights, yes, the sun and moon of the most beautiful virtues in the holy patriarchs.
Therefore, we are taught and instructed not only that we should follow such examples of the patriarchs, but also that we become ashamed and learn to be ashamed of ourselves that we are nothing compared to these patriarchs. For we must be ashamed here and say: Augustine and Ambrose are nothing, who have had their gifts, but cannot even be compared to these holy fathers, who have been obedient to God everywhere with such great patience and humility. Therefore, God does not say in vain that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Ex 3:6.
307 Let us now pass over the affliction which Isaac had in his house. "When Esau was forty years old," says the text, "he took two wives, both of whom were very bitter against Isaac and Rebekah." This very heavy cross Moses has described in brief words. It indicates the age of Esau; because at that time they took wives a little earlier than before the flood: after the flood it was customary and also commanded that they took wives when they came to their forty years.
308] After this Moses also writes that Esau took two wives who were foreigners or pagans; from this we can assume that he did not want to go to Syria and take one of his blood relatives, which his father Isaac did before him and Jacob will do after him.
309. it can be seen as if Moses had
want to indicate that Esau made a covenant with the men and young men, the Hittites, and that the same might be stronger, so he took their daughters or sisters in marriage, when the Gentiles had long been condemned by God; as he lists these seven nations above and condemned them, since he says in the 15th chapter of this first book v. 16: "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet over", which no doubt Esau knew. Not that God rejected them completely; for Judah, one of the twelve patriarchs, is a father of Christ, from whose seed Christ came; he took a Cananite woman to wife, the daughter of Shuah. And Thamar begat Perez and Zerah by fornication and incest. For this reason God condemned these Gentiles, but nevertheless chose some mothers from the lineage and blood of such condemned peoples.
310 And it is possible that Isaac was not so displeased at first that Esau took Hittite wives and two of them at the same time. He may have seen that this was a common practice among the same peoples. As Abimelech also had many wives and in the whole east country the same use was also. Therefore, I believe that neither of these causes made the hearts of Isaac and Rebekah bitter and grieved them. But the cross and the affliction of these very holy parents arose because they had to bring these two wives of their son into their house, from which all the noise and all kinds of hurt and resentment arose.
The monks in the celibate state do not know anything about the cross and toil in the house regiment. It was indeed a very hard and heavy cross for both parents, but especially for the mother, who until her ninetieth year had ruled the house with great toil and labor. Now, however, since she is almost exhausted due to age and many worries she had about the housekeeping, she must take the young women into her own house, feed and maintain them from her own, so that they only torment and plague the old mother-in-law,
And according to their own will they confounded all things in the house, and put the lowest things first. For thus Moses says, "They were both very bitter, and grieved Isaac and Rebekah."
(312) But the nature of the afflictions is not expressly mentioned in the Scriptures, and I believe that the parents were not immediately enraged and embittered because of some small fault, as many small injuries tend to occur in the household. For both Isaac and Rebekah were almost well trained to suffer misfortune and affliction, and had with them the overcoming and victory of the spirit. Such people are not easily angered.
Therefore, there must have been some grave and special cause. But we can learn to know and understand this if we look diligently at the Ten Commandments; they will show what the causes of these temptations were. After this, let us take the example of Hagar, which was told above, Gen 16:4. For since she dared to rebel against her wife and grieve her, what do you think these women did not do? For they will no doubt have boasted and said: We are the firstborn son's wives, the firstborn is ours. For Jacob was utterly despised and rejected, but Esau behaved like a priest and like a prince and a rightful heir in the church and in the house. Therefore the strange wives also did not want to be maidservants, but housemothers themselves, and to have and receive such honor in the house as wives of the firstborn son.
314 This honor and glory made them very proud and hopeful, which is why Isaac and Rebekah suffered all kinds of indignities. And how should they have behaved differently, since it is said above that Esau himself was also of this kind, that he boasted so and had such wild manners? How, thinkest thou, will he have boasted with so great pride among his wives, saying: I am the firstborn; the inheritance belongs to me; I have the divine
The promises made to my father are all mine by divine right; I will be the father of the future seed; I will possess the land. And as often as Isaac preached to his household about the spiritual and physical promises, so often did Esau ascribe them to himself: I am the firstborn and the rightful heir of this promise, and you are wives of the firstborn; you are the rightful housemothers and wives over all the land; our children will inherit and possess it; Jacob is much inferior to me, is despised and rejected.
(315) This was the one sin and the one bitterness, that is, the great affliction of the two wives, Judith and Basmath, which affliction these two holy spouses had to suffer. For this presumption of Esau and his wives is compared with the previous example of Ishmael in Abraham's house, when Ishmael also boasted that he was the firstborn, as his father himself had testified. Then Sarah was angry that he wanted to be the heir and to reject her son Isaac. No, she said, so God did not say, but, "In Isaac shall be called thy seed." Now although Ishmael is the firstborn according to the flesh, he is not the firstborn according to the spirit.
The same thing happened in this house. Esau and his wives had boasted of the priesthood and rule, and that Jacob should not hope or wait for anything more, but only that a small portion of the inheritance or some small gift would be given to him, and that he would be content with it, and would therefore have to leave his father's house and go into misery; but Esau would remain in the house, would be the factotum, and would also be the prince and priest, and father of Christ. Just as Sarah was impatient and angry at the boasting of Ishmael, Rebekah was also very angry and thought of ways and means for Jacob to keep the firstborn. And she finally achieved the same.
317 But it was still almost thirty years. For when they were over, Jacob first came in his father's place and became heir to both in the flesh.
He remains in his father's house, but Esau has left it with his wife and children. This is the judgment of our Lord God and his special government, who, as the Virgin Mary sings in Luc. 1, 52, pushes the mighty from their seats and lifts up the wretched. For he does not want to and cannot tolerate the proud; indeed, for the sake of the proud, he rejects and overthrows those whom he has just placed on the throne and raised high; for he does both, he raises up the wretched and places them on the throne, and then pushes them off the throne again.
But why does God do this, and why is He against Himself? Answer: He exalts them because they are wretched, and then overthrows them again when they become worthy of hope. And there is no emperor so mighty and powerful that he could not humble him and push him from his throne; indeed, it is much easier for him to overthrow any great monarch than it is for me to kill a fly. For thus he says to Saul 1 Sam. 15, 17: "Is it not so, when thou wast small in thine own sight, that thou becameest chief among the tribes of Israel?" But now you are proud and hopeful, and will not obey my voice; therefore I cast you off your seat.
Therefore, I say, this is God's work, that He exalts the miserable and overthrows the hopeful. The same is testified by the histories of all nations. "He deposes kings, and sets up kings," says Daniel in 2 Cap. V. 21. Because the kings are humble, he protects them and keeps them in their kingdom; but when they become proud and persecute his saints or believers, he deposes them.
The example of Ishmael in Genesis 21:9 ff. is almost frightening, when he is expelled and deprived of the firstborn because of his pride, especially in regard to the spiritual promise. So Esau also becomes proud and hopeful, therefore he is rejected and is not worthy to be an heir of the land of Canaan and a father of the Messiah who should reign in the land. Because of this, Isaac's and Rebekah's bitterness came out of the first and the second table. From the first to the priest
And of the other, for the sake of the worldly government. For the two wives of Esau have spoken, saying, Our husband shall have the service and the church of God, and Christ shall be born of our husband. In the first table he shall have the teaching office, and in the other he shall also have the government. This is the right of the firstborn, of which he has boasted with great pride.
321. But above (Cap. 25. V. 23.) the opposite has been set and decided in the promise, since it is said: "The greater will serve the lesser. For when God promises grace and blessing, He sets His promise in such a way that He remains God. If the promise is to be firm and remain, it is necessary that God Himself also remain and be recognized as the One who gives and promises the blessing. But if I become proud and hopeful, I lose the promise. For the promise excludes hopefulness, and comprehends in itself the humility and knowledge of God who makes the promise.
322 Now Rebekah and Isaac had to bear and endure this bitterness until the thirtieth year. For so long did Jacob live without a wife, and was also despised and rejected by the household against Esau, which caused his mother great and just pain. For that which is commonly said, that all the mothers-in-law of their sons are wives, is not to be said of this holy matron Rebekah. It is much different here; for she cares for the firstborn of Jacob, as Sarah also did. There one does not have to conceal anything, there one does not have to suffer injustice, and one does not have to deviate from one's right there, because it is a divine promise. But where one despises or rejects the word, and wants to deny the divine promise, this is not patience, but is laziness, yes, a contempt of God. For I could suffer all things that I ought, except that my Lord Christ should not be taken from me.
323 Yes, you say, a Christian should be quiet and have patience with all humility, and should also forgive and pardon those who have hurt him.
offend. Answer: But then patience, humility and all other works of love cease, if I am to lose him for whose sake I suffer: where one is to lose God, deny his word and the right service of God, there one must have no patience; there we must be sure of the divine promise which concerns us, that we do not allow ourselves to be deprived of it in any way.
324 So when Rebekah sees that Esau rises high with his wives, as if he were the king and they the queens, even that they are the right heirs both to the bodily and spiritual blessing, then patience ceases, and Rebekah thinks thus: I will have to work so that my son Jacob's blessing is not taken away and withdrawn, but that he may be the heir according to the promise. And the Holy Spirit gives counsel to Rebekah, whereof we shall hereafter hear, that Isaac the father, not being able well to see, did unwittingly turn the firstborn of Esau unto Jacob. And as Abraham had to listen to the voice of Sarah, so Isaac must also obey Rebekah against his will. And Rebekah shall do the same by a wholesome and godly deceit, that the inheritance may be taken from the false, unrighteous firstborn, and be restored to Jacob, the true firstborn.
This is the one cause of bitterness; and this has been truly greater than we can think, who read this thing drowsily and industriously, and also do not understand this struggle. To this sorrow and misfortune has come the other also, namely, idolatry. For these two wives of their son, who were not instructed in the divine doctrine, have contradicted the right worship and the true religion. Perhaps they may have brought the statutes of their fathers, the Hittites, into the house of their father-in-law, and with the same leaven poisoned the church and congregation of God, which Isaac had. Yes, this has only embittered the hearts of these holy spouses, since the wives have held fast to the superstition of their fathers and defended the same, so that heresy and sects have arisen from it.
For this is the most grievous and distressing thing: when the church is well arranged and ordered, and the teachers and believers are of one mind, speak from one mouth, have one heart, one pen, when we all teach one doctrine and write with one accord: that then one comes who confuses all this and makes the people astray, who wants to be doctor and master, and to draw the whole church to his side; as Arius arose and destroyed the whole church at Alexandria. For these are as it were two sisters and twins, namely, the quarrel and strife about the firstborn and heresy.
The heretics see that they cannot become great and famous if they remain in the communion and unity of the church. What shall I do? they say, my name is quite obscured, is not highly praised in other dominions and countries; therefore I must find a way by which I may elevate myself a little and distinguish myself, so that people may see what I can do. Then a dispute arises about the firstborn and about the title or name of the church.
The right church, however, is despised and trampled underfoot by such ambitious spirits; just as Isaac and Jacob were not considered the right church by Esau and his wives here. They are fools, they will have said, they have a small spirit; one must go higher. For such words have been heard in our time from Muenzer: "Oh, Luther and others may have begun the gospel, but they have not carried it out. etc.
In this way, these two proud women also incited Esau to reform the church, saying to him: "You are the Lord, you may arrange and govern everything according to your pleasure, you will not be able to err or fail; well then, let us also introduce our fathers' religion here and bring it into pregnancy. What! Your father Isaac is a rude man, he always sticks to his simplicity, teaches us only to pray. This is all a simple thing, has no appearance or prestige, does not move or awaken the hearts of the people. You have to bring something into the church that has a semblance and that is
The sun and the moon shine deliciously in the eyes of the people. Our fathers, the Hittites, worship the sun and the moon; therefore let us also keep the religion and ceremonies of the Hittites.
This has been the great pernicious harm of the same church. For the statutes of men and ceremonies have a great appearance and catch the eyes of the people, move the common rabble, so that they are highly astonished at the outward splendor and the great appearance. In this way, these two pagan women have attracted many of their servants, as well as some of their neighbors, and they will have said: Isaac is a childish old man, he can do nothing; Rebekah milks the goats and cows; therefore let us make another and much greater service.
Thus the false church began to reign because of the outward splendor, but the promise and the pure divine teaching were despised. Isaac and Rebekah had to see and endure the same misery. Esau was brought forward with his wives and despised his parents; thus they neither served God rightly nor honored their parents, but
with her followers bitterly and harshly angered the good pious parents.
332 And so it is with us even now, who see that so many divisions and sects are arising, for which cause the church is in fear and almost very distressed. But this misfortune cannot be prevented. But when the firstborn is taken away, idolatry will certainly follow. Therefore, the church that Isaac had was in great danger, which danger started from the firstborn, and also from his wives, both of whom grieved the heart and soul of Isaac and Rebecca and made them bitter. And Isaac was not able to hide his grief, or to conceal it, or to hide it; for it was a great affliction, and it endured for ever and ever. For they had not only angered and offended Isaac and Rebekah, as it says in the common Latin translation, but they still hurt and embittered them without ceasing; they did not cease to embitter the two, Isaac and Rebekah. This has happened not only once, twice or three times, but the bitterness has lasted a long time until the hard battle that now follows.