Joshua 5 – When the people of the
region hear that the Israelites have crossed the Jordan in such a miraculous
way, “their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them” (5:1).
We
learn in this chapter that all the men of military age who were circumcised before
leaving Egypt have died in the desert passage.
Meanwhile the sons born in the desert have not been
circumcised, so this is something that must be done now that the people are
preparing to enter the Promised Land. After this, the people celebrate yet another
Passover, but the manna, which God has provided them for forty years suddenly
ceases. They dine on the produce of the
land. Joshua encounters “a man standing
before him with a drawn sword in his hand” (5:13). It is “the commander of the army of the Lord” (an angel?). He tells Joshua (in an echo of Jacob’s
encounter and Moses’ experience as well) to “remove the sandals from [his]
feet, for the place where you stand is holy” (5:15).
Reflection: There is a time in the desert and a time for
coming out of the desert. The time in
the desert is the time of conversion and testing. Then comes the time of faithful habitation of
the land and the life God gives. What is required here is not the giving up
of all worldly things and reliance solely upon the Lord, but faithful adherence
to what one learned in the desert. Faithful living requires that we live hand-in-hand
with our creator, but we may also enjoy the beauty and the fruits of the
creation. We may also exercise our
own powers and be caretakers over the earth.
But like Adam in the garden, we must come at the conclusion of each day
and walk with God, confer with him over the day find sustenance and
encouragement form him for the coming day.
Origen (185-254 AD)
De Principiis (First
Principles)
Book II - On Christ
7 - The concept of
Christ as BOTH “image of the invisible God” and “image” of man. Paul says “He is ‘the
brightness of the glory of God, and the express figure of his person.’ The only-begotten Son, therefore, is the
glory of this light, proceeding inseparably from (God) Himself, as brightness
does from light, and illuminating the whole of creation. For, agreeably to what
we have already explained as to the manner in which He is the Way, and conducts
to the Father; and in which He is the
Word, interpreting the secrets of wisdom, and the mysteries of knowledge,
making them known to the rational creation; and is also the Truth, and the
Life, and the Resurrection—in the same way ought we to understand also the
meaning of His being the brightness: for it is by its splendor that we
understand and feel what light itself is.”
He presents the greatness
of God in a way that is “gentle” and “soft” so that it is not overwhelming to
the “weak eyes of [us] mortals”
8 - It is the Son who
makes God “to be understood and acknowledged” and because of this he is called
the “figure of His person or subsistence” by Paul.
Origen
makes a comparison between this relation of Father and Son in the divine real
with a material object. He says try to
imagine a statue that is so huge it covers the face of the earth. If you
wanted to give anyone an idea of what this statue really looked like you’d have
to make it small so that it could be
observed and comprehended by people. This is what we have in Christ – God
“divesting Himself of His equality with the Father, and showing to us the way
to the knowledge of Him” that is through a man who is “the express image of His
person.”
“’He
who sees Me, sees the Father also,’ and ‘I and the Father are one.’”
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