[BEGINS] our glory, then you shall follow. As a servant follows a master. A
VERS. 23. And I will take away my hand, and you shall see my backside: but my face you cannot see.
Didymus.—The divine nature, such as it existed from eternity before the foundation of the world, is indicated by the face; but creation and providence are signified by the backside.
CAP. XXXIV, vers. 2. And be ready in the morning, that you may ascend immediately into Mount Sinai, and you shall stand with me on the summit.
Didymus.—For he does not stand with any other but with God, to whom he will complete the predicted progress. But what is it to stand with God, unless it be to be prepared to hear the precepts of God? B
VERS. 3. And let no one ascend with you, nor let any one be seen throughout the whole mountain: let the oxen also and the sheep not graze over against it.
Didymus.—He commanded those who were more imperfect than Moses to remain at the foot of the mountain.
Fragments on the Second Book of Kings.
(From the Catena of Nicephorus praised above, tom. II.)CAP. XXII. Vers. 5. For the sorrows of death encompassed me: the torrents of iniquity terrified me. C
Didymus.—He also speaks of the torrents of iniquity, because those who do not manfully withstand temptations fall into iniquity.
VERS. 6. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
Didymus.—The sorrows of death and hell are mortal sins.
VERS. 9. There went up a smoke in his wrath, and fire from his mouth shall devour: coals were kindled by it.
Didymus.—“There went up a smoke in his wrath,” as the pernicious matter is consumed, having an analogy to the things that are built up upon the foundation of Christ by wicked men—wood, hay, stubble (1 Cor. III, 12). D These are evil actions or perverse dogmas. But coals sometimes designate punishments, for example, when the Apostle says: “If your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in doing this, you shall heap coals of fire upon his head” (Rom. XII, 20); and David: “Coals shall fall upon them; you shall cast them into the fire” (Ps. CXXXIX, 11). These coals will be a help to you. Sometimes, however, coals signify the fiery words of God, by which the thoughts of the soul are purified; which Isaiah makes manifest, saying: “And there was sent one of the seraphim, and he took a coal with the tongs from the altar.”
Furthermore, that fire proves the thoughts of the soul prepared for this, so that it might emerge more beautiful; but it purifies sinners, consuming their wicked actions; and unless they receive this fire, they shall be consumed by the eternal fire.
A Ver. 10. *And he bowed the heavens, and came down, and gloom was under his feet.*
Didymus.—The descent is to be referred to the economy. He descended, not by changing place, but by taking the form of a servant, while existing in the form of God (Phil. II, 6, 7). That which is obscure and hidden in the knowledge of God is signified by the gloom: which gloom Moses penetrated, as much as was possible for a human being. Such was the advent of God among us, inasmuch as he was known by mortals only in part.
Ver. 11. *And he sat upon the cherubim, and did fly, and appeared upon the wings of the wind.*
Didymus.—Cherub is interpreted as "multitude of knowledge." God, therefore, sitting upon these rational creatures, or also upon souls that are like them, flies through their most acute intelligence. But if you understand the winds as sensible ones, God sits upon them by providence, directing them as he wills; for he says, "He brings forth the winds from his treasuries" (Ps. CXXXIV, 7). If, however, by the name of winds you understand those who are lifted up by the Spirit, and if you wish to consider wise men similar to winds that exhale their own breaths B, God, riding upon their wings—that is, upon their high-flying thoughts—flies everywhere. But the Apostle also introduces winds of doctrine, when, speaking of the heterodox, he says: "That we may no longer be children, tossed about and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the trickery of men, in craftiness, to the scheming of error" (Ephes. IV, 14).
Ver. 14. *And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High gave his voice.*
Didymus.—Now that the things prophesied concerning Christ have reached their fulfillment, God immediately thunders from heaven: both by demonstrating the truth of the high-sounding prophecies by the very outcome of events, and by casting into the minds of all a high sense concerning the divine nature of his only-begotten Son, when he says: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased* (Matth. XVII, 5). Flesh and blood did not reveal it to them, indeed, but the heavenly Father; who, C in order to prepare for the reception of the divine thunder, decreed that his Son should conversed bodily on earth, and should lay down his own soul for the sake of the creature, so that, lifted up from earthly things by that thunder coming from heaven, they might draw near to the heavenly One, bearing the image of the heavenly, as the Apostle says.
Ver. 15. *And he sent forth arrows, and scattered them; and he flashed lightning, and confounded them.*
Didymus.—He sends forth arrows against those who are hostilely disposed, which are able to throw into confusion those who are of one mind in evil. And he calls the words previously uttered concerning vengeance "arrows" D.