Memra 9: On Uprightness and the Love of the Upright and the Prophets

Memra 9: On Uprightness and the Love of the Upright and the Prophets Show now that the prophets who were among that harsh people had a love that was perfect for the Old and New Testaments, and according to the will of the Lord who holds all, they conducted their ways. And whatever he said to them, they did. And when they ran after love and attained perfection, they ceased from perfection, because the Lord sent a slayer among them against his enemies. But the Lord who came into the world did not come because of the prophets, nor because of the righteous, but because of sinners and because of the lost and because of those who had no hope that they might be called to repentance and that he might bring them to the house of life. For the prophets and all the upright were able to show or to be perfected by the living and holy Spirit, which is the Lord. But because the whole world was lost, the Lord appeared in a body to benefit the whole world, and that the whole world might know the will of God from God and from his ways. His word, moreover, declares that he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Therefore, the upbringing of everyone was born of the Lord, that everyone might learn the truth of his humility and of his love openly, because not every person is sufficient to hear from the Spirit of his holiness the will of the Lord.

Thus, then, the coming of the Lord was for the sake of all people, because the Lord taught his humility, his gentleness, and his meekness, and they were not able to be questioned among the people concerning this love, submission, and suffering of patience. For they saw that the Lord of all endured everything before them, because every person was for the sake of the companionship of all, as they marvelled and said: "If the Lord endured because of your iniquity, how much more ought you to endure because of the iniquity of your people?" Even sinners, then, as well as the righteous, were enriched by the good companionship that the Lord of all had, in which all were to be likened, and the good and the evil were enriched by it. But this God restrained the prophets in one place after another, even from anger, because they were sought by him at that time, because he subdued through them the rebels with severity, as was fitting for his will. In this he also restrained them from love—that which loves one's neighbor as oneself, for all people are neighbors. Because he sent them at that time, when there was enmity between God and the people, to go and kill his enemies, because they were rising up against the Lord and saying: "What is the Lord's desire?" as Pharaoh said: "Who is the Lord, that I should listen to him and to his messengers?

Thus, then, he used to send his servants and kill them, sometimes with a sword and sometimes without a sword, and sometimes with fire and sometimes with cold. And with every kind of torture that he could, he tortured. And in this, the Lord used to restrain his servants, sometimes sacrificing from that commandment of love toward uprightness. For if the Lord had killed them without servants, they would have said, "The idols have killed," and not the Lord, and they would have sacrificed to their idols, which they had set up, and they would not have known the Lord. Therefore, through the servants, he subjugated them until they confessed that the Lord is God in heaven and on earth, and above heaven and below earth, and in breadth and length, and there is no place that is distant from him. For this reason, then, the Lord restrained his servants, also from love, at times. For they ran after uprightness with patience, as Jeremiah said: "I am not guilty, and they do not condemn me, and all of them mock me." When he was afflicted in solitude, he said: "Blessed is the one who takes up his yoke in his youth, and sits alone, and is silent, and puts his mouth in the dust, and rejoices at the one who strikes him, and spends his life in disgrace." And this yoke of the Lord Jesus was seeking. And the Lord restrained all of them because he was destroying his enemies through him, and he sent me, the Lord, against them with a rope, and they mock me.

Also David said, “The hairs of my head have been many with my enemies and my haters, and I have not been able to bring forth anything that is not unjust.” Thus also all the prophets hoped and waited for that hope which was to be revealed. The rest of the prophets, however, came until they reached the end of perfection, and the Lord did not allow them to be completed. And there are also those whom the Lord brought down even beneath suffering: so that they might be subject to these two great commandments of love. For suffering is not a curse to life nor an evil-doer; but because the Lord sent them, they would go and curse and hate his haters, and they would be zealous against those who stood against him, and they would be beneath suffering. The rest, however, would stand whenever the Lord did not send them, in those commandments of love for the Lord and for your neighbor, which are all in the living.

And after perfection they were running, while they were being wearied from wrath and from anger; and while they were seeking peace and running after it; and while they were passing from evils and doing good deeds; and while they were offering to God thanksgiving and not sacrifices; and while they were saying, “An evil heart has passed from me, and I do not know evil”; and while Samuel was praying for those who despised him; and while Jeremiah was praying for those who were throwing him into the pit of mire, and the Lord said to him, “Do not pray for them three times,” and he did not listen to him. And they were doing to the sons of their own flesh as they wished to be done to them, and the Lord was restraining them, because such was the time. And again Jeremiah said, “I restrained myself so that I would not go out and curse them, something that is permitted, that I not be guilty of cursing them.” And the word of the Lord came upon me like fire and burned me, and I was not able to bear it, and I did not curse them until I descended from anger and cursed them. How did the prophets sin that they harmed the wicked and transgressed that commandment of anger, and killed and cursed, something that is permitted, that they not be guilty of cursing them and killing them, and they did something that is permitted to them for others, and they transgressed anger, because the Lord himself made them transgress when they did not wish it in brief?

Because of this, they were without beginning in everything that the Lord commanded, before the Lord was born from Mary and made humility, peace, and tranquility: the New Testament, which is better than the Old. And how long was the thought of the prophets for this New Testament, and it did not come in their days. Because of this, God was not ashamed to be called the God of their God. That is: he was not ashamed that the Lord called them his brothers, as he called the apostles. Because of this, the holy city was good for them. That is: the Lord completed the work of the apostles. But today, God desires from them that they seek the love of the upright, that they love one another, and that thing which he commanded concerning them, that the upright should do for them: do not do to your brothers among the sons of Adam, otherwise they will not enter the kingdom. Again, when the Lord desired that the Lord die for the sons of Israel, Moses said in his prayer concerning those who were embittering his spirit every day and were diminishing him: If you spare them, erase me from the book of life. Behold, how did Moses act towards the foolish? As he wished that the righteous would do to him if he were foolish, they would seek against him. You see how the upright were running after perfection. And God said to him: No, but to the extent that he sins against me, I will spare. And Moses was ashamed in his love, and he loved the love of the upright as himself.

And in his uprightness, he desired that he himself should suffer the affliction that was upon him, if he were foolish, until the Lord put an end to the follies of his brothers, the sons of Adam. For what does it resemble that they rejoice, one with another, for these upright ones, for whom it was grievous, and they were praying for the evil that was coming upon him because of his sins? In another place, however, the Lord brought Moses down from under uprightness when he said to him: Command the Levites to destroy their brothers and their fathers, because they worshipped the calf and exchanged it for a dead calf. And when Moses saw that evil had prevailed and that he would not spare anything if he wished to come upon them, he did to them that which he thought he himself would do if he sinned. That, however, was by the word of the Lord’s mouth, and not by the will of Moses. And when the sinful Amalek was destroyed, the Lord brought him down from uprightness and did that which he thought he himself would do to him and to his brothers, the sons of Adam. For at that time there was enmity between God and the righteous. Also the Jews, when they were wicked, God would bring upon them the Assyrian tribe and chastise them with it.

From the day that the Lord loosed enmity and poured out the blood of his crucified one, both on earth and in heaven, and brought wars to an end from the ends of the earth—not that the Assyrian is stirred up unless the Lord stirs him, nor does the Roman descend to battle unless the Lord brings him down, nor does the Arab go astray in error and kill the sinners unless the Lord sends him—but rather, evil is kindled day by day among all of them. For the Lord made peace, but the sons of Adam do not wish for peace, nor are they pacified; one man fights with his brother, as the Apostle wrote: "If one man has a grudge against his companion, leave him; just as Christ left all of them in their lifetimes." If they had wished to pass from evils, the Lord would not make wars day by day as in former times. They themselves, of their own will, bring the day upon themselves in their lifetimes. And when one is kindled against his companion, the Lord casts him down before him, as it is said: "When he raises his hand against his companion, he does not prevail." Therefore, both parties raise their hands against each other with the sword and are destroyed in this world, and in the one to come they are tormented, because they did not uphold the peace that the Lord Jesus made on earth and in heaven, and because they set up these wars that he had ended from the ends of the earth. And he said to them: "If you thirst for blood, here is my blood for you; drink and live, and do not drink the blood of one another and perish.

And they killed him and drank his blood and are not ashamed, and lo, they drink again the blood of their brothers. Something that God forbade and rejected from the first day. Even David ran after perfection, when the Lord delivered Saul, his persecutor, into his hands, and he did not kill him, and he repaid good for evil. And that which David commanded Solomon, to watch over Shimei: it was the Lord who spoke through his mouth, that through that same strong covenant, Shimei would be restrained from all evil, and would make a covenant with himself. For indeed, when he is angry with his companion, he remembers death and passes through enmity. That distinguished and righteous prophet, then, in his death, he cut off enmity; and in his life, when Shimei reviled him, he forgave his folly. When he departed from this world, would all this evil be considered? No. And if Shimei had prevailed, Joab, who fought all his battles, wherever the Lord sent him for David, he went on his behalf, because the kings and righteous who arose in Israel did not do anything that the Lord did not command them, unless they transgressed the commandment and sinned. What did Joab do to David, that he commanded that his old age should not end in peace, to Sheol?

But this is known: that the Lord made judgment against the wicked through the word of David, and through the hands of Solomon the Lord exacted vengeance from the hands of Shimei the accursed, who wronged that humble and spiritual prophet, and from the hands of Joab, who shed blood without the Lord commanding him. And the Lord took vengeance on them through Solomon, just as he took vengeance on his enemies through the hands of the holy prophets. Now in the days when there was peace on earth and tranquility in the house of God for the righteous, and God tended his creatures through his son Jesus the Savior, then all the righteous were afraid of evil and shunned wicked deeds and pursued good deeds, and there might be found one or two evil persons on earth; evil would kill those two evil persons, and through the hands of the good no evil person would be slain, and all would be perfect righteous ones. But now these days are full of wrath, and all of us provoke and bring evil, each one against another and against himself, until we all destroy one another, because the Lord did not say today to anyone that he should do evil deeds and have profit as in former times.

Also Abraham ran after perfection, when he set up his tent for all who passed by him, both good and evil, while he was preparing food and clothing for all who were in need and distress, and he did not allow his servants to serve them, but he himself stood before them like a servant, and said to his servants, "What they have done for you, do righteousness for them in your dwellings from your stores." And he made himself like a poor man, and he washed the feet of strangers, both good and evil, while the law of love had not been written for him. And he looked to God, who sets his sun upon the good and upon the evil, and upon deniers of grace, and upon Sodom and its like. And the law of love became for himself, and he set up his tent for everyone, while he scattered his possessions for the sake of the needy. And when they were taking his wife from him, he worshipped them, and humbled himself before them, and greeted them, and called them "my lords" in his love toward them. And in another place, God brought down from the love of the perfect a man who loved both the good and the evil, and sent him like a prophet; and he went and destroyed wicked kings who had rebelled against what was not theirs. And when he knew that the Lord had sent him, he brought him back after he had pursued many peoples with a small army in a campaign, and said to him: "Your reward is very good, because you went by my word and came by my word, and you did not stumble over plunder.

Also Melchizedek offered bread and wine and blessed him, because he kept the commandments. Also Elijah ran after perfection, when he girded his loins with love and gentleness, and he was a messenger of peace, and he ran many words before Ahab, his enemy and persecutor, who thirsted for his blood and sought him in all kingdoms to kill him, while Elijah did nothing wrong, but the Lord compelled him to speak these words and do this. For he testified and said, when he offered the sacrifice: "Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that all the people may know that you are God, and by your word I have done all these words." Therefore, because of the folly of the people and the kings who denied God, he destroyed them by the hand of the prophets. For Elijah prayed and brought down rain, and ran for the honor of the wicked king, so that he might enter his house with honor. You see that the prophets desired the life and honor of the world and its kings, and they grieved over those who denied God and were foolish toward the prophets. Also Elisha ran after perfection, when he fed his enemies and gave them drink, as he wished that his enemies would do to him, and he sent them to their master in peace after they were released. And in another place, the Lord brought down from grief and from love, and did to these youths what he wished that his enemy would do to him, if he were foolish.

to those who sought to kill him, he did good to them in return for evil, as is fitting for one who seeks perfection. And those youths who laughed and said, "Go up, baldhead," he did to them something that does not involve love and gentleness, but it was Elisha's will that was at work, in that he fed them to the bears and killed the youths—his will was the Lord's. There is, therefore, a place where the Lord brought the prophets down from gentleness and from love, and the rest were running after perfection, and those who were purified in one place after another passed over from gentleness without commandment. Likewise, the Lord brought them down and it became known that they erred, and they abandoned their follies and ascended to love and became established. And Abel ran after perfection, when he bowed his head before his murderer, and did not transgress from love and from gentleness, and he gave him something that would suffice to save him from his murderer. And Adam showed his truth, when he did not seek Abel's burial from the hands of Cain, because he wanted Esau to forgive him whenever he sinned. For thus he thought that the Lord would forgive him on the day he erred, and did not kill him.

And each one of them in his generation did thus and endured from sinners and did not become evil toward them, because they were seeking that no evil be done to them and they were not doing anything that they were seeking for others; and as they wished that it be done to them, so they did to everyone, both for good and for evil. Whenever the Lord did not make them suffer because of the evil of their enemies, they hoped that there would be a peacemaker in their days, and that they would be perfected and completed by the Paraclete, and that they would depart from the world. But God did not wish at that time to make a peacemaker, because the sons of men did not wish to rejoice in him. For this reason, from afar they saw the peacemaker who was to come through the hand of Mar Jesus Christ, and they greeted him and submitted to him. And Mar acknowledged to them: "This perfection that is to come, I will do; I will give it to you. When I send the Paraclete to the apostles, I will also perfect you, because you have hoped in me and run after the perfection of the Watchers, the high ones, that which Adam your father fell from; I will raise you and your father Adam to the height from which you fell." And in this all the prophets and the righteous were revealed, and all of them slept in faith, in love, and in hope, without receiving their reward.

And our Lord said to his disciples: "The prophets and the righteous have grown weary that they might see the time when you would come, and you have seen and not seen; and to hear something of what you would hear, and you have come and not heard. But they went and confessed me among the sons of men, and the time was fulfilled in their days. They were like you." For the Lord destroyed the foolish peoples by the hand of the prophets, so that they might fear and worship him, and they came from their own will and were not compelled because of their will by the sword; and they all fell by the sword until the Lord was revealed and the narrow knot of his love and his humility conquered them, and he turned them to reconciliation by his meekness, and they confessed that the Lord is God; and what is on earth and what is in heaven was established. When also from the love of Jesus the rebellious among them were subdued by the hardness of their heart. Again, our Lord said to his chosen ones: "I confessed to you concerning the prophets, that I would come and complete them." For all that was not completed was not because they were inferior to you who would be completed, but because the time was not in their days. For this reason, the work that causes pain: that they also might be completed. For this reason the apostle said: "You have no more than they," before he saw that without you they are not completed. And the additional thing he said: "Like one who sinned, sinning against the first ones, hastening that you might complete before them, and not they before you.

The upright of today, they have seen the sight of the death of the apostles, which is a great gift. The prophets and the righteous of old, those who were perfected when they departed from this world, they labored for the sake of the apostles that they might be perfected. For they were running after love and after perfection in this world. From righteousness one ascends to love, and from love one is raised to perfection. The remainder, however, everything that is not perfected in this time, and also when one departs from the world, is not perfected in that world; but each one, according to his running, inherits from perfection downward. Teachers who teach many, and healers who take away the sickness of the sick and heal many, and each one according to what is found in the simplicity of gifts and in the gladness of compassion and in the diligence of headship, or in the haste of the love that loves without disturbance. And also each person according to his rank. If a person, however, is emptied and sanctified, he receives the Paraclete and is perfected. And show the apostle whom God placed in the Church: the upright after them, the prophets, and after them the healers and teachers and evangelists and helpers, and after them the gifts of healing. And show that one rank is superior to another rank. For concerning these, the apostle whom God placed in the Church spoke of the gifts of today.

The prophets and the apostles, they rejoice together in the kingdom, as the Lord said: the sower and the reaper rejoice together. They see that they are prophets and apostles, and they rejoice with all who are perfected and depart from this transient world. On the day when the Lord came and poured out the blood of his crucifixion, both that on earth and that in heaven, even the living were sealed by the prophets and by the Lord and his apostles and by the teachers and by the powers and by the zealots, and they said: Everyone for whom the Lord is God, whether purely or impurely, whether in truth or in iniquity, on that day the Lord was proclaimed in creation, whether confessing the Father or confessing the Son or the Spirit, whether well or not well, they were held, but they do not say like these accursed ones from ancient times, when the Lord was not pleased. Because of this, the Lord was established with them in this time, even if not in true faith. Until the coming of the future judge, the Lord Jesus will repay everyone according to their deeds and according to their faith. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is not concerned today about a person who will have a bridle and be led by it to a person who is wicked, because he is the Lord who leads today the one who errs with him, because all the peoples have known that there is a God in heaven who kills and brings to life.

Therefore, the Lord is not distressed today as he was distressed in former times on account of the prophets, because the wicked did not understand whether the Lord was killing them or giving them life. For if the Lord had killed them without the prophets, they would not have known whether the Lord had killed them or their idols, and they would have thought that their idols had killed them, and then they would have increased their offerings and sacrifices. And where the Lord gave them life, they would have thought that their idols had revived them, and again they would have increased their love for them, and it would have been a vain delusion, and they would not have known who was chastening them, nor for what reason they were being chastened. Blessed is our Lord Jesus, who by the short sword of his love saved them from the sword of the idols. Therefore, God does not hinder the life of today from love and from perfection. Run, then, after love, for if the life of today departs while not perfected from the world, our Lord will not perfect him as he did the prophets. And if the life of today does not run in the footsteps of our Lord and his apostles, he will not go to the prophets, because the prophets, after they departed from the world, our Lord perfected them through the labor of the apostles and raised them to the place of perfection, them and all the righteous who were running after perfection like them.

The sign of the love of Jesus, that he created the whole world and showed it so that it might know that there is a God in heaven—that he created them and that he is the one who sustains them. This word also moved the world greatly and it was shown: that they heard that the Son of God died because of the sinners who had crucified and killed him. And all the worlds were shaken: that one who makes all the dead live died because of his creation. And the peoples heard of the love of God for them, and they trembled and knew that it was because of them that he died, and they were afraid and counselled one another: what spirit went out from that one who created and formed them, and died for them, and they do not hear him? To what distress is it equal? Or how would his mercies be upon them if they do not repent? And by this thought the peoples returned and were shown: that through the prophets they did not wish to be saved. For it is one thing when one hears that a son of man died for his sins, and another thing when one hears that the Son of God died because of his creation and because of his servants. For this is not great, that a son of man dies for his sins according to their small nature; but that the Lord, whose nature is above death, died because of evil sons of man—because of this the sons of man were amazed at this love and his mercy. Again, he spoke concerning the love of our fathers, that it is fitting for us to be like them in their love and in their humility.

Abraham and Isaac ran after perfection when they took their sons with them and did not suffer nor were troubled. And when they took from them a branch of water, they did not suffer nor were they enemies to them. And the robbery of their sons they bore with joy, and they were not bound either in their necks or in their sons, as in the love and affection of God. And if the Lord had said to them, "Strip yourselves of your sons and leave your necks," as he said to the apostles, they would have done his will, as they did his will when he said to them, "Go out from your land and from the house of your fathers, and go wherever he told you." Because they loved him and loved the righteous, even though they knew that they were despising them and oppressing them and taking their sons, because they had submitted to the command of the one they loved, and because they had gone, they honored those who loved them. They went joyfully. Also in their sons, wherever he wanted them to sacrifice, they sacrificed joyfully. Because his love was fixed in their hearts, and they did his will in everything he commanded them.

And they were able to say to them: "Leave your wives, your children, and your possessions, and go, proclaim everywhere as I told you." It was easy for them to leave their wives in holiness in their lands, and their children while they were alive, and their possessions and everything they had in their houses, and to go to wherever the Lord sent them. Much more difficult than that which was said to them: "Go, and take everything you have with you." For their wives were led by the short rope of their children, and their children were to be sacrificed before their eyes, and their possessions were plundered daily while they saw it with their own eyes and were distressed, because of the hope of the truth that was to come. But they all looked to the Lord with chastity and holiness of body, because they were again a model for all who are joined in this world, that they might be led like them. Also Jacob ran after perfection, when he humbled himself before Esau his brother, and gave place to wrath until Esau's anger cooled. And when his anger cooled a little, he sent to him: "Your servant will come with the gifts that he sent to him." And when Esau approached to meet Jacob, Jacob bowed down to him seven times on the ground, and Esau's enmity was calmed, and he fell upon Jacob's neck and kissed him and was reconciled to him. Where is your humility today?

He bowed low before his enemy, and worshipped him and served him? Even Joseph ran after perfection, when he repaid good for evil to his brothers, those who sought to kill him twice, and the Lord saved him from their hands. They sold him into slavery, and he endured great afflictions because of them; his feet were bound in fetters and his neck in irons, as it is written. And he repaid them with all good things for their wickedness, and he did not hold a grudge against them, nor did he become their enemy. Also in another place it is written: when he had done good things for them in Egypt, they repaid him with evil deeds and sought to kill him. And he endured evil like a good servant, and he did not treat them badly; rather, he did good to them, and rejoiced, and overcame evil entirely with good. And when Israel was in need, they came to him, because their father had commanded on his deathbed: "Say to my son Joseph: Forgive the folly of your brothers," for they thought that Joseph held a grudge and enmity against them, and because their father had not treated them badly. Then Joseph raised his voice with sighs and tears and said to his brothers: "Those who would kill you, do not fear from me, for under God I stand." And they knew that he was a lover of the Lord like his fathers, and he kept his commandments.

Just as he increased his love, so also his lovers increase their love. For just as he made his sun rise and brought down his rain upon the good and upon the evil, so also his lovers pour out their love upon the good and upon the evil. And because they are kindled for them in the living, they afflict the heart of their brothers. And they stand against the commandment of God, they oppress them in place after place, in this world and on the day of judgment. But if they had walked straight, God is gentle and good, from eternity to eternity. The end of Memra 9: On Uprightness and the Love of the Upright and the Holy Prophets.