Memra 25: On the Voice of God and of Satan

Memra 25: On the Voice of God and of Satan Even today the Evil One acts: for he has broken in and seeks to be destroyed and to be banished from the earth, but a king opposes him, whether in secret or in open. And because he has broken in from cunning and from knowledge of that upper world, he does not know how to distinguish the voice of God from that of Satan. And the Evil One leads him astray with many counsels, so that a king may oppose him; and every day he changes his traps for him. And if he knows that one, he falls into the later ones. And because he has not attained the truth, through one of the schemes the Evil One leads him astray and binds him on earth, and he thinks that the one who is bound is in heaven. For from the beginning that evil one has done this even today: that through fair-seeming forms that appear beneath him, he cast down Adam from his height and through his own fault. For from the beginning he cast down Adam, and many joyful ones ascended to the place from which he fell, until the Lord called Enoch in his mercy, and through many persuasions he turned Enoch to those who had clung to him.

For in every form God spread himself out for the sake of the wicked, because he loved them; and in every mystery God spoke the truth; and in every wonder he fought through the hands of his servants from the beginning, until the time when God desired to reveal himself to the wicked, and he sent his Son, and he came and made the covenant of the heavens with the earth-dwellers. And he showed the perfection and the holiness of his creation of Adam the first openly in his person, as it is said: that everything was renewed from the beginning in Jesus. I have seen that not Ahas showed openly how Adam was created, but rather in the conduct of Jesus. For he wished then to ascend to Paradise, and he walked according to the ways of the Lord: meekness, humility, gentleness, and silence, which were with every good thing; and humbly he silenced every oppressor and helped the poor. For if Ahas has no work in heaven, he cannot cease from his work on earth. When he saw therefore that Adam was loved in this way, he determined that he would join and become a companion in this world of the one who was loved, and would live and not perish entirely. And because of his love, the Lord made even this: that this thing which was in his sins would be in him without sins, if he would become a companion.

Now then, it is not as I said earlier, that the will is the same. Concerning what the Lord said when he taught you holiness and perfection: that a man cannot be separated from everything that is on earth; it would not be possible for me to have a disciple of holiness, except that when he works the earth with sorrow, he becomes sorrowful and inherits eternal life, but is he not perfect? And concerning why the apostles and all who were perfect did not go down to the earth, and did not run about in the world, and did not marry? But the Lord commanded you: I know your father, that sustenance and clothing are necessary for you. Do not be anxious, because I say to the sorrowful ones who work the earth: they sustain you and clothe you, and they live the life of a new world because of you, and they make you free from their labor while they do no harm to anyone. And if it were not because of you that your brother is in you, I would rain down for you from heaven sustenance and clothing. And if the whole earth had followed perfection and holiness, and did not work and did not endure, I would have shaken the whole of it without labor as before. Thus I wished that all of you would be in the sons of men, and Adam your father brought you to this labor. Now you wish that all of you would be sanctified in the sons of men; I would have made you in sons as I made Adam's daughter, without marriage and without desire.

only in the voice of the Lord, and not in the voice of the evil one, shall they be saved. For they know that they are priests and labourers on the earth: they shall not be saved, and they shall not perform the sacrifices as you commanded them, and they shall not inherit the kingdom; nor shall they attain perfection. Even the daily, by means of a fair pretext, the evil one leads astray those who seek holiness and perfection. And he hinders them from humility, and they do not ascend to perfection, that they may show you the Lord. For what did the Lord say: that you should humble yourselves, and separate yourselves, and sanctify yourselves from the world and from partnership, and love the all and come after me; you shall not be from the world as if I were not from it and did not labour in it, but come after me and be perfect. The evil one comes and strikes them with earthly things, that they may not look to heavenly things, and they shall be troubled above and shall overcome him. For if he holds you back with earthly things, he cannot bring you down from perfection. But he hinders you by means of the labour of priesthood, so that what you stand in the labour of priesthood, he may do his will in you, nor can he do all, but in some measure. For when you have been separated and sanctified, and have looked to heavenly things, he cannot contend with you, because you pass above him, and he remains below you.

because it is not permitted that he who passes through the firmament should enter that world which is with God, as your own thought passes and ascends as far as the Jerusalem above, as it is written: that he who led above from death, and brought you to the summit of your mountain and to the city of God in heaven, to the camps of angels and to the spirits, to those pure ones, the first ones, who in purity lay down and in righteousness were perfected, and entered the spiritual paradise. For the afflictions of Adam and his sons are healed in this, when they enter in spirit into that paradise from which your father came forth. So also, then, on the day when the way to heaven was opened by Christ, who said: Leave everything that is seen, and look above, and not upon the earth; and do not gaze upon the earth but upon heaven, and you have conquered. The evil one comes in the guise of beautiful things, those which the Lord commands only for the pure. And he fully deceives and speaks thus: It is good for you to rest a little in purity, to take your ease and that of your companion who comes to you. And seek for yourself a dwelling where you may serve a little, that guests may come and be refreshed in it. And set for yourself a little portion, and make for yourself a garden of vegetables, which may be for the healthy and the sick.

And by reason of the voice of the wings, it is spread and brings down the man from that high command which says to the perfect that not even your self should be preserved; and from that command which is above, they were stirred, and not on earth. And by reason of the fact that it does not distinguish voice from voice, and it is not understood that it is to the priests that these commands are given, and not to him who seeks the heavenly and perfection, the evil one turns him towards the priesthood below, from perfection, without his being aware; and he who supposes that he is running after perfection is found to be beneath it. And concerning this the Apostle said: "If a man does not know and does not distinguish the power of the voice that calls and raises me to heaven from the voice that brings me down to earth, that man is like a man who is not aware of the water that flows." But if a man runs thus, like a man who knows to distinguish voice from voice, then the evil one turns him and casts him down to earth behind his back, like Adam. For even these are beautiful, but the priests of the earth seek them. For to the heavenly they are contrary. For all these are the wings and the voice of the wings: the Lord commanded that they be done for the priests who labor on earth, and that they spread the wings and live in them.

Those who are of the ranks of the wings of the heavens, and who are chosen in the heavens, that one is with the Lord and his apostles and with the perfect priests, and they are chosen in heaven and not on earth, and they are not held nor are they in one will with the earthly ones. There is no limit for us that can find a man who can serve God in spirit, while he is agitated by the wills of the world, except that he who has chosen him should be satisfied that he has pleased. And by their prayer and their good teaching they went to everyone, good and evil, and they prepared everyone who was distressed. For behold, he commanded the heavenly ones that in heavenly matters they should prepare every man. For from where do you know, if you say, that no man spoke with the empty and the erring, whether he was perfect or a priest? As the Lord said to Ḥaḏaḏyā: Go, speak with Paul. And Ḥaḏaḏyā said to the Lord: My Lord, he is an evil man, and I have heard that he inflicted affliction on the saints in Jerusalem. And the Lord said to him: Go, speak with him, because he is pleasing to me, the chosen one, and you do not know. So then also you: if you have a word with everyone, speak, and you will not sin. Keep to your work so that you may see the judgment of the future, and warn sinners beforehand, and also the righteous.

So then, the evil one turned him away from the heavenly ranks and set him in the labor of priesthood. And he cried out, "Gardens and earthly paradises! Roofs and houses!" Then the evil one began to oppress him also from the priesthood. For when he went to seek others who would harm him, the priest who remained from perfection came upon him, not knowing that the evil one had terrified him and done to him. And he began to say to him, "Your house, plunder that one who is in great labor in his house. Go, plunder and shine. Behold, one advantage that will profit." Again he said to him, "Gather flowers and the fruit of vegetables, the leaves of plants that do not satisfy. And go, be occupied. Behold, another advantage that the evil one counsels him to do." Again he said to him, "Your roof, strike it and kill it and take it while it grazes on your mountain. Behold, his hands are clapping and he is troubled. Behold, another advantage that the evil one counsels to the heavens that they cry out and weep." I have seen the beautiful ones that the evil one counsels, as they are for the evil ones. And unless he is violent and patient, his sign is like Job. Also from the priesthood he oppresses him. Because priests do not harm a person, for indeed the priest does not harm a person. The evil one strangles him with labor and with need, and does not leave him to attain the truth.

and if he were to be troubled and make for himself ascetic practices and pray in them, and perform in them acts of charity and fast in them as is fitting for the afflicted. He is not able to attain the perfection of affliction genuinely. But if he were to leave the earth as his Lord commanded, and take up the cross and become poor, humble, and sanctified, and become like a servant in his obedience, and not like a master in his command, and love sinners and the righteous, and desire to give himself for the wicked, like his Lord and like his apostles. Then he attains height and depth and length and breadth with the saints, those who attained the holy one in everything that he showed them: in love and affection and peace with all living beings, good and evil. These, then, are the cries that the evil one shouts to those who are solitary, and he desires that they leave everything and ascend to the height in the footsteps of the one who ascended before them. For those who chose for themselves the dwelling of affliction and marriage, they performed from these earthly and beautiful acts of charity from what is pure, and they became afflicted in their conduct. And if they wish to leave the earth, as the Lord commanded, and follow in the footsteps of his humility, they quickly ascend to perfection, because they are not very far from it.

the perfect ones, for they are like angels, as Mar Jacob said: those who are equal to that resurrection cannot be, except they are like angels. Now, if they are like angels, it is fitting that they be compared to angels, if they wish to be perfected. Let us see what is the service of angels. Angels do not labor on earth. They do not wear tunics. They do not satisfy hungers, and they do not establish their pasture on earth, but by the word of Mar Jacob they sustain all as is fitting, as was said before him, and they minister to his greatness, and they are not anxious about their sustenance, for Mar Jacob is anxious for them and for all. It is fitting for those who are like angels that they be compared to angels, and that they proclaim the word of Mar Jacob, as he commanded: Do not be anxious about sustenance and clothing, not for yourselves nor for your brothers, for Mar Jacob is anxious for you and for all, and to him is entrusted the care of his creation. And through the poor he moves the needy, and they were like angels, standing before his greatness. And if all wished to leave the earth and come to perfection, Mar Jacob would not hinder them because of sustenance and clothing, but he would send down manna, as he sent down to the children of Israel in the desert, a barren place where there was no sowing nor reaping.

He was making signs like he did to Adam and Eve on the day they sinned. How much was he doing to you on the day you were being shepherded, that he ran after the perfect ones, and went after them and did his great will—he who desires that his whole creation be like the angels in heaven? For perfection is above heaven, and wickedness is below on earth, which stands on the boundary of evil, and at all times swallows the wicked from it, because the sons of its boundary became narrow and the daughters of their boundaries are accursed. Cursed is the earth for your reasons. For God said to Adam: Since you loved something that was on earth, and you desired something that was in heaven, behold it is given to you. Only do not be disturbed beneath you below the earth, and beneath Sheol, as you brought down from heaven to earth. For when you fell from heaven, the earth received you, so that you might find life in it; but you will not reach perfection, however much you labor in this first contest. You have tasted death by taste. Now if you fall from earth, you will be submerged in Sheol. And you will fall from wickedness. And you will inherit affliction, just as you were stripped of the good tree of life. Because you tasted evil thought, and you knew evil, and you fell from heaven to earth. If, then, you continue to do evil, from earth you will fall to Sheol. The end of the memra of the priest.