Baruch 3:9-4:8, Deuteronomy 3:11-14, Romans 10:5-13, 1 Cor 1:30-31.
With Baruch 3:9-4:8, we come to the inner mystery of his prophecy. To this point in the book, we have heard of the tragic exile of the bulk of the people of God, of the exiles’ fondness for ravaged Judea and those few who still remain in the holy land, and of the confession that the people utter under the guidance of Baruch. Now, we hear a prophetic oracle, which begins with the commandment, “Hear, O Israel, the commandment of life; give ear to know wisdom.” In its context, this is an injunction to the exiles and languishing remnant in Judea, but it speaks beyond its first setting to us, who, according to St. Paul, have been incorporated into the very Israel of God (Gal 6:16), who have heard Jesus’ commandment of life, and who long to know wisdom, more and more.
Again the prophet reminds the people, “You have forsaken the fountain of Wisdom,” which is why they are in such a defiled state (3:10-11). He instructs them, to learn where wisdom, strength, and understanding may be found (3:14), but then follows that instruction up with rhetorical questions: “Who has found her place? Who has entered into her treasures?” (3:15)
The discouraging answer to this is that none of the rulers of the nations have, none of the young men have, and indeed that no one on earth has learned the way of wisdom (3:16-23). Instead, the mighty have “descended into Hades” (3:19), the young have strayed from Wisdom’s paths (3:21), and even the enterprising have not remembered these paths: “These they do not know” (3:23). Though all this seems dismal, there is still hope. The prophet cries out: “O Israel, how great is the house of God and how far-reaching the place He possesses! It is great and has no end; it is high and immeasurable” (3:24-25).Yet this great house is not for the mighty, because even the ancient giants who terrified the earth in its earliest years (Genesis 6) were not chosen by God, nor shown the way to His house: they “failed to attain to wisdom” (3:28). Commenting on this, St. Ambrose says to his Christian flock:
You, though poor, have a larger house in which when you raise your voice it is heard and listened to. “O Israel,” says the prophet, “how great is the house of God and how vast the place of his possession! It is large and has no end, immense and high.” The house of God belongs to the rich and poor alike; it is difficult, however, for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Hexameron 9.8.52
We are reminded of the great song of our beloved Theotokos, uttered in the presence of her humble cousin Elisabeth, when it was clear that Gabriel’s annunciation had indeed been fulfilled: “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.” God’s riches cannot be grasped by those who seek them with might and pride. They are beyond human reach—and that is a first lesson of wisdom! We may search and search for it—but paradoxically, it must come to us. So we read, we see Baruch growing in excitement:
Who has gone up into heaven and taken hold and her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who has crossed the sea, and found her, and brought her back for pure gold? NO one knows her way, nor does anyone ponder her path. But the One who knows all things knows her. He has found her by his understanding—He who formed the earth for all time, who filled it with four-footed creatures; the One who sends forth the light and it goes out; the One who calls to it, and it obeys with fear. The stars shone in their watches and rejoiced. He called them and they said, ‘Here we are!’ They shone with gladness for Him who made them. This is our God; no other shall be compared to Him. He found the whole way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon the earth and lived among men (Baruch 3:29-38).
The search for Wisdom, then, is an arduous thing, not even available to those who go into heaven, who cross the sea to strange lands, or even who plunge into the sea. This description seems to be the opposite of Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 30:11-14, where he says, “This commandment I command you today … is not far off. It is not in heaven above, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?’ But the word is very. near you, in your mouth, in your heart, and in your hands, that you may do it.” Moses, as well as Baruch, are referring to the Torah: Moses speaks of the commandment, whereas Baruch continues his description of Wisdom by saying, “She is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures forever” (4:1). However, Moses’ purpose is to encourage the people to readily live by the Law, in their mouth, heart, and hands, whereas Baruch is pointing to a mystery of Wisdom in the Law that it would seem is beyond the human grasp. After all, God’s people have been exiled for their disobedience, and turned from the Torah in their new strange habitats.
Despite Baruch’s pessimism, he knows that God Himself provides the answer—human beings may find it difficult to discover true Wisdom, but God “who knows all things knows her.” All the animals and the shining stars respond in obedience to God; Human beings have been endowed with the Torah—“He made known His ways to Moses, His works to the people of Israel,” as we sing on Sundays. But there is more! Here, just here, we get a glimpse of an even deeper illumining—not just in a book, but among us: After speaking of God giving the Law, Baruch says, “God was seen upon the earth and lived among men.” In seeking the mystery of Wisdom, the prophet glimpses the ONE who is Wisdom, the LORD Jesus who came, after the prophet’s time, to be among us.
The early father Irenaeus explains this, and other insights of the prophets, for us:
The prophets, receiving the prophetic gift from the same Word, announced His advent according to the flesh, by which the blending and communion of God and man took place, according to the good pleasure of the Father, the Word of God foretelling from the beginning that God should be seen by human beings and interacting with them on the earth; that He would confer with them and be present with His own creation, saving it and becoming capable of being perceived by it, and freeing us from the hands of all who hate us, that is, from every spirit of wickedness; and causing us to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all of our days, in order that humanity, having embraced the Spirit of God, might pass into the glory of the Father.
(Against Heresies 4.24.4).
For Baruch, this only remains a glimpse, and what the people hold on to is the Law, in which is found (at least in part) Wisdom. Because of this he says, “Return, O Jacob, and take hold of her. Walk toward the radiance of the presence of her light” (4:2). For those of us who live on this side of the Nativity, however, the picture towards which we walk is evenn more clear, and becomes clearer day by day as we live together in the Holy Spirit. We continue to have a book to read (both old and new covenants, gospels and epistles), but also Christ’s very presence in the Eucharist and the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church. St. Athanasius rejoices in the gifts that God has given, linking them to the “fountain of wisdom” of which Baruch spoke earlier:
If God is and is called the fountain of wisdom and life . . . as in the book of Baruch it is written, “You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom,” this implies that life and wisdom are not foreign to the essence of the fountain but are proper to it. Nor were they at any time without existence but always existed. Now the Son is all this, who says, “I am the life,” and, “I Wisdom dwell with prudence.” It is then irreligious to say, “Once the Son was not,” for it is the same thing as saying, “Once the fountain was dry, destitute of life and wisdom.” But then it would cease to be a fountain. Discourses Against the Arians 1.6.19.
Of course, St. Athanasius was at that time concerned to correct the Arians who were teaching in his day that the Son did not exist eternally and that He was not of the same essence as the Father. Within the Church we do not have this difficulty, but the saint’s words remind us that the fountian of wisdom in which Baruch rejoiced was not, ultimately, the Torah, but Jesus, the God-Man, who fulfilled everything that Torah promised. St. Paul himself makes this clear when he takes Moses’ words about traversing the heavens and crossing the seas, optimistically encouraging the people to fulfill the Law, as well as Baruch’s more pessimistic words about the inscrutability of the Law, which cannot be reached by such means. To the Roman Christians, St. Paul says:
The righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ‘Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above), or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we preach): that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:6-9).
So, then, let’s consider what’s happened. Moses delivers the Law, encouraging the people to obey from their hearts. Baruch, seeing the tragedy of the exile, knows that the people have not obeyed the Law, and urges them to embrace the mystery of the Wisdom of God that the Law pointed to. But St. Paul has met Jesus, and is speaking to Christians who know Him through the Holy Spirit, through their life together, through their worship, their partaking of the Holy Mysteries. To them He says: Look, God knows human weakness. Not only did He give a written word, but He came among us, as Baruch promised. Nobody has to go up or down to find Him, for the life that He offers is right here—He is faithful, and responds to our belief in Him. “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13).
Baruch’s prophecy goes on to remind the exiles of the precious gift of God’s word, and encourages them, “O Israel, we are blessed, for what is pleasing to our God is known to us” (4:4). He reminds them, too, of the absolute holiness of the gift, not intended (yet) for anyone outside of Israel, and how they should treasure it. St. Paul, centuries later, reminds us that as Christians we have even more than the prophet’s knowledge, for the God-Man has indeed been “seen upon the earth and lived among us” (as Baruch prophesied, 3:38), and has finally called the Gentiles who repent to be joined to God, as well. We read Baruch’s prophecy every Eve of the Feast of the Nativity, in fact, looking with joy upon the greatest gift that God has given—not a book only, but His very self. As St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, “You are in Christ Jesus, who became for us Wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30). Baruch’s lesson about Wisdom, glimpsed in the Torah and as from afar in his prophecy, reminded the people that all blessings come from God, and that even the exile was inflicted on the people not to make them slaves at the end, but to drive them back to the God “who nursed” them. How much more during this time of Lent, will we turn with humble and open hearts back to the God of our salvation, and the Church who nourishes us, remembering the justice and mercy of this God who comes among us. As it is written, “the One who glories, let that one glory in the LORD.”
Edith M. Humphrey 