Well, this time around it was but a day in the park, whereas at the time of war, this was one of the worst calamities to hit Leipzig – this Battle of Leipzig (October 1813: “Völkerschlacht”). It was not the first one of great proportions to befall this industrious city in Saxony. During the thirty-years-war another was fought (1631: “Battle of Breitenfeld” and another in 1642) between the opposing confessions: Catholics versus Protestants even if that might be a serious misnomer according to Golo Mann with his masterly account on Wallenstein. Visiting one of the biggest European monuments, we however, were not reminded of that war, but rather of the even larger conflict between Russians, Prussians, Swedes and Austrians on the one side against the seemingly invincible emperor of the French grand nation, who had the little Saxons on their side too – for starters at least and before they then deserted Napoleon and finally joined the winning side.
The battle of nations at Leipzig in 1813
Napoleon had passed his zenith, when he had got lost in the Russian expanse and in Leipzig his luck didn´t return either. He made serious errors of judgement, some due to misinformation and others because of the sheer size of this confrontation. That the Saxons deserted him, was more of a sign of changing times and result of his failing star, than the cause for his demise as the French would have liked to believe. Still, Napoleon got away with damages to fight another day, yet he was no longer invincible. That was obvious – and probably part of the beginning of the end.
The French retreat
In Germany this battle was used extensively in Prussian propaganda. The Saxons were not shunned for their initial opposition, but rather taken up into the German fold with great exuberance. The story told, was that Germany had withstood their archenemy from across the Rhein, but it really was a united effort with huge help from Russians, Austrians and even the small number of Scandinavians must have counted for something.
The French flee and Leipzig is taken over by their victorious enemies
The victory was commemorated with one of the largest monuments in Europe for this “Battle of the nations” “Völkerschlachtdenkmal” finished a hundred years later paid for mainly by citizens of Leipzig, who had borne the brunt of the battle in the first place. It was inspiration for the “Voortrekker monument” in Pretoria (1949). Ernst Moritz Arndt initially suggested this monument. It was his idea and part of his nationalistic ideals for a united Germany as formulated in his poem: “What is the German fatherland?” way back in 1813.
The monument of the battle of the nations in Leipzig (1913)
In this chapter Moses selects another occasion for transgressing the First Commandment, an occasion called spiritual pride because it boasts of its righteousness and merits. This is trust in one’s own works, and no plague and opponent of faith or trust in the mercy of God is more destructive. Therefore Moses demolishes it here with many words throughout the whole chapter. It robs God of His glory, for these two cannot stand side by side: to glory in God and His mercy, and to glory in ourselves because of our righteousness and works. He disproves this righteousness with three strong arguments.
Martin Luther on Deuteronomy chapter 9: LW Vol.9, Pg.102-105
1. Those Gentiles deserved to be expelled on account of their godlessness.
He says this: “For not because of your righteousnesses or the uprightness of your heart will you go in; but because they dealt godlessly, the Lord cast them out” (v. 5). With these words we, too, should be instructed if we see others smitten either by ourselves or by others. It does not follow that since you or others smite that man, therefore you or others are more righteous than he. Otherwise the tower of Siloam, which fell on many in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4), would also be regarded as just. But it is God who smites the godless, as he says here. Whether He does these things through a tower, fire, water, beasts, your hand or another’s, makes no difference. Nothing else takes place there than that the just God has smitten the godless.
Furthermore, you should fear this example.The godless one is smitten that you may be terrified, just as Christ explains in Luke 13:5, saying: “You shall all perish this way.” And Paul says in Rom. 11:21–22, as he forbids the Gentiles by means of the same argument to be proud over the ruin of the Jews: “See to it that He spares you; otherwise you, too, shall be cut off”; and Rom. 2:3: “Man, when you judge those who do such things, and you do the same, do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God?”
Outstanding is also the statement of St. Gregory: “When we see anyone sin, we should first weep over ourselves in their calamity, because we have either fallen like them or we can fall.”2
Someone has summed this up in the following lowing verse: “We either are, have been, or can be what this man is.”3
A person recorded in The Lives of the Fathers said, when he had heard of the lapse of a brother: “He yesterday, I today.”4
Hence when someone else is smitten, this should be our thought: “It is your business when the neighboring wall is on fire.”5 Yes, with a feeling of pity and sympathy the godless are to be destroyed or struck down by us as we remember that we are the instrument of God and are ourselves perhaps to be cast as a whip into the fire after we have blasted the evildoers.
2. The second argument is the authority of the divine promise.
The Lord cast them out “that He might fulfill His oath and Word which He promised to your fathers” (v. 5). Nothing stronger could have been said against trust in one’s own righteousness. For where were the sons of Israel when God promised the land of Canaan to their father Abraham, who up to that time was sterile and hopelessly childless? If they receive and occupy the land through the promise of God, therefore, it is not because of merits or their own righteousness but from the simple grace and goodness of God, which He poured out over the unworthy and those not yet born.
Why does He promise? Perhaps because those who would come after 430 years would deserve it? Far from it! He who promised out of goodness alone also fulfilled His Word out of mercy alone.
Paul uses this argument in his letters to the Galatians (3:2 ff.) and the Romans (4:1 ff.), when he proves most powerfully that righteousness has to come about by the mercy of God once promised, not by works.
3. The third argument is experience itself.
He says: “Since you are a stiff-necked people, etc.” (v. 6). By such a neck they had not deserved even to come close to the land; for God was so incensed that He would have rather destroyed them than the Gentiles in the desert. Just as the psalm says (106:26): “And He stretched out His hand that He might cast them down in the desert” and would have turned His promise elsewhere, namely, toward the descendants of Moses (Num. 14:12). Finally He laid them all low in the desert to the last man, except Joshua and Caleb, so that neither Moses nor Aaron entered the land. Hence that they should enter the land by their merit was so far from being the case that the very opposite should much rather have happened to them—as it also turned out—if they were to be dealt with according to merit. Paul also uses this argument in Rom. 4:14 ff., where he says: “If the inheritance is by the Law, faith is void, the promise is abolished; for the Law works wrath.” So you see that both Moses and Paul use the same dialectic of the spirit against the righteousness of works and on behalf of the grace and mercy of God.
The conclussion thus is: Evil is well deserved, whereas good is but due to God´s goodness and his most gracious promises long ago:
Therefore all these things are also written for our learning (Rom. 15:4), that we may learn that if any evil comes upon the godless, it comes indeed by their merit. As for the rest, if it does not break in upon us but we enjoy good things, this is due not to our righteousness but to divine goodness, by which such things have been provided and promised for us from eternity; for we deserved the very opposite. Hence the verdict stands: Not on account of our righteousness is any good thing given to us, but in order that God may fulfill the Word which He willed from eternity, lest we be puffed up and make an idol out of our righteousness. We are to know that we have one God, from whom we freely receive all things, through His sheer goodness poured out over the unworthy. So also the patriarch Jacob confesses (Gen. 32:10): “I am too small for all Thy mercies,” that is, not only for a mercy which may be large but for any at all, however small and slight it may be.
For remember, who You are and where You come from – even though through God´s grace and goodness, You have now been saved and brought to a new life in IX:
Then Moses administers a healing antidote to this pestilence, for this monster of one’s own righteousness is so formidable that it cannot be sufficiently restrained. He sets before their eyes all the former misdeeds of the people and commands them to remember such things; and forcibly, before all, with great power of words, he recalls their sin at Mt. Sinai, when they worshiped the calf. What can heal the sickness of this pride more promptly than to remember former godlessness and crimes?
What does this people have except what makes it ashamed to lift its eyes to heaven? Just as Paul says to the Ephesians: “Of which you are now ashamed.”6Hence He also permitted David, Moses, Peter, Paul, and other great men to fall, that they might be humbled, become ashamed before God, and rely on His goodness alone. Therefore Peter (2 Peter 1:9) sharply lashes out at those who forget the forgiveness of former sins, become smug and cold, and then stiff-necked and proud.
So, in the end, what reason do we have to boast? None! Therefore, we can but laud and praise God´s grace and goodness, who is willing to forgive and grant life even to those deserving death:
Finally he closes: “You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you” (v. 24). What a worthy commendation, what merits, what righteousness of a holy people, namely, disobedience to the divine voice! Go on now and boast, brag, be puffed up, saying that the land has been given to you because of your righteousnesses, you who do not deserve to hear anything but that you are a stiff-necked people and always disobedient to the Lord! Indeed, do such merits deserve such royal wealth and not rather a thousand deaths and crosses? What more dreadful a thing can be said than to be disobedient to the Lord? Nevertheless, that celebrated and blessed land is given to this disobedience. What does Israel have left here to be proud of? Should it not rather put its face into the dust and say: “I am worse than all the Gentiles, and great and undeserved is Thy grace, that I receive that land”? Furthermore, if that holy and special Israel is such a people before God, what are we Gentiles and sinners?
In the end it is but God´s most Holy Name, Honor and Glory that He pardons sinners and saves those lost:
See in how many words Moses here accuses the people in this very prayer which he prays for them as he says: “Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which Thou didst bring us say, etc.” (vv. 27–28). Nothing is told here about the people except things for which they deserved death. The one salvation was this, that their destruction would endanger the name of God. Hence, that the name of God might not be blasphemed, pardon not otherwise to be given is conferred on them. They would have been destined for total destruction if the glory of the name of God, which was called out over them (Jer. 15:16), could have been saved. From this place many others, especially David in the Psalter, took this safe and dependable argument (Ps. 25:11): “On account of Thy name, Lord, have pity on my sin, etc.”; and Joshua (7:9): “What wilt Thou do by Thy great name,” by which we are called?
Now, this is what the Lord says, the one who created you, and formed you: “Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you. I call you by name, you are mine.”
Isaiah 43: 1 (Watchword for the 6th Sunday after Trinity)
We pray: “Almighty God, beloved heavenly Father, through Holy Baptism You have made us Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that we, having died to sin, may live faithfully in a new life with Jesus Christ, who together with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.”
For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another. But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.”
Titus 3,3-7
How can water do such great things?
It is not the water indeed that does them, but the word of God which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is simple water and no baptism. But with the word of God it is a baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost, as St. Paul says, Titus, chapter three: By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying.
Luther´s Small Catechism: The Sacrament of Holy Baptism Question 3
1 Baptized into your name most holy, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I claim a place, tho’ weak and lowly, among your seed, your chosen host. Buried with Christ and dead to sin: your Spirit e’er shall live within.
2 My loving Father, me you’ve taken fore’er to be your child and heir; my faithful Savior, me you’ve given your righteous, holy life to share; O Holy Spirit, you will be a comfort, guide, and help to me.
3 My faithful God, your word fails never, your cov’nant surely will abide; oh, cast me not away forever, should I transgress it on my side! Though I have oft my soul defiled, in love forgive, restore your child.
4 Yes, all I am and love most dearly I offer now, O Lord, to you. Oh, let me make my vows sincerely, and what I say, help me to do. Let naught within me, naught I own, serve any will but yours alone.
5 And never let my purpose falter, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but keep me faithful to your altar, till you shall call me from my post. So unto you I live and die and praise you evermore on high.
God sustaining His people in the desert – Moses & Israel, widow of Sarepta & Elijah and the ravens
Do we love God as such or rather just as a means to an end? Well, trials and temptations go a long way to reveal that as Moses explains:
First Moses says that the nation was afflicted and tried by God in the desert for forty years in order that what was in its heart should become known, namely, whether it loved God with a sincere mind or for the sake of the belly.
For even we ourselves do not understand our heart (which is always open to God) very clearly, whether it serves God for the sake of the belly or not, unless we are tested by want and evils.
The faithful heart loves, believes, and serves while it struggles with want and evils just as it does in the midst of wealth and goods. The unfaithful heart, however, believes when wealth is present but draws back when evils rush in, as Ps. 78:36–37 says: “Their heart was not right with Him, and they lied to Him with the tongue.”
Martin Luther on Deuteronomy chapter 8 (LW 9, Pg.92)
He humbled you and fed you with manna, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone.
Mannah: Bread from heaven
By the gift of manna man is shown to live by the Word of God.
What is the connection? Is manna perhaps the Word of God? By no means; but he sets forth rather amply what he had said about poverty, namely: “Before He gave you manna, He let you first suffer hunger. This He did in order to show you that even if manna never came He could nevertheless sustain you by His Word, by which He had promised that He would be to you a God who would not forsake you, who could sustain you just as He did sustain you. For faith in the Word of God, even in the midst of hunger, nourishes not only the soul but also the body, that is, as he says here, the whole man. It is impossible for one who has faith in the Word to perish, even if he eats or drinks nothing for the body. Although God does not truly forsake, since finally, in His time, He gives bodily nourishment, as He fed Elijah by means of the ravens, as He fed the widow of Zarephath, and as here He fed the fathers with manna.
Therefore when He shows that man does not live by bread alone, this pertains not only to the manna but to both conditions, namely, both to the affliction of hunger and to the abundance of manna. Thus the meaning is: God wanted to show you this goodness of His through your own experience, that in hunger you might learn to believe the Word of Him who promised, be sustained by it in hunger and not perish, and then finally by this faith receive the satisfaction of your bodily needs. All this He does in order to remove from you the idol of your belly and to teach you that the life of man does not rest in this, that the belly is provided with its bread, but that both parts belong to it, namely, soul and body. This you would never learn if your belly were always satisfied and you never learned through the Word to trust in God while your belly is in need.
In this way Christ quotes this passage in Matt. 4:4, when Satan holds before Him the care of the belly alone. Christ says: “Not by bread alone does man live,” not denying that man lives by bread, but saying that it is not solely by bread. For if bread is lacking, then he lives through the Word. When he has this by faith, then the bread must follow, even if it has to be produced from rock, or, as here, sent from heaven. Therefore when he says: “He afflicted you with famine, and tempted,” he calls them away from the belly and the care of the belly, to teach them in the midst of hunger to trust in and live by the Word. When he says: “And He gave you manna,” he shows that bread will not be lacking for those who by the Word survive in hunger. You see, therefore, that nothing but faith is taught by these words. By it we hold onto God and believe that we “have God,” as the First Commandment says.3
He commands, however, that they remember how they have been nourished in the desert both by the Word and by bread, as though he were showing and foretelling that at some time in the future they would be harassed by a similar trial of hungers. When this happens, the consolation of this example should raise them up to faith. They should know that however hunger may rage, they will be fed if only they believe the Word of promise in the First Commandment, by which God promises to be God to them, just as He says also in Ps. 37:19, 25: “And in a time of hunger you shall be satisfied. For it is impossible that the righteous be forsaken, or his seed seek bread.” He may hunger indeed, but he will not die of hunger; for hunger exercises his faith in the Word, but then faith gains food also for the body. Therefore the splendid word of Moses stands: that God deals with His own by testing them with hunger and exercising them in His Word, and then feeds the believer from the midst of heaven if it cannot be done otherwise. Thus they are to learn by experience that they should not be concerned for their belly, and that life does not lie in the things we possess or in bread but in the Word by which we become rich toward God, as the Gospel says (Luke 12:15). For while we live by the Word in the heart, we force God, as it were, to feed the belly too.
But just as He promises food to the believers, so He promises clothing too, and then also good health of the body; as He adds here, soon after the manna: “Your clothing has not failed with age, and your foot did not swell during these forty years” (v. 4). With these words He would teach them that nothing is lacking to those who live by the Word and believe, but that we shall be under the care of God in all things and through all things, just as Peter says (1 Peter 5:7): “Casting every care upon Him, because He Himself takes care of you”; and Ps. 34:10: “Those seeking God shall lack no good thing.” To understand these and similar wonderful and faithful promises of God is truly to understand the promise of the First Commandment, in which He says: “I am the Lord your God.” “Yours, yours,” He says, “who will show and display Myself to you as God and will not forsake you, if only you believe this.” All such promises depend on and flow from the First Commandment. On the other hand, not to believe them is indeed not to understand the Commandment but to have other gods.
Moses, however, applies this teaching of faith to future use in the midst of abundance, just as I said at the start of the chapter.4 In abundance they are to recall how once in the midst of want they were nourished by the Word with manna; they are to ponder this example and teaching again, and learn to trust in God for some other reason than that they have enough, are satisfied, and their belly is well provided for. Trust based on that is not a trust in God but rather in wealth and gifts which have been received. Because of such trust they forget both true trust and the Word of God, and never learn to have faith in God when they are in want. As I have said, it is a great thing and the work of a rich spirit not to forget God when affairs prosper, and to conduct yourself, with Paul, as if you had nothing, to use the world as if you did not use it (1 Cor. 7:30–31), to know how to endure want and to abound, to know how to be low and to be high (Phil. 4:12), and, with the prophet, not to attach the heart to wealth when it abounds, and not to become vain (Ps. 62:10) but to cling to God alone.
This is what Moses treats in this chapter as in the midst of abundance he sets up and presents the example of manna which was given in the midst of want, in order to call them back from the belly to the Word. Therefore he also repeats at the conclusion, after he has described future prosperity: “He brought streams forth for you from the hard rock and fed you with manna in the desert, which your fathers did not know, to chasten and try you, and afterward do you good, so that you would not say in your heart, etc.” (vv. 15–17). Is this not a stronger example—that He gave drink from the hard rock and manna in the desert—than what Christ teaches in Matt. 6:28 about the lilies of the field and birds of the air, which are cared for by God? For what would you less expect from a rock than water and drink? What less in the desert than bread and food? Why did He not give water from some green tree or cloud of the sky? Why not food from branches or roots or herbs? Why did He do this?
He did this that the immeasurable care of God for us might be praised. He is a God to us and dispenses everything bountifully also when everything is most hopeless. He is willing and able to turn a rock into your drink, a desert into your food, nakedness into beautiful clothing, poverty into wealth, death into life, shame into glory, evil into good, enemies into friends—and what not? He can give and change everything from everything, everything into everything, everything from nothing, everything into nothing. Only be concerned that you believe, and where want prevails, do not break down or be concerned. And again, where abundance prevails, do not be puffed up or carelessly forget God. Whether everything is on hand or everything is lacking, cling to your God always with the same heart, knowing that He who gives plenty will give it even when want bears down upon you. See, therefore, how fittingly and aptly Moses uses this miracle of God to explain the meaning of the First Commandment.
17. Beware lest you say in your heart: My power and the might of my hand, etc.
This he appends in order to describe the nature and source of forgetfulness about God. For when wealth abounds, the godless heart of man feels: “I have wrought these things with my own efforts.” Nor does it notice that these are simply blessings of God sometimes through our efforts, sometimes without our efforts, but never from our efforts and always given out of His free mercy. As we have taught above, He uses our effort as a mask under which He blesses us and dispenses His gifts, so that there is a place for faith.6 Otherwise we may think that our possessions have been produced by our powers or efforts; or, as he says here, we may think that “we have achieved this wealth” by the strength and vigor of our hand. But we are to remember the Lord God, that it is He Himself who grants the powers for achieving this wealth, not through our merit but because He has promised to do so.
This, then, is an outstanding passage, from which have flown many excellent sayings, such as that proverb (Prov. 10:22): “The blessing of the Lord makes rich”; likewise the psalm (136:25): “Who gives food to all flesh”; and the whole psalm of Solomon (Ps. 127:1): “Unless the Lord build the house.” The psalmist completely denies that anything is achieved or preserved by our powers, just as here, too, Moses denies that wealth is produced by our strength or the power of our hands; it is produced by God as He blesses and provides power to make the abundance, that is, wealth and substance; for this is the meaning of the Hebrew word חַיִל. Therefore the highest interpretation of the matter and the true understanding and fulfillment of the First Commandment is a faith which is neither elevated by prosperity nor cast down by adversity.
19. And if you forget the Lord your God.
Just as the promise of grace is set before believers, so is the threat of wrath before unbelievers; from both sides he draws and urges them to faith. Unbelief makes a judge and enemy out of God and the Father, just as he says here: “I testify to you that you will perish altogether.” Faith makes a God and Father out of an enemy and judge, as he said shortly before (Deut. 1:31): “Just as a man bears his son, so the Lord has borne you.” Again you will note here especially that the nation of Israel is wholly indistinguishable from those Gentiles who are to be destroyed, except for the distinction of faith, just as he says here that they will perish like those Gentiles whom the Lord will destroy before them. Therefore they have nothing of which to boast against the Gentiles—not the Law, the righteousness of works, the blood of the fathers, the miracles of God, the divine sayings, the priesthood, the kingdom, or anything else. The sentence stands: If they forget God and worship other gods, they shall perish, as if all this were nothing and they themselves were Gentiles too. For he who does not believe will be damned (Mark 16:16). But it has been said enough: “To worship strange gods is to be unbelieving and to oppose the true God.”
Grant us Your Spirit of Truth and Peace, that we may understand Your holy Will and follow Your Directions and trust Your Promises from the bottom of our heart all our life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit – one God – now + forever.
Amen
Now large crowds were accompanying Jesus, and turning to them he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down first and compute the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish the tower, all who see it will begin to make fun of him. They will say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’
Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000?If he cannot succeed, he will send a representative while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace. In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions.
“Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how can its flavor be restored? It is of no value for the soil or for the manure pile; it is to be thrown out. The one who has ears to hear had better listen!”
Gospel of St. Luke 14:25-35
1 Jesus Christ, my sure defense And my Savior, now is living! Knowing this, my confidence Rests upon the hope here given, Though the night of death be fraught Still with many an anxious thought.
2 Jesus, my Redeemer, lives; Likewise I to life shall waken. He will bring me where He is; Shall my courage then be shaken? Shall I fear, or could the Head Rise and leave His members dead?
3 No, too closely am I bound By my hope to Christ forever; Faith’s strong hand the Rock has found, Grasped it, and will leave it never; Even death now cannot part From its Lord the trusting heart.
4 I am flesh and must return To the dust, whence I am taken; But by faith I now discern That from death I shall awaken With my Savior to abide In His glory, at His side.
5 Glorified, I shall anew With this flesh then be enshrouded; In this body I shall view God, my Lord, with eyes unclouded; In this flesh I then shall see Jesus Christ eternally.
6 Then take comfort and rejoice, For His members Christ will cherish. Fear not, they will hear His voice; Dying, they shall never perish; For the very grave is stirred When the trumpet’s blast is heard.
7 Laugh to scorn the gloomy grave And at death no longer tremble; He, the Lord, who came to save Will at last His own assemble. They will go their Lord to meet, Treading death beneath their feet.
8 O, then, draw away your hearts From all pleasures base and hollow; Strive to share what He imparts While you here His footsteps follow. As you now still wait to rise, Fix your hearts beyond the skies!
Otto von Schwerin (1616-1679) translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)
Getting ready for Church this 6th Sunday after Trinity, which commemorates our Holy Baptism and with that God most gracious election and sure providence, his merciful preservation through all calamities over the ages and His faithful perseverance throughout. The Introit puts that into long-term context of how God chose us even well before he created us well before conception in secret places and how He leads us to our eternal salvation in His faithful and everlasting ways.
O Lord, you examine me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives. You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; you are aware of everything I do. Certainly my tongue does not frame a word without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it. You squeeze me in from behind and in front; you place your hand on me.
Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension; it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it. Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence? If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there. If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn, and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me. If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me, and the light will turn to night all around me,” even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, and the night is as bright asday; darkness and light are the same to you.
Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb.
I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. You knew me thoroughly; my bones were not hidden from you, when I was made in secret and sewed together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence.
How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God How vast is their sum total. If I tried to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. Even if I finished counting them, I would still have to contend with you.
If only you would kill the wicked, O God! Get away from me, you violent men! They rebel against you and act deceitfully; your enemies lie. O Lord, do I not hate those who hate you, and despise those who oppose you? I absolutely hate them; they have become my enemies. Examine me, O God, and probe my thoughts. Test me, and know my concerns. See if there is any idolatrous way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139
The Old Testament lesson from the great prophet Isaiah underlines His divine ways as He continues to lead and guide His chosen people through thick and thin and from the very ends of the earth to the promised fatherland prepared for us in heaven.
Now, this is what the Lord says, the one who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you. I call you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I am with you; when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not harm you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your deliverer. I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price, Ethiopia and Seba in place of you. Since you are precious and special in my sight, and I love you, I will hand over people in place of you, nations in place of your life. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. From the east I will bring your descendants; from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’ and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’ Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth, everyone who belongs to me, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed—yes, whom I made.
Isaiah 43:1-7
The Holy Gospel from the evangelist St. Matthew emphasizes this godly mission and clarifies, that He works salvation through His divine means of grace – which effectively creates, grows and flourishes justifying faith not just among the predestined Jews, but includes gentiles from all nations, races and tongues around the globe and to the very ends of the earth in the holy destiny of God´s selected people. This is the awesome and amazing work of the triune God, who lives and reigns – today as He did yesterday – and tomorrow too. Peace be with You + Therefore, don´t be afraid. He is with us always until the very end of the age.
So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Gospel of St. Matthew 28:16-20
Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son + Holy Spirit
The sermon on the Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy 7:6-12 stresses, that this selection and predestination to be a people holy i.e. belonging exclusively to God is not on account of our merits, net-worth, size, numbers or other capacities, works or deeds, but rather is determined solely by God´s gracious election, His undeserved love for us and His ongoing compassion for us and all people – just as He promised our Fathers – Abraham etc. Israel´s ancestors, whom He delivered from slavery in Egypt and all tyranny of Pharao and kept them throughout the years of wanderings – until He brought them finally to the promised land. He is a sure and faithful God – who keeps His promises for thousand generations – way better and far beyond our wildest dreams.
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth. It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose you—for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples. Rather it is because of his love for you and his faithfulness to the promise he solemnly vowed to your ancestors that the Lord brought you out with great power, redeeming you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,but who pays back those who hate him as they deserve and destroys them. He will not ignore those who hate him but will repay them as they deserve! So keep the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that I today am commanding you to do. If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord your God will faithfully keep covenant with you as he promised your ancestors.
Deuteronomy 7:6-12
Together with the Christian Church and all saints and forgiven sinners we sing His glorious praises – here in somewhat low key, but there in all His perfection and promised glory to come:
1. All mankind fell in Adam's fall,
One common sin infects them all;
From sire to son the bane descends,
And over all the curse impends.
2. Through all man's powers corruption creeps
And him in dreadful bondage keeps;
In guilt he draws his infant breath
And reaps its fruits of woe and death.
3. From hearts depraved, to evil prone,
Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone;
God's image lost, the darkened soul
Nor seeks nor finds its heavenly goal.
4. But Christ, the second Adam, came
To bear our sin and woe and shame,
To be our Life, our Light, our Way,
Our only Hope, our only Stay.
5. As by one man all mankind fell
And, born in sin, was doomed to hell,
So by one Man, who took our place,
We all received the gift of grace.
6. We thank Thee, Christ; new life is ours,
New light, new hope, new strength, new powers:
May grace our every way attend
Until we reach our journey's end!
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love upon you and chose you.
Deuteronomy 7:7
Dr. Martin Luther continues with his running commentary on this great book Deuteronomy. He writes concerning Moses:
See what a careful expositor of the First Commandment Moses is.
Above he had taught the true worship of God in faith, fear, and love of the Spirit; here he has come to the outward work.
But first he issues a salutary warning, lest they complete in the flesh what they had begun in the Spirit, and be puffed up by their own work. Then, when the godless and the idols were outwardly destroyed, they would themselves become more godless and would set up worse idols in the heart, namely, trust and glory in the deed (as the flesh is wont); and thus a beautiful work would cause them to sin more gravely against the First Commandment than the very Gentiles whom they had slain.
So he keeps them at the rightful use of the Law by wholly removing boasting and trust in works, and he calls them to trust in grace alone, saying: “Not because all the nations, etc.” as though he were saying: “The fact that God uses your sword does not happen because He needs your power or because He cannot do it without you, since you are very few in number. The glory of the work is not yours, but His, who by using your small number destroys such a great multitude. Otherwise, if He had wanted to conquer with a multitude, He would not have chosen you but other peoples who are much more numerous than you.”
What, then, is left in this work about which you can boast? Nothing of yours; but “because the Lord [he says] chose you and kept His oath, etc.” (v. 8). You see that nothing is held out to human trust in any work but the undeserved love of God, by which He is moved to approach us with His Word and promise even before we are born. It is out of the question that He should requite anything after we are born or begin to serve Him.
And this is the pure and unalloyed meaning of the First Commandment: We should deem ourselves to be nothing as regards our merit, but to have, receive, and find power to do everything only by His mercy and love, to His glory—mercy which He first promises by His Word and then also confirms afterward by a work which He does through us, as by a sign, just as here He cites the Exodus from Egypt and the destruction of the Canaanites.
LW 9 Pg.84-85
He continues in verse 17 and 22: If you say in your heart: These nations are greater, etc.
Moses takes away another occasion for transgressing the First Commandment, namely, mistrust, which arises from the weakness and infirmity of our power, if it is compared with the work and the Commandment. That is how those spies sinned who frightened the people away from entering the land, which they claimed contained giants, called the Anakim, and walled cities, as we saw above.
But here Moses teaches again how the Commandments of God are to be kept, namely, not by our powers but by the divine strength that is promised to us. With one word he quenches at the same time both the trust and the presumption of our power and the mistrust and the despair of our infirmity—presumption by this, that he shows that greater things are commanded than we can do, so that here he admits that the Gentiles whom He commands to destroy are more numerous and powerful than Israel, their destroyer; despair by this, that through them the Lord will do everything He commands them.
If, therefore, the Children of Israel had looked at their strength and compared it with the strength of the Gentiles who were to be destroyed, they would have despaired completely and paid no attention to the commandment of God. Now, however, that they may carry out everything by faith, He will promise that God will stand by.
To the promise He adds the example of His previous mercy, by which He freed them from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, in order to hearten them by word and deed to the faith by which they would destroy the Gentiles at the command of God. Hence He also declares with a new promise that He will send hornets, that you may see how much is involved in the strengthening of faith.
For through faith God is served; through faith the commands of God are fulfilled; through faith we deserve having the divine power stay by us in all our works, as Christ rightly said (Mark 9:23): “To him who believes all things are possible.”
LW 9 Pg.86-87
And he comes to a wonderful conclussion in verse 22:
How persuasively and paternally He invites them to faith!
He anticipates even their future weak thoughts of faith, so that when the promises of God begin to be fulfilled—because the Gentiles have, in large part, been destroyed, and others are left—they should not constantly imagine that they are forsaken or deceived by the promise.
Everything is happening for their good, to enable them to take over the land more firmly and fully and to prevent them from being forced to bear even crueler beasts in place of the godless people who were destroyed. But this very postponement is given also for the converting of the Gentiles, that those who wish may come to their senses.
Grant us Your Spirit of Truth and Peace, that we may understand Your holy Will and follow Your Directions and trust Your Promises from the bottom of our heart all our life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit – one God – now + forever.
Amen
Once when Jesus was praying by himself, and his disciples were nearby, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has risen.” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” But he forcefully commanded them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Gospel of St. Luke 9:18-26
1 Jesus, lead Thou on Till our rest is won; And although the way be cheerless, We will follow calm and fearless. Guide us by Thy hand To our fatherland.
2 If the way be drear, If the foe be near, Let not faithless fears o’ertake us; Let not faith and hope forsake us; For through many a woe To our home we go.
3 When we seek relief From a long-felt grief, When temptations come alluring, Make us patient and enduring. Show us that bright shore Where we weep no more.
4 Jesus, lead Thou on Till our rest is won. Heav’nly leader, still direct us, Still support, console, protect us, Till we safely stand In our fatherland.
The Benedictine abbey Wimmelburg – just north of Lutherstadt Eisleben and south of Mansfeld – founded just after the turn of the 1st Millennium was dedicated to the legendary martyr St. Cyriacus, who is one of the 14 Holy Helpers. Traditionally he is venerated as a patron saint against evil Spirits and supposedly healed those possessed by demons. That is why this site was frequented by pilgrims even in Luther´s time – especially those suffering from epilepsy. It is said, that the hillsides were populated by campers and salvation seekers.
Luther first knew about this abbey, because his father operated 2 smelters in the valley of the “Böse Sieben”. They were called “Lutherhalden im Goldgrund” (1508-9). However, later he fought the abuse of the silver bells of St.Cyriacus („Cyriacusglöcklein“) in his sermons as no good and devilry. Whereas in early days the abbey was strictly adherent to the reforms of Hirsau, superstition, exorbitance and secularization took over. The abbey fell into serious disrepute – also because the monks plainly misused the gullibility of pilgrims, collecting money from the visitors before ringing the illustrious bells – very much like the wholesale business with indulgences. As you can see from the videos – this malpractice still goes on in catholic areas. The bells have the dates 2018 etc. imprinted on them.
These bells are not really made of silver as that doesn´t have a good ring to it. However in German we talk of a “silvery sound” of a bell – which is clear and with a high pitch, but also indicating small hand-bells, which were rung by monks begging for alms.
In 1525 the abbey was sacked by peasants on riot, but the buildings were only largely destroyed in a big fire in the winter of 1680. During this fire the bells melted only to be replaced a short while later, which bears the handwritten date 1680 and has a diameter of 760mm. Just the severely damaged church walls were spared in this fire to remain standing even just so. Since reformation times it was now a humble Lutheran parish church. Instead of propaganda of proposed healing by the ringing of silver bells, the newfound gospel was proclaimed as saving message from the pulpit, which featured an original illustration of the reformer Martin Luther – as bearer of truly good tidings.
That Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification, Rom. 4:25.
And He alone is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, John 1:29; and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all, Is. 53:6.
Likewise: All have sinned and are justified without merit [freely, and without their own works or merits] by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood, Rom. 3:23f
Now, since it is necessary to believe this, and it cannot be otherwise acquired or apprehended by any work, law, or merit, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us as St. Paul says, Rom. 3:28: For we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law. Likewise 3:26: That He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Christ.
Of this article nothing can be yielded or surrendered [nor can anything be granted or permitted contrary to the same], even though heaven and earth, and whatever will not abide, should sink to ruin. For there is none other name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved, says Peter, Acts 4:12. And with His stripes we are healed, Is. 53:5. And upon this article all things depend which we teach and practice in opposition to the Pope, the devil, and the [whole] world. Therefore, we must be sure concerning this doctrine, and not doubt; for otherwise all is lost, and the Pope and devil and all things gain the victory and suit over us.
Smalcald Articles II,1
And then also negatively in opposition to abuse and idolotary as in the veneration and invocation of saints:
The invocation of saints is also one of the abuses of Antichrist conflicting with the chief article, and destroys the knowledge of Christ. Neither is it commanded nor counseled, nor has it any example [or testimony] in Scripture, and even though it were a precious thing, as it is not [while, on the contrary, it is a most harmful thing], in Christ we have everything a thousandfold better [and surer, so that we are not in need of calling upon the saints].
And although the angels in heaven pray for us (as Christ Himself also does), as also do the saints on earth, and perhaps also in heaven, yet it does not follow thence that we should invoke and adore the angels and saints, and fast, hold festivals, celebrate Mass in their honor, make offerings, and establish churches, altars, divine worship, and in still other ways serve them, and regard them as helpers in need [as patrons and intercessors], and divide among them all kinds of help, and ascribe to each one a particular form of assistance, as the Papists teach and do. For this is idolatry, and such honor belongs alone to God.
For as a Christian and saint upon earth you can pray for me, not only in one, but in many necessities. But for this reason I am not obliged to adore and invoke you, and celebrate festivals, fast, make oblations, hold masses for your honor [and worship], and put my faith in you for my salvation. I can in other ways indeed honor, love, and thank you in Christ. If now such idolatrous honor were withdrawn from angels and departed saints, the remaining honor would be without harm and would quickly be forgotten. For when advantage and assistance, both bodily and spiritual, are no more to be expected, the saints will not be troubled [the worship of the saints will soon vanish], neither in their graves nor in heaven. For without a reward or out of pure love no one will much remember, or esteem, or honor them [bestow on them divine honor].
Together with the Augsburg Confession we and all faithful Christians believe and confess concerning the Worship of Saints positively:
that the memory of saints may be set before us, that we may follow their faith and good works, according to our calling, as the Emperor may follow the example of David in making war to drive away the Turk from his country. For both are kings. But the Scripture teaches not the invocation of saints or to ask help of saints, since it sets before us the one Christ as the Mediator, Propitiation, High Priest, and Intercessor. He is to be prayed to, and has promised that He will hear our prayer; and this worship He approves above all, to wit, that in all afflictions He be called upon, 1 John 2:1: 4] If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, etc.
Augsburg Confession XXI
And in the Apology of this Confession and against the roman catholic Confutation we emphasize with the faithful Church in this matter, that they have it wrong and that we do indeed honor the saints, because
our Confession approves honors to the saints. For here a threefold honor is to be approved. The first is thanksgiving. For we ought to give thanks to God because He has shown examples of mercy; because He has shown that He wishes to save men; because He has given teachers or other gifts to the Church. And these gifts, as they are the greatest, should be amplified, and the saints themselves should be praised, who have faithfully used these gifts, just as Christ praises faithful business-men, Matt. 25:21, The second service is the strengthening of our faith; when we see the denial forgiven Peter, we also are encouraged to believe the more that grace truly superabounds over sin, Rom. 5:20. The third honor is the imitation, first, of faith, then of the other virtues, which everyone should imitate according to his calling. These true honors the adversaries do not require. They dispute only concerning invocation, which, even though it would have no danger, nevertheless is not necessary…
Again, the adversaries not only require invocation in the worship of the saints, but also apply the merits of the saints to others, and make of the saints not only intercessors, but also propitiators. This is in no way to be endured. For here the honor belonging only to Christ is altogether transferred to the saints. For they make them mediators and propitiators, and although they make a distinction between mediators of intercession and mediators [the Mediator] of redemption, yet they plainly make of the saints mediators of redemption. But even that they are mediators of intercession they declare without the testimony of Scripture, which, be it said ever so reverently, nevertheless obscures Christ’s office, and transfers the confidence of mercy due Christ to the saints. For men imagine that Christ is more severe and the saints more easily appeased, and they trust rather to the mercy of the saints than to the mercy of Christ, and fleeing from Christ [as from a tyrant], they seek the saints. Thus, they actually make of them mediators of redemption. Therefore, we shall show that they truly make of the saints, not only intercessors, but propitiators, i.e., mediators of redemption. Here we do not as yet recite the abuses of the common people [how manifest idolatry is practiced at pilgrimages]. We are still speaking of the opinions of the Doctors. As regards the rest, even the inexperienced [common people] can judge.
In a propitiator these two things concur. In the first place, there ought to be a word of God from which we may certainly know that God wishes to pity, and hearken to, those calling upon Him through this propitiator. There is such a promise concerning Christ, John 16:23: Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Concerning the saints there is no such promise. Therefore, consciences cannot be firmly confident that by the invocation of saints we are heard. This invocation, therefore, is not made from faith. Then we have also the command to call upon Christ, according to Matt. 11:28: Come unto Me, all ye that labor, etc., which certainly is said also to us. And Isaiah says, 11:10: In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign to the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek. And Ps. 45:12: Even the rich among the people shall entreat Thy favor. And Ps. 72:11,15: Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him. And shortly after: Prayer also shall be made for Him continually. And in John 5:23 Christ says: That all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. And Paul, 2 Thess. 2:16-17, says, praying: Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, … comfort your hearts and stablish you. (All these passages refer to Christ.] But concerning the invocation of saints, what commandment, what example can the adversaries produce from the Scriptures?
The second matter in a propitiator is, that his merits have been presented as those which make satisfaction for others, which are bestowed by divine imputation on others, in order that through these, just as by their own merits, they may be accounted righteous. As when any friend pays a debt for a friend, the debtor is freed by the merit of another, as though it were by his own. Thus, the merits of Christ are bestowed upon us, in order that, when we believe in Him, we may be accounted righteous by our confidence in Christ’s merits as though we had merits of our own.
And from both, namely, from the promise and the bestowment of merits, confidence in mercy arises [upon both parts must a Christian prayer be founded]. Such confidence in the divine promise, and likewise in the merits of Christ, ought to be brought forward when we pray. For we ought to be truly confident, both that for Christ’s sake we are heard, and that by His merits we have a reconciled Father.
… Since, therefore, the adversaries teach us to place confidence in the invocation of saints, although they have neither the Word of God nor the example of Scripture [of the Old or of the New Testament]; since they apply the merits of the saints on behalf of others, not otherwise than they apply the merits of Christ, and transfer the honor belonging only to Christ to the saints, we can receive neither their opinions concerning the worship of the saints, nor the practice of invocation. For we know that confidence is to be placed in the intercession of Christ, because this alone has God’s promise. We know that the merits of Christ alone are a propitiation for us. On account of the merits of Christ we are accounted righteous when we believe in Him, as the text says, Rom. 9:33 (cf. 1 Pet. 2:6 and Is. 28:16): Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be confounded…
Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXI
Together with the Church we laud and praise our one and only God, whom we love, trust and fear above all else that he has surrounded us with a cloud of witnesses and has made us a member of the Holy Christian church of forgiven sinners and holy saints singing out the blessed message of God´s grace and mercy into the world – like all bells should too – not just the silver ones of St. Cyriacus:
1 Saints, see the cloud of witnesses surround us; Their lives of faith encourage and astound us. Hear how the Master praised their faith so fervent: “Well done, My servant!”
2 These saints of old received God’s commendation; They lived as pilgrim-heirs of His salvation. Through faith they conquered flame and sword and gallows, God’s name to hallow.
3 They call to us, “Your timid footsteps lengthen; Throw off sin’s weight, your halting weakness strengthen. We kept the faith, we shed our blood, were martyred; Our lives we bartered.”
4 Come, let us fix our sight on Christ who suffered, He faced the cross, His sinless life He offered; He scorned the shame, He died, our death enduring, Our hope securing.
5 Lord, give us faith to walk where You are sending, On paths unmarked, eyes blind as to their ending; Not knowing where we go, but that You lead us— With grace precede us.
6 You, Jesus, You alone deserve all glory! Our lives unfold, embraced within Your story; Past, present, future—You, the same forever— You fail us never!
Moses goes on to show some other instances of godlessness against the First Commandment and moves on to discuss the outward act—all, of course, in proper sequence. Since first he has set straight the heart, the source of works, he then also sets straight the hand and the other members, teaching that they shall slay and curse the Gentiles in the land, not enter into marriages or pacts with them but cast down their altars, statues, groves, and images. In this matter, too, he follows the right order. First he commands them to destroy the makers of the images, then the images themselves, because it is useless to remove the images if their makers and proponents are left behind to worship them.
Here it must be noted that God does not decree that these nations be destroyed outright, but only if they continue to be obstinate. Otherwise peace was to be offered them, and they were to be endured if they were turned to Israel. So it happened to the Gibeonites and the harlot Rahab.1 Furthermore, He commanded this work, not because He wanted this to be a permanent obligation of His people, but because He had decreed to destroy those Gentiles completely on account of their sins, a work for which He wanted to use His people. He who overthrew Sodom without using another nation is wont at other times to punish one nation through another nation. Therefore one should not apply this literal and fleshly understanding of the First Commandment to Christians, whose business it is to kill Gentiles and cast down images with the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). For this task was assigned specifically to this nation for a time, just like everything else that is commanded to this nation, for example, the rules concerning marriage, covenants, and all outward ceremonies.
Iconoclasts in action
Here I must digress to discuss our new prophets, who boast that they are impelled by the First Commandment (even though they are not Jewish, but Christian) to destroy images by resorting to violence. They rage exceedingly here and boast that they are altogether full of the Spirit, and they accuse everyone else of sin against the First Commandment and of a breach of majesty. I, however, affirm that they are bloodthirsty, seditious, and murderous, and that they have nothing else in their mind but slaughter and murder. This I shall prove easily from this passage as follows: If they refuse to consider anything as ceremonial in the First Commandment but maintain that everything in it must be done of necessity, they will be forced by this passage to kill the whole world; for it has images even if it does not worship them. The command to kill the Gentiles is as explicit here as the command to destroy images; if they affirm the one, they must necessarily concede the other. In fact, here He commands the killing of the Gentiles first as an act more necessary than the destruction of the images.
And this is what I saw coming if their teaching were to prevail: that the common people could not be held back from bloodshed, because it would rely on this Commandment and on their teaching. Therefore I was of the opinion that they should be thrown out of the country as men who are truly bloodthirsty and seditious, men who in their whole life have nothing else to do but to shed blood. Since it is now certain that among Christians the godless should not be killed with the physical sword (and this part of the Law was temporary until Christ, but has now been done away with as merely ceremonial), it follows at the same time that there is no necessity for the images to be cast down, since they relate to the same part of the Law. Therefore no one who sees the iconoclasts raging thus against wood and stone should doubt that there is a spirit hidden in them which is death-dealing, not life-giving, and which at the first opportunity will also kill men, just as some of them have begun to teach. For they are forced to teach and act this way by logical consistency, since the Law of Moses impels them, even though some of them are crafty enough to mask this death-breathing spirit beautifully.
There is also another raging of this same spirit, namely, when they do not properly assign the execution of this law even when the law does pertain to us. For both in this book and elsewhere Moses first established the magistrates, who were to administer the laws; but these fanatical spirits refer such authority to the masses and despise the magistrates. God commanded—and not in one place only—that sins be dealt with by means of public judgment, witnesses, and sentences, which those people usurp because of their own frenzy. There is no instance on record anywhere where the masses broke down images without a leader or government, whether regular or given by God, as is to be seen in the cases of Gideon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Ahab.
Their third frenzy is that they cast down all images altogether, while Moses gives a command concerning only those which are worshiped and in which one trusts. This is not only what the text itself indicates; but it is also the intention of the First Commandment when it says that one should make no likeness of God to be worshiped. God nowhere forbids images other than those of God, as long as they are not adored. Why, He Himself raised up and allowed the bronze serpent among that very people until it began to be worshiped. In fact, at the Jordan the Reubenites raised up an altar which the others deemed godless; but when they saw that it had been erected merely as a sign and for a memorial, not for sacrifices and worship, they left it untouched (Joshua 22:10–34). Furthermore, Lev. 26:1 plainly says that images are not to be made for the purpose of worship.
Therefore let us avoid these men of blood and not allow them to draw us into Judaism. Paul says to us (1 Cor. 8:4): “We know that an idol is nothing in the world,” and all those external things are free, even if they are images assigned to some divine worship. Let us remove such external things through the Word or do away with them with the common consent of the government and of those under whose power they are. Those things, however, which we have only for a sign and memorial, let us have freely, so that we ourselves do not finally also succumb to the spirit of bloodshed and sedition by allowing liberty to be turned into necessity. These frenzied people might somehow be tolerable if they only destroyed images and did not also bind conscience by calling this a necessary work, put us under the wrath of the Law, and robbed us of freedom. But since one must now affirm the liberty given by God, let us tell them that Moses in no wise pertains to us in all his laws, but only to the Jews, except where he agrees with the natural law, which, as Paul teaches, is written in the hearts of the Gentiles (Rom. 2:15). Whatever is not written there we should include among the ceremonies that were necessary for the people of Moses but free for us, as also the Sabbath is, as Paul (Col. 2:16)7 and the last chapter of Isaiah (66:23) bear witness.
One wonders, however, why those enemies of images are so pious and mild toward the images engraved on gold and silver coins, likewise on silver vessels. Why do they love these images so much and not even burn them or throw them away? Or do we perceive here the mischief of Satan ruling in their hearts by means of the height of greed and the height of insanity? Furthermore, why do they not also rend their hearts, since they cannot be without an image whenever they either hear the preaching of Christ crucified or think about Him or other saints? Or is a picture before our own eyes outside us more damaging than that which is in the heart inside us? It is a frenzy and insanity, by which they seek nothing but the reputation of performing an outstanding deed. For us it is enough to know that “an idol is nothing in the world.” If it is nothing, it will do no harm whether it stands or falls.
Of course, I do not love images very much either, and I would prefer not to have them set up in places of worship. I make this judgment not only because I see that they are worshiped—which I think happens rather seldom—but because trust in a work is expressed in their price and beauty, as though by that work something of a devotion were offered to God, while meantime the cost is wasted, and everything which is directed toward them could be directed to better purposes for the need of the brethren. Otherwise I cannot condemn images of graceful design in a private home. But since others have raised this issue, the maniacal prophets see that they shall achieve no glory in it; for they concoct a necessity of Law against the freedom of the Spirit, and this can by no means be endured.
