Mat 2:6 | Luther | STEP | [[This very long sermon on Matt 2:1-12 is divided into 7 parts. In the electronic version, they are found in verses 1-2 (Part 1), verse 3 (Part 2), verse 4 (Part 3), verse 5-6 (Part 4), verses 7-8 (Part 5), verse 9 (Part 6), verse 10 (Part 7), and verses 11-12 (Part 8)]] V.12. “And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod they departed into their own country another way.” 104 Here it appears that those who believe in God enjoy his special protection. He has an eye upon these wise men so that he keeps watch over their return and directs them in a dream. 105 And why does he not allow them to return to Herod since he could have shielded the child from all the world even if Herod had known and found him? It is done for the purpose of teaching us not to tempt God. Whatever can be accomplished by ordinary means should be done. We should not presume upon faith and say in idleness: I trust in God everything will grow that is to grow. His creatures have no purpose if we make use of them. In Gen. 1 he created and ordained all creatures with their works, and indicated the use man shall make of them. This will he never recall and ordain something special for you. 106 Here the question arises: How can I strike the golden mean to believe and yet not tempt God, for you preach and praise faith alone and can not extol it enough? Answer: You should not believe save where you have a word of God. It is the character and nature of faith to be built and to rely on the Word of God. Where there is no Word of God there cannot and shall not be any faith. Is this not stated clearly and positively enough? Hence the Word of God is called in Scripture: testament, testimonia, pacta, foedera, testimonies, agreements, covenants, as these postulate faith; nor did God ever command us to believe any of his works without his Word. 107 Again, he has confirmed his works and wonders, as Christ says, : “Though ye believe not me believe the works.” If you have not God's Word you should continue to make use of your power, of your goods, of your friends, and of all that God has given you, and thus abide in the dispensation, established by God, Gen. 1. For he did not give it to you in vain, he will not, for your sake, turn water into wine or stone into bread, but you should use according to his order whatever he has created until he forces you by word or work to use it differently. 108 But when the hour comes that the creature cannot help you any more and all your strength fails, behold then God's Word begins. For then be has commanded us to acknowledge him as God, i. e. expect everything that is good from him. This word, though in force all the time, will yet be only understood and made use of in need, when nothing else avails. Of this be speaks, : “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” From this it is clear that we cannot make trial of God in need, for all his words and promises point to the time of trouble, when no one but he is able to help. Hence we read, , that when the devil tempted Christ to cast himself down from the temple, Christ said, no, for it is written: “Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God,” as if to say: I can go down by the steps, it is not necessary to do signs and wonders. Again we read in the legends of the fathers that two brothers journeyed and one of them died of hunger for God's sake; that is, he went to hell; for they came amongst wicked people, who offered them something to eat, and the one said, he would not take bread from these people, but expect his food from heaven. The other took and ate and lived. That fool did nothing else but set aside God's order and tempted him. However sinful people may be they are still God's creatures as well as thorns and thistles. You make use of a thorn to open a boil or for some other purpose; will you look contemptuously upon it, because it is a prickly brush? Thus we read that Abraham and Isaac gave up their own wives and had them taken from them in order not to tempt God. Therefore God preserved them so that no harm was done to them or to their wives, while great kings were punished. From this it is clear that to tempt God is mere wickedness and frivolity except in time of trouble. 109 There is another temptation also in the time of trouble which was punished severely among the people of Israel and which alas is common as compared to the other temptation and equally irrational. That temptation occurs before God's Word is heard; this after we hear the Word, namely thus: when we know that God has promised help in the time of any trouble, but are not content with it, go forward and will not abide his promise, but prescribe time, place, and manner for his help; and then if he does not come as we expect and desire, faith vanishes. There faith is too long, here it is too short; there it is too early, here it is too late. In both cases men fall from the Word. Those have faith without Word, these have Word without faith, both of which are of no avail. Middle ground is blessed, both Word and faith united in one, as God and man are one in Christ. 110 He who holds fast to the Word alone, trusts and abides in it, does not doubt that what the Word says will come to pass; he who does not dictate aim or time or means and ways, but resigns all freely to God's will and pleasure as to when, how, where, and by whom he will fulfil his Word; he, I say, has a true living faith which does not nor can not tempt God. 111 Learn then what it means to tempt God; it is easily understood; it is a deficiency of true faith. To faith belongs above all the Word of God, as the foundation and rock of faith. Hence to tempt God is nothing else than to deal with him aside from his Word, i. e. to believe when he did not command faith and gave us no Word, or to disbelieve when he bids believe and gives us his Word. He did not give orders to believe that he would feed you when you have food before you or can find it without a miracle. But where you cannot find it, he has commanded that you firmly believe he will not forsake you. But you should not set time or measure for him, for he deserves to be free, which is becoming, and will not forsake you, which is divine; what more could you desire? 112 Such was the lot of Christ. God could have rescued him from the power of Herod. But since without apparent necessity of a miracle all could be adjusted, he used for our example ordinary means, and led the wise men into their own country by another way. It would have required an unnecessary exhibition of miracles if they had returned to Herod and made known the house wherein the child was to be found. But even this has its meaning, as we shall see later.

Matthew 2:6

[[This very long sermon on Matt 2:1-12 is divided into 7 parts. In the electronic version, they are found in verses 1-2 (Part 1), verse 3 (Part 2), verse 4 (Part 3), verse 5-6 (Part 4), verses 7-8 (Part 5), verse 9 (Part 6), verse 10 (Part 7), and verses 11-12 (Part 8)]]

I.IV. HOW THE WISE MEN BY THE COMMAND OF GOD RETURNED TO THEIR FATHERLAND.

_V.12. “And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod they departed into their own country another way.”

¹⁰⁴ Here it appears that those who believe in God enjoy his special protection. He has an eye upon these wise men so that he keeps watch over their return and directs them in a dream.

¹⁰⁵ And why does he not allow them to return to Herod since he could have shielded the child from all the world even if Herod had known and found him? It is done for the purpose of teaching us not to tempt God. Whatever can be accomplished by ordinary means should be done. We should not presume upon faith and say in idleness: I trust in God everything will grow that is to grow. His creatures have no purpose if we make use of them. In Gen. 1 he created and ordained all creatures with their works, and indicated the use man shall make of them. This will he never recall and ordain something special for you.

¹⁰⁶ Here the question arises: How can I strike the golden mean to believe and yet not tempt God, for you preach and praise faith alone and can not extol it enough? Answer: You should not believe save where you have a word of God. It is the character and nature of faith to be built and to rely on the Word of God. Where there is no Word of God there cannot and shall not be any faith. Is this not stated clearly and positively enough? Hence the Word of God is called in Scripture: testament, testimonia, pacta, foedera, testimonies, agreements, covenants, as these postulate faith; nor did God ever command us to believe any of his works without his Word.

¹⁰⁷ Again, he has confirmed his works and wonders, as Christ says, John 10:38: “Though ye believe not me believe the works.” If you have not God's Word you should continue to make use of your power, of your goods, of your friends, and of all that God has given you, and thus abide in the dispensation, established by God, Gen. 1. For he did not give it to you in vain, he will not, for your sake, turn water into wine or stone into bread, but you should use according to his order whatever he has created until he forces you by word or work to use it differently.

¹⁰⁸ But when the hour comes that the creature cannot help you any more and all your strength fails, behold then God's Word begins. For then be has commanded us to acknowledge him as God, i. e. expect everything that is good from him. This word, though in force all the time, will yet be only understood and made use of in need, when nothing else avails. Of this be speaks, Ps. 50:15: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” From this it is clear that we cannot make trial of God in need, for all his words and promises point to the time of trouble, when no one but he is able to help. Hence we read, Math. 4:7, that when the devil tempted Christ to cast himself down from the temple, Christ said, no, for it is written: “Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God,” as if to say: I can go down by the steps, it is not necessary to do signs and wonders.

Again we read in the legends of the fathers that two brothers journeyed and one of them died of hunger for God's sake; that is, he went to hell; for they came amongst wicked people, who offered them something to eat, and the one said, he would not take bread from these people, but expect his food from heaven. The other took and ate and lived. That fool did nothing else but set aside God's order and tempted him. However sinful people may be they are still God's creatures as well as thorns and thistles. You make use of a thorn to open a boil or for some other purpose; will you look contemptuously upon it, because it is a prickly brush? Thus we read that Abraham and Isaac gave up their own wives and had them taken from them in order not to tempt God. Therefore God preserved them so that no harm was done to them or to their wives, while great kings were punished. From this it is clear that to tempt God is mere wickedness and frivolity except in time of trouble.

¹⁰⁹ There is another temptation also in the time of trouble which was punished severely among the people of Israel and which alas is common as compared to the other temptation and equally irrational. That temptation occurs before God's Word is heard; this after we hear the Word, namely thus: when we know that God has promised help in the time of any trouble, but are not content with it, go forward and will not abide his promise, but prescribe time, place, and manner for his help; and then if he does not come as we expect and desire, faith vanishes. There faith is too long, here it is too short; there it is too early, here it is too late. In both cases men fall from the Word. Those have faith without Word, these have Word without faith, both of which are of no avail. Middle ground is blessed, both Word and faith united in one, as God and man are one in Christ.

¹¹⁰ He who holds fast to the Word alone, trusts and abides in it, does not doubt that what the Word says will come to pass; he who does not dictate aim or time or means and ways, but resigns all freely to God's will and pleasure as to when, how, where, and by whom he will fulfil his Word; he, I say, has a true living faith which does not nor can not tempt God.

¹¹¹ Learn then what it means to tempt God; it is easily understood; it is a deficiency of true faith. To faith belongs above all the Word of God, as the foundation and rock of faith. Hence to tempt God is nothing else than to deal with him aside from his Word, i. e. to believe when he did not command faith and gave us no Word, or to disbelieve when he bids believe and gives us his Word. He did not give orders to believe that he would feed you when you have food before you or can find it without a miracle. But where you cannot find it, he has commanded that you firmly believe he will not forsake you. But you should not set time or measure for him, for he deserves to be free, which is becoming, and will not forsake you, which is divine; what more could you desire?

¹¹² Such was the lot of Christ. God could have rescued him from the power of Herod. But since without apparent necessity of a miracle all could be adjusted, he used for our example ordinary means, and led the wise men into their own country by another way. It would have required an unnecessary exhibition of miracles if they had returned to Herod and made known the house wherein the child was to be found. But even this has its meaning, as we shall see later.

^{▼▼Note: This marks the end of Part I of the Luther's Epiphany sermon. Part II., “The Spiritual Significance of the This Gospel” continues from paragraph 113-344; when and if time allows, this too will be included. Also, this sermon marked the end of that portion of the Church Postil which Luther edited in 1522 -- RPB}