Sastra Bait Kedua Kejadian 15:3: Who is the Heir

[266] To connect what is coming with what is here written he says “it was said to Abraham” (Gen. 15:3). For indeed the prophet, even when he seems to be speaking, really holds his peace, and his organs of speech, mouth and tongue, are wholly in the employ of Another, to shew forth what He wills. Unseen by us that Other beats on the chords with the skill of a master-hand and makes them instruments of sweet music, laden with every harmony.

[267] It is well to hear what these predictions were, which were thus said to him. First that God does not grant as a gift to the lover of virtue that he should dwell in the body as in homeland, but only permits him to sojourn there, as in a foreign country. For “knowing thou shalt know,” he says, “that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land which is not their own” (Gen. 15:3). But every fool takes the body for the place of his nativity and studies to dwell there, not to sojourn.