Shaking Off the Dust

… set free from every stain. For we have been justified through faith in him, and we have been enriched with the security he gives against anything at all. We are walled about, as it were, by his grace, since he drives away from us every assault of the devil and the savage uprisings of the opposing powers.

He teaches this when he speaks to Zion, that is, to Jerusalem, which is “the Church of the living God” (1 Timothy 3:15): “The uncircumcised and unclean will no longer pass through you again” (Isaiah 52:1).

Taken historically, you will understand the saying in this way. The nations living around Jerusalem may be taken as the uncircumcised and unclean, since they neither knew the One who is God by nature and in truth nor had received the training that comes through the Law. They fought very often against those of Israel’s blood, so that in most places they were seen to be stronger than the strength Israel had, and they all but walked through Jerusalem, holding her thrown down under their feet.

Come, then, let us shape the spiritual meaning from what at times happened in history. The troops of demons, that is, “the world rulers of this darkness” (Ephesians 6:12), and with them the profane Satan, hold under their feet the souls that have not yet come under God. They pass through them, as it were, with no one to stop them, that is, no one to come to their defense. But when those souls have been made God’s own and have him as their glory and strength, then, yes then, the greed of those powers will come to an end. For it is written: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will rescue them” (Psalm 34:7).

So the uncircumcised and unclean may be understood as the loathsome and profane powers that produce every kind of filth, the wicked and opposing powers.

“Shake off the dust, and rise up, and sit down, Jerusalem. Loose the bond from your neck, captive daughter of Zion” (Isaiah 52:2).

He now shows her to be skilled in boasts fit for saints, and he teaches plainly how she will put on the strength of her arm and her glory as well (compare Isaiah 51:9; 52:1). First he commands her to shake off the dust, and so to rise and sit, and to take off the bond from her neck. Here, I think, the dust should be understood as the earthly mind and the uncleanness of fleshly desires.

For just as those who lie on the ground cannot help being covered with dust and dirt, so in the same way, I think, the thoughts of fleshly uncleanness settle on those whose mind is thrown to the ground and whose outlook is earthly. So we who have been called into spiritual kinship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and who are about to put him on as strength and glory (compare Romans 13:14), must first shake off the dusty, earthly mind and first cleanse the mind, and …