Joshua 5:11

But see what fruits he first receives in the land of promise: then, it says, "they ate" first "of the fruits" from the region of palms, and "they ate" first "the unleavened bread." You see, therefore, that when we have first departed from the journey of this world, if we rightly follow Jesus, the first thing that meets us is the palm of victory, and, when the "leaven of malice and wickedness" has been cast away, the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" is prepared for us.

But at that time, indeed, when the people went out from the land of Egypt, "each carried, sprinkled in his garments," what was strewn. But when what was strewn had run out and they had no bread, God "rained down manna" for them. But when they came to the holy land and "took the fruits of the province of the palms," the "manna failed" them, and then they began to eat of the fruits of the land. And so three kinds of food are described in general. The first, indeed, is that on which we feed as we go out from the land of Egypt, but this suffices for a little time. After this, however, the manna succeeds. But the third we now "take" as "fruit" from the holy land. In which differences, as far as the understanding of my littleness reaches, I judge this to be indicated: that the first food, which we carried with us as we went out from Egypt, is this small schoolboy learning (or even, if perhaps someone has attained something of liberal letters), which can help us but a little. But placed in the desert — that is, in this state of life in which we now are — we feed on the manna through this, that we are instructed by the teachings of the divine law. But whoever has deserved to enter the "land of promise" — that is, to attain those things which have been promised by the Savior — he will eat the "fruits from the region of the palms." For truly he will find the "fruit of the palm" who, having overcome the enemy, has arrived at the things promised. For it is certain that, however great those things are which we can now understand or perceive in the law of God or in the divine writings, far more sublime and lofty will be those which, when the "riddle" ceases, all the saints will deserve to "see" "face to face," because "the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have ascended into the heart of man, these has God prepared for those who love him."