The Ruin of False Leaders

Having large branches, imitating both firs and pines.

For how could they desire and imitate such great tyrants, to the point where it is possible to perceive them as tangible woods, in whose side-branches and limbs all winged creatures dwell and wild beasts give birth? In order that the prophecy might be easily understood, we set aside a part of it, having it as follows: 'Behold, an Assyrian cypress in Lebanon, and beautiful in its side-branches, and thick in its cover, and high in its greatness; and its beginning became in the midst of the clouds; water nourished it, the abyss raised it up, its rivers led around the plants of it, and its systems sent forth into all the woods of the plain. Because of this, its greatness was raised above all the woods of the plain, and its branches were enlarged and its side-branches were raised up from much water. In the spreading out of it in its side-branches, all the winged creatures of the heaven sheltered, and under its branches all the beasts of the plain gave birth, and in its shadow every multitude of nations dwelt' (Ezekiel 31:3). And it became beautiful in its height because of the multitude of its branches, because its roots became into much water. And many cypresses in the paradise of God and pines are not like its side-branches, and firs did not become like its branches; no wood in the paradise of God was made like it in its beauty because of the multitude of its branches, and the woods of the paradise of the enjoyment of God envied it.

The same or similar things have been said regarding what was spoken about Assyria and about Pharaoh. It should not be ignored that most of our brothers refer Pharaoh and Assyria to the devil, allegorizing them according to various thoughts, sometimes Pharaoh and sometimes Assyria. Those bringing this interpretation, let them say: what are the woods of the paradise that envied the devil, not being soulless but being living, rational animals, clearly? And it is nothing wonderful that the names of woods are categorized among rational animals, when even the wisdom of God is sometimes called a true vine, and sometimes the Tree of Life. The voice of weeping shepherds, because... (Zechariah 11:3).

Their greatness has been brought to misery; it is the roar of lions, because the thicket of the Jordan has been ruined.

The leaders of the peoples, who are shepherds of them both priestly and teaching-wise, turn out to be like sheep, while there are those presiding kingly rather than tyrannically as lions. And since both types of rulers are called shepherds and lions, it is necessary for all the subjects to be brought as sheep and other cattle, having a tendency toward the shepherds who graze, and toward the lions for the cattle. It has been said indeed in Proverbs: 'A lion is stronger than cattle, who does not turn away nor falls upon every cattle' (Proverbs 28:17).

Having fallen into misery, those under the teachers—rather, false teachers—and those lying tyrannically over them, the shepherds lament, not being sparing of the flocks, but having been deprived of shameful gains and for the sake of seizing pleasures, so that they might not serve the Law-giving God and Him who has given them to rule, but rather their own bellies.

Concerning the heterodox, the divinely-inspired Apostle writes, correcting the peoples of the Church: 'Do not be carried away by strange and varied teachings; for it is good to be established by grace' (2 Timothy 3:6-7), and again: 'For such teachers serve their own bellies, not Christ, deceiving the hearts of the simple through exploitation and greed' (2 Timothy 3:6-7), appearing as pastures through simplicity.

These, having suddenly come into perplexity, lament the things they desire to be pleasant, their greatness having been brought to misery, which they thought they had deceitfully; likewise also those who rule tyrannically roar, the Jordan having been ruined where they spoke and were hidden, thinking they had cover and safety through ferocity.

With many woods already being cut down and having been torn apart, as it has been said nearby, the adjacent forest is being torn apart.

Much is to be found in the Scripture signifying those presiding with raw and wild temper, being called lions approaching in judgment. Immediately indeed in the prophet Jeremiah, lions are said to be the hot-tempered ruler of Babylon and the tyrant of Assyria; and thus the prophecy has: 'Israel is a wandering sheep, lions have driven him; the first the king of Assyria devoured him, and later his bones the king...'