The Judgment of the Leaders and the Wheat and Chaff

“They became women, each one serving her neighbor's wife.” For the animals that serve lust are struck toward goodness in their blindness, so that they may no longer look sharply toward lust. For this deprivation of the eyes will be received by the soul as an uplift of sobriety, so as to correctly see what remains to be done and what is fitting to work.

Indeed, the sorcerer Elymas, who sees wickedly, was blinded for a time, casting off the vision of deception, so that later, having regained sight, he might behold 'the sun of righteousness.' For it is not useless that the sun, which is to be seen, is seen such that when one has endured blindness, he sees the light.

And the commanders of Judah shall say in their hearts: 'We shall find for ourselves those dwelling in Jerusalem in the Lord of all-ruling God their own' (Zach. XII, 5). Concerning the praiseworthy Judah to whom it is said: 'Judah, your brothers have praised you,' his commanders are those serving under him, the power of the king of all, having been revealed as 'the firstborn and servants of the word,' namely the apostles of Christ.

It must be noted that even if all the spirit-bearing men, both prophets and all others who are subject to Judah—teachers, evangelists, those thus designated as commanders—seek to find none other than those dwelling in the Jerusalem that sees 'the peace surpassing all understanding' and the heavenly city of God, concerning which 'the vessel of election,' Paul speaking in Christ, writes: 'You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem' (Heb. 12:22).

The one fulfilling this fair city as an excellent and lawful citizen, being steadfast according to holiness and the rest of divine virtue, becomes unshakeable, according to that which is said in Psalm 1 of the steps: 'He who dwells in Jerusalem shall not be moved.' And he dwells in it forever, remaining under the one ruling over it.

And the aforementioned commanders find those dwelling in the divine 'city, of which God is the artisan and creator,' as sons and disciples to themselves; just as Paul found Silvanus and Timothy and the evangelist Luke and the other acquaintances around...

Memory is brought forward in his epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles. And Peter, the true disciple of the Savior, likewise found Mark the evangelist and others more. Likewise also John, the disciple loved by the Lord. But those whom he found dwelling in Jerusalem are brought forward in his book of Acts.

And all those presiding over the apostolic Church find those who hold the same faith through right teaching, being citizens of the true and spiritual Jerusalem, as if because of this they dwell in it. Of the leaders who are assigned, the Lord God Almighty is the one holding and ruling them.

In that day I will set the leaders of Judah as a firebrand among the wood and as a torch of fire in a reed, and they shall consume on the right and on the left all the peoples around, and Jerusalem shall dwell yet for itself (Zechariah 12:6-7). And the Lord will save the tents of Judah as from the beginning, so that the boasting of the house of David and the pride of those dwelling in Jerusalem over Judah may not be magnified (Zechariah 12:7).

In the time, the day which he spoke of because of the light, the leaders of Judah find for themselves those dwelling in Jerusalem, being set by God as a firebrand among the wood and as a torch of fire in a reed, so that on the right and on the left all the peoples may be devoured around. As a firebrand among the wood and a torch in a reed, the leaders of the intelligible Judah are set, so that by the fiery and luminous Word they may consume the unfruitful and material volitions. For trees not producing good fruit are being cut down and thrown into the fire; they are wood being handed over to punishment, so that the worst quality of them may be consumed, just as the stalks, being reed and not wheat, are consumed by fire. For it has been said in the Gospel that, when Jesus is cleansing the threshing floor in which he has a winnowing fan in his hand, the wheat is being brought into the storehouse of the promises—these are the righteous men—but the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire, as the worst volition is consumed when those with private volition are found to be unfruitful (Matthew 3:12).

Concerning such things, it is said by the prophet Micah by the Savior: 'Woe to me that I have become as gathering reed in...