Some of the faithful people in the church often consented to be genuinely and lovingly allied with and to serve obediently teachers whom they deemed to be as wise as serpents in their frequent meditation on the Scriptures, but these preservers of peace in the church did not know that these teachers were not as innocent as doves.^[1] But because there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed these creators of falsehoods and worshipers of false doctrines^[2] immediately showed themselves not to have the eyes of their heart illuminated. They were unable to say, Our eyes are like doves,^[3] but on the contrary they long to take away the right eyes of their hearers, that is, the perception of heavenly and supernal contemplation, and to turn them aside to view only evil and perverse matters and to render them powerless in the war which we wage against spiritual powers of iniquity in heavenly places.^[4] For this reason Nahash wanted to deprive the men of Jabesh of their right eyes so that they would not be able to see anything they needed to see for their defense against the enemy since they would have covered the left side of their face with their shields in battle.

Certain wiser individuals were more cautious in not trusting the heretics and recognized in them the ancient dragon or serpent speaking in them (that is to say, the devil or Satan as in various writings of Paul or even as Christ himself spoke in his parables). These wiser individuals said, Do not compel us to believe your new doctrine until we read through the writings of the fathers and inquire of the sevenfold Holy Spirit, who was given to the church as its light. If there will not be anything in them which will defend our faith, we will come out to you and leave behind the inner catholic unity and instead ally ourselves with you who have already left it and assail it. Then we will listen to you in that matter, even if it is against us. They went out from us but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.^[1] They said these things, however, not as if they would ever agree on any condition, but because they were most convinced of the soundness of the faith of their fathers and were confident that they would completely conquer the heretics in this exchange.

The people were divided into three parts, so that we might not strike the serpent Nahash in one battle line alone. The people were divided into three parts so that they might reveal the fruit and dignity of sacred fasting. By fasting we are called back to the contemplation of the holy Trinity, which we lost by eating the forbidding fruit. The people were also divided into three groups because this act commended the fasts of the law, the prophets and the gospel. When Moses was deemed worthy to receive the law, he twice fasted for forty days. When Elijah escaped the hand of Jezebel, he came to Mount Horeb on the strength of one meal that sufficed him for forty days. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fasted for forty days in the wilderness and did not eat any food of any kind. Therefore, Saul divided the people into three parts in order to promote the fasts of the law, the prophets and the gospel as an example for those abstaining from food.