As useful as it is to me that you [the Lord] should leave me for a little while in order to test the steadfastness of my desire, so it is harmful if you let me be abandoned for too long because of my deserts and my sins. For no human strength will be able to endure by its own steadfastness if it is too long abandoned by your help in time of trial. Nor will it be able to give way instantly before the power and wherewithal of the adversary if you yourself, who are aware of human strengths and are the arbiter of our struggles, do not permit us to be tried beyond our capacity, but with the trial also provide a way out, so that we may be able to endure.^[1]

We read something like this as it appears in mystical fashion in the book of Judges with respect to the extermination of the spiritual nations that are opposed to Israel: These are the nations that the Lord forsook, so that by them he might instruct Israel, so that they might grow accustomed to fighting with their enemies. And again, a little further on: The Lord left them so that he might test Israel with them, whether or not they would hear the commandments of the Lord that he had laid down for their forefathers by the hand of Moses. God did not begrudge Israel their peace or look with malice upon them, but he planned this conflict in the knowledge that it would be beneficial. Thus, constantly oppressed by the onslaught of the nations, they would never feel that they did not need the Lord’s help. Hence they would always meditate on him and cry out to him, and they would neither lapse into sluggish inactivity nor lose their ability to fight and their training in virtue. For frequently security and prosperity have brought low those whom adversities cannot overcome. CONFERENCE 4.6.3-4.^[2]

Why should we be surprised that this is true of people? Heaven itself witnessed the same occurrence, for some of its citizens were lost and some stood firm. Seeing one part fall through pride, the other, the chosen angels, kept their stand more humbly and therefore also more firmly. This loss, then, was beneficial for those citizens of heaven whom it helped to establish more firmly in their eternal condition. The same is true of us individually. A slight loss that safeguards humility can at times be of immense profit to a soul.

Now Chusarsaton’s^[1] name is translated as humiliation. They were delivered, then, to the hands of one who would humiliate them. And it was because they acted wickedly on the heights of the mountains against the Most High that he sent them to their humiliation. But I don’t want you to think that it is only in relation to the ancients that divine providence delivers those who were exalted in wickedness for the purpose of humiliating them and that they may be healed by such a wholesome remedy. Presently as well, almighty God’s healing providence is [not] lacking in relation to his church. Even now, there is a Chusarsaton king of Mesopotamia to whom souls are handed over for humiliation and affliction, souls who had moved themselves from despised Christian humility into pride and arrogance. The vice of pride is utterly hateful in the sight of God, for, as Scripture says, pride is the beginning of departure from God^[2] and, again, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.^[3]

It calls the savior Othniel,^[1] which means the time of God for me. Through this first Othniel, then, the people were delivered from their humiliating servility and were restored to peace rather than having their longstanding pride and various deeds removed. But because we already said that a certain spiritual identity can be found in King Chusarsaton as one of the adversaries and a prince of the powers of the air,^[2] it seems to me fitting to say that Othniel likewise, who was raised up to deliver the people, is a member of the host of heaven^[3] and of the throng of archangels who are sent to support those who receive the inheritance of salvation.^[4] These angels are saviors, moreover, designated under the form of Othniel or Ehud, for, as we have often shown, we do not fight alone against the powers of the enemy, but good forces and powers are also sent to our aid by the Lord. HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3.3.^[5]

Of these three kinds [of calling from need], then, although the first two seem to be supported by better beginnings, nonetheless we find that even on the third level [recorded by the psalmist], which seems inferior and lukewarm, there have been people who are perfect and very fervent in spirit, similar to those who have made an excellent beginning in the Lord’s service and have passed the rest of their lives in praiseworthy intensity of spirit. Likewise there are many who have become tepid and have fallen from a higher level and very frequently ended up in tragedy. [Thus], just as it was no drawback to the former that they seem to have been converted not by their own will but by force of necessity, inasmuch as the Lord’s kindness furnished the occasion whereby they might feel compunction, likewise their having been converted in some sublime fashion profited the latter nothing whatsoever, because they did not strive to live out the rest of their days accordingly.

These are the persons, then, who are referred to in holy Scripture as amphoterodexioi^[1]—that is, as ambidextrous. Ehud, who used either hand as if it were his right hand, is described as such in the book of Judges. We shall also be able to possess this quality in a spiritual way if by a good and correct use we put the things which are considered fortunate and right-handed and the things which are called unfortunate and left-handed on the right side, that whatever befalls may become for us, in the words of the apostle, the arms of righteousness. For we see that our inner man consists in two parts or, as I might say, two hands. No holy person can be without what we call the left hand, but perfect virtue is discerned in the fact that by proper use he turns both into a right hand.

Let’s observe how Ehud, whose name means praise, discharged his leadership. History teaches us, in its writings about King Eglon, how this most wise Ehud with particular skill and, if I may say, cunning but praiseworthy deception, would kill the tyrant Eglon, whose name means round or circular. It was necessary, then, to have the quality of judges of our people as was this Ehud, whose name means praise, so to cut through all his rolling motion and circuit of evil ways and to destroy the king of the Moabites. But Moabite is translated as flow or effusion. Who can the ruler or leader of this flowing and dissolute people be seen or understood to be, therefore, other than the word of that philosophy which adjudges pleasure to be the highest good, a philosophy which the word of the gospel, which has been compared to a sword,^[1] killed and destroyed? And this prophetic word would become enclosed within their belly and lowest stomach by means of the ambidextrous judge’s arguments, to extinguish the Moabites by assertion of the truth, enclosing also every sense of perverse doctrine and dull understanding which extols itself and rises against the spiritual knowledge of Christ,^[2] so that by acting thus and by doing battle with the word of God, each judge of the church may also become a praising Ehud, about whom the Lord would say, Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few, so I will set you over many.^[3]

Now, judges were established over them from the time they took over the promised land and before the monarchy began. And even during this era, the children of iniquity, that is, foreign foes, afflicted them, for we read they had now peace, now war. Even so, you can find periods of peace in the age of the judges longer than that of Solomon, who reigned forty years. Specifically, under the judge named Ehud, there were eighty years of peace.