Exodus 18

After this Moses comes to the mountain of God, and there Jethro his father-in-law meets him. And he "went out to meet him" from the camp, and does not lead him to the mountain of God, but "leads him to his own tent". For the priest of Midian could not go up to the mountain of God, nor could he go down into Egypt—neither he himself nor the wife of Moses—but now he comes to him with his sons. For no one can go down into Egypt and undergo the Egyptian contests, unless he be an approved athlete and such a one as the Apostle describes, that: "everyone who strives in the contest is temperate in all things; and they indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore run thus, not as toward something uncertain; I fight thus, not as one beating the air". Moses, then, because he was a great and mighty athlete, went down into Egypt, went down to the contests and exercises of the virtues. But Abraham too went down into Egypt, because he also was a great and mighty athlete. For what shall I say of Jacob, who by his very name is an athlete? For he is interpreted as a wrestler and supplanter. And therefore, when Jacob had gone down into Egypt with "seventy-five souls", he became "as the stars of heaven in multitude". But not all who go down into Egypt so fight and so accomplish the contests that they become "a multitude" and are multiplied "as the stars of heaven". For others, to have gone down into Egypt turns out to the contrary. I know that Jeroboam, fleeing from Solomon, went down into Egypt, and not only did not grow "into a multitude", but even tore apart and corrupted the people of God, because, going down into Egypt, he received from King Shishak "the sister of Tahpenes his wife as a wife".

But meanwhile Jethro comes to Moses, bringing with him his daughter, the wife of Moses, and his sons. "And Aaron came" it says "and all the presbyters of Israel, to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses in the sight of God". Not all eat bread "in the sight of God", but those who are "presbyters", who are elders, who are perfect and proved by their merits, they eat bread "in the sight of God"; those who observe that which the Apostle says: "whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else, do all to the glory of God". Everything, therefore, that the saints do, they do "in the sight of God"; the sinner flees from the sight of God. For it is written that Adam, after he sinned, fled "from the sight of God" and, when questioned, answered: "I heard" he said "your voice, and I hid myself, because I was naked". But Cain too, after he was condemned by God for fratricide, "went out" it says "from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Nod". He "went out", then, "from the face of God", who is unworthy of the sight of God. But the saints both eat and drink "in the sight of God", and all things that they do, they do "in the sight of God". As I examine the present passage still further, I see that those who receive a fuller knowledge of God and are more fully imbued with the divine disciplines, these, even if they do evil, do it before God and do it in His sight, like the one who said: "against you alone have I sinned, and I have done evil before you". What more, then, does he have who does evil before God? That he immediately repents and says: "I have sinned". But he who departs from the sight of God knows not how to turn back and to purge his sin by repenting. This, then, is the difference between doing evil before God and having departed from the sight of God while sinning.

God spoke to Moses, did he not? Yet Moses very prudently and humbly yielded to the advice of his father-in-law, foreigner though he was, with regard to governing and directing such a mighty nation. For he realized that from whatever intellect right counsel proceeded, it should be attributed not to him who conceived it but to the One who is the Truth, the immutable God.

Moses in fact took care to appoint teachers of reading and writing for God's people before they had any written record of God's law. The Septuagint Scripture calls these instructors grammatoeisagogoı́, which is Greek for "bringers-in of letters," because they brought them, in a sense, into their students' minds or perhaps introduced their students to them.

Hence Moses, who speaks with God, is judged by the reproof of Jethro, who was of alien race, because with ill-advised labour he devotes himself to the people's earthly affairs: and counsel too is presently given him, that he should appoint others in his stead for settling earthly strifes, and he himself should be more free to learn spiritual secrets for the instruction of the people.

But, as I see, Jethro did not come to Moses in vain, nor in vain did he eat bread with the elders of the people "in the sight of the Lord". For he gives Moses counsel quite fitting and useful, that he should choose men and appoint as princes of the people "men who worship God, mighty men and hating pride". For such ought the princes of the people to be, who are not only not proud, but even hate pride, that is, that they should not only themselves be without vice, but should also hate vices in others; I do not say hating men, but vices. "And you shall appoint them" it says "as tribunes and centurions and leaders of fifty and leaders of ten, and they shall judge the people at every hour. But the matter that is weightier, they shall refer to you". Let the princes of the people and the presbyters of the plebs hear that they ought to judge the people at every hour, always and without ceasing to sit in judgment, to settle disputes, to reconcile those who are at variance, to bring back into favor those in discord. Let each one learn from the holy scriptures his own office. Moses, it says, is to be in those things which pertain to God and to expound the word of God to the peoples, but the other princes, whom they call "tribunes"—for tribunes are so called because they preside over a tribe—the other "tribunes", then, or "centurions", or "leaders of fifty" are to preside over lesser judgments, which pertain to individuals, settling them. But I think this very figure was given to the Church not only in the present age, but is also to be preserved in the age to come. Hear at last what the Lord says in the Gospel: "when the Son of man shall sit" it says "upon the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel". You see, then, that not only does the Lord judge, to whom the Father "has given all judgment", but He appoints for Himself also other princes, who may judge the people concerning lesser causes, "but the matter that is weightier, they shall refer" to Him. Therefore the Lord too said of a certain one that "he will be liable to the council", but of another: "he will be liable to the judgment", and of another: "he will be liable to the gehenna of fire". But we are said to be about to render an account even for an idle word, and He did not say that we shall render an account to God, just as concerning perjury He says: "but you shall render to the Lord your oaths". Moreover "the queen of the South will rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them": behold, yet another kind of judgment. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". For all these things are a type and "shadow" of heavenly things and an image of "the things to come".

For nothing was ever more humble than he; who, being leader of so great a people, and having overwhelmed in the sea the king and the host of all the Egyptians, as if they had been flies; and having wrought so many wonders both in Egypt and by the Red Sea and in the wilderness, and received such high testimony, yet felt exactly as if he had been an ordinary person, and as a son-in-law was humbler than his father-in-law, and took advice from him, and was not indignant, nor did he say, "What is this? After such and so great achievements, art thou come to us with thy counsel?" This is what most people feel; though a man bring the best advice, despising it, because of the lowliness of the person. But not so did he: rather through lowliness of mind he wrought all things well.

But just as we read written that "the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing", so we too cannot be satisfied in beholding and considering the things that are written, from how many sides they build us up, in how many ways they instruct us. For indeed, when I perceive that Moses, a prophet full of God, to whom God spoke "face to face", received counsel from Jethro, a priest of Midian, I fall into an amazement of mind out of exceeding wonder. For the Scripture says: "and Moses heard the voice of his father-in-law, and did whatever he said to him". He did not say that 'God speaks to me, and what I ought to do is conveyed to me by heavenly discourse', and 'how shall I accept counsel from a man, and from a gentile man, a stranger to the people of God?', but he hears his voice and does all that he says, and he listens not to who says it, but to what he says. Wherefore we too, if perhaps we sometimes find something said wisely by the gentiles, ought not straightway to spurn both the sayings along with the name of the author; nor, because we hold the law given by God, is it fitting that we swell with pride and spurn the words of the prudent, but as the Apostle says: "proving all things, holding fast that which is good". But who today among those who preside over the peoples—I do not say, if some things have already been revealed to him by God, but if he has some merit in the knowledge of the law—deigns to accept the counsel even of a lesser priest, not to say of a layman, still less of a gentile? But Moses, who was "a man meek above all men", accepted the counsel of a lesser man, both to give the princes of the peoples a form of humility and to designate the image of a future sacrament. For he knew that it would sometime come to pass that the gentiles would bring forward good counsel to Moses, that they would bring a good and spiritual understanding to the law of God; and he knew that the law would hear them and would do all things as they say. "For the law cannot do", as the Jews say, because "the law is weakened in the flesh", that is, in the letter, and can do nothing according to the letter: "for the law brought nothing to perfection". But according to this counsel, which we bring to the law, all things can be done spiritually, and sacrifices too can be offered spiritually, which now cannot be done carnally; the law of leprosy too can be kept spiritually, which cannot be kept according to the letter. So, then, in the way that we understand, in the way that we perceive and give counsel, the law does all things; but according to the letter it does not do all things, but only very few.