The Value of the Righteous

They willingly sacrifice their lives for the honor of the best political order.

Likewise, for Elijah, the one who guided this prophet with the flaming horses and the fiery chariot, living in another kind of life and having departed from men to the place he received, he left a symbol sufficient of his own power, even the mantle. Yet what was the value of that thing? For it was nothing other than a dead and trivial skin from old age. However, even the Jordan itself yielded to it, and the water was split and stood divided, just as the old Jordan was before Jesus, who was a type of what was to come (2 Kings 2:11).

The Theban Elisha also was present, and he received the garment of the philosopher as a disciple, making the crossing of the river secure, honoring the philanthropy of God and the garments of the saints as if they were endowed with soul. And so that it might be clearly shown that the miracle concerning the river did not happen because of the cause of the water being struck, but because of the honor of the one inhabited and taken up, Elisha struck the water, and the water flowed normally, nothing new having suffered. And since, having failed, he cried out: 'Where is the God of Elijah?' (2 Kings 2:14), and having cried out a second time, he sat down, immediately the river split the stream, showing the dry land, and the prophet, having trodden, arrived at the other side.

And Joseph, after Jacob had died, not loving him as a father so privately, but honoring him as a common patriarch of the nation, with that much-celebrated service, led the remains out of Egypt, so as to allow Moses, after the writing of the world's genesis and the rest of the history, to give this also as a narrative of life. And Joseph again was present with the Israelite departing from the eyes, as one might say, stolen from Pharaoh, and the body was everywhere present with the people, and he led it with care as a good and evil-averting safeguard for the sixty myriads.

And they had such reverence regarding the ark of the forefather, as regarding the holy ark which bore the law of God. Therefore also David, entreating God to be propitious and favorable to the people, and exhausting him with myriads of supplications, so that having stilled the continuous and recurring plague of misfortunes, he might again govern Jerusalem with good foresight as before, thus says: 'O Shepherd of Israel, pay attention, O Leader of Joseph like a sheep' (Ps 80:2). For he is appeased by the names of the beloved and friends, and most gracefully handles the entreaty of the transgressing multitude of sins, as if concealing and covering them with the titles of the holy fathers.

This is told to our mind by the word concerning the saving of Sodom (Gen 18-19). For Abraham, entreating the Sodomites, when God, after foretelling, brought the punishment upon them as they were displeased, the sparing of the righteous being worthy to save the whole people. For beginning from the fifty toward the ten, he concluded, and God immediately granted the entreaty, as if weighing on some scale and weights, opposing the value of the ten righteous against the myriads of sinners.

In order that it might be shown more abundantly to us all, that even one righteous person is a precious thing and a friend to God, since the tenth failed to be a number and the multitude of the holy was found suffering from the smallness of the sinners, and it was necessary for the law-breakers to receive the penalty of audacity; Lot is violently driven from the condemned places and is saved entirely into the old age of his own righteousness, having received all his household from God (Gen 19). Therefore, a righteous person is a great possession: first, a benefit to himself; second, a lasting treasure to the rest of his race, unknown to sight and always accompanying them, silent and instructing others by his deeds; lying of old and living by his good repute. Good for the children.