At the end of a great number of years, when the generation has multiplied, he gives Noah the law about food and commands him to eat all kinds of meat without prohibition, of course clean animals (because he taught Noah this distinction as well), and forbids only the use of blood.

When a long time had passed since Noah, God called Abraham, commanded him to leave his father's house, led him to the country of old called Canaanites, present-day Palestine, and gave him the commandment to be circumcised, so that the generation descended from him would have the taking away of excess as a sign of piety.

Such was God's providence for Isaac and Jacob. The first did good to Abimelech, the other pointed out to Laban the true God and denounced the impotence of the gods, not true, but imaginary.

Such was God's providence for Joseph: first, having allowed him to become a slave, through slavery, slander and bondage, God entrusted him with the reins of Egypt, and first he preached the true God to the cupbearer, and then he expounded the same teaching to the king, and after that, taking up the feeder, he wisely ruled the whole boat. Thus, God, wishing to deliver the multiplied Israelites from Egyptian slavery, delivers them with a multitude of great miracles, and through this makes them a famous people, because this people makes them teachers of the knowledge of God for all nations. And just as for the care of this people he chooses Moses, then Jesus, and also Samuel, and at other times one of the other prophets, and by means of one man who exercises in wisdom he does good to all his fellow countrymen, so by means of one people of Israel he calls all nations into the communion of faith, because they also are of the same nature with Israel.

And that this is really so, testifies the harlot Rahab, for whom, although she was a foreigner and a harlot, one rumor was enough, and for the sake of it she accepted piety, despised her own and gave herself into the hands of strangers, for she says: "We have heard what the Lord God did with the Egyptians, and your fear fell upon us" (Joshua 2:9). Therefore he makes conditions with spies and confirms them with an oath.

The same is testified to by the foreigners, who feared the presence of the nod among them and said to one another: "This is the God who slew Egypt, woe to us foreigners (1 Samuel 4:8). For this reason, God, although He transmits the nod to the foreigners, denouncing the iniquity of His people (the law was not to be made a defender of obvious transgressors of the law), nevertheless preserves the reverence of the nod betrayed to them, thereby teaching the foreigners that they have gained victory not over God, but over the iniquity of men. Wherefore he arranges that Dagon, that voiceless and senseless idol, but which the foreigners worshipped as God, falls down before the kivot and assumes the appearance of a worshipper, so that the foreigners may know the difference between him and the nod. But they foolishly raise up Dagon again, and again see him fallen and worshipped. Then, remaining in their great stupidity and not wishing to see the difference, they are taught by experience to be chaste, and, having suffered the punishment, they come to their senses, sober up from the intoxication of ignorance, and send the nod, as they ought to, to their own servants, and, honoring it with offerings, announce the punishments they have suffered, and those who are to receive it are informed how it will be returned.

This is what God did with Belshazzar. Since the people of Israel have crept into great wickedness, God sends them captive to Babylon, and the sacred vessels become the war booty of the enemy. But Nebuchadnezzar removed them as Divine from general use, and brought into the temple those who were worshipped by them as gods; but his son, i.e. Belshazzar, not understanding his father's misfortunes, not paying attention to what punishments he had suffered for his arrogance, even reverence, as he believed, these Divine vessels, he carried out on the Wednesday that was forever consecrated to God, the impious one drinks from these vessels and offers this inviolability to those who feast with him. And at the same time, the sentence is pronounced on the wicked: someone's invisible hand writes God's decree on the wall. The king remains in perplexity, unable to read and know the power of what is written; his mother harassed Daniel on Wednesday, who repeatedly resolved such perplexities to his father.

And your father, having some idea of this, honored, as he supposed, these vessels, removing them from human use and dedicating them to his imaginary gods. And you, not thinking of the honor given by your father, fell into the abyss of arrogance and mocked the sacred chalices. For this reason their Lord, not taking care of inanimate things, but caring for people, informs them what the end of arrogance is, and by your punishment He gives many people a lesson in good manners. Thus said Daniel, and Belshazzar was put to death the same night.

This is how the Creator of all things always provided for all people, not only those descended from Abraham, but also for all the descendants of Adam, and through one people He brought all nations to the knowledge of God. And through him he offered teaching to all men, not only when he was pious, but also when he bore the punishment for his iniquities. And it was this Nebuchadnezzar, the arrogant torturer, who raised up a golden idol, commanding that all should worship him, and saying, "I will set my throne above the stars of heaven..." I will ascend above the cloud, I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14), I will embrace the whole world with my hand as a nest, and I will take up the eggs that are left behind (10:14), not through all angels God taught chastity, but through those who were taken captive by Him. For when he saw that the three youths, not having fulfilled the royal law, had neglected this terrible furnace as a toy, walking on coals as on roses, and those who were devoted to such a flame sang to God, how he marveled at the miracle, how he marveled before the Creator of the miracle, commanded everyone to worship the God of the youths, called Him the Highest, called God and King of all.

In the same way, this Assyrian, who had raged against God and uttered these foolish words: "The Lord God will not save you from my hand, and where are the gods of the nations?" - he brought to the knowledge of his own powerlessness, forced one to flee, and those many thousands of whom he boasted of, in a short moment he put to death through a single angel.

Thus he sent Jonah to the Ninevites as a preacher of repentance; and he who does not wish to fulfill the commandment, but unwisely intends to flee, he binds with waves, and, as in a prison, delivers into the belly of a whale; and the foolish fish leads the prudent man to where he is commanded to preach.

When the time has come for the great mystery of the economy to be accomplished, and for the preaching to be scattered throughout the whole universe after the Divine incarnation, then this people, chosen at first from among all the nations by a special benevolence, also scatters throughout the whole universe, so that all, possessed by the charm of polytheism, may learn to hear that God is One. Creator of heaven and earth, and through this the preaching of the divine Apostles also became more convenient.

But perhaps another will say that the Jews not only did not contribute to the teaching about Christ, but even extremely opposed and served as an obstacle for the pagans who wanted to believe. On the contrary, if anyone wishes to investigate this exactly, he will find that the very opposition of the Jews contributed to the faith of the Gentiles, because the conversation with the Jews and the proofs adduced from the Law and the Prophets, both served as a clear rebuke of the foolishness of the Jews, so showed the Gentiles that the Christian way of life had been preached from ancient times. And the testimony borrowed from the enemies made the doctrine preached reliable.

And those who heard, seeing that the Jews themselves recognized these pronouncements as Divine, and also seeing the good deeds performed in the name of Christ, and accepting these signs as a pledge of the teaching taught, easily accepted the preaching, believed in the preached God, and abhorred the perverse Jewish interpretations. Therefore, the disobedience of the Jews not only did not serve as an obstacle to the Divine preaching, but by the very fact that they undertook to oppose, it gave credibility to the teaching, because the contradiction compelled the testimony to be put on the Lord's wednesday, and these testimonies exposed falsehood and revealed the light of truth.