Lecture 1 — God is almighty

^9:1^ Job spoke next. He said:

^9:2^ Truly I know this is so, and man is not justified compared to God.

^9:3^ If anyone will wish to argue with him, he will not be able to answer him one question for a thousand.

^9:4^ He is wise in heart and almighty in power. What man has resisted him and found peace?

^9:5^ He has moved the mountains, and they were ignorant whom he has destroyed by his anger.

^9:6^ He moves the earth from its place, and its pillars will be shaken.

^9:7^ He commands the sun and it does not rise, and he conceals the stars as though under seal.

152. Job spoke next. He said: Truly I know this is so. Blessed Job, in his answer above in which he had responded to Eliphaz’s words, seemed to have overlooked one argument which Eliphaz had proposed about the justice of God when he said, will man ever be justified in comparison with God? (Job 4:17) He rather seemed to have spoken almost contentiously with God when he said, am I the sea or a whale (Job 7:12), and how long will you not spare me (Job 7:19). So Baldath of Shuah replied to the argument of blessed Job, taking his starting point from a defense of divine justice and said, can God deceive judgment? (Job 8:37), and he ended his speech in the same vein, saying, God does not spurn the simple man (Job 8:20). So blessed Job shows in this next response, first, that he does not want to speak against divine justice, nor does he want to argue against God, as they suspected. This is what the text says, continuing: Job spoke next: truly I know this is so, namely, that God does not deceive judgment, and that he does not spurn the simple man. These were the propositions of Bildad. And I also know man is not justified compared with God. In this response, he answers what Eliphaz had said, will a man ever be justified in comparison with God?

153. Consequently, he shows a sign of how he knows this. When a man is just in comparison to another man, he can freely and securely argue with him, because justice and truth are made clear in mutual discussion. However, no man is secure when he argues with God. So he adds, if anyone will wish to argue with him, namely, man with God, he will not be able to answer him one question for a thousand. Truly, we should note that the greatest number which has a proper name is in our usage a thousand, for all the higher numbers are named as multiples of the lower numbers, for example, ten thousand, one hundred thousand. This happens reasonably, for according to the ancients, the species of numbers extend up to ten, and beyond this one repeats the first numbers again (1, 2, 3), and this fact is clear according to the names, whatever the truth of the matter. For the cube of ten is one thousand, for one thousand is ten times ten times ten. Thus Job chooses the number one thousand as the highest of the numbers, which designates for us every large determined quantity. When he says that man cannot respond to God, one question for a thousand, it is the same as if he were to say: no determined measure of number can express how much divine justice exceeds human justice, since the latter is finite but the former is infinite.

154. He shows as a consequence that man cannot approach God in any proportion in arguing a case when he says, he (God) is wise in heart and Almighty in power. For there are two types of dispute. There is one in which the dispute is carried on by argument, and this is done by wisdom. There is another when the dispute is carried on by force, and this depends on power. In both of these, God exceeds man, because in both his strength and wisdom he exceeds all strength and wisdom. Consequently, he shows both of these preeminences.

First he shows the preeminence of God in power, which he certainly begins to show in relation to men when he says, what man has resisted him and found peace? as if to say, “no one.” Note that man obtains peace in one way from someone who is more powerful, and in another way from one who is less powerful or his equal in power. For clearly, the more powerful acquires peace from the less powerful by fighting against him, as when a powerful king wages war against a rebellious subject in his kingdom, and after he obtains victory re-establishes the peace of his kingdom.

In the same way, a man sometimes obtains peace from someone who is his equal in power by fighting him. For although he cannot overcome him, he can still wear him out by his persistence in the fight, and lead him to sue for peace. But one never obtains peace from someone who is more powerful by resisting and fighting him, but by submitting to him humbly. Thus, an evident sign that the strength of God exceeds all human strength is the fact that no one can have peace with him by resisting him, but only by obeying him humbly. As Isaiah says, you will maintain us in peace. Peace surely which comes because we trust in you (Isa 26:3). However, the wicked who resist God cannot have peace, as Isaiah says, For the wicked, the Lord says there is no peace (Isa 57:21). He means this here when he says what man has resisted him and found peace?**

155. Then he shows that the power of God exceeds all the power of natural things as much in higher as in lower bodies. He shows this in the lower bodies from the fact that he moves, by his will, those things which seem especially firm and stable among lower things. So among the mixed bodies, to which he alludes after man, the mountains seem to be the especially firm and stable things, to which the stability of the saints is compared in the Scriptures, according to the Psalm, they who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion (Ps 124:1). Yet the Lord moves the mountains by his power, and he speaks about this, saying, he has moved the mountains. Even though he can certainly do this miraculously by divine power, since this seems a promise made to those with firm faith in Matthew, if you have faith and do not hesitate, if you will say to this mountain: rise and cast yourself into the sea, it will be done (Matt 21:21), and in Corinthians, if I have all faith to move mountains (1 Cor 13:2), yet the text seems to more fittingly refer to the natural course of things. For the order of nature demands that everything generated naturally is also corrupted at a determined time. So since the generation of mountains is natural, it must be that the mountains would naturally be destroyed at some time.

He calls this natural corruption of the mountains a moving, because the dissolution happens from some moving of their parts. Nor is it against reason that he attributes these things which happen naturally to divine power. Since nature acts for a given end, everything which is ordered to a certain end either directs itself to the end or is ordered to the end by some other being directing it. Therefore, a natural thing, which does not have knowledge of its end so as to direct itself to it, must be ordered to the end by some higher intelligence. The whole activity of nature, then, is compared to the intellect directing natural things to the end, which we call God, like the motion of the arrow is fittingly compared to the archer. Therefore, as the motion of the arrow is fittingly attributed to the archer, so the whole activity of nature is fittingly attributed to divine power. So if the mountains are corrupted by the activity of nature, it is clear that the stability of the mountain is overcome by divine power. Now sometimes it happens among men that a king conquers a strong city by his own power, and the more quickly and imperceptibly it happens, the more the king shows his power. The fact then that the mountains are moved especially attests to the divine power, since it happens almost immediately and imperceptibly, so that even those who live in the mountains cannot forecast their fall and perish as a result of it.

So he says, they were ignorant whom he has destroyed by his anger**, as if to say, “God does such great things so suddenly that even those who live in the mountains cannot foresee them.” This is evidently because if they knew beforehand, they would take precautions and not be destroyed. He adds by his anger, to show that God sometimes regulates natural operations according to the order of his providence as a necessary means to punish the sins of man. He is metaphorically said to be angry with them because He is said to take revenge on them, which is the usual result of anger among men.

156. He passes from the mixed bodies to the elements. Among these the earth seems to be the most fixed and stable which, as it is the center of all motion, is unmoved. Yet sometimes it moves naturally because of gas which is contained within it in some of its parts, as the philosophers correctly taught. This is the theme he addresses when he continues, he can move the earth from its place, not completely as a whole, but he agitates parts of it, like in an earthquake. In this movement, even the mountains which are like the pillars based on the earth are struck violently, and so he continues, and its pillars will be shaken. By pillars can be understood literally columns and other kinds of structures, which seem to cling to the earth, and which are shaken about in an earthquake. Or one can understand by pillars the lower, deep, hidden parts of the earth, because just as the foundation of a building is set up firmly on pillars, so the stability of the earth proceeds from its center, to which all the parts of the earth naturally tend. Consequently, all the lower parts of the earth are the supports for the upper regions of the earth and are like pillars. So, since an earthquake proceeds from the deep regions of the earth, it seems to be like a violent shaking of the pillars of the earth.

157. Finally, he proceeds to the heavenly bodies, which also result from divine power. Consider that as the nature of the earth is to be unmoved and at rest, so the nature of the heavens is constant motion. Just as the power of the earth can be overcome clearly by divine power through the motion which appears in it, so the power of a heavenly body is shown to be overcome clearly by divine power, through the fact that the motion of the rising and the setting of the sun and the other stars is impeded. So he continues, he commands the sun and it does not rise. This certainly does not mean that the sun is in fact impeded from rising, since the motion of the sun is continuous. But the sun sometimes appears to human perception not to rise, for example, when the air is so cloudy that the rising sun does not appear to the inhabitants of the earth with its usual brightness. Since cloudiness of this kind happens by the action of nature, it is fittingly attributed to the divine command, which regulates the action of the whole of nature, as has been said (Job 9:5). It is clearly apparent that the statement that the sun does not rise should be understood to mean that the rising sun is hidden, from the next verse: and he conceals the stars as under a seal. For the stars almost seem to be concealed when the sky is so covered with clouds that they cannot be seen.