Lecture 1 — The perversity of the friends of Job

^13:1^ Behold, my eye has seen all these things, and my ear has heard them, and I understood all particular things.

^13:2^ I also know in the same way you do, nor am I inferior to you in this.

^13:3^ Yet let me speak to the Almighty; I desire to dispute with God.

^13:4^ First, I will show that you are makers of lies and cultivators of false dogmas.

^13:5^ Would that you were silent so that people would think you were wise men!

^13:6^ Listen, then, to my correction and hear the judgment of my lips.

^13:7^ Do you think that God needs your lies so that you can speak deceptions for him?

^13:8^ Do you take God’s part and try to judge for God?

^13:9^ Or will it please him from whom nothing is concealed? Or is he deceived like a man by your fraudulent practices?

^13:10^ He himself blamed you because you took his part fraudulently.

^13:11^ He will rouse himself immediately, and he will throw you into confusion and his terror will rush upon you.

^13:12^ Your memory will be like ashes, and your necks will be laid low in the mud.

217. Behold, my eye has seen all these things. After Job has shown by experience that he was able to know the excellence of divine power, he concludes, behold, my eye has seen all these things and my ear has heard them, for I knew the effects described before, which show divine strength and wisdom, partly by sight and partly by hearing. Nor does my knowledge rest in these sensible effects. From them, I ascend to the understanding of the truth, and so he says, and I understood all particular things, what each particular effect demonstrates about God, either about his wisdom, understanding, counsel, or strength. So excluding their display, by which they manifest the great things of God which Job prefers, he then says, I also know in the same way you do, those things which pertain to the magnificence of God, nor am I inferior to you in this, in that I know less or imperfectly those things, or am less informed about them by you now.

218. But as Sophar had proposed the divine excellence (Job 11:6) as an argument against Job for continuing to dispute with God, he continues, yet let me speak to the Almighty, for although I understand from his divine effects the excellence of divine wisdom and power not less than you, I am still not rationally altered by this from my proposition. But rather I want to address God by opening the movement of my heart to him, who is the searcher and judge of hearts, and by searching for the truth from him, who is the doctor of all truth. So he adds, and I desire to dispute with God, not to disprove of his judgments of men, but to destroy your errors, according to which it would follow that there would be injustice in God. So he continues, first I will show that you are makers of lies, because they had invented the lie that Job had led an evil life. They had arrived at this lie because they were mistaken about the faith with which one honors God, believing that recompense of merit and punishment only happen in this life, and he therefore says, and you are cultivators of perverse dogmas. For whoever turns aside from the true knowledge of God honors not God but his own false dogmas. In saying, first I will show you, one should not understand that he is going to first discuss and destroy methodically their perverse doctrine, and then afterward dispute with God; but rather, his end, which is first in his intention, is to destroy their false doctrines. He wills his dispute with God first in execution as a means to this intended end.

219. Men often propose some things as capable of being proved, although they are false; but as they do not know how to defend them or prove them, likely they show their ignorance when they speak. This was the case with the friends of Job. So he then says, would that you were silent so that people would think you were wise men, because the very fact that you defend and try to prove false and unfitting dogma shows that you are foolish. So, since you propose false dogmas, and you take unsuitable means to prove them, you are in need of correction. This is what he concludes, saying then, listen, then, to my correction, by which I will correct your process of reasoning, and hear the judgment of my lips, with which I will condemn your false dogmas.

220. First, he intends to correct their unfitting process of reasoning, for since they had placed the rewards and punishments of good and evil works in this present life, it was necessary for them to use lies in defending the justice of God. Because it is evident that some innocent and just men suffer trials in this life, it is therefore necessary to impute crimes to the just in this life, to defend the justice of God. So they charged Job with impiety because they saw him afflicted. But one who defends the truth by lies uses unfitting means, so he says, do you think that God needs your lies? as if to say, “Is it necessary to use lies to defend divine justice?” In fact, what cannot be defended except by lies cannot possibly be true. However, when someone strives to lie against the clear truth, he is compelled to find some crafty and fraudulent means to color his lie with fraud. So when these men tried to lie against the justice of Job, which was clear to all, they used deceptions, for they compared the human frailty, which falls easily into sin, to divine excellence, so that one might think it was more likely that Job was evil than that God was unjust. So he then says, so that you might speak deceptions for him? because they were speaking with deceit as though for God when they tried to charge Job with impiety to defend God’s justice.

221. They could respond, however, that they did not say anything deceitfully against Job, but only what they thought. Job, therefore, shows that if this were true, they would fall into another vice when they had been excused from deceit, namely, the prejudice of persons which excludes the justice of a judge. Prejudice of persons consists in someone condemning or denying the justice of another, which is apparent because of the greatness of another person, although he does not know his justice. If, therefore, the friends of Job judged him to be evil only in the consideration of the divine greatness, though they saw justice clearly in him, although they could not understand, according to their dogma, how Job had been punished by God justly, it is as if they were prejudiced by the person of God in the judgment with which they condemned Job. So he then says, do you take God’s part and try to judge for God? He clearly says this because someone tries to judge for another who does not know his justice, and yet tries to find any means he can to show that his cause is just.

222. Sometimes someone fraudulently defends another’s cause because he likes him, despite the fact that he is a just man. This can happen in two ways: in one way because he is ignorant that his cause is unjust, and so he is pleased that he is defended by someone, and this he excludes from God, saying, or will it please him, namely, God, that you strive to judge unjustly for him when he cannot be ignorant of the case, and so he says, from whom nothing can be concealed? This can happen in another way when the man whose case is defended by fraud is deceived by the one defending him with fraud, so that he thinks his defense is just. He excludes this from God, saying, or is he deceived like a man by your fraudulent practices? Therefore, it is clear that God does not need lies to defend his goodness and justice, because truth can be defended without lies. So then, it is evident if, when their dogmas are accepted, the unfitting conclusion follows that the justice of God needs to be defended by lies, that their proposed teaching is clearly false.

223. One must also carefully consider that the man who uses a lie to show the justice and the goodness of God not only does a thing which God does not need, but also offends God in this very thing. For since God is truth, and every lie is contrary to the truth, whoever uses a lie to show the magnificence of God acts against God in this very thing. The Apostle Paul says this very clearly, we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we have given testimony against God that he will raise Christ to life who has not been raised if the dead are not raised (1 Cor 15:15). To say then that God raises the dead (if this were not true), is against God, because it is against the truth of God, although it may seem to show divine virtue. So, those who use a lie to defend God not only do not receive a reward as though they pleased him, but they also merit punishment as acting against God, and so he continues, he himself blames you because you took his part fraudulently. He says, fraudulently, because although they seem exteriorly to take the part of God, because they seem to know the justice of God, yet in their consciences they did not know by what justice Job had been punished, and thus in the hidden part of their hearts they took the part of God in trying falsely to defend his justice.

224. He then shows how he blames them, saying, he will rouse himself immediately and he will throw you into confusion, for because you have not suffered adversity peacefully, now you dispute about the justice of God. But if tribulation comes upon you (which he calls God rousing himself, because in Scripture, punishment is called the anger of God), your spirits will be thrown into confusion, especially because they are not solidly grounded in the truth. Since they did not think anything was good or evil but temporal goods, when they avoided sins so that evil things would not befall them, they seemed to wish to serve God only because of the fear of present evils. So he says, and his terror will rush upon you, for you only fear God because of the fear of experiencing evil now, and that is just what will happen to you, according to Proverbs, what the unjust man fears will come upon him (Prov 10:24). Because they vainly promised Job that after death he would live in the memory of men (Job 11:18), in his turn he promises the contrary to them as though mocking them, saying, your memory will be like ashes. For as ashes after the burning of wood remain a short time, so the reputation of man passes away quickly after death, and it is vain to expect a good name after death. They also had promised him inviolability and reverence for his tomb after death (Job 11:19), but this also, he accounts as leading to nothing, and he promises the contrary to them, saying, your necks will be cast down in the mud. By necks he means their power and dignity, which he says will be thrown down in the mud and will become a weak and contemptible thing.