Lecture 1 — Job appeals to the judgment of God

^23:1^ Job answered and said:

^23:2^ Now even my speech is bitter, and the hand of my wound has made my lament greater.

^23:3^ Who will grant me the ability to know him, find him and approach his throne?

^23:4^ I will place judgment before him, and I will fill my mouth with rebukes,

^23:5^ to know how he answers me and to understand what he says to me.

^23:6^ I do not want him to argue with me with his great strength, nor crush me with the greatness of his power.

^23:7^ Let him propose fairly what he has against me and my claim will be victorious.

^23:8^ If I go to the East, he does not appear there; if I go to the West, I will not understand him.

^23:9^ Or if I turn to the left, what will I do? I will not grasp him intellectually; if I turn to the right, I will not see him.

^23:10^ He knows my way and he will prove me as gold which passes through fire.

^23:11^ My feet followed his footprints; I have kept his way and I did not turn aside from it.

^23:12^ I have not gone away from the commandments of his lips, and in my bosom I have hidden the words of his mouth.

^23:13^ Truly he is alone and no one can perceive his thoughts, and whatever his soul wills, he does.

^23:14^ When he has accomplished his will in me and I stand before him, like many similar things are before him,

^23:15^ on that account I am disturbed. When I consider him, I am overcome with fear.

^23:16^ God softened my heart and the Almighty threw me into confusion.

^23:17^ For I have not perished because of the darkness hemming me in, nor does fog cover my face.

337. Job answered and said: Now even my speech is bitter. In his discourse Eliphaz proposed two things against Job (Job 27:5, 12):

first, that he had been punished because of the great evil which he had done.

Second, that he had doubted or denied divine providence.

Now men are often saddened when they are falsely charged with certain crimes, and so since Job did not see these things in himself, he says, now also my speech is bitter, as if to say, “Since as you made me speak above with your reproaches, so here and now you compel me to speak with bitterness.” When one affliction is added to another, the first afflictions come back to mind and increase the present lament, and so he continued, the hand, the power, of my wound, of the adversity which I have suffered for a long time, now has made my lament greater, because it makes the present pain more difficult.

338. First, then, he begins to answer the reproach that he was punished for his own malice. Now Job recognized that he had been punished by divine judgment, and so he has already said, God confines me with the wicked (Job 16:12), and therefore, to search for the reason why he has been punished is to investigate the reason of divine judgment, which certainly no one can know but God alone. From this it is clear that Eliphaz had presumptuously asserted that Job had been punished because of malice. So he does not want to argue about this with Eliphaz, but turns the debate to God, who alone knows the reason for his judgment.

Moreover, he reckoned that he was overly oppressed by divine judgment, if he was punished for very great malice. Those who are burdened by some judge can usually approach the judge. They cannot do this unless they find his bench, and unless they know him beforehand. For no one can find something which he is seeking if he is altogether ignorant of it. Thus he says, who will grant me the ability to know him, find him, and approach his throne? For he knew that God exceeded his knowledge, and so he could not find the road perfectly by himself to arrive at God’s throne, which is the fullness of knowledge of his judgments. He who is burdened by a judge generally demonstrates the justice of his cause to him when he comes into his presence. So he says, I will put judgment before him, as if to say, “For I will propose what ought to be the just judgment of my cause.” I will fill my mouth with rebukes, that is, with loud complaints, but not because I believe that divine judgment is unjust, but only as someone making an inquiry. This is like those who argue and make objections against the arguments of their opponents to understand the truth more fully, and so he says, to know how he answers me. This relates to knowing the truth of the answer. To understand what he says to me, relates to the understanding of the sense of the words. For man certainly cannot know whether something is true which is said to him unless he understands what is said to him.

339. In the previous chapter he had frequently referred to divine power and grace to sustain divine judgment. As Sophar said, he is higher than the heavens and what will you do? (Job 11:8), and the other things which follow there. So he excludes this objection when he says, I do not want him to argue with me with his great strength, nor crush me with the greatness of his power, for your answer, in which the power and greatness of God are proposed to me, is not sufficient, since just as he is most powerful and the greatest, so he is also the most just and loves fair play. So he then says, let him propose fairly what he has against me, that is, let him give an explanation which is just, and it will be clear then that I am not punished for malice. So he says, and my claim will be victorious, in which I argue against you maintaining I am not punished for my sins.

340. Lest someone think that he said, who will give me the ability to know him, find him, and approach his throne? (Job 23:3), because he believed that God was closed in a corporeal place or could be known sufficiently through creatures, he then says, if I go to the East, he does not appear there. According to Aristotle there are six different positions in the heavens: up and down, right and left, and before and behind.

The principle of motion of the whole firmament appears clearly in the East. The beginning of motion in each animal is from the right. If, therefore, we imagine the motion of the firmament as the motion of one animal, it is necessary to place the right of the heavens in the East, the left in the West, up to the South and down to the North, before in the Northern Hemisphere, and after in the Southern Hemisphere. It is as though we imagine a man who, with his right hand, moves the heaven from the East toward the Northern Hemisphere. The consequence would be that he would hold his head toward the South and his feet to the West, his anterior part would be towards the Northern Hemisphere, the posterior part of the man, his back, towards the Southern Hemisphere. Others did not consider the disposition of the human body so much as the order of the motions of the heaven, and placed the higher part of the heavens in the Eastern part, because the motion begins there; however, the right part is the South, towards which, from our perspective, the motion of the planets moves. Thus, by opposition the lower part of heaven is found in the West, the left part of heaven in the North.

The words of Job should be understood in this way, with the left and the right divided facing the East and the West. So one can simply understand that God is not contained in any part of the heavens as in a place, and so the sense would be, I go to the East and he is not there, that is, closer in existing, as if he existed there as in a place. If I go to the West, I will not understand him, as though he were closer and were contained there, or if I turn to the left, that is, towards the North, what will I do? I will not grasp him intellectually, since he is not situated there materially. If I turn to the right, that is, towards the South, I will not see him, as though he existed there.

341. These words can be understood to not exclude the local presence to God, but to show that he cannot be investigated sufficiently by means of lower effects. Among all the effects in corporeal things, the one which appears most universal and the greatest is the motion of the vault of heaven. Although the principle of this motion clearly appears to be in the East, still the principle of this motion does not sufficiently demonstrate the infinite power of God, and so he says, if I go to the East, namely, by the progress of my consideration, reflecting in some way on the principle of the motion of the vault of heaven, he does not appear there, sufficiently in this consideration. The second effect of the divine power in corporeal things is the motion of the planets, which is contrary to the motion of the vault of heaven. So its beginning is found in the West. One cannot sufficiently consider divine power from this, and so he continues, if to the West, considering the motion of the planets, I will not understand him.

He says this very clearly: this motion is understood more from the difference in place of the planets than in what appears to the eyes. From the northern part there seems to be no principle from any point of view but darkness, because the sun never appears from this part. Darkness impedes action according to John, night comes when no one can work (John 9:4), and so he says, if to the left, through reflection, what will I do? for I do not find anything there but the absence of action, and so there is no trace given in any way at all, and so it says, I will not apprehend him. In the southern part we find the principle of light, because of the luminous bodies which appear to us from that part, and so he continues, if I turn, by consideration, to the right, to the southern part of the heavens, I will not see him, for though I will find corporeal light there, yet he cannot be seen through this. Although he is hidden to me, the things which move about me are not hidden from me, and so he continues, but he knows my way, the whole course of my life. Job seems to say this against what Eliphaz had said before about the person of the evil man which he had attributed to Job, the clouds are his dwelling place and he does not see ours (Job 22:14).

342. Since someone could object that, if he knows your way, then he punished you because of your sins, he answers, and he will prove me as gold which passes through fire. Here he first clearly introduces the cause of his adversity, which was brought on him so that from it he might appear proven before men. For just as gold is proven which can sustain the test of fire, and just as gold does not become true gold because of the proof of fire, but its truth is clearly shown to men, so Job was tried by adversity, not that his virtue might be manifested in the presence of God, but that men might clearly see it. Moreover he says, he will prove, about the future, to show that he is also ready for future testing because of his patience. He proves by the righteousness of his previous life that he was not punished for previous sin.

Here, one should remark that each thing is shown right when it conforms to its own rule. There is a twofold rule of human life.

The first is the natural law, impressed in the minds of men by God, by which man naturally understands what is good from the likeness to divine goodness.

In this we should first notice that man imitates the operation of the divine goodness according to his own ability in his affections and works; as Matthew says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48), and Ephesians, be imitators of God as dear sons (Eph 5:1). So he says, my feet, the affection by which we proceed to act, followed, by imitation, his footprints, some similarity, though small, to the divine goodness in action.

Second, one must take care to imitate God with one’s whole mind, and so he continues, I have kept his way, because I was careful not to deviate from him.

Third, to persevere in this, man must remain fixed in it totally, not in part, and so he then says, and I did not turn aside from it, and go away in any part of myself.

The second rule of human life is the exterior law transmitted by divine inspiration, against which a man sins in two ways:

in one way by contempt, and against this he says, I have not gone away from the commandments of his lips. For some precepts have been divinely given to Noah and perhaps to some other holy men, in whom God spoke with their lips. Second, someone sins against the law of God through ignorance and forgetting it, and against this he says, and in my bosom, in the hidden part of the heart, I have hidden the words of his mouth, according to the Psalm, in my heart I hid your words to not sin against you (Ps 118:11).

343. To the objection that the proof which he introduces is not fitting because of the righteousness of his life, he shows as a consequence that a very certain and demonstrative proof cannot be introduced about divine judgments because of the incomprehensibility of the divine will. So he then says, truly he is alone, because there is no other creature like or equal to him who can fully understand him, and consequently his will. So he then says, and no one can perceive, know with certainty, his thoughts, the dispositions of his judgments. As the order in his judgments cannot be fully understood, so no creature can resist the order, and the text continues, whatever his soul, that is, his will, wills, he does, for no one is powerful enough to resist him. Moreover, sometimes a wise man has ruled his own will by his own power, but cannot do anything else. But he disproves this is true in God when he says, when he has accomplished his will in me, and I am before him like many other similar things are before him, because he does not work more adversity in me, not because he cannot do more, but because he does not will to. On that account, because I consider that he can do more and I cannot know whether he does will to do more, I am disturbed, with the anguish of fear. So he then says, when I consider him, his power, I am more overcome with fear, that he should still try me with more grave adversity.

344. He expresses the cause of this anxious fear in the blows of God he has experienced himself, and so he says, God softened my heart, as though dissolving it in liquid, by taking away his strength and his safety. And the Almighty threw me into confusion, for by his omnipotence he has brought in the anguish of sadness about present evils, and fear of future ones. He then shows why he should fear the future, although he is not conscious of any fault, saying, for I have not perished, though I have suffered adversity, because of the darkness hemming me in, by the errors and the sins which are said to hem one in when they are confirmed in the spirit of a man; for example, when he sins from malice. Malice is sometimes not confirmed in a man, but he is impelled to sin from some sudden passion, for example, of concupiscence or anger. He excludes this, saying, nor does fog cover my face, for truly the eye of reason is blinded when its judgment is deceived in a particular act because of passion.