Lecture 1 — Man’s deeds are not indifferent to God

^35:1^ So Eliud spoke again:

^35:2^ Do your thoughts seem reasonable to you when you say: I am more just than God?

^35:3^ For you said: Good does not please you nor what does it profit you if you have sinned?

^35:4^ That is why I will answer your discourses and at the same time those of your friends.

^35:5^ Lift up to heaven and see and contemplate the upper air because he is higher than you.

^35:6^ If you have sinned, what harm will you do against him? And if your iniquities are multiplied, what will you do against him?

^35:7^ Further, if you act justly, what will you give him? Or what will he receive from your hand?

^35:8^ Your impiety will harm man who is your fellow creature, and your justice will help a son of man.

^35:9^ They cry because of the great number of their calumniators and they wail because of the strong arm of the tyrants.

^35:10^ And Job did not say: Where is the God who made me? He who gave his poems in the night.

^35:11^ He who teaches above the beasts of the earth, he teaches more than the birds of heaven.

^35:12^ They will cry out and he will not hear because of the pride of the wicked.

^35:13^ For not in vain will God hear, and the Almighty regard the causes of each man.

^35:14^ Even when you say: he does not consider, be judged in his presence and await him.

^35:15^ for now he does not unleash his fury nor does he take vengeance on a crime.

^35:16^ So Job opened his mouth in vain and multiplied words without knowledge.

463. So Eliud spoke again. After Eliud had rejected the words of Job, because by his estimation they imputed evil to divine judgment, he now intends to reproach him for saying that he was just. So the text says: so Eliud spoke again, for he interrupted his speech and waited to see if Job would answer. When he did not, he took up his discourse again, saying, do your thoughts seem reasonable to you when you say: I am more just than God? Job had never said this, and Eliud did not impute to him that he used these exact words, but that the words which he did say originated in this thought, and so he clearly makes mention of this thought. Eliud distinctly says that he had this intention, for you said: good does not please you (or in another text, what is right), or what does it profit you if you have sinned? These two sayings are never found in what Job has said, but the first of them, that good does not please God, he seems to find in what Job had said, if I am wicked, woe is me! And if I am just, I will not raise my head (Job 10:15). When Job has said this he meant that the just and the unjust are equally afflicted with temporal punishments, but Eliud interprets him to have almost said that the justice of man does not please God.

The second thing he says is, what does it profit you if I have sinned? One can find no text in which Job had said this, but he wanted to take this from what Job had said in the same place, if I have sinned and you spared me for a little, why do you not allow me to be cleansed from my evil? (Job 10:14). Job had said this to show that temporal prosperity does not always accompany innocence, for he was innocent in other respects in the time of prosperity, after his sins had been forgiven. So there was no reason why, after the remission of his sins, he should again be cleansed from sins by God. But Eliud twisted these words around as though Job held this opinion: that God had brought in his sin and the punishment of sin because of his own utility. It follows from these two things (that God is not pleased with what is good, and that he considers sin useful to him) that Job was more just than God since he had said about himself that evil displeased him and good pleased him (Job 34:31).

464. He concludes from this that he is compelled to answer because of their absurdity, and so he says, that is why I will answer your discourses and at the same time those of your friends, who could not convince you of your error when you said such things. He begins from what he had said last, showing that God cannot be helped or harmed by our good and evil works, and this is so because of his high character. He proposes this first, saying, lift up, that is, look up, to heaven, which is the throne of God (cf. Isa 66:1), and see, with sight, and contemplate, with mind, the upper air, all the higher bodies, not only from the height of this order, but also from its magnitude, its motion, and its beauty, because he is higher than you, for your works cannot help or harm him. So he says, if you have sinned, against yourself or God, what harm will you do him? for he will not suffer detriment from this. As to the sins which are committed against one’s neighbor, he then says, and if your evils were great in number, by which you unjustly wounded your neighbor, what would you do against him? for in no way would you wound him by this. As to the goods which are done for one’s neighbor, he then says, further, if you act justly, giving what is due to your neighbor, what will you give to him? because what will he gain from this? As to the works of divine worship, he says, or what will he receive from your hand, in sacrifices and oblations? He implies that the answer is nothing: as the Psalm says, I will not accept calves from your house (Ps 49:5).

465. One could object that God does not care whether man acts justly or unjustly. To answer this he then says, your impiety will harm man who is your fellow creature, because he can receive harm, and your justice will help a son of man, who needs the help of justice. This is why God prohibits impiety and commands justice, since God cares about men, who are helped or hurt by this. Oppressed men cry to God against their oppressors from this fact. Some crush them deceitfully by calumny, and he speaks about these, they cry because of the great number of their calumniators, those who are crushed, and so cry to God. Some crush others by violence, and he speaks about these, saying, and they wail because of the strong arm of the tyrants, for they weep to God because of the violent power of tyrants. From this we are given to understand that not only does God not profit when someone sins, but that sin displeases him and he punishes it; otherwise, the oppressed would cry out in vain.

466. Then he turns himself to rejecting the other thing Job said, what is right does not please you (Job 35:3), which is repugnant to divine wisdom. Surely this wisdom first appears in the creation of things, and so he says, and Job did not say, because he does not think that good things please God, where is the God who made me? For God made things only good, as we read in Genesis, God saw that it was good (Gen 1:25). Therefore, it is clear that good pleases God.

Second, he brings in the benefit of human instruction, by which some men are instructed for good by divine revelation, and so he says, he who gave, by revelation, his poems, the doctrines of human instruction, which were understood many times by the ancients as epics, in the night, literally: in the dreams of the night, or in the quiet of contemplation or obscurity of vision. He would not have instructed me familiarly for good unless good pleased him.

Third, he brings in the infusion of natural light, by which we discern good from evil, by reason of which we are higher than brute animals, and so he says, he who teaches us above the beasts of the earth, which lack reason. Since the ancients consulted the chatter and motion of the birds who seem to almost be instructed by God and act like reasoning beings, he excludes this, saying, he teaches more than the birds of heaven, which do not have reason.

467. Since he hates evil and good pleases him, he hears the oppressed when they cry out, and does not hear the oppressors. So he says, they will cry out, that is, calumniators and tyrants seeking the fulfillment of their desires from God, and he (God) will not hear. He does this, because of the pride of wickedness, according to the Psalm, he regards the prayer of the humble man (Ps 101:18). So that one does not believe that God hears all people indiscriminately, he says, for not in vain, without reason, will God hear, because he hears some and not others for a very just reason. He expresses this reason, saying, and the Almighty will regard the causes of each man in that he hears the worthy but not the unworthy. God really does not seem to see the particular causes, because the wicked sometimes prosper, but to disprove this he says, even though when you say, when you think in your heart, he, God, does not consider, the deeds of man, be judged in his presence, prepare yourself to submit to his judgment, and await him, the future judgment, even if he does not punish you here.

For he delays that he might punish more harshly later, and so he says, for now, in the present life, he does not unleash his fury, to the extent of his punishment, nor does he take great vengeance on a crime, because he does not punish in the present according to what the gravity of the fault demands. For the punishments of the present life are for correction, and therefore he reserves future damnation for those whom he judges unworthy of correction. This is another reason why the wicked prosper in this world, and he agrees with the opinion of Job about this. But since he took his words in an evil sense, he therefore rejected them, concluding from what he had said: so Job in vain, that is, without reason, opened his mouth, rejected his lengthy discourse, and multiplied words without knowledge. In this he accuses him of ignorance and useless verbosity.