Lecture 1 — The wisdom of the almighty

^36:32^ He hides the light in his hand and he orders the light to return again.

^36:33^ He announces it to his friend that it is his possession and he can ascend to it.

^37:1^ About this my heart trembled and leapt out of its place.

^37:2^ He will listen to the sound in the terror of his voice and the sound which proceeds from his mouth.

^37:3^ Above all the heavens he takes up his seat, and his light surpasses the limits of the earth.

^37:4^ After him, the sound will roar, he will roar in the voice of his greatness and one will not investigate when he has heard his voice.

^37:5^ God will thunder in his voice wonderfully, and he does great things which are unsearchable,

^37:6^ he who commands the snow to fall and the earth and the winter rains and the showers of his strength.

^37:7^ He has put signs on the hand of every man that they might know his works.

^37:8^ The beasts will enter his lair and remain in his care.

^37:9^ From the lower part, storms arise and the cold wind comes from the Arctic.

^37:10^ By the breath of God, the ice hardens, and very broad waters flow.

^37:11^ The corn desires the clouds, and the clouds spread their light:

^37:12^ they circle over everything, wherever the will of the governor leads them, to every place he commands them on the face of the land,

^37:13^ in one tribe, or in their own land, or in whatever place his mercy orders them to be found.

477. He hides the light in his hand. Eliud had spoken above about the changes in the atmosphere: drought and rain, and the covering of the clouds, by which God produces lightning from his light. Now he treats in an extended manner about the light itself, which is sometimes hidden by the clouds and is sometimes seen, and the thunder which arises from the clouds. He begins with the light, saying, he hides the light in his hands, for as an effect of his power he sometimes hides the light of the sun and the stars by clouds. But since this obscuring is not perpetual, but only intermittent, he adds, and he orders the light to return again, when the clouds go away. Or these words can be referred to the darkening and illumination of the air by the rising and setting of the sun. One must remember that sensible things are a kind of sign of intelligible things, and so we come to the knowledge of intelligibles through sensible effects. Among all the sensible effects, the most spiritual is light. So light leads more efficiently to knowledge of intelligibles because sight, whose experience of knowing is perfected by light, aids us most in intellectual knowledge. Since, then, this sensible light is hidden from men and communicated to them by the power of God, we are given to understand by this that in him there is a more excellent kind of spiritual light, which God reserves as a reward for the virtues of man. So he says, he announces it, the light which is metaphorically represented by physical light, to his friend, the virtuous man, whom God loves, that it is his possession. For this spiritual light is a treasure which God reserves for his friends as a reward, and he can ascend to it, when he merits it by the works of virtue and in preparing himself to possess it.

However, one can also say this about corporeal light. For the Platonists posited that the souls of men are derived from the souls of the stars. Therefore, when human souls guard their dignity by living according to reason, they return to the clarity of the stars from which they flowed down, and so Macrobius says in the Dream of Scipio that rectors and guardians of cities come from above, namely, from heaven, and return there. In this, he gives us to understand that he does not put the ultimate reward of virtue in temporal goods, but in spiritual goods after this life. It is cause for more wonder that earthly and corruptible man is advanced to the possession of spiritual and heavenly goods, and so Eliud says, about this, that man can arrive to possess the light, my heart trembled, from the fear of wonder and astonishment, and leapt out of its place, so that he not only desires and eagerly strives after those things which he sees are connatural to him according to the sensible life, but also is transported to spiritual and heavenly goods.

478. After sight, which is the knowledge of corporeal light, comes hearing, which especially serves the intellect because by it, one perceives the words which express intellectual conceptions. Moreover, just as by the vision of corporeal light man is led to the knowledge and expectation of some higher light, so also by the hearing of corporeal sounds, formed by divine power, man is led by the hand to hear the spiritual doctrine of God, and so he says, he, man, will hear, from God, the sound, of spiritual doctrine, in the terrible sound of his voice, in the image of thunder, which is like the terrible voice of God. He explains what this hearing is, saying, and the sound which proceeds from his mouth, for the sound of physical thunder seems formed by his hand, that is, his power; but the sound proceeding from his mouth is the doctrine of his wisdom, according to Sirach, I came forth from the mouth of the Most High (Sir 24:5).

479. To preclude the error that God does not have another light higher than the light of the corporeal heaven, he says, above all the heavens he takes up his seat, as if he should say that his vision is not below heaven but above heaven. Moreover, one can only see something in some light, because everything which is clear is light (Eph 5:13). So the light of God must necessarily be more excellent than the corporeal light which is first found in the heavens, and so he says, and his light, the intelligible light, surpasses the limits of the earth, for it is superior to every corporeal creature. Just as the material light of heaven is below him, so also the sound of material thunder is beneath him, and so he says, after him, that is, under him, the sound will roar, of material thunder. Moreover, he has another spiritual voice, the teaching of wisdom, which is incomprehensible to man. He speaks about this when he says, he will roar in the voice of his greatness, the voice which teaches his greatness, and not all can hear this voice like the sound of thunder. Those who in some way can hear his voice cannot comprehend it, and so he says, and one will not investigate, perfectly, when he has heard, that is, known spiritually by some man, his voice, the teaching of wisdom.

480. But the voice is not only ordered to the teaching of men who hear it, but also to the perfection of natural works which happen following the command of divine wisdom. Therefore, he repeats a second time, God will thunder in his voice, in the command of his wisdom, wonderfully, by producing wonderful effects, and expressing this, he then says, and he does great things, according to their nature, which are unsearchable, by human reason. He begins to list them and says, he who commands the snow, by the voice of his wisdom, to fall on the earth, because the snows are formed by his command, as are the rains and showers, and so he says, and to winter rains, which abound in winter, and the showers of his strength, which are formed by some more powerful cause and with the violent impulse of the wind. Since everything which happens in lower things is in some sense ordered to man, he says, he has put signs on the hand of every man that they might each know his works. For different dispositions of the air correspond to the different works of men. One is the work of the night, another in the work of the day, and man does one work in time of good weather and another in rainy weather. Men discern what work corresponds to each time, according to the divine gift of reason. This is a sign that God has placed in his hand, in his operative power of all men, to know how fittingly to distribute their tasks according to the diversity of times. His providence extends even to brute animals, who do different things according to different times by natural instinct, and so he says, the beast will enter his lair, in rainy weather, and will remain in his cave, for a fitting time.

481. Then he shows the effects of the different winds. On this subject one must consider that the South winds produce the rains and storms. North winds cause cold air. Southern winds come to us from the direction of the South Pole, which is unknown to us, because it is sunk down beneath our horizon by the same distance as the North Pole is elevated above our horizon, and so he says, from the lower part, storms arise, as if to say, “A storm comes to us by a wind that proceeds from the part of heaven which is always extended down under our horizon, and this wind is called the South Wind.” As to the North Wind he says, and the cold wind comes from the Arctic. For Arktos in Greek means the Northern Hemisphere, from which the name Arcturus comes for the constellation of Ursus, which is always elevated above the horizon. The northern wind comes from that direction and is cold, because the sun is farther from that part of heaven. He attributes this to divine wisdom, saying, by the breath of God, ice is hardened, as if to say, “He causes the wind by blowing.” And again, from the breath of God which causes the South Wind very broad, that is, very abundant, waters flow. These are the rains which are caused by the South Wind.

482. He relates these effects to their usefulness for men, saying, the clouds desire grain, as if to say, “The clouds are ordered to grain as an end for which they are useful.” Each thing desires its own proper end, and he says the clouds desire grain, because clouds are certainly useful for grain. Or, the reason the rains descend from a cloud and water the earth is to make it fertile for the production of grain. Or, it is also useful for clouds to cover grain and shade it so that the grain does not dry up from the unremitting heat of the sun. He adds another useful feature of the clouds when he says, and the clouds pour out their light, which can be referred either to the light of lightning flashing according to what he already said in the preceding chapter, if he wills to extend the clouds or to make bolts of lightning with his light (Job 36:29). Or, this can more be referred to the light which shines in the air from the sun's rays reflecting off the clouds and mixing with them in some way. So the brightness of the sun appears in the air before the rising of the sun and also after its setting, because of the reflection of the rays of the sun from the clouds, which are in a higher place, which the solar rays approach more quickly and leave more slowly.

483. After he has discussed the usefulness of the clouds, he describes their movement, saying, the clouds circle over everything. For the clouds do not stop above only one part of the earth from which the vapor rises, but by the force of the winds, they are carried to different parts of the earth. The winds generally follow the motion of the sun like some great circle, and so East winds blow in the morning, then South winds come, and West winds come towards the evening. As a consequence of this, the clouds move in a circle. To show that this proceeds from divine providence he says, wherever the will of the governor, God, leads them, since the clouds do not always reach every part of the heavens, but sometimes this one and sometimes that one, as God disposes them.

The clouds cause a variety of effects, for example, rains, snow, hail, thunder, and the like. Just as the movement of the clouds over the earth depends on divine disposition, so also the effects caused by the clouds depend on this disposition, and so he says, to any place where he commands them on the face of the land, as if he said that the effect the clouds produce on the earth depends on divine precept. Since he had above said, wherever the will of the governor leads them (Job 37:12), he explains this, saying, in one tribe, because clouds sometimes appear in one region and not in another, as Amos says, I send rain on one city and do not on another (Amos 4:7). This happens in two ways, because sometimes clouds appear in the same region where the vapors are generated. This happens when, from the power of the wind, the vapors are not moved to a place far removed from where they arose. As to this he says, or in their own land, namely, the land of the clouds where they were formed. Sometimes they are moved to another region, and as to this he says, or in whatever place his mercy orders them to be found. For God, from his great mercy, provides clouds and rain to a region at the right time, and especially to hot climes when rain is rare.