Lecture 2 — Eliud completes his praise of God

^37:14^ For listen, Job; stand and consider the wonderful things of God.

^37:15^ Do you know when God commanded the rains to show the light of his clouds?

^37:16^ Do you know the paths of the clouds, the great and perfect sciences?

^37:17^ Are not your garments hot when the South wind blows on the earth?

^37:18^ Have you perhaps made the heavens with him, which are solid like bronze after fusion?

^37:19^ Show us what we should say to him, we who to be sure are enveloped in darkness.

^37:20^ Who will tell him what to say? Even if a man speaks, he will be devoured.

^37:21^ But now they do not see the light. The air is immediately compressed into clouds and the wind when it passes chases the clouds away.

^37:22^ Gold is produced by the North wind and the praise of God is fearful.

^37:23^ We cannot find him worthily, and he is great in power, might, judgment, and justice; he cannot be explained.

^37:24^ Therefore, men will fear him and they will dare to contemplate him, all those who seem themselves to be wise.

484. For listen, Job. After Eliud told the many marvels done by God, he now attacks Job, who seemed to accuse God of injustice when he could not yet understand his works, and so he says, for listen, Job, to what I am saying about the grandeur of divine works. Stand, in rectitude of mind, and consider, by your own self, the wonderful things of God, which are shown in his works. Among those wonderful things he begins with the rains. Men perceive them sensibly, but they still cannot understand by science the first origin by which God brought them into being, and so he says, do you know when God commanded the rain, which falls upon the earth by divine decree? After it has fallen, the air, which was first dark from the density of the clouds becomes clear, and the clouds vanish. So he says, to show, that is, the falling rain, the light of his clouds? which means the light of the sun shining through the clouds which vanish, and which the dense clouds hide. He speaks about their motion, saying, do you know the paths of the clouds? namely, how and from what cause they are propelled to various regions by the breath of the wind? The knowledge of clouds is the source of knowing all atmospheric changes, for example, winds, rain, snow, hail, thunder, and other like things, and so he says, great and perfect sciences? They are great because the phenomena are formed in a higher world, perfect because the knowledge of the clouds include all knowledge of these phenomena and the effects which follow from them in these lower things.

Since the clouds are driven by the winds, he consequently adds the effect produced by the wind, saying, are not your garments hot when the South wind blows on the earth? For the South wind makes the air warm because it comes from regions with hot climates. From this heat, the garments of a man can make him hotter. Thus, he clearly mentions the action of the South wind, because when it comes from below the equator and gathers water vapors together, it condenses them into clouds and moves them. But the North wind, which comes from above, more disperses the clouds.

485. Since the power of the heavenly bodies operates in all these kinds of effects, he therefore proceeds next to the heavenly bodies, and so he says, have you perhaps made the heavens with him? In this metaphor, he expresses the causality of God over the heavenly bodies. For just as an artisan is the cause of his work, so God is the cause of the heavenly bodies, yet in different ways. For an artisan produces an artifact from preexisting matter; but the celestial bodies cannot be produced from preexisting matter, but in their production the matter came to be at the same time as their form was produced. To distinguish the higher heavens from the heavens which are called the atmosphere, he adds, which are most solid like bronze after fusion. Remember that there are certain bodies among us which yield under pressure and can be penetrated, like air and water and things of this sort. Some, however, do not yield to pressure nor can they be pierced, like stones and metals. So to show that the higher heavens are not divisible or changeable like air and water, he compares them to bronze, the most important among metals, because men used it most frequently in technology.

486. Lest Job perhaps should presumptuously say that he knew the works of God perfectly, he continues mockingly, show us what we should say to him, saying in effect, “If you are so wise that you know all the works of God and you can argue with him on this subject, teach us so that we can answer him.” He shows they need this when he says, we who, to be sure, are enveloped in darkness, as if to say, “We will need you very much to show us these things because we are completely ignorant of them.” Since he had spoken many times about the divine effects, lest this be imputed to him from presumption, as though he thought that he knew perfectly these things, he disclaims this, saying, who will tell him what I say? as if he says, “No one can sufficiently tell these things which I said to you about his effects.” It befits him alone because of the excellence of his power. If anyone raises himself up to such great presumption that he thinks he speaks about God sufficiently, he brings danger upon himself by that very fact, and so he says, even if a man speak, as though willing to understand the divine effects, he will be devoured, by the greatness of the matter about which he speaks, as Proverbs says: he who investigates majesty will be crushed by glory (Prov 25:27). This can also be interpreted in another way. Not only is man not fittingly able to list the divine effects, but, even if God himself spoke, to them by revealing them to man, man would be devoured, because his power does not suffice to understand such a great thing, and so we read in John, I have many things to say to you which you are not able to bear now (John 16:12), and in Deuteronomy, what is flesh that it should hear the voice of the living God (Deut 5:26).

487. But to preclude one from believing that the knowledge of divine truth is always withdrawn from men, he says, but now, in the present time, they, men, do not see the light, which is the clarity of divine knowledge. Yet he proclaims to the friend of God that he can ascend to this light at some time, as he already said (Job 36:33). He introduces a comparison for this, the air is immediately compressed into clouds, because of the grouping together of water vapors from the South, and because of this the air is darkened. But darkness of this kind soon passes away when the clouds are broken up, and so he says, and the wind, when it passes, that is, the North Wind, chases the clouds away. By this he means, “In this way, although now we are enveloped in the darkness, yet when death comes, it will put darkness to flight like the changing of the wind.”

488. People sometimes discover shiny objects in dark places. For example, gold, which is one of the most glittering metals, is prevalent in Northern regions, as yet the Northern regions are dark because of their distance from the sun. This is caused by heat withdrawing deep into the dry bowels of the earth, which causes the all-encompassing cold air to work more efficaciously there to produce gold, and so he says, gold is produced by the wind, as if to say, “Gold is more plentiful in the part of the earth blown by the North wind.” Just as in the darkness of the Northern region one finds the brilliance of gold, so also in the darkness of the ignorance of this life one finds some of the brightness of divine knowledge, though darkly, and so he says, and the praise of God is fearful. For if nothing of divine clarity shone in us, we could in no way praise him. Even more, if the divine light shone clearly to us as the noon day sun, we could praise him securely. For because something of the divine light shines in us with some darkness, we praise him with dread, as a man does something with dread which he knows he cannot do perfectly. So he says, we cannot find him worthily, so as to come to know him as he is through our own investigation. This is because of his excellence, and so he says, he is great in power, for his power infinitely exceeds all his effects, and so he cannot be fittingly found from them.

He answers the objection that God uses only violence because of the greatness of his power in governing man, saying, and with right judgment, for he is great because his judgments are incomprehensible (Rom 11:33). Nor is this due to a lack of justice, but to the excellence of his justice, and so he says, he is great in justice. Because of his greatness we can neither sufficiently conceive him with our minds nor sufficiently praise him with our lips, and so he says, and he cannot be explained, fittingly by man. This is the reason why his praise is dreadful, and so he then says, therefore men will fear him, no matter how powerful they are, because of the greatness of his power, and they will not dare to contemplate him, namely, presume to know him fully, all those who seem to themselves to be wise. He says this clearly because the wisdom of a man, however great it may seem to himself or to others, is accounted as nothing compared to divine wisdom.

489. We should consider from the arguments put forth by Eliud that he agreed partly with Job and partly with the friends. He agreed with Job (cf. Job 7; 14:11) because he believed the reward of goods and the punishment of evils was in the future afterlife (Job 32:22). He agreed with the friends of Job (Job 33:27) because he believed that all the adversities of the present life happen because of sins, and if one repents of his sins he will return to prosperity. He also agreed with the friends of Job as to the person of Job himself (Job 36:18) because he thought that he was punished for his sins, and that the justice which appeared in him before was a pretense. He interpreted the words of Job in their worst sense (Job 33:10), as did the others. As to the prosperity of evildoers in this world, he only touches on the cause: that they prosper to punish the sins of others (Job 34:30). In the same way he also seems to only clearly touch the angels as the mediators between God and man (Job 33:23).

490. Job did not answer his arguments;

first, because he agreed with him in his principal ideas in which the friends, whom he had called cultivators of false dogmas, were in error (Job 13:10). What Eliud said about his person was not of such great concern to Job that he wanted to argue about the purity of his conscience anymore, especially because he could not prove the purity of his conscience with any better arguments than he had already used, namely, by divine witness.

Second, because from youthful presumption, in the manner of quarrelsome people, Eliud had imputed words to Job which he had not said, or which he had meant in a different way than Eliud had interpreted them. Therefore, to avoid quarreling, he determined rather to be silent and commit himself to divine judgment.