Lecture 1 — God strengthens Job in his weakness

^40:1^ Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

^40:2^ Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you and you will tell me.

^40:3^ Will you make my justice without effect and will you condemn me to justify yourself?

^40:4^ If you have an arm like God and if you thunder with a voice like his,

^40:5^ deck yourself with dignity and lift yourself on high. Be glorious and clothe yourself with precious clothing.

^40:6^ Scatter the proud in your fury and consider every arrogant man and humble him.

^40:7^ Consider all the proud and confound them and destroy the wicked in their place.

^40:8^ You will hide them in the decay together and plunge their faces into the ditch.

^40:9^ And I will admit that your right hand can serve you.

526. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. In what he said before, the Lord demonstrated his wisdom and power by recalling the marvelous things which appear in his effects (Job 38; 39), so that he might make clear that no man can contend with God, either in wisdom or in power. Here, he proceeds further to accuse Job for invoking his own justice (Job 27:6), which to some sounded like a derogation of divine justice (Job 34). Also, the text prefaces this speech by explaining the manner of God’s speech when it says, then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind and said. He excites his attention, saying, gird up your loins like a man, and he demands an answer when he continues, I will ask you and you will tell me. These things have already been explained (Job 38:1, 3), and so I will not explain them again.

527. Consider that Job, in appealing to his own justice, did not intend to impute evil to the divine judgment, but he intended to show that he had not been punished in revenge for his sins as they reproached him, but to try him, as he said already, he will prove me like gold which passes through fire (Job 23:10). Yet this still seems reprehensible because he so commended his own justice that it seemed to others that this excessively derogated divine justice, and so he says, will you make my justice without effect? as if to say, “Does it seem to you that in appealing to your own justice you suggest that my justice be accounted by men as ineffectual or false?” Falsity of judgment is the cause of condemnation of the judge, who expresses an evil judgment, either from ignorance or malice, and so he then says, and will you condemn me to justify yourself? as if to say, “Do you want to show yourself just so that I will seem worthy of condemnation by others?”

528. Note here that if two men were equals, and if it were necessary to impose the fault on one, it is not reprehensible if the other one exonerates himself from an imputed fault, even though the first may remain culpable in the opinion of others. For a man loves himself naturally more than others. But when there is such a great distance, as exists between God and man, man ought rather to suffer a fault unjustly imputed to him rather than impute it unjustly to God. Therefore, God, in accusing Job, proposes the excellence of God over men, and this excellence is indeed manifested in his effects. But since now it is a question of the comparison of justice, which properly is not perceived in irrational things, so to show divine excellence, he considers the effects which God works in rational creatures. These effects can be considered in two ways. In one way, according to the operation of his power, and as to this he says, if you have an arm like God, for the arm expresses the power of God. He uses this arm to sustain the good, as Isaiah says, in his arm he will gather the lambs (Isa 40:11), and to punish evildoers, as Luke says, he has shown his power in his arm, he has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart (Luke 1:51). In another way God works in rational creatures by the instruction of his wisdom, which, because of his excellence, is called thunder, and as to this he says, and if you thunder with a voice like his? God uses this thunder to instruct the good: when we have scarcely heard a small whisper of his words, who can understand the greatness of his thunder? (Job 26:14), and for the terrible rebuke of the wicked, as the Psalm says, the voice of your thunder rolled round, and the text says after this, the earth trembled and was shaken (Ps 76:19).

529. From effects of this kind he demonstrates the divine excellence as to three things.

First, as to beauty when he says, deck yourself with dignity, as if he should say, “If you were as powerful in your works as God, you should attribute his beauty to yourself,” and so he clearly says, deck yourself, for God does not surround himself with beauty as something added beyond his essence, but his essence itself is beauty. This beauty includes his clarity or truth, his purity or simplicity, and the perfection of his essence. But man cannot have beauty unless he is decked with it, by participating in it from God as something added beyond his essence.

Second, he treats the divine majesty when he says, and lift yourself on high. The divine majesty is not in a place, because God is not understood in a place, but consists in his perfection and power, because whatever is said about him is fitting to him in the highest degree.

Majesty befits God essentially, and so he does not lift himself up to it, but it remains in him immovably. Man is in a weak condition according to his nature, and so he cannot arrive at that divine height except by lifting himself up above himself, and so he clearly says, lift yourself on high.

Third, he treats of his glory when he says, and be glorious. Glory includes the knowledge of another’s goodness, and so Ambrose says that glory is fame recognized and praised. However, the goodness of God is infinite, and no one knows this glory but God himself, and therefore glory is only in God inasmuch as he alone knows himself. Man cannot arrive at this glory except by participation in divine knowledge, as Jeremiah says, but he who is glorious will be glorified in this, that he knows and understands me (Jer 9:24), and so he clearly says, be glorious, because man does not essentially have this glory.

530. When he has explained what pertains to the excellence of divine power and nature, he proceeds further to call to mind the divine effects in rational creatures, both the good and the wicked. Understand that the effects which God works in the highest of the just is more attributed to his mercy, and those he works in the punishment of evildoers is properly attributed to justice. Thus, since the subject now is justice, first, he briefly treats the effects which God works in the good when he says, and clothe yourself with precious clothing. For finally, all the good angels and men are precious from the participation of divine wisdom and justice, and so, just as a man is adorned with precious garments, so every beauty of holy angels and holy men return to the adornment of God because the goodness of God is commended by them, as Isaiah says, in all these you will vest yourself as with jewels (Isa 49:18). Consider that it is characteristic of the mercy of God to make his saints precious; but to use their beauty for his own glory is characteristic of his justice, about which he now speaks. So he does not say, “make yourself precious garments,” but clothe yourself in precious garments.

531. Then he shows the effect of divine justice which he causes in the wicked in a more extensive way. First, he does this as to men. Consider that every evil of men has its beginning in pride; as Ecclesiasticus says, pride is the beginning of all sin (Sir 10:15). Among all the vices, God detests pride most of all, and so the Epistle of James says, God resists the proud (Jas 4:6). This is so because the proud rebel against God in a certain sense when they do not want to humbly submit to him, and from this they fall into the contempt of divine precepts in every sin. Earthly princes detest rebels most, and so the Lord especially calls to mind the effect of his power, which he exercises against the proud. There are two types of proud men. Some exalt themselves above others from the goods which they have, like the man who said in Luke, I am not like the rest of men (Luke 18:11). These are properly called the proud, as the name itself shows.

The specific punishment of the proud is lack of peace, because when each man strives to be higher than the other and refuses to be subject to another, they cannot have peace with each other; and so Proverbs says, there is always quarreling among the proud (Prov 13:10). He shows this, saying, scatter the proud in your fury, saying in effect, “Exercise the duty of God, which is to disperse the proud so that they cannot band together,” for the fury of God here means grave punishment. Another type of proud men are those who presumptuously claim for themselves what is above them. These are properly called the arrogant, and so Jeremiah says, I know their arrogance and haughty character of heart, says the Lord, and there is no virtue there (Jer 48:29). The proper punishment of these men is dejection. For since they wanted to lift themselves up where they could, the consequence is that they fall down into peril, as the Psalm says, you laid them low when they were lifted up (Ps 72:18), and so he says, and consider every arrogant man and humble him, that is, you should cast them down from the point of view of your providence.

532. The first punishment common to both of these types of proud men is confusion. Since they cannot attain the height to which they pretend, they are confounded when they see their inability, and so he says, consider all the proud and confound them, and he also said already, if his pride should ascend up to heaven, he will be lost like dung in the end (Job 20:6).

The second punishment is their destruction, which he shows, saying, and destroy the wicked in their place. He calls the proud wicked because, as Ecclesiasticus says, the beginning of the pride of man is to apostatize from God (Sir 10:14), which is repugnant to divine worship and regards piety. The fitting punishment of the proud is that they are ruined, because what is destroyed is shattered by the shocks of some stronger body into smaller parts. It is just that the proud, who think themselves inordinately great, are reduced to the least by God’s stronger power.

He clearly says, in their place, so that he might show that what they confide in cannot free them. For each one is conserved in his own place, and so the greatness of riches or the state of dignity or whatever other thing of this kind man confides in can be said to be his place. Notwithstanding these things, God destroys the proud man, so that he seems consumed in his place.

The third punishment is that after they are reduced to the lowest place, the brightness of their renown ends. For it is just that he who sought the ostentation of glory should be erased from the memories of men; as Proverbs says, *the name of the wicked will rot *(Prov 10:7), and so the text continues, you will hide them in the decay together, that is, you will make them forgotten because of the state of evil to which they are reduced.

He adds together, which can be interpreted in two ways.

First, all the proud suffer the same end,

and also, the proud do not perish successively, but they are cast down suddenly, all at once.

Their fourth punishment is that not only are they not known by others, but also that the goods in which they gloried will not be known, and so he says, and their faces, which means their cognitive powers, because the sight of man is located in the face, plunge into the ditch, into the depths of Hell. He compares the damnation of the second death to the first death, in which men are reduced to bodily ashes and thrown into a ditch.

533. The Lord had treated these things first as proper to his own works. It is proper to him also to not need anyone else’s help. Man cannot attain this as he cannot do these works, and so he says, and I will admit that your right hand can save you, as if to say, “If you can do these works which are proper only to God, you can reasonably attribute to yourself that you do not need divine help to be saved. But as you cannot do the former, you cannot do the latter. Thus you ought not to glorify yourself in your own justice.”