Lecture 13

^3:37^ Mem. Who is he that has said a thing should be done, when the Lord commands it not?

^3:38^ Mem. Shall not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Most High?

^3:39^ Mem. Why has a living man murmured, a man suffering for his sins?

57. Here he takes an argument from the divine power, by which he governs and provides for all things.

And first, against those who insult divine providence by faithlessly blaspheming: who is he that has said a thing should be done, something, even if not all things, without the providence of God? By this, he excludes the heresy of those who say that, although the providence of God extends to universal and incorporeal things (such as the celestial bodies), and even to men (because of the conformity of human nature to God, as Rabbi Moses said), yet God does know other particular things. Out of the mouth of the Most High, that is, by his judgment, both good, favorable things, and evil, adverse things; by this, he excludes the error of those who say that everything happens by chance and also of those who say that punishment does not come from God, as Cicero says. (Cicero, De natura deorum, 3.35.) All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made (John 1:3). I make peace and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things (Isa 45:7).

Second, he speaks against those who insult him by murmuring impatiently: why, that is, for what reason, has a living man murmured; for his sins, that is, for these things which he suffers for his sins? Keep yourselves therefore from murmuring, which profits nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction (Wis 1:11).