Moralia in Job 108

Verse 6. — 'On a certain day, when the sons of God had come to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them.' 34. God disposes times without time. — It must first be discussed why something is said to be done on a certain day before the Lord, since with Him the course of time is in no way varied by the change of day and night. For in that light, which without approach illumines the things it chooses, and without withdrawal deserts the things it rejects, there comes no defect of mutability; because, remaining immutable in Himself, He disposes all mutable things; and so He created things that pass away, that with Him they can never pass; nor does time flow away within, in His sight, which without us runs its course abroad.

Whence it comes that in His eternity those things remain fixed which, not fixed outwardly, flow forth as the scrolls of the ages. Why, then, is it said with Him, 'On a certain day,' for whom assuredly there is but one day, His own eternity? — that eternity which the Psalmist saw neither closed by an end nor opened by a beginning, when he says: 'Better is one day in your courts above thousands' (Ps. 83:11). 35. He leads those accustomed to temporal things gradually to eternal ones. — But since Sacred Scripture speaks to those brought forth in time, it is fitting that it use temporal words, so that by condescending it may lift them up; and while it narrates something of eternity in a temporal manner, it may gradually carry over to eternal things those accustomed to temporal ones;

and may pleasantly infuse into our minds an eternity unknown, while it charms them with known words. But what wonder is it, if in sacred speech God does not open His immutability all at once to the human mind, when even at the celebration of the solemnity of His resurrection He made known, by certain gradual advances, the incorruption of the body which He took up again? For with Luke bearing witness (Luke 24:4) we have learned that to certain women seeking Him in the tomb He first sent angels; and again, to the disciples speaking of Him on the way, He Himself indeed appeared, but not to be recognized (Luke 24:15), who, after the delays of exhortation, showed Himself to be recognized in the breaking of bread;

but at the last, suddenly entering, He offered Himself not only to be recognized, but even to be handled. For because the disciples still bore feeble hearts, in the knowledge of so great a mystery they had to be nourished by this dispensation, that seeking a little they might find something; finding it, they might grow; and growing, they might more robustly hold what they had come to know. Because, therefore, we are led not suddenly, but by increments of causes and words, as if by certain steps toward eternity, something is said to have been done within, with Him, on a certain day, who beholds the very times themselves without time. 36. In light He sees darkness.

— Or is it, because Satan too was present when this is said to have been done on a certain day, that Sacred Scripture was eager to indicate that in light God saw darkness? For we indeed cannot behold light and darkness by one and the same gaze: because when the eye is fixed on darkness, the light is put to flight; and when it has turned itself to the flashing of light, the shadow of darkness departs. But that Power, which sees all mutable things immutably, had Satan present to it as it were in day, because it comprehends the darkness of the apostate angels without obscurity. We, as has been said, cannot contemplate by one and the same gaze both the things we choose by approving and the things we condemn by reproving: because when the mind is turned to the one, it is separated from thought of the other;

but when it is brought back to that one, it is withdrawn from the object to which it clung. 37. He who orders diverse things is not himself diverse. — But God, because without mutability He beholds all things at once and comprehends them without any distension, namely both the good whom He assists and the evil whom He judges, both those whom, having helped, He rewards, and those whom, judging, He condemns — in these things which He disposes by a diverse order, is not Himself diverse. Satan is therefore described as being present before Him 'on the day,' because the light of His eternity is touched by no darkening of mutability; and in this, that the present darkness comes upon that spirit, it is said that he was present 'among the sons of God': because the unclean spirit is penetrated by that same power of justice by which indeed the hearts of the pure spirits are filled;

and that spirit is pierced through by the same ray of light with which those spirits are flooded that they may shine. 58. The good angels serve God for help, the evil for testing. — He was present among the sons of God, because although those serve God for the help of the elect, this one serves for their probation. He was present among the sons of God, because although through those the aid of holy compassion is bestowed upon men laboring in this life, this one, serving unknowingly the hidden justice of God, strives to carry out the ministry of reprobation. Whence it is well said in the books of Kings through the prophet: 'I saw the Lord sitting upon His throne, and the host of heaven at His right hand and at His left, and it was said: With what shall I deceive Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said this, and another said otherwise.'

And one came forth and said: I will deceive Ahab. And it was said: By what means will you deceive him? He answered, saying: I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets (1 Kings 22:19 ff.). For what do we take the throne of the Lord to be, if not the angelic powers, over whose minds He presides more loftily, while disposing all things below? And what is described by the host of heaven, if not the multitude of ministering angels? What then is it, that the host of heaven is said to stand at His right hand and at His left? For God, who is so within all things that He is also outside all things, is confined neither on the right nor on the left. But by the right hand of God is designated the elect portion of the angels; and by the left hand of God, the reprobate portion of the angels.

For not only the good serve God, who help; but also the evil, who test; not only those who lift up those returning from fault, but also those who weigh down those unwilling to return. Nor is the reprobate portion of the angels prevented from being understood in the phrase 'the host of heaven.' For those which we know to be suspended in the air, we call the birds of heaven. And of these same spirits Paul says: Against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). Naming their head, he says: According to the prince of the power of this air (Eph. 2:2). At the right hand of God, therefore, and at the left, the host of angels stands: because both the will of the elect spirits accords with the divine compassion;

and the disposition of the reprobate, serving its own malice, obeys the sentence of His severity. Whence also the deceitful spirit is at once described as leaping forth into the midst, through whom king Ahab, as his own merits demanded, was to be deceived. For it is not lawful to believe that a good spirit willed to serve deceit, so as to say: I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. But because king Ahab, by his preceding sins, was worthy to be condemned by such a deception — so that he who often willingly had fallen into fault should at some time unwillingly be seized for punishment — by hidden justice license is given to the malignant spirits, that those whom they willingly strangle in the snare of sin, they may also unwillingly drag into the punishment of sin.

What therefore is described there — that the host of heaven stood at the right hand and at the left of God — this here is affirmed by the presence of Satan among the sons of God. Behold, the angels stood at the right hand of God, because they are called the sons of God; behold, the angels stand at the left hand, because Satan too was present among them. 39. But since we have resolved to search out the mysteries of the allegory, we not unfittingly understand that the Lord saw Satan 'on the day,' because He rebuked his ways in the incarnation of His Wisdom; as if not to have seen him were to have tolerated his wickedness so long in the ruin of the human race. Whence also it is at once said to him by the divine voice: