Moralia in Job 1143

CHAP. XXXVI, v. 22. — Behold, God is exalted in his strength, and none is like him among the lawgivers. Christ, at once humble in weakness and exalted in strength, far surpasses all other lawgivers. — As if he were plainly to say: He who will appear humble in weakness remains exalted in strength, as Paul also attests, who says: For though he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4). Of him it is rightly added: None is like him among the lawgivers. Moses was a lawgiver, Joshua a lawgiver, the prophets too were lawgivers; indeed we may call lawgivers all those whom we know to have admonished the people to what is right out of the law.

But to this Mediator none among the lawgivers is like, because those men, freely called, return from their sins to innocence, and by preaching they lead others back from the very things they themselves have experienced in themselves. But our Redeemer is a man without sin, a Son without adoption; he never committed what he reproved, and thus he speaks to the world in his humanity, yet nonetheless rules over that same world before all ages in his divinity. Now certain men believed that the Mediator of God and men was like the lawgivers. For when he asked, Whom do men say that the Son of Man is? the disciples answered, saying: Some John the Baptist, some Elijah, some Jeremiah, or one of the prophets (Matt. 16:13).

But indeed to Peter he revealed how exalted he was in strength, when Peter, truly gazing upon him, distinguished him from equality with the lawgivers, saying: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (ibid. 16). Whence rightly of him the bride says in the Song of Songs: In my little bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him and found him not (Cant. 3:1). And a little after: The watchmen who keep the city found me. Of whom again she says: They wounded me, they took away my cloak. Whom again she questions, saying: Have you seen him whom my soul loves? When I had passed a little beyond them, I found him whom my soul loves (Cant. 3:3-4).

He is sought in the night, but is not found except when the prophets and patriarchs have been transcended. — For the Beloved is sought by night in the little bed, because within the secret chambers of the heart, in tribulation of spirit, he is desired. Yet the bride seeking him does not find him, because each chosen soul already indeed burns with the torches of his love, but the sight is still denied to the one who seeks, that the lover's desire may increase; and as it were water is withdrawn from one who thirsts, that the heat of the same thirst may grow, and the longer the thirsty soul desires it, the more avidly she may take it when at last she finds it.

But the watchmen find her as she seeks, and they wound her, and take away her cloak, because when the anxious teachers find each soul that is already seeking the sight of its Redeemer, they wound her by the word of preaching with the darts of heavenly love, and if any covering of her old manner of life still clings to her, they take it away, so that the more she is stripped and given back from the burden of this world, the more he who is sought may be found by her. But well is it added: When I had passed a little beyond them, I found him whom my soul loves. Because the mind eager for the sight of him would not find him who is above men, unless it transcended the reckoning of the prophets, the loftiness of the patriarchs, and the measure of all men.

To pass beyond the watchmen, therefore, is to place even those whom the soul admires below him in comparison with him. And then he who was sought is beheld, if he is believed to be indeed a man, yet one beyond the measures of men. Whence well it is now said: None is like him among the lawgivers. But he, plainly, appearing to our gaze through the weakness of the flesh, while he rejects some and calls others, has displayed wondrous judgments, which can be pondered by us but cannot be comprehended. For he says: For judgment I came into this world, that they who see not may see, and they who see may become blind (John 9:39). And again: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones (Matt. 11:25).

In which judgments indeed Judea is cast off and the Gentile world is gathered in. This deed we may marvel at, but by no means are we able to search it out. Whence also it is now well added by Elihu: