Moralia in Job 1152

Verses 29-30. — 'If he will to stretch out the clouds as his tent, and to flash lightning with his light from above, he will also cover the hinges of the sea.' 19. They are the tents of God, in which he dwells and walks among us. When Paul was journeying to Rome, God went hidden in his breast as though beneath a tent. — The Lord stretches out the clouds when, opening to his ministers the way of preaching, he spreads them abroad on every side into the breadth of the world. And it is well said: 'As his tent.' For a tent is wont to be pitched on a journey. And when the holy preachers are sent into the world, they make a journey for God. Whence it is written: 'Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee' (Malachi 3:1). And whence again it is said by the Psalmist:

'Make a way for him who ascends above the sunset' (Psalm 68:4). And again: 'O God, when thou didst go forth before thy people, when thou didst pass through the desert, the earth was moved' (ibid., 8). For God, who in himself is everywhere without being confined to place, through his preachers walks locally into the regions of the world. Whence also it is said by the prophet: 'And I will walk among them' (Leviticus 26:12; 2 Corinthians 6:16). For he makes a journey through them, when he pours himself into human hearts by their utterance. And in this journey the tents of God are these very hearts of the saints, in which he is covered as if resting on the way, while through them, coming to the minds of men, he does what he has ordained and is not seen.

VIII. Hence it is that the whole synagogue together is called a tent, when the Lord complains through Jeremiah that the priests have ceased from preaching, saying: 'There is none to stretch out my tent any more, and to set up my curtains' (Jeremiah 10:20). Hence again, concerning its destruction, it is said: 'He has laid waste his tent as a garden, he has demolished his tabernacle' (Lamentations 2:6). For because the Lord then lay hidden among men in the worship of one people, he called that same people his tent. Whence also rightly now these clouds are called his tent, because God, coming to us through grace, is covered within the minds of his preachers.

Was not Paul his tent, when, coming from Jerusalem in a circuit as far as Illyricum to the hearts of mortals, the Lord rested in his mind (Romans 15:19)? For he was a cloud to men, a tent to God, because the one whom by preaching he poured into his hearers, this one he invisibly retained in his mind. Likewise again, while Paul, bound in chains, was journeying to Rome to lay hold of the world, God went hidden in his breast as though beneath a tent (Acts 28:15), because he could neither be seen while concealed, nor, once revealed through the words of preaching, did he ever cease to carry through the journey of the grace he had begun.

Moses was his cloud, when, before he gave leadership to the people of Israel, he remained forty years in the desert and, seeking lofty things, lived set apart from the company of the people. But he became the tent of God when he went, sent to recall the people, into Egypt (Exodus 3:10), bearing invisible truth in his heart, while almighty God, who was manifest in the work, lay hidden in the heart. And being everywhere present, containing all things, he made a journey in his servant, coming into Egypt. Whence it is written: 'God went into Egypt, that he might redeem a people for himself' (Exodus 15:13, according to the Septuagint).

Behold, he is said to go, he by whose uncircumscribed presence all things are contained, because he who by his majesty is everywhere sets, as it were, steps upon the way by preaching. 20. God flashes lightning through his saints when he works miracles. These are necessary in preachers. — But words in no way suffice for these same holy preachers to persuade, unless miracles too be added. Whence, when it has been said, 'If he will to stretch out the clouds as his tent,' it is rightly subjoined: 'And to flash lightning with his light from above.' For what should we understand by lightnings but miracles? Of which it is said by the Psalmist: 'Thou shalt multiply lightnings, and shalt confound them' (Psalm 144:6, according to the Septuagint).

Through these clouds, therefore, he flashes lightning with his light from above, because through the holy preachers he illumines even with miracles the darkness of our insensibility. 21. The conversion also of the uttermost boundaries of the world. Britain made subject to the faith. — And when these clouds rain down with words, and when they open with miracles the force of their coruscating light, they convert even the uttermost boundaries of the world to divine love. Whence it is rightly added: 'He will also cover the hinges of the sea.' Which indeed we heard by the voices of Elihu was to be done, but by God as its author we now perceive already done. For the almighty Lord has covered the hinges of the sea with coruscating clouds, because by the flashing miracles of the preachers he has led even the boundaries of the world to the faith. For behold, he has already penetrated the hearts of well-nigh all nations;

behold, in one faith he has joined the boundary of the East and of the West; behold, the tongue of Britain, which knew nothing else but to gnash barbarously, has already long since begun to resound the Hebrew Alleluia in the divine praises. Behold, the once-swelling Ocean, now laid low, serves at the feet of the saints, and its barbarous motions, which earthly princes could not subdue with the sword, these the mouths of priests bind with simple words for fear of God; and he who as an unbeliever had by no means dreaded the ranks of fighters, now as a believer fears the tongues of the humble.

For because, upon receiving the heavenly words and upon the shining forth of miracles, the power of divine knowledge is poured into him, he is bridled by the dread of that same divinity, so that he fears to do evil, and with all his desires longs to attain to the grace of eternity. Whence here also it is fittingly added: