Moralia in Job 413

Verse 13. God, whose wrath none can resist, and under whom they stoop that bear up the world. 25. By what reasoning none resists the wrath of God. The solution of a question. It is very wonderful that none is said to be able to resist the wrath of God, since the divine oracles testify that many have withstood the indignation of the supernal chastisement. Did not Moses resist the wrath of God, who, raised up on behalf of the falling people, restrained the very onset of the supernal stroke by the offering of his own death, saying: Forgive them this trespass; or else blot me out of thy book which thou hast written (Exodus 32:31)? Did not Aaron resist the wrath of God, when he took a censer between the living and the dead, and tempered the fire of chastisement by the smoke of the incense (Numbers 16:47-48)?

Did not Phinehas resist the wrath of God, who, slaying those who wantoned with strangers in the very act of coition, offered his zeal to the divine indignation, and appeased the fury by the sword (Numbers 25:11)? Did not David resist the wrath of God, who, offering himself to the striking angel, obtained the grace of appeasement even before the appointed time (2 Samuel 24:25)? Did not Elijah resist the wrath of God, who, when the earth had now long been parched, recalled by his word the rains withdrawn from heaven (1 Kings 18:44)? How, then, is it said that none can resist the divine wrath, when it is shown by existing examples that many have often resisted?

But if we weigh subtly both these words of blessed Job and the deeds of those men, we recognize as true both that the divine wrath is not resisted, and as true that many have often resisted it. For all the saints who oppose the wrath of God receive from him that they should be set against the onset of his stroke, and, so to speak, together with him they raise themselves against him. And the divine power sets them against itself along with itself, because in that which they outwardly obtain against the wrath of him who rages, inwardly the grace of him who is angry cherishes them; and it lifts up as ministering inwardly those whom it tolerates as though opposing outwardly. It bears, therefore, the contradiction of those who entreat, which itself inspires; and as it were, upon one unwilling is laid that which is commanded by himself to be done. For to Moses he says:

Let me alone, that my fury may be wroth against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make thee into a great nation (Exodus 32:10). What is it to say to a servant, Let me alone, but to offer the boldness of entreating? As if it were openly said: Weigh how much thou availest with me, and know that thou shalt be able to obtain whatsoever thou entreatest on behalf of the people. And because this is done with this intent, the pardon straightway subjoined bears witness to it. But when the supernal indignation moves itself, so to speak, from the marrow, no human opposition holds it back; nor does anyone's entreaty usefully set itself in the way, when once God, being angry, disposes something from his inmost depths.

For hence it is that Moses, who wiped away the guilt of the whole people before God by his prayers, and, while he offered himself as a barrier, appeased the force of the divine anger, yet coming to the rock of Horeb, and doubting concerning the giving forth of water, could not, the Lord being angry, enter the land of promise (Numbers 20:12). And often is he afflicted concerning this matter, often is he troubled while desire stirs him up, and he who removed it, the Lord willing, from the people, could not repel from himself the anger of the appointed vengeance. Hence David, who afterwards checked the sword of the angel by his prayer over the prostrate people (2 Samuel 24:10), first weeping and wailing fled from his son with bare feet;

and until he received to the full the vengeance for the crime committed, he was by no means able to temper for his own sake the wrath of God. Hence Elijah, that he might as a man feel some little something, as it were, of the divine chastisement—he who opened the heavens by his word (1 Kings 17:1)—terrified before the indignation of a woman, fled through the desert; and he who appeases the fury of God for others by his intervention, for his own sake grows weak in dread (Ibid. 19:3). The wrath of God, therefore, can both be resisted, when he himself who is angry lends aid; and can by no means be resisted, when he both rouses himself to avenge, and himself does not inspire the prayer that is poured out to him. Hence to Jeremiah it is said:

Thou therefore, pray not for this people, neither take up praise and prayer for them, for I will not hear in the time of their crying unto me (Jeremiah 7:16). And again: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my soul could not be toward this people (Jeremiah 15:1). 24. The power of prayer for enemies.—In which matter it can usefully be asked why, so many of the more ancient fathers being left aside, Moses and Samuel only are more excellently and elegantly named for the pouring out of prayer. Which nevertheless we easily recognize, if we weigh the merits of that charity by which it is commanded to love even enemies. For that prayer is chiefly commended to the ears of the Creator which strives to intercede for enemies also.

Whence also through himself the Truth says: Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you (Matthew 5:44). And again: When ye shall stand to pray, forgive if ye have aught against another (Mark 11:25). But when we turn over the deeds of the former fathers as the sacred word describes them, we find that Moses and Samuel entreated for those who opposed them. For one of them fled the persecution of the raging people, and yet interceded for the life of his persecutor; the other, cast down from the headship of the people, says to his very adversaries: Far be this sin from me against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you (1 Samuel 12:23).

What, then, is it to bring forward Moses and Samuel in the difficulty of entreating, but more openly to indicate that not even they, if they stood by, would withstand his wrath—they who could the more quickly intervene for friends, because with him they were wont to intercede for enemies also? Hence to the same Judaea it is said: I have smitten thee with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement (Jeremiah 30:14). And again: Why criest thou over thy affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable (Ibid. 15). Let the holy man, therefore, behold that by no one's intervention is the divine wrath restrained when it is implacably roused, and let him say:

God, whose wrath none can resist. Which we well lead also to a special understanding, if we weigh the losses of that same Israelite people, which the Redeemer, shown forth through the mystery of his dispensation, forsook in its pride, and called the Gentiles to the grace of his own knowledge. Whence also fittingly it is presently subjoined: Under whom they stoop that bear up the world. 25. They bear up the world who rule.—For they themselves bear up the world who endure the cares of the present age. For each one is compelled to sustain burdens as great as the things over which he bears rule in this world. Whence also the prince of the earth is not incongruously named in the Greek tongue; for it is interpreted 'people.'

He is called, therefore, by a name which in the Latin tongue means 'the base of the people,' because he himself sustains the people upon himself, who, fixed by the weight of that power's motion, rules. For by that whereby he tolerates the burdens of his subjects, thereby, as a base, he bears up as it were a column set upon him. Let blessed Job, therefore, full of the virtue of the prophetic spirit, behold that Judaea is forsaken, and that the princes of the Gentiles are inclined to the worship of the Godhead, and let him say: God, whose wrath none can resist, under whom they stoop that bear up the world. As if he openly confessed, saying: Thou both strictly forsakest those once subject, and mercifully bendest the exalted powers of the Gentiles. 26. Such angels are sent into ministry.

Although by that which is said, Under whom they stoop that bear up the world, the angelic powers also can be understood. For they themselves bear up the world who administer the cares of ruling the world, Paul bearing witness, who says: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth into ministry for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14)? He says, therefore: God, whose wrath none can resist, under whom they stoop that bear up the world. As if he beheld the humility of every creature, and, made to tremble, said: What one of the infirm men opposes thy nods, to whose might even the angelic powers incline themselves? Or surely, because when we are bowed we do not discern the things above:

Those most subtle spirits would be upright, if they fully attained the power of his majesty. But those who bear up the world are bowed down under God, because, however uplifted, they see the loftiness of his divinity, yet not even the angelic powers comprehend it. Which the just man, not penetrating it by reason of his infirmity, but weighing it in whatever measure from the ministries subject to the highest spirits, gathers himself back with anxious humility to the consideration of himself, and before himself becomes vile in the presence of the power of the supernal greatness, saying: