約伯倫理 第 1115 章

VERSE 13. — 'For God will not hear in vain, and the Almighty will look upon the causes of each one.' 54. The desires of the saints are heard the more abundantly the more slowly. — It is to be noted that two things are said: that He does not hear the one crying in vain, and yet that He regards what he suffers; that He seems to defer hearing his voices, and yet that He is not ignorant of what each one endures. Let no one therefore who is heard more slowly believe that he is neglected by the heavenly care. For often our desires, because they are not fulfilled quickly, are the more heard; and what we ask to be accomplished in haste is itself the better made to prosper by that very slowness. Often our voice is the more brought to fulfillment the more it is deferred; and while the petition seems to be neglected on the surface, our prayers are fulfilled more deeply at the very root of our thoughts:

just as the seeds of the harvest, pressed by the frost, are made firm; and the more slowly they come forth to the surface, the more multiplied they rise up unto the crop. Thus our desires are extended by delay that they may profit; they profit that they may grow strong for what they are to receive; they are exercised in the contest, that they may be heaped with greater rewards in the recompense; the labor of the fight is prolonged, that the crown of victory may increase. Therefore, when the Lord does not swiftly hear His own, He draws them by that whereby He is believed to repel them. For He is the inward physician, and cuts away the contagions of sin which He inwardly condemns within us; He cuts off the poison of corruption with the knife of tribulation; and by the very deferring, whereby He seems not to hear the sick man's voices, He procures the ending of the sickness. For hence the Prophet says:

'My God, I will cry by day, and Thou wilt not hear; and by night, and it is not folly to me' (Ps. 21:3). As if he said: In no way does it turn to folly for me that Thou dost not continually hear me crying day and night, because from that whereby Thou seemest to forsake me in temporal tribulation, thereby Thou dost the more instruct me unto eternal wisdom. Hence also he says: 'A helper in due seasons, in tribulation' (Ps. 9:10). By 'due seasons' he first named tribulation, because often we are indeed worn down by tribulation, and yet the time is not yet opportune that we should be aided according to our desire for deliverance. Let it therefore be said: 'For God will not hear in vain, and the Almighty will look upon the causes of each one.'

But because very often some are broken even by the delay of help itself, He aptly adds: