約伯倫理 第 1117 章

VERSE 15. — 'For now He does not bring on His fury, nor does He take great vengeance for wickedness.' 57. God here long endures those whom He is to condemn forever. — For God long endures him whom He condemns for ever; and He now forbears to bring on His fury, because He keeps it to be poured out without end hereafter. For it belongs to the elect to be crushed here, that they may deserve to be trained for the rewards of the eternal inheritance. It is our part to receive scourges here, whereby it is reserved for us to rejoice in eternity. For hence it is written: 'He scourges every son whom He receives' (Heb. 12:6). Hence it is said to John: 'Those whom I love I rebuke and chastise' (Rev. 3:19). Hence Peter says: 'It is time that judgment should begin at the house of God' (1 Pet. 4:17). Where he immediately adds in wonder:

'But if first from us, what shall be the end of those who do not believe the Gospel of God?' (Ibid., 17). For the divine severity in no way permits sins to remain unavenged, but the wrath of judgment begins here with our correction, that it may come to rest in the damnation of the reprobate. Let the reprobate therefore now go on, and consummate the desires of their pleasures with iniquity unavenged; and let them feel no temporal scourges, in that eternal punishments await them. Now, that their wickedness is unavenged was signified when Ham sinned, to whom it is said by his father: 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren' (Gen. 9:25). Canaan, that is, was the son of Ham. And what does it mean that, when Ham sinned, his son Canaan receives the sentence of vengeance?

What does it mean that he is smitten not in himself but in his posterity, except that the wickednesses of the reprobate here indeed prosper unavenged, but are struck in their posterity? Let it therefore be said: 'For now He does not bring on His fury, nor does He take great vengeance for wickedness.' 58. Yet sometimes He begins to strike them even in this life. — But it is to be noted what He added, 'greatly,' because although He long-sufferingly tolerates certain things, yet certain things He scourges even in this life, and here sometimes begins to strike what He consummates by alternating damnation. Therefore He both smites some things and leaves some things unavenged, because if He cut off nothing, who would believe that God cares for human affairs?

And again, if He struck all things here, whence would the last judgment remain? Certain things therefore are smitten, that we may dread the solicitude of our Ruler over us; but certain things are kept unavenged, that we may perceive that a judgment still remains. Well therefore is it said: 'Nor does He take great vengeance for wickedness,' because while some little of iniquity is smitten, to unconverted minds the sentence of the eternal judgment is already foretasted. 59. It is one thing to say what is right, another to say it rightly. — All this therefore is said rightly by Elihu, if only it were said rightly. For he knows what he ought to speak, but is ignorant to whom he speaks. For the things he said are true, but foreign to the rebukes of blessed Job, because Job needed this correction no more than he had sinned by any faintheartedness.

But because the pride of the arrogant is wont to be an occasion of virtues to just men, by a hidden judgment it is dealt with blessed Job, that after the scourges of pains he might grow even through the words of the arrogant. For behold, he is so much the more despised by the minister of pride, the more he is inwardly cherished by the mistress Truth. For after Elihu recognized that he had spoken so many things bravely, he laid bare what elation he bore, and despised blessed Job by thinking loftily of himself, saying: