約伯倫理 第 1237 章

Christ is the true morning star, especially in the resurrection; but the evening star is Antichrist. To him are justly subjected those men given over to the earth. For the Father in His own time brought forth the morning star, because, as it is written: 'When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law' (Gal. 4:4). He, born of the Virgin, appeared like the morning star amid the darkness of our night, because, when the obscurity of sin had been put to flight, He announced to us the eternal morning. He made Himself known as the morning star, because at daybreak He rose from death, and with the splendor of His light He pressed down the dark earth of our mortality. To whom it is well said through John: 'The bright and morning star' (Rev. 22:16).

For appearing alive after death, He became for us the morning star, because while in Himself He offered us the example of resurrection, He showed what light was to follow. But the Lord makes the evening star rise over the sons of the earth, because He permits Antichrist to rule over the unbelieving hearts of the Jews, as their desert justly demands. These are for that reason justly subjected by the Lord to this evening star, because they of their own accord willed to be sons of the earth. For seeking earthly and not heavenly things, they were blinded so as not to behold the brightness of our morning star; and while they long for the evening star to preside over them, they are plunged into the alternating night of the damnation that follows. Hence in the Gospel the Lord says: 'I have come in the name of my Father, and you received me not;'

'another shall come in his own name, and him you will receive' (John 5:43). Hence Paul says: 'Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, therefore God shall send them the working of error, that they should believe a lie, that all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity' (2 Thess. 2:10-12). By no means, therefore, would the evening star rise over them, if they had willed to be sons of heaven. But while they crave visible things, having lost the light of the heart, they are darkened under the leadership of the night. And yet, if we examine this morally, we find how it is done daily, because assuredly the morning star rises for the elect, and the evening star, by God's permission, rules over the reprobate.

For one and the same word of God is in the mouth of the preacher. And when these hear it with joy, but those with envy, they turn the brightness of the morning star into the darkness of the evening star for themselves. While these humbly receive the voice of holy preaching, they open, as it were, the eyes of the heart to the light of the star; but while those envy the one who blesses, and seek not the cause of salvation but the glory of self-exaltation, they close their eyes in the sleep of death as the evening of their iniquity bursts forth. By a hidden judgment, therefore, He who is the morning star for the elect becomes the evening star for reprobate hearers, because by the holy exhortation whereby the good return to life, the wicked die the worse in their fault. Whence it is well said through Paul:

'We are the good odor of Christ unto God, in those who are saved and in those who perish; to some indeed the odor of death unto death, but to others the odor of life unto life' (2 Cor. 2:15-16). He saw therefore that His word was to His hearers both the morning star and the evening star, because through it He beheld both that some were roused from iniquity and, on the contrary, that others were lulled to sleep in iniquity. And because this is done by the hidden judgments of God, which in this life cannot be comprehended by men, He rightly subjoined there: 'And for these things who is so sufficient?' (2 Cor. 2:16). As if he said: We are indeed sufficient to consider these things, because they happen, but we are not sufficient to investigate why they happen.

Whence here also the Lord, because He had said that the morning star was brought forth for some, but the evening star rose for others, lest man should dare to scrutinize the hidden judgments of God, immediately subjoins: