約伯倫理 第 439 章

Verse 3. — 'Doth it seem good to Thee, if Thou shouldst calumniate and oppress the poor, the work of Thy hands, and help the counsel of the wicked?' 70. The anxiety of one ignorant for what he, though just, is scourged. — This indeed is so said by way of interrogation that it be denied. As if it were openly said: Thou who art supremely good, I know that Thou dost not deem it good to oppress the poor by calumny. And I know therefore that what I suffer is not unjust, and I grieve the more in that I am ignorant of the causes of Thy justice. But it is to be noted that he says not 'that Thou shouldst oppress the innocent,' but 'the poor.' For he who casts before the severity of the Judge not his innocence but his poverty, no longer takes up boldness concerning his life, but shows how weak he beholds himself to be.

Whereto he also fittingly subjoins: 'The work of Thy hands.' As if he openly said: Thou canst not impiously oppress him whom Thou rememberest to have made freely of Thine own bounty. 71. God suffers us not to be tempted above our strength. — Well too is it added: 'And help the counsel of the wicked?' For whom does he here call 'the wicked,' if not the malignant spirits? Who, since they themselves cannot return to life, cruelly seek companions unto death. Their counsel indeed it was that the divine chastisement should touch blessed Job, and that he who in tranquillity had stood forth as just, might at least through scourges commit sin. But the Lord did not help the counsel of the wicked, for He gave over the flesh of the just man to their temptations, but denied them his soul.

This counsel the malignant spirits unceasingly enter into against the good, that those whom they behold serving God harmlessly in tranquillity may, when vexed by adversities, be snatched away into the abyss of sin. But the sharpness of their counsel is destroyed, because the loving Creator tempers the scourges to our strength, lest the punishment overpass our virtue, and lest human infirmity be undone through the cunning of the strong ones. Whence it is also well said by Paul: 'But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with the temptation a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it' (1 Corinthians 10:13).

For unless the merciful God moderated the temptations to our strength, there is assuredly no one who would not fall and bear the snares of the malignant spirits; because if the Judge does not set a measure to the temptations, by that very thing He straightway casts down him who stands, in that He lays burdens beyond his strength. Now blessed Job by thus denying required those things which he set forth, just as by requiring he denies those which he immediately subjoins, saying: