約伯倫理 第 509 章

Verses 24, 25: 'Who changes the heart of the princes of the people of the earth, and deceives them, that they may walk in vain through the pathless place. They shall grope as in darkness and not in the light, and He shall make them err as men drunken.' 30. The blindness of the Jews toward Christ, who indeed suffered as man but manifested Himself as God. — For the heart of the princes of the earth was changed when in Judaea the chief priests and the elders of the people strove by their own counsel to withstand Him whom they had before proclaimed as about to come. And when by persecuting Him they contrived to extinguish His name, deceived by their own malice, they strove in vain to walk through the pathless way, because no path could lie open to their cruelty against the Author of all things. They beheld His miracles, they were terrified by His power;

but, refusing to believe, they still sought signs, when they said: 'What sign therefore do you do, that we may see and believe you? What do you work?' (John 6:30). Rightly, then, is it said: 'They shall grope as in darkness, and not in the light.' For he who trembles amid so many open miracles gropes as in the dark, because he does not see what he touches. But everyone who errs is led now here, now there. And because at one time they seemed to believe, when they said: 'Unless this man were from God, He could do nothing' (John 9:33); yet at another time they denied that He was from God, when they said in contempt: 'Is not this the carpenter's son?

Is not His mother called Mary, and His brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?' (Matt. 13:55) — rightly is it subjoined: 'And He shall make them err as men drunken.' For they saw Him both raise the dead, and yet be mortal. Who would not believe Him to be God, whom they beheld raising a dead man? Yet again, when they beheld Him mortal, they scorned to believe that He was the immortal God.

By this, therefore, that Almighty God so presented Himself to their eyes as one able both to display divine things and to suffer human things, He made them err as though drunken, so that their pride — which chose rather to despise the mystery of His incarnation than to follow it, and exalted itself against His humanity — might yet marvel at the inwardly shining power of His Godhead. And because all these things were made present to the eyes of blessed Job through the spirit of prophecy, it is rightly subjoined: