約伯倫理 第 757 章

Verse 21. — 'For what does it matter to him concerning his house after him? or if the number of his months be cut in half?' The astonishing hardness and blindness of certain evil men, even while they are being struck. — For we ought not to take it thus, as though this wicked man, after he has been condemned to eternal torments, gives no thought to his house, that is, to the kinsmen he has left behind; for the Truth Himself declares that the rich man who had been buried in hell took care, even while placed in torment, for the five brothers he had left behind (Luke 16:28). For every sinner who was foolish in his guilt will be prudent in his punishment,

because there, now constrained by grief, he opens to reason the eyes which here, given over to pleasure, he closed; and by the torment that racks him he is compelled to be wise, who here, blinded by pride, was without understanding. Yet his wisdom shall then avail him nothing, because here, where he ought to have acted according to wisdom, he lost the time. For here he desires as the highest good to have offspring of his line, to fill his house with family and riches, and to live long in this corruption of the flesh. But if perchance something come to fulfill his desire which nevertheless he cannot obtain except by offending his Creator, his mind, disturbed for a little while, considers that if he does here that whereby he incurs the offense of his Creator, he is struck in his house, in his children, in his life.

But, forthwith goaded by his pride, he hardens; and however great a chastisement he may feel in his house, however great in his life, he cares nothing for it, provided he may accomplish what he has purposed; and as long as he lives, he does not cease to carry out his pleasures. For behold, his house is struck for his guilt; but what does it matter to him concerning his house after him? Behold, in vengeance for his wicked work the length of life which might have been is shortened; but what does it matter to him, if the number of his days be cut in half? And so in this very thing the sinner raises himself up against God, wherein God Almighty breaks his uprising; and the chastisement inflicted does not humble the mind which its obstinacy hardens in its resolve against the Lord.

And it is to be noted how grave the guilt is, both to set before the mind the punishment for guilt, and yet, not even through fear of torment, to bow the neck of the heart beneath the yoke of the Creator. But lo, when we hear these things, a question arises in our heart: why has God, almighty and merciful, permitted the reason of the human mind to fall into so great a blindness? But lest anyone presume to examine the hidden judgments of God further than he ought, it is rightly added: