Chapter XXXVII.
At this, my heart trembled. Or so my heart was astonished, as others have said.
And he was moved from his place. With these divine mysteries, and with the light of the knowledge of God being revealed, which is shown only to the friends and faithful of God: my heart, he said, is troubled, and I am carried away with zeal for the ignorance of the sacraments.
He will hear the sound of his voice with terror, and the sound coming from his mouth. Just as God wants, listen to what he says; for his voice terrifies with the great mysteries of the sacraments: and the sound of his mouth, or as others have said, the noise, listen in the same way. Therefore, this is the sound of God's jaws, which perhaps is called sound, not simply speech, so that disobedience would strike the deaf, and unbelief with a hardened heart would be moved by a clearer voice to fear, and shake them all to fear the Lord.
He surveys all the heavens himself, and his light is above the ends of the earth. What wonder is this of the omnipotence of God, who is everywhere in heaven, and on earth, in the sea, and in the depths. But let us consider according to an allegorical understanding, what is meant by saying of God, 'He surveys all the heavens.' Holy men are accustomed to be called heavens in divine Scripture, on account of their heavenly manner of life, concerning whom it is said: 'Your conversation is in heaven.' Therefore, the Lord, considering beneath the heavens, either by investigating the secrets within them or by governing and sustaining the weakness of their bodies, which they have subjected to the rule of the mind by the virtue of the cross, strengthens and supports against the battles of carnal passions. In this sense, the Prophet, shaken by fear, says: And beneath me my composure was disturbed. Likewise, the boundaries or limits of the earth itself are holy, imposing an end to earthly passions and desires, because they are not in the midst of Babylon, nor are they surrounded by the vices of this world, as the Apostle Peter says. Therefore, Christ, having suffered in the flesh, left us an example, since he suffered in the flesh, he ceased to be from sins, so that he may now live not according to human desires, but according to the will of God, which remains in the flesh for a time: that is, living for a time, dwelling in the boundaries of the flesh as sins cease. In the borders placed, the queen of Sheba, who carried the image of the Church, deserved to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon. Therefore, God illuminates such boundaries with the light of His grace and knowledge.
After him, there will be a roaring sound. Or as others have said, a loud roar.
He will thunder with the greatness of His voice, and His voice will not be discovered when it is heard. When God comes to the memory of men, placing them at the ends of the earth, immediately, in the midst of their weakness of mortality, groaning, they will roar to Him, just as the prophet says: I roared from the groaning of my heart; and then this roar will make a sound in the fervor of prayer, crying out to God, who is reached in heaven. Therefore, the Lord will thunder to them with the voice of His commandments, so that they may fear His face. Recognize the sound of thunder as a sign that God, before their desire, is unsearchable and boundless.
God will thunder marvelously in His voice, who has done great and inscrutable things. Others have said: God will thunder. God operates marvelously, when this thunder of His name, by which the knowledge of His fame spreads throughout the whole world, makes the ears of the soul resound.
Who commands the snow to come down upon the earth, and the winter rain, and the showers of his strength. We have said before that the whiteness of snow can signify the grace which is given to the faithful through the gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism, and we have brought forward many examples of testimonies from the Scriptures, among which is that passage from the Psalms: They shall be made white as snow in Selmon, which is in the shadow. Therefore, he says that the heavenly one, that is, God coming from heaven, will also judge and separate kings: whether they should be made white in the shadow. It seems to me that this signifies to me that the regeneration of the most ancient people in Christ should be accomplished by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this grace, signified by the name of snow, descends from the command of divinity to the earth, that is, it comes to men through Jesus Christ, through whom our oldness is renovated for the better. Against this grace of Christ, he wanted to indicate future tribulations of persecutions in winter rains, and because of the heavy pressures of winter rains, he said: which, however, the rain of the strength of the Holy Spirit would overcome, because it was said to them: For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you.
He marks in the hand of all men, so that individuals may know their own work. In the hand, that is, in the power of free will, according to the image and likeness of God, by which man is created and made by God: he has this wisdom impressed as a certain sign of divine operation, so that each person may know their own actions according to the judgment of free will, or as others have said, may know their own weakness, that is, that fragile vessels like themselves may be broken by sudden death.
The beast enters its lair and will dwell in its cave. This beast, we correctly understand, is the inventor of evils, the devil, who is therefore called a singular beast because its malice surpasses the malice of all workers of injustice. Therefore, this reasonable beast enters its lair, namely the human heart: when by the permission of God's judgment, it receives the power to rule over humans, and it establishes for itself a dwelling in the cave it has made. Whether it be a cavern or even a hiding-place of the devil, all sinners are to be understood: namely, those hard of faith or of stone, whom he possesses through their own vices and allurements, and in whose hearts and crimes he finds rest.
From within, a storm will come forth, and from the north, cold. It does not seem to me that he spoke about the wounds, qualities, or even the secret movements of this world, but just as we said that the hearts of humans are caves or hiding places of demons, let us understand these inner things with their secret and hidden plans: hence it is believed that storms of persecution come to this world in order to crush sinners, just as it happened to the Egyptians, upon whom came a release through evil angels. And at the same time, the saints are greatly troubled by excessive tribulations, as one of them says: 'We are burdened beyond measure, so that we even grow weary of life.' The cold of this unfaithfulness is also inflicted, so that those who depart from the charity of God and the warmth of faith fall into the chill of denial. All of these things are inflicted by demons through their ministry, and the decrees of rulers, and the powers of unbelievers. But Arcturus, because it is situated on the left side of the world, signifies the opposing part: from its region, a cold north wind blows against the south.
When God blows, the frost forms, and once again the waters flow abundantly. What he said here about the waters freezing when God blows, that is, becoming icy and solidifying, in the psalm it says the opposite: His spirit will blow and the waters will flow, that is, they will melt and flow away. But whether here when God blows, or in the psalm, his spirit blows, by the command of God, or his spirit will command, we can understand. And what he said here, the frost forms, in the previous verse of the psalm it says: He sends forth his ice like morsels. But we know that during the winter season, when God's breath, that is, command, blows with excessive cold, the waters thicken and even freeze, and then, when the time of the air is warmer, they thaw. According to mystical understanding, in past generations, the human race, leaving God due to its own merit, was congealed like ice by the breath of God's mouth and by the sentence flowing from His justice, while being removed from divine fire, and, with the immensity of its coldness, is bound by the lack of true knowledge of God. Now indeed, through the grace of our Lord and Savior, as the apostle Peter says: God, despising the times of ignorance, is again melted by the fire of God's love, from that cold oblivion and hardness that had hardened like the frost of long time, so that the waters of the peoples may flow and return to God.
The cloud desires grain. This is the grain, about which the Lord spoke in the Gospel through a parable, saying: Gather the weeds into bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. Therefore, this living grain desires to hear the doctors of the Church, who, like clouds, carry the waters of the Gospel. Just as those who were from this divine grain, dwelling in Antioch of Pisidia, would ask Paul and Barnabas to speak the word of God to them, which the apostles did, persuading them to remain in the grace of God. Cornelius also said to Peter: Now therefore we all come before you, to hear all the things that have been commanded to you by the Lord. And Moses said: Let my speech be received as the rain, and let my words descend as the dew. Therefore the Apostle says: I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. This cloud can also be understood as the Lord Himself, that is, the assumed man into God, as the prophet foretold, saying: Behold, the Lord comes in a light cloud into Egypt. Through whom divine grace and heavenly doctrine were being foretold to be poured out upon the world. And beautifully, it is said that a light cloud: either because the Savior himself, the Lamb of God, did not commit sin, or because the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord, burdened not by the seed of a man, is called a light cloud.
And the clouds scatter their light. They illuminate everything in whatever direction the will of the guiding ruler leads them, over the whole face of the earth. They send out the light of the Gospel's preaching: spreading the light of the Gospel upon the hearts of believers. Other interpreters have said: And it turns itself around in circles, to carry out all that it has commanded. Therefore these are the things that it commanded, and it gave its commands to its other clouds, saying: Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature. Therefore, as if by the wind of the Spirit of God, by which as clouds they were driven, they were forbidden to go to Bithynia, and it was commanded for them to cross from Judea to Rome, and thus, as the narrative contains, they traveled around the whole world, surveying it.
Whether in one tribe, or in his own land, or in whatever place he has commanded them to be found, this is what the Lord himself says in the Gospel: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Where it is especially to be noted that he says: In whatever place he has commanded them to be found, where by the grace of Christ and his mercy, he has shown mercy to those called back to faith.
Listen to these things, Job, stand and consider the wonders of God. Elihu urges that Job, in order to fulfill the sacraments in Christ and the Church, should diligently apply the ear of his heart and, being placed in the mirror of his mind, where he is also taught to stand in vigilant contemplation, should consider the future mysteries of the miracles of God, which he will accomplish through rational clouds.
Do you know when God commanded the clouds to show their light? This is a reference to the future actions of the prophets. Therefore, God commands the rain of the Gospel to demonstrate the light of his clouds, that is, the holy works of his teachers through the infusion of faith: and this mercy from heaven works to enlighten mankind.
Do you know the great paths of the clouds and the perfect sciences? Here, when he says perfect sciences, he evidently shows that he is speaking about rational clouds, and the ways of preachers, and the paths of subtle senses. Tell me, please, if you were able to know what paths in the clouds are great and perfect sciences? By saying this, he was referring to the apostolic clouds, one of which, a very swift cloud, said to the Savior: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And because it was suspended from the earth and was close to heaven, the Lord replied to it: Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father. But another apostle, like a cloud full of the waters of perfect knowledge, pours forth an abundant rain from the thundering of the Gospel, saying: 'In the beginning was the Word,' etc. With this most powerful thunder echoing everywhere, to shake the whole earth with the tremor of religious faith. Another, rising in Judea through repeated nativities, grew like a small cloud, and when the Spirit blew, he was enlarged so that he scattered the rains of the mysteries of perfect knowledge, kept secret from the ages, even to Illyricum, and watered other regions of the whole world with abundant outpourings. And hence it came to pass that some of them were called sons of thunder, while another was called son of the water-bearer.
Are not your clothes warm when the south wind has blown over the land? Others have said, that your cloak is warm. This indeed is true, because the south wind is warm, and when it blows, the clothing of men, or bodies, which are the clothing of souls, become warm. But because the clouds, the holy men, compelled us to understand the truth of prophecy, we understand more clearly the warm wind blowing from the south, signifying a fervent faith, or the grace of the Holy Spirit burning and illuminating us. Or we understand our Lord himself, of whom we read: God will come from the south, with the rational earth blowing over, the virtues of the soul, which are the inner clothing of man, ignite, and therefore they are called clothing, for they make the soul beautiful and adorned. And for this reason the Apostle encourages, saying: Brothers, clothe yourselves as chosen ones of God, and beloved ones, with the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, modesty, patience, etc. And therefore, these things, like others, are said by the spirit of prophecy through Heliu.
You perhaps with him have fashioned the heavens, which are most solid, as if they were cast in bronze. These words are spoken by Elihu to insult Job through irony. Thus, these words should be understood as the first front of the intellect. Now, according to the spirit of prophecy, let us pursue the mystical meaning so that we may understand the holy Scriptures about the heavens, which were given to humans, and the perpetuity of which he wanted to demonstrate from the solidity of the air. But someone says: how will the divine Scriptures be eternal if the world, as God declares, is to have a definite end? For indeed it is true that the parchments of the books, along with their actual letters, will pass away; but because the Lord adds, 'But My words will never pass away,' undoubtedly what He promises with the same breath, will be eternal. 'These heavens,' says Elijah, 'in which is a hidden plan of divinity, you perhaps, with God, fashioned as if having a similar wisdom: which God eternal predetermined before the constitution of the world, will sometime emerge in the bodies of letters, which already existed eternally in Him, not now existing, but visible only by the light of His own foreknowledge.' And we rightly understand the heavens, holy angels, who are called heavens because of their dwelling in the heavens, and they are like bronze solidified with eternity. Concerning them, the Psalmist says with a unique name: Heaven of heavens to the Lord. According to the figurative interpretation of heavens, all the saints are called heavens because of their heavenly way of life and their proclamation of heavenly commandments. As for Elihu, if he had the spirit of prophecy, according to the aforementioned interpretation, he could have known through the contemplation of his mind that these things were to be revealed in Christ, and in other ways, he seems to have understood the calling of the heavens, although this itself should not have been said in mockery of the holy Job.
Show us, what should we say to him. For we are indeed enveloped in darkness. It is an insulting word, and a reproaching one, show us, when he says that word, but they remain in the darkness of ignorance compared to knowledge. For just as holy Job asks to learn from whom he criticizes and reproves in his words. Show, he says, o Job, if you think you know anything more, and better, because we are held back by the great darkness and ignorance. It is certain, therefore, that Elihu, mocking Job and deriding him, speaks these words.
Who will tell him what I am saying? Even if a person has spoken, he will be devoured. I have indeed said to you, O Job, that you should show me what I could say: but who has dared to speak these very things about God? Certainly, if anyone has spoken, because it is not at all beneficial for him, he will be devoured for this very sin of presumption and irreverence, as Elihu says here. Thus we read in the Psalms: Their judges were devoured beside the rock: where it is understood that the judges of the people of Israel in the wilderness were devoured and engulfed by the sin of distrust, because they did not believe that rivers of water could be brought out by the divine power of the promised rock.
But now they cannot see the light. Suddenly the air is gathered into clouds, and the passing wind will drive them away. They are so blinded by this kind of misfortune that they become like the air when it thickens into clouds, and thus in the just judgment of God they will be carried away like winds in a strong wind, like the wicked whom the wind casts down from the face of the earth. Others have said: But not everyone can see the light that shines in the clouds, and the spirit passes and drives them away. He spoke something mysterious here, which now no longer shines the illumination of the Gospel to everyone. Indeed, it does not shine to those whose minds God has blinded, so that they do not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of the invisible Father. Therefore, this spirit of righteous judgment from God will drive them away from the assembly of the blessed, so that they do not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.
Gold will come from the North Wind, and a fearsome praise from God. I heard someone say that during the summer, when the sun rises in the North, the dawn shines more brightly, so that the sun itself appears golden in color: and from this it seems that Heliu speaks of gold coming, that is, a fiery wheel of the sun rising in the world, and above this is a glorious star, a fearsome praise to God for humanity. But we understand the saints as the gold, who, according to the spiritual sense, are redeemed by the devil from the North Wind, by the blood of the Lord. In this manner, therefore, the assembly of saints comes before God with trembling, praising Him and with a certain fear, believing with incredulity that they could be freed from the most grave enemy. Moreover, every day they are tested by examinations, like gold refined by the flames of temptations, they are brought out from the furnace of this world. Others have said, 'From the north comes a cloud of golden color, in it is the great glory and honor of the Almighty. We cannot find the likeness of His power.' For in this manner, the holy men, who are the clouds of God, are tested by the cold of the north wind, so that He may make them precious and shining with the fire of charity. And therefore, the great glory of the Lord and the honor of the Almighty is. No other similar virtue of His is found, who hopes for such great goods from contrary things.
We cannot find him worthy. He is great in strength, judgment, and justice, and cannot be described. Therefore, men will fear him, and all who consider themselves wise will not dare to contemplate him. For, as he is great and powerful in strength, so he is true in judgment and justice, and cannot be described. That is why, from his creature, who is so weak and frail, he cannot be found: because of this, great and wise men will not presume to investigate the incomprehensible, nor will they strive to contemplate the invisible. However, all of this is said as a reproach to holy Job, who claimed to be afflicted by God without any merit of wrongdoing. Others have said, 'If he judges justly, do you not think he will hear him?' Therefore, both men and wise men will fear him. They say this because God judges justly, with no partiality. All wise and foolish people, considering themselves, will fear him, knowing that he is the avenger of injustices according to the measure of his justice. He will indeed hear those who patiently endure injustices.