The Nature of Job's Trials

Sin, which is like a stain, is caused by a corrupt upbringing; likewise, regarding the saints, one must consider a lapse as non-voluntary. Thus it has been said, 'For all have sinned' (Rom 3:23). We say that the sins of the saints are a path toward virtue.

Just as one learning to write, since he cannot write well immediately, stumbles during the learning process—not such that it is considered corrupt as if someone were writing evil by malicious intent—so also the one striving toward virtue, if he first stumbles through ignorance, is not to be punished. For if he were impious, woe to me! If he were righteous, I would not be able to bow my head. He might say, 'If I sin by choice, woe to me; but if, as we have previously stated, I have it only by succession from Adam, again I will not be able to bow my head as one completely cleansed of filth.' For of sins, those from our own choice stand as bad, but those are different as previously stated; for punishment follows those from choice, but purification is owed to those from ignorance. He might say, 'Even if I am righteous, I do not think greatly, knowing the obvious.' For many, having spoken highly of themselves, fell in practice.

And 'Pay attention, then, O Pharisee, speaking about God: did you not then speak truly?' (Luke 18:9); but the one who was self-important did not have the words accepted. It has been said regarding the lowly one, that 'this one descended having been justified by Him.' But I am full of dishonor. The sign of human weakness is thin, for man is full of dishonor by being a body surrounded by such a thing, about which Paul says: 'It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory' (1 Cor 15:43).

And I am hunted like a lion for slaughter. Thinking myself to be full of dishonor according to the previously stated sense, the enemy seeks to cast me down through those standing around, as if surrounding with dogs, and tries to envelop me with nets. But the lion is a great animal. It has been said: 'A lion is stronger than cattle.' 'For the righteous has become like a lion.' However, the one set out for a combatant knows that some beast is trying to hunt him; and this is the adversary, the devil. And he now calls the slip into sin a 'slaughter'; for slaughter is often said even regarding punishment. The magnitude of the assault against himself appears to exceed...

Through the saying, 'I am prowling like a lion' (Job 10:24), it is meant that the enemy is like a lion driving the wild beasts and not leaving him to avoid temptation. This is not arrogance, but it reveals the plot. For again, 'you turn me terribly' (Job 7:19). It shows that even if I prowl like a lion, so many things have surrounded me, but they do not attack by themselves; for the permission is small. If God had not permitted, the prowler would not have had the power.

The 'turning' must be understood actively as the change that happened to Job from wealth to poverty and from health to sickness; much of text missing has come to him. 'Renewing against me my distress' signifies the successive onslaughts of the attackers. For just as an enemy, being repelled from the opposing sides, prepares himself again to fight, the one who has taken authority devises new pains like against a man, increasing the affliction in magnitude.

This is shown by: 'while he was still speaking, another messenger came' (Job 33:23). For the calamities were frequent and successive. 'And with great wrath I used you; you brought trials upon me' (Job 7:18). And here again the magnitude of the afflictions is shown, not ceasing, but making it known to friends that this exceeding wrath is not, as one might think, because of sin, if one were to judge his life.

Anger here should not be understood as a passion, but as the attacking onslaught, just as Moses says to God: 'You sent out your wrath and consumed them like a reed' (Psalm 106:10). Some suffer because of sin; but here it is shown through 'you brought trials upon me' that it is not because of sins; for those being punished in this manner are not said to undergo trials. Thus, the bringing of trials must be understood not as if they had fallen upon them by their own fault.

And this happens, which the disciples were taught in the prayer not to let happen: 'lead us not into temptation' (Matthew 6:13). Why then did you bring me out of the womb, and I did not die? And my eye did not see, and as if I did not exist, I became. Someone might think this to be out of malice, but he is turned from what was said toward God: 'But it is otherwise with you...'