Innocence and Judgment

To know that God has judged unworthily. Pay close attention: they intended to condemn a man as worthy of suffering his own sin, or rather, they spoke against God, saying that He judged unworthily. In one respect they acted with purpose, calling God outside of justice; but in another respect they were sinning, for they were condemning the innocent. Ignorance excuses those who are ignorant, and it is acceptable that they philosophize in ignorance and are not rejected, seeing God's justice. They record the justice of Job, but they praise the justice of God.

Then Job begins to be reproved by his friends; and they say to him: When did true upright ones perish? When did you see righteous ones being destroyed utterly? If you have not sinned, they say, and done what is worthy of sin, the righteous one would not have unjustly wronged you. Many are your sins. But if you have not sinned, whence is this, if not that your sons sinned? And often you have wronged the widow and afflicted the orphans. If these things have happened, even God has justly brought this verdict upon you.

Job realizes for himself that he has not done such a thing, and he realizes also that God is not judging unjustly. Since Job saw that among men he has been condemned, but his conscience does not condemn him, and his God does not recognize him as guilty, he had no way to persuade men. He transfers the argument to the Judge, and turns the eye of the soul toward the things above, not blaspheming but being distressed, and says to Him: You who know the mind of men, why have you struck me? You have made me to encounter your justice; you know my heart.

Then Job cries out greatly, not from malice but from innocence; and, in order that I may cut the many down to a few (for the material of justification is much), he says...

“Who will give a judge between me and you, so that I may know how many my sins are, since you have judged me thus?” The word is fearsome, but it comes from a lack of malice. For God, foreknowing, said that there is no one who is innocent according to him; yet to the innocent, no word is reckoned as being toward wickedness.

For always, brothers, all we humans—if not God—judge not by the outward things, but by the intention of those who act. A son insults a father, and the matter is incomprehensible to both the one suffering and the one hearing. Such a person is called a father-hater and a mother-hater, impious and lawless, because he uttered a voice against a father and dared to speak ill of his own root. Yet he who is judged by such thoughts is condemned by the perfect; but an innocent child, even if he strikes his father or his mother or even insults them, is more desirable for all joy.

Often mothers provoke children into insult, not through the insult itself, but by exulting in their own innocence, their integrity, and the removal of character. In this way, God, knowing that he speaks not from malice but from innocence (for he testifies to him, saying, 'He still holds to his innocence'), receives what comes from Job, even as he is called to judgment by him. The word is fearsome: to call the servant 'Master' into judgment; to call a man 'God'; to call the creature 'the Creator'; to call the clay 'the Maker.' Nonetheless, as I have said, the word is one of innocence, not of malice.

However, brothers, innocence was not apart from understanding, but was within all wisdom. Do you wish to learn more precisely? Job did not ask for anything that he had not done. He knew himself to be a servant of God, and he knew God to be his own Master. But since he himself was often judged in relation to his own slaves, he gave them the worth of equal speech; and if ever a slave was being tested with him, it was not as a slave.