By Water & Blood

[Passages quoted, Job xxxviii. 1, 4, 7, 8, 14-17; xlii. 4-6.]

(248) Job certainly afterwards bears witness that he has seen with his own eyes, as the fathers did the Lord Who spoke to him through the whirlwind and the clouds, saying:

"Hear me, Lord, that I also may speak: and I will ask thee, and teach thou me. I have heard of thee by the report of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I have humiliated myself and have melted, and I reckon myself dust and ashes." 

But how could a soul clothed in flesh and mortal eyes (b) behold the Most High God, the Being beyond the Universe, the Unchangeable and Unbegotten Essence, unless we could say that here also God the Word proved to be Lord in varying instances shews Himself as passing from His own proper majesty? This we may learn to be so from the oracles themselves, in which the Lord again narrating the story of the devil, under the name of the Dragon, to Job, insisted, Do not you fear because he is prepared for me? For what Lord ought we to think that the Dragon (c) was prepared, but our Saviour the Divine Word? He it was that destroyed the Prince of this world, who of old besieged the human race, loosing the pains of death, as |265 He Himself also shews, saying: "Didst thou come to the spring of the sea, and troddest thou the traces of the depth? Did the doors of death open to thee in fear, and the warders of hell seeing thee tremble?" and He naturally gave this answer to Job after the great trial and contest through which He had gone, teaching him that though he has struggled more than his share, a greater and sterner (d) battle and contest is reserved for the Lord Himself against the time of His Coming to earth to die.

CHAPTER 21 

From Psalm xc.

That this Psalm knows Two Lords. 

[Passage quoted, Ps. xc. 9-13.]

THESE are the words that the devil uses in the Temptation (249) of our Saviour. Notice, then, how the Psalm says to the Lord Himself: "For thou, O Lord my hope, hast made the Most High thy refuge.'' For Thou Thyself, he says, my hope, O Lord, hast made thy refuge One greater than Thyself, God Himself the Most Highest over all and Thine own Father; wherefore evils shall not come upon Thee, (b) and no scourge shall come nigh Thy dwelling. And although wicked men attempt to scourge Thee, when Thou shalt become man, and to put Thee to death, yet for all that the scourge of God shall not come nigh Thy dwelling, that is Thy body, which Thou shalt wear for our sakes having become man. In the same way you will refer to Him all the remainder of the Psalm, which I will consider also in its fit place. |266 

CHAPTER 22 

From Hosea.

About the Word of God and about the Father, as about a Lord.

[Passage quoted, Hos. xi. 9.]

IN these words God the Word says when He has become man to those who confess Him to be a holy man, but not God: "I am God and not a holy man among you." And, then, having called Himself God, He shews the Almighty Lord and God, His Father, adding: "I will go behind the Lord." And the words: "I will not enter into the city," are of one who refuses to take part in the common and vulgar life of men, from which also He dissuades his own disciples: "Go not on a road of the Gentiles, and enter not into a city of the Samaritans."

CHAPTER 23      (250) 

From Amos.

(b) Of Our Saviour as of a Lord, and of His Father as of God, and. of the Destruction of the Jewish People.

[Passage quoted, Amos iv. ii.]

AND here the Lord Himself says that some God has caused the destruction of Sodom, since He Himself must plainly be a different Being from the One of Whom He speaks. Therefore two Lords stands out in the destruction (c) of Sodom and Gomorrah, when the Lord rained the fire of the Lord on them. You also, he says, will suffer a destruction such as Sodom underwent for its unnatural wickedness, and even so did not turn to Me. Scripture generally regards the future as past, so that we must understand the past to be meant in spite of the tense. The future "I will overthrow" must be understood for the past "I overthrew," and "ye will not turn," for "ye did turn." |267 

This is levelled at the Jewish race, and only received its fulfilment in their case, after their plot against our Saviour, (d) Their ancient holy place, at any rate, and their Temple are to this day as much destroyed as Sodom. Yet though they have suffered in accordance with the prediction, they have not hitherto turned to Christ, on Whose account they have suffered so much. And so the prophecy before us is justly inspired to say: "And neither so have ye returned to me, saith the Lord."

CHAPTER 24 (251) 

From Obadiah.

Of the Two Lords, Father and Son, and of the Call (b) of the Gentiles.

[Passage quoted, Obad. 1.]

THE Lord God has heard a report from the Lord. And this report was about the call of the Gentiles.