Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
All Commentaries on Job 2:1 Go To Job 2
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
Because we have discussed these particulars very fully above, we the rather pass them over in silence, lest, whilst we often repeat points once gone into, we delay too long in coming to such as are untouched; although what is said to Satan by the Lord's voice, Whence comest thou? I cannot consider to be addressed to him just as it was before; for whereas he returns defeated from that contest upon which he had been let loose, and yet is asked ‘whence he comes,’ when it is known from whence he comes, what else is this but that the impotency of his pride is chidden? As though the voice of God openly said, ‘See, thou art overcome by a single man, and him too beset with the infirmities of the flesh; thou, that strivest to set thyself up against Me, the Maker of all things!’ Hence when the Lord immediately went on to declare the excellences of Job, as He did before, it is together with the triumphs of his victory that He enumerates this, and adds,
And still he holdeth fast his integrity.
2. As if He said explicitly, ‘Thou indeed hast wrought thy malice, but he has not lost his innocence; and thou art forced to serve to his advancement by the very means whence thou thoughtest to lessen his advancement. For that inward innocency, which he honourably maintained when at rest, he has more honourably preserved under the rod. It follows;
Although thou movedst Me against him, to destroy him without cause.
3. Whereas God is a just and a true God, it is important to enquire how and in what sense He shews that He had afflicted Job without cause. For because He is just, He could not afflict him without cause, and again, because He is true, He could not have spoken other than what He did. So then that both particulars may concur in Him that is just and true, so that He should both speak truth, and not act unjustly, let us know, that blessed Job was both in one sense smitten without cause, and again in another sense, that he was smitten not without cause. For as He that is just and true, says the thing of Himself, let us prove both that what He said was true, and that what He did was righteous. For it was necessary that the holy man, who was known to God alone and to his own conscience, should make known to all as a pattern for their imitation with what preeminent virtue he was enriched. For he could not visibly give to others examples of virtue, if he remained himself without temptation. Accordingly it was brought to pass, both that the very force of the infliction should exhibit his stores of virtue for the imitation of all men, and that the strokes inflicted upon him should bring to light what in time of tranquillity lay hidden. Now by means of the same blows the virtue of patience gained increase, and the gloriousness of his reward was augmented by the pains of the scourge. Thus, that we may uphold the truth of God in word, and His equity in deed, the blessed Job is at one and the same time not afflicted without cause, seeing that his merits are increased, and yet he is afflicted without cause, in that he is not punished for any offence committed by him. For that man is stricken without cause, who has no fault to be cut away; and he is not stricken without cause, the merit of whose virtue is made to accumulate.
4. But what is meant when it is said, Thou movedst Me against him? Is ‘the Truth’ then inflamed by the words of Satan, so that at his instigation He falls to torturing His servants? Who could imagine those things of God which he even accounts unworthy of a good man? But because we ourselves never strike unless when moved, the stroke of God itself is called the ‘moving’ Him. And the voice of God condescends to our speech, that His doings may in one way or another be reached by man's understanding. For that Power which without compulsion created all things, and which without oversight rules all things, and without labour sustains all, and governs without being busied, corrects also without emotion. And by stripes He forms the minds of men to whatsoever He will, in such sort still that He never passeth into the darkness of change from the light of His Unchangeable Being.
