When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
All Commentaries on Job 28:26 Go To Job 28
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
13. By ‘rain’ the sayings of those that preach are used to be denoted. Whence it is said by Moses; Let my doctrine be waited for as the rain; [Deut. 32, 2] whose words, that is to say, when they gently persuade are ‘rain,’ but when they thunder out terrible things touching the Judgment to come, they are ‘sounding tempests.’ And it deserves to be noted, that ‘a decree is made for the rain,’ in order that ‘a way may be opened for the sounding tempests.’ For a decree has been set to the preachers themselves, that by living they fulfil what by uttering they are forward to recommend. For the authoritativeness of speaking is lost, when the voice is not supported by the practice. For here it is said by the Psalmist, But unto the wicked God saith; What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth? seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee. [Ps. 50, 16. 17.] For the words of God the preacher does cast behind himself, when the same that he says he thinks scorn to do. But when may another obey his sayings, whilst he himself rejects in practice what he preaches with the voice, and shews not to hear that he tells? Of this law of preaching it is written; Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoso shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [Matt. 5, 19] ‘The kingdom of heaven,’ we see, He calls the present Church; concerning which it is written, And they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. [Matt. 13, 41] For in the Kingdom Above ‘offences’ that should have to be gathered out thereof do not take place. He then that breaks in practice, and teaches the like in words, in this kingdom of heaven shall be the least, in the other not even the least. Now ‘He set a way to the sounding tempests,’ when for His preachers He made access to the hearts of men stricken with dread of the Judgment to come. So first ‘a law is set,’ that afterwards ‘a way may be opened,’ because that voice pierceth the heart of him that heareth, which maintains by practice the thing that it has sounded with the lips. Now it was then when ‘He set a law to the showers, and a way to the sounding tempests,’ that God ‘saw, declared, prepared, and searched’ this ‘Wisdom.’ By a mode of speech customary to Holy Writ, for God to see is a phrase for causing us to see, as the Lord saith to the righteous man, Now I know that thou fearest God. [Gen. 22, 12] And the Israelites are forewarned; The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God, [Deut. 13, 3] i.e. ‘that He may make you to know.’ At that time, then, when ‘He set a law to the showers,’ i.e. gave the precept of watching to the preachers, this ‘Wisdom’ made Incarnate He caused to be ‘seen and declared’ by the preachers, to be ‘prepared and searched’ by the hearers. Since he ‘prepares’ Her for himself, whosoever by living aright is procuring Her favourable against the Day of Judgment. And observe that there are four particulars spoken respecting her. For he says, He did see it and declare it, He prepared it, yea, He searched it. Thus He ‘saw,’ in that She is ‘a Likeness;’ He ‘declared it,’ in that She is ‘the Word;’ ‘prepared it,’ in that She is a remedy; and ‘searched it,’ in that She is a thing hidden from sight. But this, viz. that the Eternal Wisdom of God is ‘the Likeness’ and ‘the Word’ of the Father, when is it penetrated by the mind of man? For who might understand either a Word apart from time, or a Likeness apart from limiting. Therefore there was need for something to be said, which man might recognise concerning Her by himself.
