Behold, in this you are not just: I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
All Commentaries on Job 33:12 Go To Job 33
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
33. Some one may perhaps observe, Who knows not that, even without being told it? But no wonder if this remark is believed to be of little value, if it is not considered in the very root of its meaning. He was speaking to one who had been scourged, who had both felt the blows of smiting, and was ignorant of the reason of them. And therefore he remarked, I will answer thee, that God is greater than man; that man, when scourged, yet considering that God is greater than himself, may submit himself to the judgment of Him, to Whom he has no doubt he is inferior, and may believe that that which he suffers from his superior is just, even though he does not know the grounds of its justice. For whoever is smitten for his sins, unless he murmurs and struggles against it, begins at once to be a righteous man, from not impugning the justice of Him who smites him. For man is created inferior to God, and returns to the order of his creation, when he submits himself to the equity of his Judge, even when he cannot comprehend it. It is therefore well said, I will answer thee, that God is greater than man, in order that on considering the power of the Creator, the swelling of the mind may cease to rage, through the thought of the condition in which it was created. Whence David the Prophet, when compelled by the weight of the blows to burst forth into extravagant words, says on bringing himself back to the consideration of his own origin, I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, since Thou hast made me. [Ps. 39, 9] For he considered in what rank he was created, and learned the justice of the blow; for He Who kindly created him who as yet was not, surely smote him only with justice when he was now in being.
