He shall deliver the innocent man: and he is delivered by the pureness of your hands.
All Commentaries on Job 22:30 Go To Job 22
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
“You will abound with delicacies over the Almighty” is to be entirely filled with the banquet of holy Scripture in the love of God. In those words surely we find as many delicacies for our profiting as we obtain diversities of meaning. The bare history should now be our food veiled under the text of the letter, the moral allegory should refresh us from our inmost soul, and, to the deeper things, contemplation should hold us suspended, already, in the darkness of the present life, shining in upon us from the light of eternity.… To “lift up the face” to God means to raise up the heart for searching into what is loftiest. For as by the bodily face we are known and distinguishable to people, so by the interior figure we are known to God. Yet because of the guilt of sin, we are weighed to the earth, and we are afraid to lift the face of our heart to God. When it is not buoyed up by any of the confidence of good works, the mind is too full of fear to gaze upon the highest things, because conscience of itself, it accuses itself. But when by the tears of penance sins are now washed out and lament is completed, a great confidence springs up in the mind for contemplating the joys of the recompense from above; “the face of our heart is lifted up.” …
“You will pray to him, and he will hear you,” for they make their prayer to God but never obtain to be listened to, who set at nothing the precepts of the Lord, when he enjoins them. Hence it is written, “He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.” So long then as Eliphaz believed the blessed Job was not heard, he determined that that person had surely done wrong in his practice. And hence he adds further, “And you will pay your vows.” He that has vowed but is unable from weakness to pay the same, has it dealt to him in punishment of sin, that while willing good, having the power should be taken away from him. But when, in the sight of the interior Judge, the sin that hinders is done away, it is immediately brought to pass that one is able to attend the vow.
It goes on, “You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you.” This used to be the special conclusion of those going weakly, that in such proportion they esteem a person righteous as they see him obtain all that he desires; whereas, in truth, we know that earthly goods are sometimes withheld from the righteous while they are bestowed with liberal bounty on the unrighteous. When sick people are despaired of, physicians order whatever they need to be supplied. But those whom they foresee may be brought back to health when the things which they long for they refuse to have given them. Now if Eliphaz introduced these declarations with reference to spiritual gifts, it must be known that “a thing is decreed and is established” in a person when the virtue that is longed for in the desire, is, by God’s granting it, happily forwarded by the carrying out of it as well.
And hence it is yet further added, “And the light will shine on your ways.” The light that shines on the ways of the righteous shines by extraordinary deeds of virtue to scatter the tokens of their brightness. Wherever they go in the bent of the mind, from the hearts of those beholding them, they may dispel the might of sin and by the example of their own practice pour into them the light of righteousness. But, whatever justness of practice there may be, in the eye of the interior Judge it is nothing, if pride of the heart uplifts it. Hence it is added, “For he that has been abased shall be in glory, and he that has bent down his eyes shall be saved.” This sentence is not at variance with the mouth of “Truth,” when it says, “For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.” Therefore, it is said by Solomon, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility.” However, it is properly said, “For he that has bent down his eyes, the same shall be saved.” Insofar as it is to be discovered through the ministering of the members, the first manifestation of pride is with the eyes.…
“The innocent will be saved, but he will be saved by the cleanness of his hands.” This sentence [from Eliphaz], if it is delivered in relation to the recompense of the kingdom of heaven, is supported by truth, in that it is written concerning God, “He renders to every man according to his deeds.” The justice of the eternal Judge saves that person in the last inquest. His mercy sets him free from impure deeds.
But if the person here purported is supposed to be saved by the cleanness of his own hands, that by his own powers he should be made innocent, then assuredly it is an error. For if grace above does not prevent him when faulty, assuredly it will never find any one faultless to recompense without fault. It is said by the truthful voice of Moses, “And no man of himself is innocent in your sight.” So, heavenly pity first works something in us without our help, that, our own free will follows as well, so the good which we now desire may be accomplished. Yet the good that is bestowed by grace, in the last judgment, God rewards to us as if it had come only from ourselves.
