But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you;
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Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
5. For man by himself speaks to himself when in all that he thinks he is not withdrawn by the Spirit of the Divine Being from the sense of carnal wisdom; when the flesh puts forth a sense, and inviting the mind as it were to the understanding of it, sends it forth abroad. And hence ‘Truth’ saith to Peter, who was still full of earthly notions, For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. [Mark 8, 33] Yet, when he made a good confession, the words are spoken, Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven. [Mat. 16, 17] Now what do we understand by ‘the lips’ of God saving His judgments? For when the lips are closed the voice is kept in, and the meaning of the person keeping silence is not known; but when, the lips being opened, speech is put forth, the mind of the person speaking is found out. So ‘God opens His lips’ when He, manifests His will to men by open visitations. For He as it were speaks with open mouth, when the veil of interior Providence being drawn aside, He declines to conceal what is His will. For as it were with closed lips He forbear to indicate His meaning to us, when by the secresy of His judgments He conceals wherefore He does any thing. Zophar therefore, in order that he might reprove blessed Job on the grounds of a carnal understanding, and shew what kindness of disposition he himself was of, wishes good things for him, which even when they are there present he does not know to be so, saying, But oh that God would speak with thee, and open His lips with thee. As if he were to say in plain words, ‘I feel for thy uninstructedness more than for thy chastening, in that I know thee to be endued with the wisdom of the flesh alone, and void of the Spirit of Truth. For didst thou discern the secret judgments of God, thou wouldest not give utterance to such daring sentences against Him.’ And because when Almighty God raises us to take a view of His judgments, He forthwith puts to flight the mists of the ignorance that is in us, what instruction comes to us by His lips being opened, he forthwith shews by adding in the words.
