1
Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
2
As God liveth,
who
hath taken away my judgment;
and the Almighty,
who
hath vexed my soul;
3
All the while my breath
is
in me, and the spirit of God
is
in my nostrils;
4
My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Psa 15:2.
5
God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
6
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach
me
so long as I live.
1Co 4:4.
Thus, when his friends rebuked him for blaspheming God, Job answered them: “How can that be when I feel the Spirit of God in my nostrils?” (cf.
Job 27:3). That is, “How can I blaspheme God when the Holy Spirit abides with me?
If I had blasphemed God, the Holy Spirit would have withdrawn from me;
but look!
I feel His breath in my nostrils.”
It is said that Abraham and Jacob saw the Lord and conversed with Him in exactly the same way, and that Jacob even wrestled with Him. Moses and all the people with him saw God, when he received the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai from God. A pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, or in other words, the evident grace of the Holy Spirit, served as guides to God's people in the desert. People saw God and the grace of His Holy Spirit not during sleep, in dreams, or in the excitement of a disordered imagination, but truly and openly.
We have become so inattentive to the work of our salvation, that we misinterpret many other words in Holy Scripture as well, all because we do not seek the grace of God and in the pride of our minds, do not allow it to dwell in our souls. That is why we are without true enlightenment from the Lord, which He sends into the hearts of men who hunger and thirst wholeheartedly for God's righteousness or holiness.
