Divine Purpose and Human Responsibility

It must be said, especially when the perfect has come, that since one confronts face to face with the truth, seeing in part and through a mirror will have ceased, because the seeing of what is most full will have prevailed.

Regarding how this path is assigned, the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob is invoked, from which it begins: 'From the dew of heaven and the heaviness of the earth.' All that existed was given to the redeemed people from Babylon, as God's inheritance.

And since it is said passively that God will inherit all things for the remnant of the people—namely the fruit of the vine, the generations of the earth, and the dew of heaven—both ways it must be invoked, actively and passively.

Actively, it is said thus: Israel is a portion and an inheritance of God, through nothing other than virtues that approached, being chosen, done, and seen through voluntary action. The same thought holds for: 'Ask of me, and I will give you nations for your inheritance' (Ps 2:8), regarding all men inheriting from the Savior through pious faith and works of virtue.

If 'to inherit' signifies a passion passive reception by the falling verb, the understanding will be this: God will inherit all the aforementioned things, giving them in the manner of an inheritance to the remnant of his people, who are those saying according to the prophet Isaiah: 'Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a remnant, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah' (Isa 1:9). And with others: 'If the number of the sons of Israel were as the sand by the brim of the sea, the remnant shall be saved' (Isa 17:10). Having received these prophetic voices, the Apostle brings them forward saying thus: 'And in the present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace, not of works, for if it were of works, grace would no longer be grace' (Rom 11:5).

Having made clear what is possible for us regarding the present saying, we set forth the following. Zechariah 8:13: And just as you were a curse among the nations, the house of Judah and the house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be in blessing.

Be courageous and strengthen your hearts. For the Lord of all says: 'In the way I intended to harm you by provoking your fathers,' says the Lord of all, 'and I did not repent; so I am now set out and intend in these days to do well for Jerusalem and the house of Judah' (Jeremiah 32:19).

To fall into afflictions and curses comes from nothing other than sin and impiety, since blessing is given by God to the righteous because of what they do and think rightly. For humans being self-determining, having free and autonomous choice, they do to themselves either punishments or the bringing of divine promises. Therefore, the way in which they undergo curses is the same way in which they undergo prosperity and blessing.

Immediately, indeed, He says He is the cause of all good for Judah and Israel: 'Since your fathers were impious and lawless, as to provoke me against them, I did not repent, but I brought what was likely for those who provoked to suffer; so now I am set out and intended to save those of Judah and Israel, and I did not repent' (Jeremiah 32:19).

And it is possible to bring forth testimony from these God-breathed writings.

The inhabitants of Nineveh once sinned and were impiously excessive, as the cry of their evil rose to God requiring punishment, as to say to the Provider and Judge of all: 'In three more days, Nineveh shall be overturned' (Jonah 3:4). Having learned this, the guilty ones, following the path of the one who threatened toward repentance, arrived at a state to confess and to do what would undo the preceding evil. Thus, those having changed their minds, the one who had pre-proclaimed the harm against them repented, receiving the cause of blessing; this did not happen regarding the Sodomites, because of the remaining impiety and sins of theirs, even though the merciful God wished to find a starting point for well-doing among them.

For He says: 'The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has filled heaven, and their sins are exceedingly great. I will indeed go down to see if according to their evil, which has risen to me...'