Providence and the Knowledge of God

Self-control of the body, virginity, and monogamy; and regarding things around the body, sons and daughters, slaves, money, and possessions. Let us therefore see what it means to promise and to delay; for it is not always the large interval of time that the delay signifies, but the complete denial of the promise. For Jacob appears to have given to God the tenth parts after many years, while walking toward Mesopotamia, and Hannah bringing Samuel to God after a long time.

Regarding the gifts around the body, it is thus; but regarding the gifts of the soul and the body, how should one interpret delay? I think that he who promises correct faith and says it is a creation, delays one thing from the Holy Trinity; and he who promises to confess all things through God and introduces automatism again, delays; and regarding the other dogmas, likewise. Regarding virtues, it is thus: he who promises righteousness and is unrighteous, delays in fulfilling it; and he who promises temperance and is again committing fornication, delays. Regarding the things of the body: he who promises self-control and again takes on various bonds, delays; and he who promises virginity or monogamy and having married or having married a second time, delays in fulfilling it.

As for how 'it is good not to vow or to vow and not to fulfill,' we will solve this by bringing in the Gospel, that the servant who did not know and did not do will be punished little, but he who knew and did not do will be punished much. 'Do not give your mouth to sin your flesh, and do not say before the face of God that it is ignorance, so that God may not be angry at your voice and destroy the works of your hands' (Eccl 5:5-6). For in a multitude of dreams and vanities and many words—'In a multitude, he says, of dreams' (Eccl 5:7)—evil 'and of vanities and words' (Eccl 5:7) false, a man becomes, his works being destroyed from the abandonment of God, which happened to him because of his own lawlessness.

If you see oppression of the poor and the seizing of judgment and justice in a land, do not marvel at the matter; for high sits above high and the high ones are upon them (Eccl 5:8). And abundance of the land is upon everything, the work of the field of the king (Eccl 5:9). He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver (Eccl 5:10).

No one has loved his offspring in abundance; and this too is vanity. 5, 10 In the abundance of goodness, those eating it were increased; and what courage is there from it? Because it is the beginning of seeing with its eyes. 5, 11 Sweet is the sleep of the slave, if he eats little or much; and to the one filled, to become rich, he does not allow him to sleep.

If you see, he says, among men some being slandered, others being treated unjustly in judgment, and others practicing righteousness, do not marvel at these things happening as if there were no providence. For know that God through Christ preserves all things, and this one again provides for all through the holy angels abounding in the knowledge of those on earth. For God is the King of the world brought into being through him, who will give tribulation to those who prefer greed and the vanity of this life over the knowledge of Christ, but to those who have lived in goodness and have served in courage and righteousness, he will give the knowledge of God and sweet rest, even if they have known only a few things here or many words, knowing in part and prophesying in part; and the one will receive such an end, but the one filled with wickedness he will not allow the worm born of it to rest.

Since the Lord entrusted this world to angels, Moses shows by saying: 'When the Most High divided the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of nations according to the number of the angels of God.' And the Lord our own in the Gospels named the world a field, saying: 'The world is a field.' And regarding the abundance of the earth, he says of those on earth, if indeed, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth'; what other inheritance is there for rational nature besides the knowledge of God? And he called the angels high, because they partake of the high Lord: 'For high above all nations is the Lord,' he says. 39 5, 12

There is a sickness which I saw under the sun, wealth being guarded by it for its own wickedness. The abundance of wickedness is now shown by wealth; and this wickedness is signified by sickness. Therefore, everyone guarding this wealth for himself will not know the wisdom of God, nor will he cast his heart into understanding, nor will he cast it upon...