Job 38

Job 38:1

IV. THE REVELATION OF THE LORD (38:142:6)A. The Lord’s First Challenge to Job (38:140:2)

1. Introductory (38:1-3)The LORD Himself now answers Job out of the whirlwind, a not uncommon vehicle for an appearance of God in the OT. God’s words are a welcome relief after the strife of words in the previous chapters. Job had been darkening counsel by words without knowledge, that is, he had been foolishly questioning the justice of God’s dealings with him. Now the Lord will do the questioning, and it is time for Job to get ready to answer! In the questions that follow, God does not give a detailed explanation of the mystery of suffering. Instead He ranges through the universe to give glimpses of His majesty, glory, wisdom, and power. He is saying, in effect, “Before you take it on yourself to criticize My ways, you should ask yourself if you could manage the creation as well as I do.” This, of course, can only show Job how powerless, ignorant, insignificant, inadequate, incompetent, and finite he is. We have here, as Ridout points out, the voice of the Lord: We are no longer listening to the gropings of the natural mind, as in the discourses of the friends; nor to the wild cries of a wounded faith, as in Job; nor even to the clear, sober language of Elihuwe are in the presence of Jehovah Himself, who speaks to us. As we listen to the Lord’s questions, we have a recurring suspicion that they might be allegorical, that is, that they might have a deeper spiritual meaning, and that even the order of the questions might have significance. In the meantime, we see through a glass darkly. Some might proudly say that, thanks to modern science, we know the answers to many of the questions that God asks. In response to that, Baron Alexander Humboldt acknowledged that what Job could not answer, the men of science cannot answer yet. It is overwhelming to them; because although men of science are very clever about secondary causes, they are always stopped by primary causes. They never can arrive at the great cause, and they do not want the great cause.

Job 38:4

2. The Challenge of the Wonders of Inanimate Creation (38:4-38)38:4-7 In poetic words of unsurpassed beauty, the Lord mentions the creation of the world when He laid the foundations of the earth, its measurements, its survey, its support (suspended in space, of course), and the angelic celebration. Then He asks, “Where were you when all this took place?” 38:8-11 Moving from cosmology to geography and oceanography, He describes how He restricted the sea to its assigned shores, forbade further intrusion, and clothed the waters, as if they were a baby, with clouds and thick darkness. 38:12-18 Next He vividly pictures His control of the morningthe light of dawn streaking across the heavens, illuminating everywhere it goes; unmasking the wicked who operate in darkness, as if by shaking them out; revealing the configuration of earth’s surface, as if it had been stamped out like clay under a seal; and bringing out the colors of the landscape as if it were a beautiful garment. Darkness, which is the preferred “light” of the wicked, is withheld from them and their evil plots are frustrated. He challenges Job to tell what he knows about the depths of the ocean, the realm of death, and the breadth of the earth. 38:19-24 God now cross-examines Job on the origin and nature of light. The sun is not a sufficient answer, because there was light (Gen_1:3) before the sun was put in place (Gen_1:16). Was Job old enough to know the answer? And what does he know about snow and hail, which God sometimes harnesses in times of trouble and war? How do light and the east wind, which seem to come from a point, spread over the surface of the earth? 38:25-30 Next, in a class on weather, Job is quizzed on rainfall and thunder, on how water falls on a desert, causing it to produce luxuriant growth, and on the source of rain, dew, ice, and frost. How is it that water freezes hard as stone and solidifies the surface of the deep? 38:31-33 No science is so calculated to show man his insignificance as astronomy. So God questions Job on his ability to control the stars and constellations, or keep them in their orbits, or determine their influence over the earth. In light of modern man’s supposedly great control over nature through science, Spurgeon’s words, based on the KJV text of verse 31, are a healthful counterbalance: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?“Job_38:31. If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to scorn. When the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy we cannot restrain their influences, and when Orion reigns aloft, and the year is bound in winter’s fetters, we cannot relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve according to the divine appointment, neither can the whole race of men effect a change therein. Lord, what is man? 38:34-38 Obviously, anyone who can question the wisdom and power of God should be able to bring down rain by shouting to the clouds, and command lightning so that it obeys instantly! Can Job tell God how the mind operates, how man gets wisdom and understanding in all these areas? No man has the wisdom to number the clouds, to say nothing of the particles of moisture by which they are formed. And no one can determine the time when the rain falls on arid ground that has been hardened into clumps and clods.

Job 38:39

3. The Challenge of the Wonders of Animate Creation (38:3940:2)38:39-41 God now moves from the inanimate creation to the animate. By continued questions, He reminds Job of His providencehow He opens His hand and satisfies the appetite of every living thing, from kingly lions in their dens and lairs to the unprepossessing raven and its young ones.