Job 38

Fishered in by a terrible whirlwind, to make Job more humble and attentive, God himself next addressed him, saying, 2. Who art thou that hast sought to eclipse, misrepresent, and censure, the wisdom and justice 6 N of my providence, by discourses proceeding from ignorance, mistake, inconsiderateness, and passion?

Job 38:3

Now, according to thy proud challenges, prepare thyself to debate the cause with me; nay, to answer me a few plain questions; that, convinced by these of the weakness of thy understanding, thou mayest perceive how incapable thou art of judging as to my secret counsels or mysterious providences

Job 38:4-7

If thou art so skilful as thou pretendest, tell me how I laid the foundations of the earth: how I planned and adjusted the whole form and boundaries of it: how, without any foundation to stand on, I settled it upon its own centre, and firmly connected all the parts of it, while angels, whom I had previously created to be my honorary guard, celebrated the wisdom, goodness, and power, which I therein manifested!

Job 38:8-11

Tell me how, with banks or even sand, I set bounds to the newly formed ocean, which often rages as if it would cover the earth, from which its waters were separated; how I covered it with thick mists and fogs, restraining its fury; how I made hollow places in the earth for it; and, notwithstanding its furious raging, confined it in them!

Job 38:12

Hast thou, before or since thy birth, governed the morning light, making it to observe its punctual time, and orderly to appear in its ever-varying place

Job 38:13

That it might suddenly spread itself over the whole hemisphere, that wicked men, who rage in the night, being detected, might by condign punishment be restrained or cut off: 14. That the earth, as the wax beneath the seal, may put on a new form, and the things on it appear as its adorning garment

Job 38:15

And that by this light the wicked may be deprived of that success and comfort which they promised themselves in their crimes, and their tyrannical power may be repressed?

Job 38:16

Hast thou ever personally surveyed the springs and rough places in the bottom of the ocean, or walked, as in state, through the inmost corners of the deep, to know and direct every thing there?

Job 38:17

Art thou fully acquainted with all the dark caverns and inmost parts of the earth; or with the whole nature and circumstances of death and the grave, and of the eternal state

Job 38:18

Are the dimensions of the earth, with its whole substance and product, perfectly known to thee?

Job 38:19-21

Dost thou by the great experience and long observation fully understand the orderly turns of light and darkness, day and night? or canst thou direct their motions in a proper manner? 22, 23. Art thou fully acquainted with the collections of snow and hail in the clouds? and canst thou, like me, regularly bring them forth in the winter season, or in the seasons of wrathful calamities?

Job 38:24

How is the light of the sun, moon, or stars, so equally and so widely diffused? How is the way prepared for the overflowing rains, or for the lightning and thunder? and how are their motions so regularly directed? 26, 27. Is it by thy direction that the rain waters those places of the earth where no one lives to do it, or which without seasonable rains could produce nothing?

Job 38:28-30

Canst thou form drops of rain or dew; or produce ice or hour frost; or tell how they are formed; and how the surface of the water is congealed into a kind of stone?

Job 38:31

Canst thou alter the seasons of the year, by restraining the influences of the heat and summer-boding stars? or free the earth from the tempestuous influence of the winter and sloth-boding stars?

Job 38:32

Canst thou make to appear, and lead round, the luminaries of the middle region of heaven in their season? Canst thou direct the round-whirling pole stars, and their attendants?

Job 38:33

Knowest thou all the order and laws of the heavenly bodies? Couldst thou settle the whole government of them, and their influence upon the earth? 34, 35. Canst thou just now by a call bring down an abundant rain on the place where thou art; or make the thunder to durforth its flames over thine head; or do whatever thou pleasest?

Job 38:36

Canst thou direct the random darting of thunder and lightning to strike as regularly as if it had solid wisdom and distinct perception? or didst thou give thyself 2 rational understanding? Canst thou tell how a single thought is formed? 37, 38. Canst thou number and govern all the clouds of heaven; or restrain the rain when the earth is sufficiently watered?

Job 38:39-41

Canst thou provide food even for the most ravenous creatures, particularly for the lioness and her whelps, or for old lions incapable of leaving their dens; or for the young ravens, when by the dam they are expelled from the nest?

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XXXVIII.—How infinite the kindness and condescension of God, to appear himself, and catechise his obstinate friend for his humiliation, in order to prepare him for deliverance! And how much more difficult it is to converse with God than is generally thought by those who appeal to him! Infinite is his wisdom, who knows all things; and great his power, who can do, and has made, and manages, all things. All things around us are full of God: all monitors to teach us concerning him, and to stir us up to worship and glorify him! But the boasted knowledge of mankind is vain and scanty, which can every where be nonplussed in the most common things of nature. Let me then never contend with God;—never pretend to be a judge of his nature, purposes, or works;—but be always content with things as they are; and to be led by him, as one blind, in the ways which I know not. If he has made all things in nature so well, my new covenant portion and lot is certainly exactly wise and kind. And, if he take such care of the works of his hands, the most ravenous not excepted, it is impossible that he should forget, forsake, starve, or mismanage, his new covenant friends