Deeper Commentary
Job 38:1 Then Yahweh answered Job-
LXX: “After Elihu had ceased speaking, the Lord spake to Job from a tempest and clouds”. The implication is that God takes over speaking from Elihu, confirming our suggestion that Elihu is indeed as he claims, speaking God's word.
Elihu has multiple times appealed for Job to repent, giving him word formulas of how to express it. But he has been silent. Despite that lack of repentance, God so wants Job that he himself now appeals to him. Job's response was inadequate and so God gives a second speech / appeal. Only after this does Job properly repent. Job has asked so many explicit questions, around 122 are recorded [and God answers by asking Job half this number, 61 questions]; and Job's sufferings beg very many implicit questions. Just some of Job's questions are to be found in Job 3:23; 7:12,17-21; 10:2-14,18; 13:3,18-27; 16:19-22; 19:7,25-27; 23:3-7; 30:20; 31:6,35-37. God's "answer" doesn't much address the questions, but rather seeks to convict Job of his sin, of his smallness and irrelevance, and of the greatness and basic goodness of God. Humble repentance is what God seeks, and when finally Job utters a few sentences expressing that- God says that he has spoken right about Him, and dramatically blesses and restores him.
The purpose of the day of judgment is
for our benefit, not God's. He is not like a human judge, who must collect
and review the evidence, weigh it up, and give a judgment. He knows the
end from the beginning. The day of judgment is to prepare us to go from
how we now are, into eternity. It wouldn't be much fun being as we are
now, for ever. "We shall be changed", Paul says, at the resurrection. That
change is not only physical but also mental and spiritual. The lion shall
eat straw like the ox; lion shall still be lion, but his mental and
physical nature will have to be changed. Job longed for a day with God in
court, and he got it. God Himself appeared and judged Job, convicting him
of his sin; and he repented, and was then restored and his circumstances
changed, looking forward to our "change" after the day of judgment. His
whole view of God, the world and himself was changed by that judgment
encounter. James speaks of the patience / endurance of Job resulting in
the "end of the Lord", being pitiful towards man and saving us. But he
speaks of this in the context of appealing for us to be "patient unto the
coming of the Lord". God's final appearance to judge, convict and save Job
is set up as representing the Lord's second coming in judgment. He has
kept asking to "see" God and after his judgment, he will sarcastically,
perhaps, say that "Now my eye sees Him". Not literally of course, but he
means that in his conviction of sin, he had had his meeting with God. We
are to endure [not 'be patient' as Job was far from patient], so that in
the long run of our lives our faith remains, despite periods of darkness
and short term loss of faith as Job experienced: "Be patient until the
coming of the Lord... Be you also patient... For the coming of the Lord is
at hand! You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the result
that the Lord intended, how the Lord is full of pity and is merciful"
(James 5:7,8,11).
Bible teaching about judgment has this feature
of it being a purgation; not a second chance, a second crack at all the
issues we failed on, but all the same, a changing of our imperfect nature,
physically and mentally. The Catholic idea of purgatory is seriously
wrong, but like all false teachings, it has elements of truth to it that
we must not also throw away. Consider the Biblical connection between
judgment and purging / improving / changing of character:
Mal. 3:2,3: “But who can endure the day of His
coming? ... He will be like a refiner's fire, like a launderer's soap. He
will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of
Levi and refine them like gold and silver”. This doesn't just mean that
God's people will be sorted out, the good from the bad. It is saying that
the good will be washed, refined and purified by the judgment experience.
It is this which removes the dross.
Is. 4:4: “When the Lord shall have washed away
the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of
Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the
spirit of burning”.
1 Cor. 3:13–15: “Each one's work will become
manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by
fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done... If
anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be
saved, but only as through fire”. Whilst the immediate context speaks of
the quality of our converts, the wider principle is that we are all
building now. And the day of judgment will examine what we built. Possibly
our apparent love, generosity, kindness, grace etc. was just all surface
level; it will be revealed for that, and burnt up. But we ourselves shall
pass through that fire to salvation.
1 Cor. 5:5 speaks of the flesh being destroyed but the spirit
being saved in the day of judgment. But sozo
, "saved", can as well be rendered "healed". The flesh will
then be destroyed but the spirit healed.
1 Pet. 1:7 seems to be saying that the process
of judgment day will also strengthen what spirituality we do have, and
make it far brighter and eternal: "Even gold, which can be destroyed, is
tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold,
must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise
and glory and honour on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed".
God's replies to Job would be considered an ad hominem attack- had it come from a man. Instead of engaging with facts, evidence, or logical reasoning, the speaker tries to win the debate by making the opponent look untrustworthy or foolish. By shifting the focus to the other's personal inadequacies in other areas, attention is diverted from the actual issues. And those actual issues were very big- to man. A tornado from God had slain Job's ten kids. He was suffering all manner of things "without cause" (Job 2:3). Job's many questions and complaints about God are left unanswered and not even engaged with. That stands out clearly. Job is told that he is merely trying to "catch Leviathan with a fishhook” (Job 40:25). But this is the whole point- God is right. Job, like any man, is a fool. As thick skinned and stupid as the beasts. All he has said is not in fact logical reasoning, he has no evidence. Because the whole point is that God's ways are beyond man to understand. But God's reply provokes all that is within us to object to this style of dealing with an opponent. But that is the whole point. We have no leg to stand on. And yet we see so clearly that the friends ignore Job's situation and arguments, and just launch into ad hominem attacks on him (see on Job 5:2). We as readers are led to dislike the friends' ad hominem attacks on Job. But then God does just that to Job. Again we see how God demonstrates that He is so far above all our reasoning and demands for what we consider 'reasonable' engagement. And yet the end of the Lord in all this is that He is so pitiful and of such tender mercy (James 5:11).
The answer is to Job, not Elihu who has just spoken, nor to the friends. The whole focus of the book is upon Job's restoration, and out of that comes the restoration of the friends.
Out of the whirlwind- The restoration prophets speak of the whirlwind coming to judge both Israel and her abusers (Is. 40:24; 41:16; Jer. 23:19; 30:32), and it is through the whirlwind that God's cherubic glory is revealed in exile in Ezekiel. But out of that whirlwind, Yahweh speaks. We read here of Yahweh for the first time; His Name was to be declared through those judgments.
The whirlwind is time and again a symbol of Divine condemnation (s.w. Ps. 55:8; 83:15 "pursue them with Your tempest, and terrify them with Your storm"; Prov. 1:27 "when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind"; Prov. 10:25: "When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more"; Is. 29:6 "She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind"; Is. 40:24 "He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble"; Is. 41:16 "You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them"; Is. 66:15 "Yahweh will come with fire, and His chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render His anger with fierceness"; Jer. 23:19 "Behold, the storm of Yahweh, His wrath, has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked"; 25:32 "a great storm shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. The slain of Yahweh shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth"; 30:23 "the storm of Yahweh, His wrath, has gone forth, a sweeping storm: it shall burst on the head of the wicked"; Ez. 13:11,13 " there shall be an overflowing storm; and on you great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it... I will even tear it with a stormy wind in My wrath; and there shall be an overflowing storm in My anger"; Hos. 8:17 "they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind"; Hos. 13:3 "they will be like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor"; Am. 1:14 "with a storm in the day of the whirlwind"; Zech. 7:14 "I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations"). But from this symbol of Job's condemnation there came the appeal for repentance and the comfort of God's final salvation. We understand why, as Elihu hears and sees the whirlwind approaching from a distance, he absolutely begs Job to repent (Job 37:1) before it arrives. But Job remains silent. And so it comes.
In Job 9:17, Job had complained that
God crushes him with a whirlwind. By appearing in the whirlwind, God as it
were goes along with that, as if to say "Yes, and no apologies". Not a
hint of pity nor tender mercy; but through that we come to "the end of the
Lord", full of pity and tender mercy (James 5:11). Many connections with
Job 9 will now follow. Job is initially persuaded that the Divine
whirlwind is God's unreasonable anger with Him, the same kind of whirlwind
that had slain his children. In Job 9:34 Job had said that he would agree
to a meeting with God if God first removed His rod from Job, i.e. restored
him. God's appearance to Job is therefore met cynically by him; he doesn't
want to engage with Him.
Job 38:2 Who is this who makes counsel dark by words without knowledge?-
Elihu had told Job that he could make no legal case against God "by reason of darkness". On one hand, we know so little. By demanding answers from God, and dogmatically suggesting his own, Job was darkening the light of God's plans for him. But he could not understand those plans. He had to trust that they were light, they were good, God is a good God, and all his complaints were darkness, somehow obscuring that good. Even though this "good" involved slaying his 10 kids, and insisting Job has nonrecourse to any explanation as to why. In this we see the danger of all groups who claim absolute truth, for whom there is a rational explanation for everything, the answers to everything being, so they say, either in the Bible or in the writings of their founding fathers. This is not to say that there is not truth, but that truth is simply God's ultimate salvation of His people in His Son. The paradox is that by Job striving to have all the answers, he was darkening the pure light of what God was trying to do with him.
Just as digital communication through typed words can lead to misunderstanding because we fail to hear the tone of voice in which the communication is being made, so we can misunderstand God's closing words to Job because we don't hear the tone in which He said them. James 5:11 says that we see the end of the Lord, very pitiful and of tender mercy. I suggest we read His words here spoken in a pitiful and tender, merciful way. "Who is this...?" need not be read as God mocking Job. It is a question that begs the answer "I, mere man". We think of the question is rhetorically used in Ps. 24:8, "Who is this king of glory?", answered by "Yahweh strong and mighty". Likewise Is. 63:1 "Who is this that comes from Edom...? It is I... mighty to save". More examples in Ps. 25:12; Jer. 46:7; 49:19; 50:44; Lam. 3:37. In none of them does "Who is this...?" imply any mockery of the object of the question. For more examples of God speaking tenderly and pitifully to Job, although at the same time in anger and hurt, see on :3. What may be read as bitter irony from God may better be read as rhetorical questioning, spoken with pity and tenderness, intended to produce the required repentance. God could have gone through Job's words and specifically pointed out all the blasphemy. He doesn't callously humiliate Job, but leads him to humility in a totally gentle and non-abusive way. He gently demonstrates His superiority, without in any way crushing Job or demeaning him. In fact, it is done beautifully; and this is some explanation for the extensive sections about Behemoth and Leviathan. Whether or not that argument works well on us in our age, who don't believe in the existence of evil monsters, it was just what Job needed to gently get him to see perspective.
The answer to this "Who...?" is 'I Job a mere man'. And so God goes on in :3 to ask Job to answer as a man. "Like a man..." doesn't have to mean 'show yourself to be a strong man, parade your masculinity'. That would be to retroject into the interpretation our current usage of that phrase. God is simply asking Job to remember his humanity, and to answer as a man. God's "counsel" is His plan, His intention, His rationale (as in Ps. 33:11 "The counsel of Yahweh... the thoughts of His heart"). The essence of God's plan is human salvation. Job was darkening this by claiming to understand it. He will now be shown that he cannot understand it in creation, let alone in his own life. Perhaps God's opening comment that Job suffered "without cause" effectively means "without a cause that man can understand".
The "counsel" of God refers to God's plan, and possibly to the meaning of Job's sufferings. But Job had obscured God's intentions by his bad responses to them. This is why God says that Job has frustrated His saving plan by his words- the significance of words in Job is huge. The words in view are those Job uttered during the dialogues. Faith is trust that God is working according to a design and plan. But God will demonstrate that His designs in creation cannot be understood by man. They can only be trusted in and finally observed. We cannot possibly perceive the mechanics of the atonement, of grace, of salvation. Otherwise faith would not be faith. And this is why so many who overly emphasize doctrinal or theological purity actually don't have a strong personal faith in salvation.
Job 38:3 Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you
answer Me!- On one hand, "Like a man" is not said as it might be said today, as an
appeal to masculinity. Rather is it asking Job to realize he is human, and
to answer these questions as a human. The implication is that by exalting
his own words above God's (see on :2), Job was forgetting his humanity and
effectively attempting to rise above God. His questions of God had been
inappropriate, just as the friends had been wrong to seek wisdom by asking
the sages, mere men (Job 8:8; 21:29 s.w.); it is for God to question us.
For we and not God are in the dock. But
"man" is geber,
we could also render "like a hero", in the spirit of 1 Cor. 16:13 "Quit
yourselves like men, be strong". Job had boasted that he would come before
God like a prince, sure of his rightness. God bids Job now act like the
hero Job thought himself to be.
God's entreaty in Job 38:3 is repeated
by God verbatim in His second speech in Job 40:7. The English
translations, including the NEV, all miss the force of one word in the
entreaty. KJV "Gird up now
thy loins". The Hebrew behind the "now" is
usually used of an inferior begging a superior, and we could as well
translate it "Please". Elsewhere it is translated "I pray / beg / beseech
you". Most translations ignore it. But on :2 I argued that although God
speaks with anger, as one may do to a beloved child, He also speaks with
pity and tenderness. You can speak with those feelings to a beloved child
who has spoken wrongly. To respectfully ask Job to "please, I beg you" act
like a man is not, I suggest, to be read as sarcasm. But as reflecting
genuine love, pity and respect.
God will go on to speak about the world and the natural creation. One reason for this is that He seeks to persuade Job that in fact the world is not centred about man. So much else is going on in the natural creation, which man is unaware of and sees only a fraction of. Suffering makes us think that the world is centred around me, and any wider thought is typically beneath the assumption that the world is centred around man. Job's sufferings remain as they are, but God is vastly expanding the horizon behind them. Man and his sufferings are of no real account. All this is a radical challenge to the significance of human freedom; man assumes that his freedom is paramount, a given right. When in God's cosmos, it is not. Likewise we have to reassess what we mean by human dignity, human rights and the meaning of the human person. The book of Job shows that for sure, man has no rights; and God's view of human dignity is profound but doesn't coincide with what we would like it to be.
Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare,
if you have understanding-
The friends had argued that traditional wisdom from a few generations of
elders declared that Job's sufferings would be because he had sinned
exceptionally. God reframes the perspective by saying that wisdom was in
the beginning... and Job and the friends weren't there. In the drama, we imagine a significant
silence after each question. The laying of foundations is the word used
for what the exiles were to do for the temple in Zion (Ezra 3:6,10 etc.).
Just as God had laid those foundations without any human observation or
strength, so He would lay the foundations of the restored Zion (Is. 44:28;
48:13). But the exiles like Job had forgotten that (Is. 51:13). Zechariah
teaches this same parallel between God's laying the foundations of the
earth, and His empowering the laying of the temple foundations (Zech. 4:9;
8:9; 12:1). But how that was to be done was beyond human understanding.
Job was silent when asked as to how it was done. The 'how' of God's
purpose is a challenge to our faith, and this is reflected in our
theological efforts to explain the 'how' of God's Kingdom. There is an
element of mystery to it; for it is by grace alone, beyond our effort and
understanding.
Job 38:5 Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the
line on it?- God had both stretched the line of destruction upon Zion
(2 Kings 21:13; Lam. 2:8), and that of restoration (Zech. 1:16). He gave
the "measures" for the reconstruction of Zion and the temple system (s.w.
often in Ez. 40:5,6 etc.); and yet He had likewise measured out the earth
(s.w. Is. 40:12). The restoration of Job and all God's people was to be
predicated upon the fact that His work could not be measured and was known
finally only to Him (s.w. Jer. 31:37; 33:22). Just as in Gen. 1:9 "Let the
waters be marked out with a line", so in the new creations God works, He
has the power to determine the dimensions of His work in a way we do not.
Job 38:6 Whereupon were its foundations fastened?-
The answer is
'Apparently upon nothing'. And this is the way of faith; to believe that
out of apparently nothing, restoration can come. This was the challenge to
Job, the exiles and to all of God's people.
Or we can see this as God's comment upon Job's
primitive belief in a flat earth that floats around in space: "He
stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth upon
nothing" (Job 26:7). The word for "foundations" is better "sockets". God
perhaps is probing Job's cosmology. Is the earth and life upon it really
floating around with no foundation, founded upon nothing? Are the sockets
of the earth really driven in... to precisely "nothing" as Job had so
dogmatically stated? Is not something Divine, God, ultimately, actually
somehow beneath it all... unperceived and misunderstood by Job?
Or who laid its cornerstone- This again was of special significance to the exiles who were bidden follow Job's path to restoration. The laying of the cornerstone of the new temple was no less an act of pure grace than that of creation in the first place. Hence Zech. 4:7 "Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone [cornerstone] with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’". The exiles didn't make use of that grace, and so these plans were reworked, to the even greater provision of the cornerstone in the person of the Lord Jesus (Ps. 118:22).
These questions allude to Job's belief that the earth was flat and rested upon a foundation which had a cornerstone. When asked about these things, Job cannot answer. And we know that in fact the earth is a sphere and doesn't rest upon such a pedestal with a foundation and cornerstone. Job is portrayed as pitifully ignorant even of his own misconceptions.
Job 38:7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?-
It was usual that absolutely everyone involved in a building project shouted for joy when the corner stone was laid (Zech. 4:7; Ezra 3:10). All the Angels had been present, shouting for joy... but man, and Job specifically, had been absent. This continues the theme of the prologue, that stuff was going on in Heaven involving the Angels that man was totally not party to. Neither in presence nor in time. And as a result of this kind of thing, Job lost everything. LXX "When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice". This may be correcting the idea expressed by Job and the friends that there are sinful Angels, and God is angry both with Angels and men.
There is an obvious connection with the "sons of God" of the prologue in Job 1:6. I explained there that they refer to Job's fellow worshippers, although they had their Angelic representatives in the court of heaven. But the friends are the fellow worshippers, and the satan figure morphs into the friends. The contrast is therefore with how the sons of God should be rejoicing at God's work in testing and restoring Job, just as their Angelic counterparts did at creation. But instead they were caught up in their petty jealousies and conspiracy theories, and failed to see the wonder of God's new creation.
Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth from the
womb-
Previously, Job has spoken of Yamm, the evil sea monster (Job 9:8), feeling that God was brutally fighting him as He does Yamm. But God here presents the sea as totally under His control, with limits set by Him (:11)and actually created by Him, birthed out of Him. And He speaks to the sea as to a toddler that is obedient to his control, even if it is unruly: "Thus far you may come but no farther, and here I stop your proud waves" (38:11).
There are several allusions in Job to Babylonian
legends concerning Marduk – indicating that the book must have been
re-written in Babylon with allusion to these legends. Thus the Enuma
Elish 4.139,140 speaks of how Marduk limited the waters of Tiamat, and
set up a bar and watchmen so that the waters wouldn’t go further than he
permitted. But this very language is applied to God in Job 7:12 and Job
38:8–11. One of the purposes of Job was to urge Judah that Yahweh was
greater than Marduk, He and not Marduk was to be Israel’s God.
The sea was understood to be the abode of evil monsters. Yet Job stresses
how God is in control of the raging sea. Just look out for all the references to the sea in Job (J. Day, God’s
Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the
Old Testament (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1985)). The book of Daniel perhaps
makes the same point – the beasts that arise out of the raging sea are all
under God’s control and part of His purpose with Israel (Dan. 7:2).
God artlessly claims to have created the sea (Job
38:8–11). In the Canaanite pantheon, Baal was seen as well matched in
conflict by Yam, the sea god. But it’s emphasized by God that He created
the sea, shuts it up within bounds, brought it out from the womb (Job
38:8). See on Job 39:2.
As God ‘shut up’ Job (Job 1:10 "Haven’t You made
a hedge around him" s.w.), so He could ‘shut
up’ the sea, with all the evil associated with it (Job 38:8). For at
creation, He had commanded the waters where to go and they obeyed just one
word from Him. The point is, God is using poetry to reframe these pagan
myths in the context of His omnipotence, to show that His awesome power
means that there’s no room left for these supposed beings to exist. It’s
noteworthy that many times the Bible speaks of the power of God over
raging seas – for the sea was so deeply associated with evil in the minds
of Semitic peoples (e.g. Ps. 77:19; 93:4 and the fact that three of the
Gospels emphasize how Jesus walked over raging sea – Mt. 8:23–27; Mk.
4:36–41; Lk. 8:22–25; “Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey
Him!”).
Job 38:9 when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness- The "thick darkness" is created by God, it is He who can shroud Himself from human understanding; but this doesn't mean that He cannot "judge through the thick darkness" (Job 22:13 s.w.). The thick darkness was only from man's viewpoint; not from God's. The fact man feels God to be distant and shrouded doesn't mean He actually is. And this is a fundamental truth for all time, that our perceptions of God don't mean that this is what He actually is. For God was not created by man in his image and likeness, but the other way around.
The thick darkness was a "swaddllng-band" for the sea (AV). The newborn sea, fresh as it were from the womb (:8), is completely subject to God as its Creator, and is absolutely not a form of radical evil outside of His control, as was imagined by the surrounding peoples.
Job understands that it is God who sends the good and evil, the
light and the darkness, into his life (Job 30:26). Significantly, he
states his faith that God even marks out the boundary between light and
darkness (Job 26:10) – a similar idea in essence to the reassurance of
Is. 45:5 that God creates both light and darkness.
The ‘darkness’, however we experience and understand it, is framed and
limited by God; it is not a power or being with independent existence
outside the realm of God’s power. God confirms Job’s understanding later,
when He says that it is He who can swaddle the sea [another figure for
uncontrollable evil] in bands of darkness (Job 38:9) – as if to say that
it is God who gives things like darkness and the sea their sinister
appearance and perception by men; but He is in control of them, using them
in His hand. See on Job 38:10.
Job 38:10 marked out for it My bound, set bars and doors- Job’s idea that God fixes limits for the darkness is repeated by God saying that He sets limits for the raging sea. God controls evil, or our perception of it (e.g. of the sea as being evil), and He sets limits for it – which was exactly what He did to the power of ‘Satan’ in the prologue to Job. All these statements by God about His use of and power over things like darkness and sea, with the perceptions of them as being independent forces of evil, are quite different to Canaanite and Babylonian views of creation. In them, gods like Baal had to fight Yam, the evil sea god, with clubs provided by other deities; in the Babylonian version, Marduk has to arm himself with various weapons in order to try to get supremacy over Tiamat (S. Dalley, Myths From Mesopotomia: Vol. 4, The Epic of Creation (Oxford: O.U.P., 1989) pp. 251–255). But Yahweh as revealed in the book of Job has utter and absolute power over the sea [monster] and the [supposed god of] darkness – for He created the sea and the darkness and uses them creatively for His purpose. That’s the whole purpose of the many ‘nature passages’ in the book of Job. And the language of Genesis 1:9 is evidence enough of His power. He speaks a word – and light, darkness and seas are created, the waters gathering obediently where He commands them. Likewise God isn’t in any battle with Leviathan – rather is the monster actually His “plaything” (Ps. 104:26 says likewise).
Job 38:11 and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further. Here your proud
waves shall be stayed?’- The waters were representative of the
invading nations. There was a limit to Judah's sufferings, because the
waters of the nations had their limits. Job likewise was to be tested so
far but no further. Jer. 5:22 teaches that this feature of
God should make men respect and love Him- which Job needed to now do: "I
am the LORD; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I
placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a
permanent boundary that it cannot cross". In Job's case, God had set a
boundary around him- his life was not to be taken from him.
Job 38:12 Have you commanded the morning in your days-
God consciously makes the sun rise each day (Mt.
6:26)- it isn't part of a kind of perpetual motion machine. Hence the
force of His promises in the prophets that in the same way as He
consciously maintains the solar system, so He will maintain Israel. But
this is by grace, totally without human involvement nor understanding of
the processes, the whys and wherefores with which the dialogues have been
so pointlessly taken up.
And caused the dawn
to know its place- This is God's comment on Job's words of Job 28:23
about wisdom / relationship with God: "God understands its way, and He
knows its place". Just as there is a sense in the natural
creation that things such as the dawn have a specific "place" known by God
alone (Job 38:12 s.w.), so the way of true relationship with Him,
"wisdom", is known by Him alone. We do not find that "place" by
intellectual effort, searching hither and thither, but by being open to
God's leading of us as Job was.
Job 38:13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the
wicked out of it?- If the "earth" as in the sense of eretz
Israel is in view, then the ends of the earth were where the exiles were
located, in Persia / Babylon. The idea of a dawning which chases away evil
is used in Mal. 4:2,3 of what could have happened at the restoration of
the exiles- had they followed Job's path.
Job 38:14 It is changed as clay under the seal- Although Job is
written in ancient Hebrew, there are many signs of how it was rewritten in
Babylon. The Babylonians used seals which were impressed upon clay rather
than wax. Perhaps the idea is that as the seal changes clay (what man is
made from) from a formless lump into something highly significant, so God
can work with man. But the original is very unclear. LXX: "Or didst thou take clay of the
ground, and form a living creature, and set it with the power of speech
upon the earth?"
And stands forth as a garment- The idea is of an embroidered dress, where valuable stones make the pattern stand out in relief. Again the sense is that God can transform the very ordinary into something of beauty and significance.
Job 38:15 From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is
broken-
God says that He withholds light from the wicked. But Job has twice complained that God gives him light: "Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul... Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?" (Job 3:20,23). It seems God is trying to tell Job that although Job has sinned and He demands Job's repentance, the fact Job is alive and 'has light' from God by His special decree to the Satan, is proof enough that God also sees Job as some kind of righteous. He sees His sinful servant as righteous... because He loves him. And Job is intended to join the dots, in the midst of this 'out of the whirlwind' judgment of him by God... and see that through all that, God loves him.
LXX "And hast thou removed light from the ungodly, and crushed the arm of the proud?". Job has complained that light has been removed from him, and so he is being reminded that he has indeed sinned, and is "ungodly", although relatively very righteous, and counted as righteous by the God who so loved him. This is a lesson needed for all 'Godly' people, especially middle class Western Christians, and it was what the exiles had to learn in order that they might repent. Perhaps God is quoting with approval Job's lament that the light of the wicked is darkness (Job 24:13-17).
Job 38:16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked
in the recesses of the deep?- GNB "Have you been to the springs in
the depths of the sea? Have you walked on the floor of the ocean?". Job
is reminded that he is ignorant of many things in creation, which remain
inaccessible and remote. And so it is with insisting to know everything
about Divine process with us. These things are purposefully hidden, and it
is part of recognizing our humanity to realize that.
Earlier, Job argued that those who are well
travelled would agree with him, that the wicked often prosper. He states
this in counter to the friends' argument that very old, wise people have
learnt that wicked people never prosper. Job saw travelling around as a
source of wisdom. Here God asks Job whether he or anyone has travelled
very far at all. GNB of :24 makes the same point: "Have you been to the
place where the sun comes up, or the place from which the east wind
blows?". God's point is that human wisdom is of no account. This was the
final conclusion of Elihu's speeches, on God's behalf- that He ignores
those who are claimed to be wise. Job had argued that travellers were wise
because they had seen so much. But they had never been hardly anywhere on
the earth, let alone the cosmos. Man is therefore utterly helpless when it
comes to knowledge; he has to accept God and His ways.
Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen
the gates of the shadow of death?- Job earlier complained that "On my
eyelids is the shadow of death" (Job 16:16 AV). Job felt he was facing
death right before his eyes, and the shadow of that death was cast over
his eyes. Job thought he had been there, standing at the gates of death
(Job 10:21,22; 17:16). But God disagrees, challenging Job that he has not in fact seen
"the gates of the shadow of death" (s.w.). Job had only seen death from a
personal, human perspective. God sees death for what it really is, and it
is far more terrible than man perceives. For from God's perspective it
carries with it the tragedy of the eternity which a man has missed, if he
has rejected God. And God is saying that Job hasn't see death from that
perspective.
Job 38:18 Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if you
know it all- Elihu implies that if Job repents, then he will be
brought out from a narrow place into a broad place (Job 36:16). God
perhaps comments on this by saying that the "broad place" is in fact the
whole earth (s.w. Job 38:18). Man (including Job) is already in freedom; it is a case of
accepting it.
Job 38:19 What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where
is its place- The dialogues have much to say about light and
darkness; but the question of their ultimate origin is with God. This was
what the exiles had to be reminded of (Is. 45:5-7). Job had rather
simplistically concluded that the place of darkness was death (Job
10:21,22). But there was more to it than that. All the various theories of
the origin of evil in a cosmic being have been deconstructed in Job. And
now God reveals the ultimate truth- that the origin is with Him. Light is
distinct from the sun, moon and planets, as Genesis itself teaches (Gen.
1:3,16). The question of ultimate origins is with God.
GNB "Do you know where the light comes from or what the source of darkness is?". The source of evil / darkness is the issue. And it is in God. Any theories about monsters or entities of evil [we could say 'a personal devil'] were and are mere guesswork.
Job 38:20 that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern
the paths to its house?- Job's experiences were of affliction set in
his "path" (s.w. Job 19:8). And the Bedouins he curses in Job 30:1-12 were
those who had abused him in that "path" (Job 30:13). So it seems he has in
view the Sabeans who had abused him in the prologue, and yet this section
also has clear reference to the friends. Yet that "path" of affliction
which God had given Job was the path of wisdom and relationship with Him
which was indiscernible to the human eye (Job 28:7 cp. 28); the fact that
the ultimate path is invisible to the secular, naked eye is a truth
stamped upon the natural creation (Job 38:20), and yet after the
affliction or trouble, this path shines clearly (Job 41:32). And this was
to be Job's experience at his restoration, as it could have been likewise
for the exiles.
The path to darkness is developed by
God in Job 41:32 when He comments that He has made Leviathan, the beast of
the sea, the supposed creator of evil, and Leviathan's path "shines" as he
supposedly moves through the waters of evil. The boundary between light
and darkness is thus confused. God makes the path of darkness and shining
path of white light, according to Job 41:32. As creator of both light and
darkness, only He can do this.
GNB "Can you show them how far to go, or send them back again?". It was God who had set a limit on the darkness touching Job- his life was not to be taken. But God alone can do this.
Job 38:21 Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your
days is great!- This is also an answer to the way the friends
considered that there was wisdom accrued through the number of days lived.
Within the context of eternity and God's creative power, such knowledge is
as nothing. It is therefore only the truth revealed from God which is a
source of truth, and not length of human days. God is engaging with the
idea of the friends, that number of days is related to wisdom. But
compared to the specter of infinity, that is a very weak argument.
Job 38:22 Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen
the treasures of the hail- This implies that God has gone exploring
though His own creation- making Him even more marvellous than being just
the creator. Hail is a common symbol of God's judgment (Ex. 9:18-29; Ps.
18:12, 13; 78:47,48; 105:32; Is. 30:30; 32:19 etc.). These things are
stored up by God for use at the appropriate time. Both Job and the exiles
needed to realize that they were not merely at the whim of God, but He had
prepared their experiences in order to achieve specific ends.
Job 38:23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the
day of battle and war?- Earlier Job has argued that judgment is
"reserved" until the last day (Job 21:30 s.w.), and therefore the wicked
appear to prosper. God is here confirming that view. Eliphaz claimed that God is preparing to judge Job like a king ready to
ride into the battle (Job 15:24). But God's later revelation includes Him
demonstrating that man cannot participate successfully in any battle with
what God has willed (Job 41:8), and the horse runs foolishly into battle
with no regard for consequence (Job 39:25). The connection with the words
of Eliphaz may be in that it was effectively Eliphaz who was rushing into
battle to do judgment against Job; and he was acting like the foolish
horse, forgetting that God alone will fight in the battle, and win (Job
38:23).
Job 38:24 By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind
scattered on the earth?- AV "By what way is the light parted?",
referring to refraction. God has not simply made the good, but He has
refracted it in various ways. Peter gets a glance at this when he writes
of the refracted beauty of God's grace (AV "the manifold grace of God", 1
Pet. 4:10). Job is being taught that life is not as simple as light and
darkness, good and evil; but these things are refracted by God in
different ways, such is the beauty and complexity of His workings.
And He was working in Job's life with such attention to detail. Job was so
wrong to think that God was so great that He had forgotten him or was
insensitive to him. God's answer is that He has a very deep awareness of
every tiny activity in all creation. He knows how the fur of a horse
ripples, how man's clothes feel warmed by the east wind, the effect of
rain that lands on rocks where no man has ever been.
Job 38:25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the
thunderstorm- The flood waters were a symbol for evil such as the
invaders who had taken Judah into exile. But God cuts channels so that His
flood waters dissipate, just as His wind / Spirit drives away the clouds
that come between God and man. And He had directed the path of that
particular thunderstorm to come directly upon Job.
"A way for the lightning of thunder" is “A path for the bolt of thunder”. What appears random high speed zigzag is in fact all running according to an exact path predetermined by God. There is no random path, the path has been determined ahead of time.
"A channel" is literally a trench (s.w. 1 Kings 18:32; Ez. 31:4), and :25-27 are presenting the water cycle as an irrigation system created by God. But it is to bring water to remote land where man has never been and no crops are sown. Why? That's the thing. Man has no idea why God would bother doing all this work "without cause"- apparently. Job's sufferings are likewise apparently "without cause" to human eyes. God gives no answer to Job's 122 questions. He just says that He is at work and man must trust that. Water was valuable in the land of Uz... and God's use of it may appear wasteful and pointless. But that is what man is left to grapple with. God satiates the wasteland (:27), using the same word Job has used to complain that God has satiated him with bitterness (Job 9:18). God is saying that there is indeed no rhyme nor reason to the suffering- to man's eyes. But He is God. And He makes life possible in unexpected places.
A related theme is that God sends rain and creates life far from where man has ever been. Job is asked where he was when creation occurred. He, indeed no man, was present. The impression is that God is doing many things which man has nothing to do with. Man is not in fact the centre of the cosmos. Just as the book opens with the scene in Heaven... intentionally shrouded in obscurity, impossible for man to totally expound. But as a result of those issues far above man, Job on earth suffers the loss of all things. But then we are left with the enigma of :26; God "causes it to rain on a land where no man is", but this clearly alludes to Gen. 2:5: "the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the land, and [because] there was no man to till the ground". The rain was caused to come because of man. But God causes it to rain where no man is. Clearly 'something's going on here' but we cannot perceive what, exactly. God sent rain for man, but it often falls where there is no man and never has been and never will be. There's a bigger picture going on that man cannot perceive. And that is about all God has to say to Job about the problem of human suffering. His Divine heart breaks for man, but He expresses no pity nor comfort for man at this point. Not a hint of it. But it's like Joseph acting one way before his brethren when his heart was breaking for them...
Job 38:26 to cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the
wilderness, in which there is no man- God's actions cannot be simply
understood by men. To the ancients, it would have appeared pointless to
send rain on the remote deserts. But His goodness, represented by the
rain, operates on a level far beyond our comprehension. It is not
utilitarian, intended to just produce some easily discernible good. His
grace is far greater than that.
These questions demonstrate to Job that he has no idea of the rationale behind God's behaviour. He cannot see it in creation, and so neither can he in his own life. His 122 questions therefore go unanswered specifically by God. God's answers to Job are effectively saying: 'You in fact are not at all the centre of the universe. You and your pain and your complaints are nothing in the bigger picture of things'. But God says it in such a way that the spiritual man is not offended, doesn't stomp off muttering about 'cold comfort', but actually 'gets it'. God brings "rain on a land where no one lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life” (Job 38:26)- to make the point that man does not in fact hold the central place in the universe which he imagines he does.
And yet we can read God's argument as being that if and when He sends rain on previously unknown places, man then goes and lives there. Man follows God's blessings. This is precisely the thought of Ps. 107:35-38: "He turns desert into a pool of water, and parched land into sources of water, and he makes the hungry dwell there, and they establish an inhabited city. And they sow fields and plant vineyards, and these produce fruit of the harvest. And he blesses them and they grow very numerous, and he does not reduce their livestock".
Job 38:27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground- Although the gift
of His grace in rain falls sometimes where it apparently has no purpose
(:26), it also falls on other areas where the tender grass is nourished by
it. And His purpose is to revive even the apparently useless and waste
land; both in the life of Job, and of His deserted land and people.
To cause the tender grass to spring forth?- "Waste and desolation" is the language of condemnation (s.w. Zeph. 1:15). But God makes the point that He sends rain "to satisfy the desolate and waste ground"- the very place where the condemned lived whom Job despised in his prosperity (Job 30:3 s.w.). But God doesn't despise even the most desperate of society. He sends rain to cheer them whom the righteous despise. And this was to help Job be convicted of his own desperation, of how wrong he had been to despise others and trust that he was righteous; and to further convict him that God still sought to revive him, as He did those deserted lands.
Job 38:28 Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?-
The question of origins remains to this day. No matter how persuasive are
theories of evolutionary development, the question of ultimate origins has
to always come back to God. And this question of origins, God is arguing,
is really a signpost to the simple idea of grace. For creation is in a
sense grace itself.
I have noted throughout Job that the surrounding myths and cosmology are constantly deconstructed. The common idea was that rain is the semen of the rain god. But here we are told that this is nonsense- God is the father of the rain. We note that He performs the function of both male and female for the water- father of rain and dew (:28), and mother of ice and frost (:29). Or we can read these questions as having the answer: Nobody. These elements had no father or mother; and so they came from God.
The idea may be that if a woman brings forth an ice cold baby, it is dead, a stillbirth. The first ancient people knew of a stillbirth was that the child was cold. Just as Job had earlier wished to have been born dead and cold. But from God's womb comes the ice, icy cold. And it is not labour in vain, just as Job's birth was not in fact in vain.
Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who
has given birth to it?- "Came" is the word for 'bring forth' in Job
28:11: "The thing that is hidden He brings forth to light". God can reveal
everything physical, if He wishes. But man will still not find "wisdom" if
he is searching for it as a 'physical' thing, obtained by a process of
mining and subsequent refining. That reveals merely "stones of obscurity"
(Job 28:3), nuggets of isolated truth. This message needs to be heeded by
those who consider the Christian duty is to search out academic truth,
mining it from the pages of the Bible and further processing it. This of
itself is not to be despised, but this can be done as the Pharisees did
it, and as the friends did- without coming to the awesome personal
encounter with God and His grace with which the book of Job concludes. God
can dry up the streams so that those panning in them thigh deep for
precious stones- find them. He can bring them to light, but this is not
the same thing as the "wisdom" of personal relationship with Him and
departing from evil in our hearts (Job 28:9,10,28). This is what was
happening on Job's life; God was 'bringing forth' light from death, deep
things from darkness (s.w. Job 12:22). And this was realized by God
bringing it forth, and not man's search for 'truth'. Job as a person was
to be 'brought forth' by God as gold from that fire of affliction
(Job 23:10 s.w.). Just as plants are 'brought forth' from the earth
without the need for mining under the earth (Job 28:5 s.w.). This is why
God's reply to Job keeps on using this word for 'bring forth', labouring
the point that God 'brings forth' by His processes and
initiatives, and not man. And that is as a code stamped upon all of
creation (Job 38:8,29,32; 39:4,21; 41:20,21).
Job 38:30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep
is frozen- Not only the creation of water and things is wonderful,
but equally the transformations of created things. This is what God was to
do to Job, and He was offering to do the same to the exiles.
The waters are to be understood as the forces of
evil. But God can freeze them over. They come out from Him, from His womb.
He is the author of evil (Is. 45:5-7).
Job 38:31 Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of
Orion?- Job sees God as capable of binding and loosing him, untying
the cords that restrain affliction and then binding them up again (Job
30:11 s.w.). God's response is that indeed this is the case, and
such binding and loosing is seen throughout the natural creation (s.w. Job
38:31; 39:5; 41:14). The constellations are bound together in
pattern by God. And therefore, Job and the exiles are to
live in hope of being bound up in safety from affliction, just as God
"untied His cord and afflicted me" in Job 30:11.
The constellations of the stars were
thought to influence life upon earth, hence AV "the sweet influences of
Pleiades". They don't, but God doesn't deconstruct that in so many words,
just as He never denies in explicit terms the existence of demons. But
demonstrates He is so far more powerful than them that they effectively
don't exit. Likewise here, God says that He who created the stars can
control their influence upon man; for it is He who moves them around into
their positions. Man is never under the influence or power of radical evil
that is outside God's control.
There is a play of ideas here. "Can you bind
(tie up) the ties of Pleiades?". The stars of Pleiades were thought to
have ties or influence upon human life on earth. But God can tie up those
ties. Just as He moves the stars around to form patterns like the bear or
the plough.
God's point is that His entire creation moves according to a carefully designed order. It is not random movement. And He is behind it all, although Job has no idea about the mechanisms. There is a coherence in the cosmos, in everything, and also, therefore, in Job's life. But he cannot see that. He sees only apparently random behaviour by God; just as the immature believer may see God active only in a few ways and a few times in a few aspects of their lives. He has no way of seeing the coherence, nor the patterns and principles: "Do you know the laws of heaven?" (:33). But the fact creation goes on as it does, is evidence that there is a logic and coherence. It's just above man to perceive it. And Job, as all men, is asked to trust in that higher logic and coherence, rather than bringing God down to the level of a man, and demand that He explains His movements in human terms. Likewise any human assessment of God's movements and work is inappropriate; and Job's speeches have been full of such misguided and inappropriate assessments. Job's first attempt at 'repentance' accepts that indeed, he doesn't understand these things. But that is not enough; God's second speech is required before Job comes to being convicted of his sin and properly repenting. Many of God's questions probe whether Job has any creative power. He has never called a new day into being, nor has he commanded the hawk to fly. The cosmos is not just wound up on clockwork and ticking away. God is somehow consciously creating and causing all the time. Whereas Job has no creative power. He is not God. Man may change matter from one form to another, but he cannot create matter. God can. And likewise, there are parts of God's creation, in fact the vast majority of it, that man cannot enter: "Have you entered unto the springs of the sea and have you walked in the recesses of the deep?" (:16). Job likewise cannot enter into the vast majority of God's working with him. Neither can we. All we can do is trust in a loving God.
Job 38:32 Can you lead forth the constellations in their season? Or can
you guide the Bear with her cubs?- AV "Canst thou bring forth
Mazzaroth in his season?". The context would suggest that "Mazzaroth" [a
plural word] is a constellation like Orion just mentioned in :31. This
would mean that the signs of the Zodiac are not in view here, as has been
falsely claimed. It could be that "Mazzaroth" was a group of stars the
people of the times thought they had observed which we now know as
something else. It could be a variant of Mazzaloth, the gods made to these
stars (2 Kings 23:5). In this case God is saying that even if they
believed the stars influenced life on earth and made idols to them, God
was the ultimate controller and mover. It's rather like the usage of the
language of demons in the New Testament. The scale of miracles implies God
was far greater than any supposed demons, but the wrong understanding is
not specifically targetted; rather by appealing to the greater principle
of God's majestic power, it is shown to be bankrupt and void of real
power.
Job 38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?- GNB "Do you know the laws that govern the skies, and can you make them apply to the earth?". This is perhaps the clearest Biblical condemnation of any attempt to practice astrology. The movement of the stars was under God's control, but is not related to the outcomes of life upon earth. For God can work in parallel ways with the stars as well as with human life and situations upon earth.
Job 38:34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of
waters may cover you?- This is said in the context of the
thunderstorm which began as noted on Job 36:27. That thunderstorm was
brought about by God's sovereign action, and was not called up by men
commanding God to bring it. The movement of God through His grace is
likewise sovereign, otherwise grace would not be grace.
Job 38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? Do they report
to you, ‘Here we are?’- The same challenge was made to Ezekiel and
the exiles, in the visions of the lightnings of the cherubim. The simple
point of all this is that this lightning quick and powerful activity is
for our sakes, to the end of achieving saving restoration. Job and the
exiles complained that God was apparently slow to act. But He is working
with lightning speed.
The idea is that no, Job couldn't do any of these things. It's
as if God is saying that only He could do things like He had done to Job.
Job couldn't have done them himself.
Job 38:36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given
understanding to the mind?- GNB "Who tells the ibis when the Nile
will flood, or who tells the rooster that rain will fall?"; LXX "And who
has given to women skill in weaving, or knowledge of embroidery?". But the
preceding and following context is of God's control of the planets and
atmosphere. So the idea may be that the lightnings also have their own
wisdom, given to them by God, as it were. Hence one suggested translation
is "Who has put wisdom in the thunderbolts? or who has given understanding
to the tempest?".
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the
bottles of the sky-
The number of clouds changes constantly, and depends on how
you define a cloud. Only God can do this. The answer of course was that they could not be
numbered by man, but only by God. This is the same word used in the
restoration prophecy of Jer. 38:22: "As the host of the sky cannot be
numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured", so God's grace would be
poured out in restoring His people. And that challenge was at the very
heart of the covenant with Abraham, whose seed couldn't be numbered. Job was being taught the same lesson.
He believed it, but the exiles generally didn't, and so their restoration
didn't happen after the pattern of Job's.
Job 38:38 when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick
together?- The idea is that God sends rain from the clouds at the
time when it is most desperately needed. The dry bones of both Job and
Israel were to be rained upon with the Spirit. And this kind of thing is
seen in the natural creation.
Job 38:39 Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite
of the young lions- The theme now changes to the animals, and perhaps
Job 39 would better begin at this verse. The point is that although the
lioness hunts, this is in league with God: "The lions, roaring after their
prey, do seek their meat from God" (Ps. 104:21). The lions who hunted Job
and Judah were likewise from God, and were not acting without Him.
God provides food for the young lions- but that
food is animals which their mother hunted and killed, blessed with success
by God. And that is perhaps God's point- that His provision for one
results in the suffering of another. And the ethics of that
quid pro quo
cannot be unravelled by man. Ps. 104:21,25-28 present the same paradox:
"The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God...
there are innumerable living things, both small and large animals...
and leviathan, whom You formed to play [with]. These all wait for You,
that You may give them their food in due season. You give to them; they
gather. You open Your hand; they are satisfied with good". The "good" God
does to Leviathan and the hungry lions is hardly "good" for the animals He
gives them to kill. It is "evil" for the victims; the fact this isn't a
vegetarian planet means there has to be hunting, killing, death and eating
of the carcasses. Yet God emphasizes His care for the animals and His
provision for all of them. And no cute, smart, meme-like resolution of all
this is given, it is for man to accept. He can in fact do nothing else.
What he can do is to recognize his humanity, that he is man and God is
God. Likewise there is no ultimate resolution to the question of whether
God punishes sin by retribution in this life, and rewards righteousness
with blessing. Whilst this certainly doesn't happen in the primitive way
the friends [and Job] imagined, it is still the case that Job and his
generation were materially blessed for obedience. And Job's sufferings,
according to Elihu, were somehow related to sin. And when Job repented, he
was again materially rewarded. But for all the reasons Elihu makes clear,
it is not just simply so. And no resolution of the paradox is offered. The
paradox is indeed highlighted in the story, and interpreters attempt to
resolve it. But the story and the text itself offers no resolution to it.
Job 38:40 when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?-
"Crouch" is the word for to humble, to crouch down. The theme of the book
of Job is that man must be humbled before he can be used by God (s.w. Job
9:13; 22:29). And this is coded into the natural creation. The lioness
must crouch down before she pounces.
Job 38:41 Who provides for the raven his prey-
The raven was
considered a bad omen. But still God cares for them; and how much more for
His people. This is the force of the Lord's argument in Lk. 12:24,
"Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have
storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them". Hence Ps. 147:9 emphasizes that
"He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry".
Clearly God doesn't simplistically punish the evil and bless the righteous
immediately in this life. His grace reaches out to all.
Including the unclean and condemned; remember that God is talking out of
the whirlwind, the symbol of His condemnation.
When his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?- Job feels he has 'cried out' to God for justice and not been heard (Job 19:7; 30:20); and that there is nothing wrong with crying out to God in distress, it is a perfectly natural reaction (Job 24:12). One comment upon this is that the young ravens cry out to God for food and yet are not always heard (Job 38:41 s.w.). But God in the wider picture sustains all of creation by grace. Job did well to cry out to God even if there was no answer, because the hypocrites do not 'cry out' to God when they are facing judgment (Job 36:13 s.w.). Job feels hurt that God has not responded to his 'crying out' because he says that when the needy cried out to him, he had heard (Job 29:12 s.w.). But here we see his works based approach; he thought that his response to those who cried out to him meant that therefore God must respond to his crying out. And God is not so primitive. His apparent silence is because His response is not predicated upon human works and charity. It is by grace alone, as is taught in His final appearance to Job. The exiles likewise were to finally see the response to their crying out to God in the restoration (Is. 58:9), just as their representative Jonah cried out to God from the belly of sheol amidst the sea of nations, and was heard (s.w. Jonah 2:2).
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