CHAPTER 38

(1520 B.C.)

THE INFINITE GOD, THE CREATOR SPEAKS

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said (the Lord, it seems, appeared suddenly and without warning; He did so with some type of atmospheric disturbance; His appearing would have been cataclysmic, startling, and absolutely overwhelming),

²Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? (The Lord is not speaking of Job, but rather these three friends and Elihu. The Lord said of Job that he had spoken of Me the thing that is right [42:7].)

³Gird up now your loins like a man (He now speaks to Job); for I will demand of you, and answer you Me (even though Job has been reduced to the most humiliating position, still, God will demand that he stand while being spoken to; in fact, this command of God is the beginning of Jobs Restoration; God picks men up; He does not put men down, unless He has no choice but to do so).

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth? declare, if you have understanding. (The Truth that God made all things is obvious according to the Creation. A creation must have a Creator. Therefore, the alleged theory of evolution is a farce. Evolution, in fact, cannot even be honestly called a theory, because a theory has to have at least some rudiments of facts to buttress its claims. Evolution has no facts whatsoever.)

⁵Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it? (The idea is that God has planned and created the Universe, down to the finest detail.)

⁶Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof (in fact, the worlds are held up by the Word of God [Heb. 11:3]);

⁷When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (The Lord is speaking here of the completion of the Earth and the Universe, and of the celebration that followed by the Angels of Heaven.

Lucifer, before his Fall, was called the son of the morning [Isa. 14:12].

There is a possibility that these morning stars who sang together were led in their worship and celebration by Lucifer, the son of the morning.)

⁸Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? (The Lord put boundaries on the mighty oceans. So the fact of global warming, etc., will not noticeably alter those boundaries.)

⁹When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

¹⁰And broke up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,

¹¹And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed? (Again, we are told that the oceans have boundaries, and boundaries set by the Lord Himself.)

¹²Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place (all days and nights are fixed by the Lord, and are ruled by the sun, moon, and stars [Gen. 1:1419; 8:22]);

¹³That it might take hold of the ends of the Earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? (The idea is, the wicked cannot do anything about Gods order.)

¹⁴It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment (everything is obvious as to its function, but not so obvious as to exactly how it functions).

¹⁵And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken (the Lord will allow the wicked to go only so far, before He steps in and breaks their arms, which He has done many times in the past, and will yet do in the future).

¹⁶Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth? (Can man go to the bottom of anything, explore its secrets, and explain its cause and origin?)

¹⁷Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? (This reveals openings and doors to Hell and Death [Rev. 1:18].)

THE LORD CONTINUES WITH HIS DESCRIPTION OF CREATION

¹⁸Have you perceived the breadth of the Earth? declare if you know it all. (As we read these things said by the Almighty, we wonder how they relate to Jobs condition. The reason for the Lord giving this information is manyfold; however, in essence, the Lord is saying to Job, If I can do all of this, dont you realize how easy it is for Me to change your situation?)

¹⁹Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof (in fact, Light is a thing quite distinct from the sun [Gen. 1:3, 16]),

²⁰That you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof? (No man can!)

²¹Do you know it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great? (In other words, Job, are you as old as I am?)

²²Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail (no two flakes of snow or two pieces of hail are alike),

²³Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? (Many times the Lord has used the elements against His enemies [Ex. 9:2226; Josh. 10:11; Ps. 18:1213]. In the future, hail will fall again as a part of judgment [Rev. 8:7; 11:19; 16:21].)

²⁴By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the Earth?

²⁵Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;

²⁶To cause it to rain on the Earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man (the animals need rain as well);

²⁷To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? (Plants also need the rain.)

²⁸Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew? (God is the Father of rain and dew, etc.)

²⁹Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?

³⁰The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen (the Arctic and the Antarctic).

³¹Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?

³³Know you the ordinances of Heaven? can you set the dominion thereof in the Earth? (The sweet influences of the Pleiades are appealed to as a matter of common knowledge at that time. Modern astronomers do not know very much about them at present.

The ancient Greeks called them the Seven Stars and named them the Pleiades, because their appearance indicated a favorable time for sea voyages. The Chaldaic name means a pivot, and astronomers, some time ago, claimed to have discovered that the largest of these stars form a pivot around which the solar system revolves.

When it is remembered that the Sun is more than 3,000 billion miles away from the Pleiades, some idea is arrived at of the amazing influence of these seven stars in swinging this vast Universe the Earth included at the rate of more than 150 million miles a year in an orbit so vast that one revolution occupies thousands of years to make, and yet does so with unvarying regularity and smoothness.

Thus, this remote Verse in what is generally accepted to be the oldest Book in the world speaks of the influences of these stars as a matter of everyday knowledge, and it is remarkable that the expression sweet is employed the very word which engineers use in describing the smooth working of complex machinery.

Orion is the constellation commonly known as the Giant. The space in the sword of the Giant alone is estimated to be two trillion two hundred billion [2,200,000,000,000] times larger than the Sun.

Mazzaroth means the twelve signs of the zodiac; it is only mentioned here in Scripture.)

³⁴Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send lightnings, that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?

³⁷Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven (this tells us that all the clouds, coming and going, we might quickly add, are numbered by the Lord),

³⁸When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?

³⁹Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat (God provides for all, even the lowliest of creation; if He does this for them, how much more will He care for us, O you of little faith [Mat. 6:30]).