Job 38 - The Lord Answers Job

Job 38

Message: The Lord Answers Job

Time: The time of Job is unclear and commonly debated. Often the language of the book can give clues. It seems to be that Job had a lifespan of close to 200 years as Job 42:16 says he lived 140 years after the events in the book.

What the Lord is Saying: 

As I continue to look at this book, it seems that chapter 38 begins the conclusion of this book. God will now speak and answer Job in chapter 38 and 39. In these verses he will talk about his mighty power over the earth and over creation. Job responds briefly at the beginning of chapter 40 and then the Lord continues by addressing Job and his duty as a man and his role over the creatures of the earth. In chapter 41, the Lord continues by speaking of the power he has over the creatures of the earth, the created beings. Chapter 42 concludes the book with Job answering the Lord, the Lord speaking the truth about his friends and then God restoring Job's fortunes.

Currently, I am looking here at chapter 38 and the Lord is speaking to Job. The Lord makes these statements, I think, because of Job's murmurs and complaints. We have a God that corrects us or wants to set us straight. In order to have fellowship with God, man must first understand his need for God. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said. He speaks to Job from a whirlwind or from a powerful force of nature. 

Preface to His Words
He addresses the counsel that Job has been receiving. It is counsel that has darkened Job's understanding of the justice of God. Verse 2 - Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? But instead God will bring forth words to show the true knowledge of Him - Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!

1. Creation - Job was not present at the beginning of the world so he did not aid God, give counsel, or understand what he was doing. Verse 4 - Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell Me, if you have understanding.   
1. It has a predetermined plan. It is not by chance. But by an infinite and wise plan. Verse 5 - Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? 
2. It has a rock solid foundation. A well constructed house has a firm foundation. So it was in bringing forth creation. It has the right foundation. Verse 6 - On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone.  
3. The angels praise the works of God. They were and are there, shouting in praise and joy at the work that God has done. Verse 7 - When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?  
4. The oceans were born. God controls and mandates the inner workings of the ocean. Verse 8 - Or who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb. But we see a great cloud over it when it was formed - verse 9 - When I made a cloud its garment And thick darkness its swaddling band. God fixed the limits of the ocean by his own purpose or please - verse 10 -  
1. And I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors. The Lord fixes the limits and boundaries which they may pass - verse 11 - And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop’?
5. He puts the morning in motion. He speaks of the morning, or the start of the day, and the sun waking us up and shining into our lives and beginning the day. Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place (v. 12)
1. The light spreads to the remotest parts of the earth. That it might take hold of the ends of the earth (v. 13a).
2. The light ruins the plans of the evil. The early chapters of Proverbs mention a warning to the young men about staying up late and that tawdry things happen during the late hours, but then the sun comes out and they are lost again. And the wicked be shaken out of it? (v. 13b)   
3. The light reveals things like a piece of clay that can be formed into different things. It is changed like clay under the seal (v. 14a).  In the dark, hills, flowers, trees, houses, and fields all take on a boring, unclear appearance, but as the light shines forth there is clarity and beauty. And they stand forth like a garment. (v. 14b) 
4. The light sends the wicked back into their crawl spaces. The wicked have enjoyed their darkness, but light moves them to sleep and hide in their sin waiting for the darkness to cover the earth again - verse 15 - From the wicked their light is withheld, and the uplifted arm is broken.
6. Have you entered into the deep part of the sea. Here is transitions back to the sea or oceans but speaks of the deepest parts of the sea where here are probably interesting scenes of fountains. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? (v. 16). 
7. Have you entered into the deep of the graves that are beneath us. The idea here is like the sea, the Lord knows what is underneath us as well. He understands death and the grave and what goes on beneath us. The points is that God knows it all, even what we do not see with our eyes. Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? (v. 17). 
8. God knows the extent of the earth. At this time, the earth was unknown as to how far it had expanse and where it would end up. But God knew. Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this (v. 18). 
1. Where does light reside? God knows. Verse 19 is very poetic and not so much literal. Where is the way to the dwelling of light?And darkness, where is its place. The idea is to think about where does light live. It shows up in the morning and then runs away at evening. As Albert Barnes says - Who can explain the causes of its rapid flight from world to world? Who can tell what supplies it, and prevents it from being exhausted? Who but God, after all the discoveries of science, can fully understand this? -- This is a good reminder. Science works so hard to understand what God knows.  And verse 20 - That you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? No, Job can't follow its path or way. 
2. God is eternal. Staying with the subject of light, the Lord asks Job how long he has been on this earth. Verse 21 - You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! We think we are so smart in the 50-100 years we reside on this earth. Yet, God is eternal and all time is under his knowledge. 
9. God has his hand in weather. Verse 22 speaks of snow and hail. It says - Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail. The idea here is that the snow that falls and the hail that comes maybe a mystery to us, but it is not a mystery of God. He knows when it will fall. It appears that there are storehouses that God has and at the right time he unveils it all to us. It is like silver and gold laid up for us. Over time we will discover more and more the meaning of why snow falls, but this will just shift our amazement of God's wonder and majesty to praising him. Science is great and understanding things is great, but this doesn't diminish God. Science can speak to how it works, but never as to why it is this way. And verse 23 just speaks to the idea that God uses snow and hail for his purpose - Which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war and battle?
1. Verse 24 once again speaks of the light of the morning, but it appears upon the earth in like manner to what he spoke about in the 2 previous verses concerning the snow and the hail. Where is the way that the light is divided. As Albert Barnes commentary says - Philosophy has done little to explain this, and the mode in which light is made to travel in eight minutes from the sun to the earth - a distance of ninety million miles - and the manner in which it is “divided” or “parted” from that great center, and spread over the solar system, is as much of a real mystery as it was in the days of Job, and the question proposed here may be asked now with as much emphasis as it was then.  
2. Or the east wind scattered upon the earth. The second half speaks of wind. To me, it is the same idea -- Hey Job, explain this. Can you? We must praise God continually for that which he has provided. It is amazing. He does it all. We should reverence him more. 
3. In the same way that it mentions storehouses of snow and hail, how he mentions the channels of flood, like the flow of the rain was in certain canals formed for them. Verse 25 - Who has cleft a channel for the flood, or a way for the thunderbolt. A path seems to open up in the dark cloud for the passage of the flash of lightning. Who could trace out these paths and these canals? Who could it be but the Almighty God? Even with what science has now determined, we still look to God for why it occurs. 
4. Rain falls everywhere, not just where man resides, but throughout the earth providing nourishment to the land. Verse 26 - To bring rain on a land without people, a desert without a man in it. It falls to satisfy the waste and desolate land (v. 27) or the thirsty ground and to make the seeds of grass to sprout? In the dessert is where we see God clearest because it is in the barren land that God is there and caring for the ground just like he does where there are people. Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? (v. 28)
5. Ice and frost, in the same way, have its origin in God. He gives birth to both. He is the author of these as well. Verse 29 - From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? Verse 30 - Water becomes hard like stone, and the surface of the deep is imprisoned. God forms the ice and makes it solid and congeals it together. 
10. God holds the constellations of the stars. God created the bands that hold the stars together. Verse 31 - Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Orion is here described as a man girded for action, and is the pioneer of winter. It made its appearance early in the winter, and was regarded as the precursor of storms and tempests.
11. This verse mentions a constellation of stars that plays a significant role in providing a prelude to the seasons. The point in these verses is whatever the meaning, God is in control of the stars in the sky as well. Verse 32 - Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites? And verse 33 - Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth?
12. God is in control of the rain and the lightning coming down; verse 34-37 - Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that an abundance of water will cover you? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Who has put wisdom in the innermost being or given understanding to the mind? Who can count the clouds by wisdom, or tip the water jars of the heavens, when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods stick together?
13. He gave the animals their appetite and their hunting ability. Have you provided the needs of the animals? (v. 39-41) Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, When they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in their lair? Who prepares for the raven its nourishment when its young cry to God and wander about without food? 

Promise: God is in control, everywhere we see and don't see. He orders the creation.