The poem on the beauty of creation and the Creator's greatness, which the author of the Book of Job places in chapter 38 as the Creator's own speech to Job, is essentially...
The poem on the beauty of creation and the Creator's greatness, which the author of the Book of Job places in chapter 38 as the Creator's own speech to Job, is essentially a kind of apologetic reflection on the distance between humanity and God. The scale of the created world is astonishing; we cannot fail to notice that the author includes in creation the stars, the elements and the human spiritual realm. There is none of the deification of created things characteristic of primitive religiosity. The constellations move in unreachable heights at God's command; rain, vital in Palestine's hot climate, falls upon the earth by His will; wisdom in the human heart is also His gift. All these phenomena, infinitely surpassing the human being, testify to the immensity of the One who created them all.
Yet it is not Job's friends, human beings like himself, who are speaking about this. God Himself, who governs the heavens and commands light and darkness, speaks with Job. God Himself, who sees what human eyes cannot see, God beside whom a human being is only a tiny grain of sand in an immense world, has addressed the suffering Job. What so outraged Job's friends and Elihu—the irreverence of Job's questioning, prompted by the intensity of his pain—proved no obstacle to God Himself. Job's friends thought that the Creator's greatness demanded servility, as did the proud petty kings of the East. But God proved above this, and more humane, if one may say such a thing of God.
Strictly speaking, this hymn speaks of almost self-evident things. Unless a person has lost the ability to see nature's magnificent beauty and wonder at it, the conclusion about the Creator's greatness arises of itself. Far deeper is the less obvious assertion in verse 36 that the human mind is itself created. This is an important aspect of the biblical understanding of humanity. Different Bible translations render this verse very differently, yet the substance of all the versions is similar. The power of the mind, through which humanity has attained a leading place in creation, and the wisdom of the heart, through which the mind leads a person to life, are God's gift: the gift of eternity in the human heart, as Ecclesiastes called it.
In the light of this revelation, the rationalistic constructions of Job's friends prove untenable, since the products of a created mind cannot measure up to the scale of its Creator. A human being can find the Incomprehensible not along the paths of reasoning, but in revelation and love, in genuine joy and genuine suffering. It is not Job's friends but Job himself alone whom He answers.
38 God begins with an awakening challenge, Job 38:1-3.
Proceeds to several proofs of Job's inability to contend with him, because of his ignorance and weakness: for he knew nothing of the founding of the earth, Job 38:4-7.
The limiting of the sea, Job 38:8-11.
Of the morning light, Job 38:12-15.
The recesses of the sea and earth, Job 38:16-21.
Of the treasures in the clouds, Job 38:22-27.
He could do nothing toward the making of his own soul, the producing of rain, frost, lightning, or the directing of the stars and their influences, Job 38:28-38.
He could not provide for the lions or the ravens, Job 38:39-41.
How then should he direct God's secret counsels? Here God takes up the argument, begun by Elihu, and prosecutes it in inimitable words, exceeding his, and all other mens in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper.
38:22 Treasures - Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit?
38:23 Trouble - When I intend to bring trouble upon any people for their sins.
38:24 Distributed - In the air, and upon the face of the earth. This is variously distributed in the world, shining in one place and time, when it doth not shine in another, or for a longer time, or with greater brightness and power than it doth in another. All which are the effects of God's infinite wisdom and power, and such as were out of Job's reach to understand. Which - Which light scattereth, raises the east - wind, and causes it to blow hither and thither upon the earth? For as the sun is called by the poets, the father of the winds, because he draws up those exhalations which give matter to the winds, so in particular the east - wind is often observed to rise together with the sun.
38:25 Overflowing - For the showers of rain which come down orderly, and gradually, as if they were conveyed in pipes or channels; which, without the care of God's providence, would fall confusedly, and overwhelm the earth. Lightning - For lightning and thunder?Who opened a passage for them out of the cloud in which they were imprisoned? And these are joined with the rain, because they are commonly accompanied with great showers of rain.
38:26 To cause - That the clouds being broken by lightning and thunder might pour down rain. No man - To water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated places.
38:27 To bring forth - Hitherto God has put such questions to Job, as were proper to convince him of his ignorance. Now he comes to convince him of his impotence. As it is but little that he can know, and therefore he ought not to arraign the Divine counsels, so it is but little he can do; and therefore he ought not to oppose Divine providence.
38:28 Father - Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure?
38:31 Bind - Restrain or hinder them. Pleiades - The seven stars, which bring in the spring. Bands - By which it binds up the air and earth, by bringing storms of rain and hail or frost and snow.Orion - This constellation rises in November, and brings in winter.Both summer and winter will have their course? God indeed can change them when he pleases, can make the spring cold, and so bind the influences of Pleiades, and the winter warm, and so loose the bands of Orion; but we cannot.
38:32 Bring forth - Canst thou make the stars in the southern signs arise and appear? Arcturus - Those in the northern. His sons - The lesser stars, which are placed round about them; and attend upon them, as children upon their parents.
38:33 Ordinances - The laws which are firmly established concerning their order, motion, or rest, and their powerful influences upon this lower world. Didst thou give these laws? Or dost thou perfectly know them? Canst thou - Manage and over rule their influences.
38:34 Cover thee - Thy land when it needs rain.
38:38 Mire - By reason of much rain.
38:39 Hunt - Is it by thy care that the lions who live in desert places are furnished with necessary provisions? This is another wonderful work of God.
38:41 Raven - Having mentioned the noblest of brute creatures, he now mentions one of the most contemptible; to shew the care of God's providence over all creatures, both great and small. Their young ones are so soon forsaken by their dams, that if God did not provide for them in a more than ordinary manner, they would be starved to death.And will he that provides for the young ravens, fail to provide for his own children.