Job

Take-Aways

At the root of humanity’s abuse and consumption of creation is an element of hubris. We forget we are not the ones who “laid the foundations of the earth” (38:4). Job relieves us of any such misconception. Lest we believe that what we have truly belongs to us, in elegant poetry, Job reorients us to the one in whom we live and move and have our being. Humanity is the pinnacle of creation, but nevertheless we are still part of it. We do well to remember the awesome majesty of God, who alone can tame the waters, distinguish between night and day, and uphold the foundations of the earth.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible

Job Acknowledges the Power of God

Many striking instances are here given of the wisdom and power of God, in the creation and preservation of the world. If we look about us, to the earth and waters here below, we see his almighty power. If we consider hell beneath, though out of our sight, yet we may conceive the discoveries of God’s power there. If we look up to heaven above, we see displays of God’s almighty power. By his Spirit, the eternal Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, the breath of his mouth, Ps 33:6, he has not only made the heavens, but beautified them. By redemption, all the other wonderful works of the Lord are eclipsed; and we may draw near, and taste his grace, learn to love him, and walk with delight in his ways.

Take-Aways

The book of Job contains exquisite poetry about God’s creative acts and the intricate workings of the natural world, of which God knows every detail. With God’s response to Job, beginning in chapter 38, we are reminded that God is not only the one who created the world, but the one who is continually in the process of creating. God is the one who continues to provide prey for the lion and raven, and monitor the wanderings of wild animals. The earth is sustained through God’s never wavering faithfulness. God’s response is meant to overwhelm Job with the vastness of the entire created order for which God cares very deeply. We do well to not forget that we are but one of God’s creations and to not treat the others as insignificant.

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible

[Commentary for Job 38:1-40:2]

God appears to Job in a whirlwind, a common context for a theophany experience. His first words accuse Job in a way that sounds remarkably like the sentiments of one of the friends, namely, that Job is full of words but without understanding. God tells Job to gird up his loins, suggesting that Job needs to muster some strength. There is a suggestion here that Job needs to take his destiny into his own hands instead of blaming God for his misfortune. God declares that he will question Job and expect some response, although in fact all his questions turn out to be unanswerable and Job had little to say. There is a parody here of passages in which human beings praise God as creator, asking questions out of wonder (e.g., Isa 40:12-26). Here the tables are turned, and God is asking the questions. God speaks of his task of creation and inquires whether Job was there so that he would know the order contained within it. How can Job hope to understand the order in the world if he had no part in the task? This section describes the wonders of the natural world. The greatness of God’s deeds are highlighted by his creative actions in restraining the sea in 38: 8-11. There is some mention of the wicked in God’s listing of his deeds (vv. 13 and 15), but it is almost incidental given the greatness of the actions being described. This part places strong emphasis on the sheer expanse of the earth – God has walked the ocean shore and been to the gates of death. He asks Job if he knows the way to such places. He also inquires whether Job knows where the storehouses of snow or hail are kept or the way to the source of light and wind. He mocks the idea of the path of wisdom down which a person may walk, confident of the answers. God has done everything in his own time to benefit the earth, bringing rain in a desert where there is no human life. His sphere of action is far greater than just providing for human needs or creating an order and system of justice to satisfy human desires. God is the originator of all, the one who gave birth to ice and frost, the one who controls the stars and the heavens, the one who causes floods and storms. This is a real attack on human wisdom – given by God in the first place, we are reminded, and yet by its nature limited. When it comes to the real questions about order and creation, humans are left behind.

God now moves on to a catalogue of living creatures and their ways at the end of ch. 38 and in ch. 39. Can Job hunt as a lion does to satisfy its young? Does he know the time when the mountain goat gives birth? This sentiment recalls the book of Ecclesiastes and its doctrine of the proper time (Ecclesiastes 3). There is a time for things to happen and order in the universe, but only God knows them; human beings are unable to know. The times of activities in the world of nature, that is, of wild animals, are unknown to humans (39: 1-4). Animals do things that humans cannot comprehend – they are outside the bounds of human wisdom. God had provided for these animals who refuse to be domesticated. God laughs at human attempts to tame such animals: “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?” The description of the ostrich suggests that animals may do things that human beings feel to be immoral – it leaves its eggs and deals cruelly with its young. Yet this is the way God had ordained it, and the ostrich is happy with that; it does not question God’s ways as Job has done. God asks Job whether he had made horses mighty, beautiful, and strong or whether it is because of his command that the hawk and eagle soar high. God cares for all his creatures, not just human beings, and their ways are beyond human comprehension just as God’s ways are. At the beginning of ch. 40 God taunts Job to respond to him, in terms reminiscent of Job’s taunt to him. This elicits Job’s first response. The basic message here is that the universe is a mystery; it was not created just for human use, and so neither it nor its creator can be judged solely by human standards. The natural world reveals God’s order; its pattern and meaning are discernible although its secrets are with God. There are strong overtones in this sentiment of ch. 28 – humans search the depths of the earth but never find wisdom (p 361).

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible

God Inquires of Job Concerning Several Animals

In these questions the Lord continued to humble Job. In this chapter several animals are spoken of, whose nature or situation particularly show the power, wisdom, and manifold works of God. The wild ass. It is better to labour and be good for something, than to ramble and be good for nothing. From the untameableness of this and other creatures, we may see, how unfit we are to give law to Providence, who cannot give law even to a wild ass’s colt. The unicorn, a strong, stately, proud creature. He is able to serve, but not willing; and God challenges Job to force him to it. It is a great mercy if, where God gives strength for service, he gives a heart; it is what we should pray for, and reason ourselves into, which the brutes cannot do. Those gifts are not always the most valuable that make the finest show. Who would not rather have the voice of the nightingale, than the tail of the peacock; the eye of the eagle and her soaring wing, and the natural affection of the stork, than the beautiful feathers of the ostrich, which can never rise above the earth, and is without natural affection? The description of the war-horse helps to explain the character of presumptuous sinners. Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. When a man’s heart is fully set in him to do evil, and he is carried on in a wicked way, by the violence of his appetites and passions, there is no making him fear the wrath of God, and the fatal consequences of sin. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rocks; but I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, Jer 49:16. All these beautiful references to the works of nature, should teach us a right view of the riches of the wisdom of Him who made and sustains all things. The want of right views concerning the wisdom of God, which is ever present in all things, led Job to think and speak unworthily of Providence.