Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Job 38:1 - 38:15

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Job 38:1 - 38:15


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The Manifestation of God's Majesty in Creation

v. 1. Then the Lord answered Job, who had repeatedly challenged Him to explain His manner of acting, Cf 31, 35, out of the whirlwind, the tempest itself being a manifestation of the almighty power of God, and said,

v. 2. Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
In permitting Job to suffer, the Lord was not acting in a capricious, arbitrary way, but according to a plan which He considered good, which Job, however, without a proper understanding of God's motives, was distorting and questioning; hence the challenge of God.

v. 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man
, like a hero ready for battle; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me. Job should show his wisdom and therefore his right to criticize by the proper explanation of the phenomena which the Lord intended to discuss.

v. 4. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding
. No human being having been present at the creation of the world, no human being can presume to tell God's secrets concerning its making; the finite mind cannot grasp the infinite wisdom of the Creator.

v. 5. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest?
so that Job should know the proportions and plans; for the figure is taken from an architects' plans and sketches. Or who hath stretched the line upon it? The thought implied is this, that the Architect of the universe, who planned and executed such a magnificent building, must be far beyond human comprehension and criticism.

v. 6. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
That is, on what kind of foundation are its pillars sunken? What takes it stand so firm and safe? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof, with the certainty of a trained builder,

v. 7. when the morning stars, all the heavenly host
, creatures of the highest brilliance, sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, in celebrating the festal occasion? Light and beauty and song attended the creation of the world; the highest and most splendid creatures raised their voices in songs of praise.

v. 8. Or who shut up the sea with doors
, penning it up in the bed of the ocean, when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb, when order was established out of chaos and the raging and swelling waters were separated from the dry land, Genesis 1, 9?

v. 9. When I made the cloud the garment thereof
, wrapping the mighty ocean in swaddling-clothes, like a helpless infant, and thick darkness, that of the heaviest cloud-covering, a swaddling-band for it,

v. 10. and brake up for it My decreed place
, setting its bounds in the abysses of the deep, and set bars and doors, as for a wild and unruly creature,

v. 11. and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
God Himself has placed the boundary and the dam for the ocean's pride, and without His permission not one billow can overstep the bounds.

v. 12. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days
, with power to make its light rise in the east ever since he was born, and caused the dayspring, the dawn of the morning, to know his place, so that it knows just where to appear on the horizon in the various seasons of the year,

v. 13. that it might take hold of the ends of the earth
, taking hold of them as of the fringes of an outspread carpet, that the wicked might be shaken out of it, as dirt is shaken out of a rug? The allusion is to the fact that the evil-doers of the night season cease to ply their trade with the coming of the morning.

v. 14. It is turned as clay to the seal
, the earth's surface changing with the coming of morning like signet-clay, all its contours and forms standing out sharply; and they stand as a garment, all the prairies, hills, valleys, trees, and all other objects being set forth in all the various forms and colors of a beautiful garment.

v. 15. And from the wicked their light is withholden
, the darkness which they love and which they need for their sinful pursuits, and the high arm shall be broken, the uplifted arm of violence sinking down as the light of day comes. These are some of the facts of creation which set forth the almighty majesty of God, which no man is able adequately to explain.