Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
    and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
    and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
    here is where your proud waves halt’?
“Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
The wicked are denied their light,
    and their upraised arm is broken.
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
    Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know all this.
“What is the way to the abode of light?
    And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
    Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born!
    You have lived so many years!
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
    for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives,
    an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
    and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
    Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen?
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
    or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
“Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who gives the ibis wisdom
    or gives the rooster understanding?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard
    and the clods of earth stick together?
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
    and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in a thicket?
Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry out to God
    and wander about for lack of food?

• Job 38:1-41

Job 38:31-32 ”Pleiades … Orion … Mazzaroth … Great Bear. Stellar constellations (cf. Job 9:9) are in view.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

The Message

These next chapters speak of God’s response to all that has been discussed by Job and the “friends.”  I am going to slow down and take these chapters one at a time.

Elihu described God as speaking through thunder and lightning.  There must have been a storm brewing.  God is indeed in the storm.  God now gives Job the audience he had desired, but it is God who speaks.

God uses Elihu’s description of Job, a man without knowledge.  God will now ask the questions.

God created the heavens and the earth.  The angels shouted for joy, but where were you?

God created the waters and the clouds and then commanded them to go no further, meaning that they reached the beach, I suppose.  With that in mind, have you ever given orders to the morning?  Have you ever taken the edges of the earth and shaken the wicked from them?  That reminds me of beating and old throw rug that is draped over the laundry line.  Does anyone have a laundry line anymore?  Then how do you thoroughly clean the throw rug.  Vacuums are not as effective.  But God ends that section with the wicked being denied the light.  They remain in the dark, unable to understand the wonders of God.  Yet, they see enough to seal their fate.

Has a man walked the springs of the earth?  Do you know where light and darkness reside?  Have you seen the storehouses of snow and hail?

Then God speaks of constellations, calling them by name.  People on earth may have given them those names, but God knows of Orion’s belt, binding the chains of Pleiades, and the Bear and its cubs.  The stars and the constellations are not the problem.  God made them.  Worshipping the stars and using the stars to guide your daily activities is worshipping a false god – something God made rather than worshipping God Himself.

Do we raise our voice to the clouds?  Yes, occasionally, when weather spoils our day, but does our raised voice accomplish anything?  And did we give the ibis or rooster their wisdom?  And who feeds the raven?

God does those things.

God is God and we are not.

And now let us sing.

The following song is You Are God Alone.  This is sung by Phillips, Craig and Dean.  It is written by Billy J. and Cindy Foote.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, I have sinned.  I am not perfect, but most importantly, I am not You.  I was not there when You created the Heavens and the earth, when you divided the waters from the land, nor when you put the constellations in their place.  I may put out bird seed from time to time, but You feed the birds and give them their wisdom.  And I must never forget that.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.