Where Were YOU When God Laid the Foundations of the Earth?

Continuing a Bible study of Job, we come to one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, when GOD appears on the scene!

(Job 38:1) Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, (2) "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? (3) Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and you answer Me."

These words of God are said to be directed to Job, not his friends.  Job wanted his chance to take his cause directly to God; now he has it!  

(4) "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding."

This has always been one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  How quick we are to question why God would do this or that or allow this or that, as if WE would do and know better!  God really makes us feel pretty small and insignificant when He asks, "Just where were you when..."

(5) "Who has determined its measurements, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? (6) Upon what are its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, (7) When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Who created the earth and its foundations when it appears to hang on nothing, when the angels sang praise and shouted for joy?  The morning stars might even be interpreted as the actual early stars of the universe, since it might seem redundant to be speaking of angels again.  But then again, it is poetic to speak of the angels singing and then the angels shouting for joy with two different descriptive terms.  The point is, who was there from the very beginning and created the earth?

(8) "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as if it had issued out of the womb? (9) When I made the cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; (10) And broke up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, (11) And said, 'This far you shall come, but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?"

Who set the boundaries for the powerful oceans and created the clouds and set their limits?

(12) "Have you commanded the morning since your days, and caused the dayspring to know its place, (13) That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? (14) It is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment."

God asks Job if he has been commanding dawn to break since he was born, that it might spread light from one end of the earth to the other, exposing the darkness where wickedness often takes place.  The earth is changed in appearance by daybreak as a seal makes a beautiful impression on clay, with plants and trees and the like standing as a beautiful garment on the earth.

(15) "And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the raised arm will be broken."

Because the wicked prefer darkness that hides their wickedness, "their" light is darkness, and daylight holds back their preferred "light".  Or maybe their light being withheld just means they don't enjoy the light as the righteous do because they prefer darkness.  Their upraised arms of strength will be broken when they are exposed by the light.

(16) "Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the search of the depths?"

I think the point here is that if Job has never even seen the depths of the seas, how much less could he see and understand God.

(17) "Have the gates of death been opened to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?"

Death is one of the great unknown mysteries to man.  Does Job understand death, when and where men go when they die?

(18) "Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if you know it all. (19) Where is the way where light dwells? And darkness, where is its place, (20) That you should take it to its bounds, and that you should know the paths to its home? (21) Do you know it, because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great?"

Does Job know the width of the entire earth?  Does he know the source of light because he was there at the beginning?  Do any of us really know?  After all, light was created BEFORE the sun and stars.  God created light (day) on the first day, but He didn't create the sun and stars until the fourth day:

And God said, "Let there be light", and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. - Genesis 1:3-5

And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years; And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth"; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. - Genesis 1:14-19

(22) "Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? Or have you seen the treasures of the hail, (23) Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?"

Snow and hail are pictured as things God has stored up as treasures to use when He sees fit, such as at time of war when God often used especially hailstones to overwhelm the enemy.  It's not that God truly has the stuff piled high in storehouses, but it might as well be because it is so easily at his disposal.  Does Job really understand and know how to create and use snow and hailstones to have them at his disposal?

(24) "By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth? (25) Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; (26) To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is, on the wilderness wherein there is no man; (27) To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?"

So Job, just how is light diffused and distributed just so?  Who created channels for overflowing water or the path of a lightning bolt?  So just who causes it to rain on parts of the earth where there is no man, to water the ground for plant life; could it possibly be a man like you, Job?

(28) "Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? (29) Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it? (30) The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen."

Is there any man who has produced rain, dew, or frost?  What man has produced solid ice that hides the water?  

(31) "Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? (32) Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?"

God is speaking of the constellations here.  Can Job move them at will?  Interestingly, even by early commentators, "Mazzaroth" was generally understood to mean the twelve signs of the zodiac.  This is the only place the word was ever used, so some speculation is used.  It is defined by Strong's as "apparently from 'nazar' (to set apart) in the sense of distinction; some noted constellation (only in the plural), perhaps collectively the zodiac".  In early commentaries, there are various similar meanings attributed to it, "celestial signs", "zodiac", or "morning star".  It is sometimes considered to be "Mazzaloth", which is translated as "planets" or "constellation of planets".     

(33) "Do you know the ordinances of heaven? Can you set its dominion in the earth?"

Does Job understand the laws governing the heavenly bodies and can he set up their proper places or dominions as they relate to the earth?  Perhaps this referred to the effect that some heavenly bodies have on the earth and the weather, such as the moon that affects the tides.

(34) "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you? (35) Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, 'Here we are!'?"

Can Job command the rain and lightning, that they answer him?

(36) "Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the heart?"

I found the interpretations of this scripture amusing.  Once again more recent translators of the NIV, NLT, and even NKJV, and others, decided that wisdom must be in the "mind".  But that is not what the original text said; it said, "inward parts".  Wisdom in the inward parts is what makes them function WITHOUT our minds or conscious effort!  That is the miraculous, awesome, God-only-created point of that question.  Did Job create the various parts of the body to function on their own?  THEN God asks if Job has given understanding to the mind.  The word translated as "heart" here is not the word that is generally used as "heart"; this word, "sekviy" means "observant" or "to look at, view", denoting the thinking mind, and indeed, is generally thought to mean the mind by most early commentaries.  This is a good place to mention an earlier fascinating study I did on translations of the Bible, and which ones are to be trusted, and which ones seek to diminish the word of God:  Which Version of the Truth Will You Use?

(37) "Who can number the clouds in wisdom? Or who can stay the bottles of heaven, (38) When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?"

The word translated as "clouds" here means more precisely the smaller particles that make up clouds, and in this case, the clouds being fine dust or powder clouds.  Who can number every particle of dust?  "The bottles of heaven" is an illustration of clouds as bottles holding all the smaller particles.  Who really understands how the tiny fine particles of dust become the solid ground, and the solid earth, for that matter?

(39) "Will you hunt the prey for the lion? Or fill the appetite of the young lions, (40) When they crouch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? (41) Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God, they wander for lack of food?"

Does Job provide food and prey for all the animals and birds of the earth?

Whew!  It's already a very extensive list of things God alone does, but He is not yet finished speaking.  I'll continue the study in the next chapter in the next post.