38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
Job knocked on heaven’s door, hoping to gain a legal court hearing so that he could ask God some tough questions about human suffering. Instead of appearing in court to accuse God of the unfairness of human suffering, God showed up as a tornado and interrogated Job with 77 rhetorical questions. Job could not answer any of these 77 questions. None of these questions contained anything about suffering. God never even addressed the reason for suffering. These questions will show Job’s ignorance and God’s greatness.
38:2 “Who is this who darkens counsel with words without knowledge?
God was rebuking Elihu, not Job. Elihu had given four speeches to Job (six chapters and 165 verses!), but these speeches contained no knowledge. They contained dark counsel. Dark counsel comes from the satanic world system.
38:3 Get ready for a difficult task like a man; I will question you and you will inform me!
The Hebrew word for “man” is גָּ֫בֶר (gibor), meaning a strong man, mighty man, or warrior. God asked Job to become a strong warrior, because he was about to do battle with God. Instead of Job asking God questions, God was going to do the question-asking. Job was to be alert like a soldier so that he could answer God intelligently. This was a reversal of Job’s words to God, “Let the Almighty answer me.” Job the plaintiff had now become the defendant.
38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!
God will ask Job 77 questions about cosmology, oceanography, meteorology, and astronomy that cannot be answered by puny and finite men. The first question was “Where was Job when God was laying the foundations of the world?" The Apostle Paul will later give this answer in Ephesians 1:4. Job was chosen as one of the elect before the foundations of the world were even created. God pre-planned his existence, his calling, his ministry, and even his suffering. Job was chosen to become a follower of God, to be tested by Satan in front of the angelic world, to be questioned by God in front of the angelic world, and to record this information in a book for following generations to read. Job’s entire life and ministry was planned out by God.
God drove the point home by asking, “Tell me, if you possess understanding.” This is a good example of how a believer is to confront a Christ-rejecter who challenges God’s word. God backed Job into a corner and asked him questions that he could not answer.
God also used sarcasm to drive home his point. Sarcasm is a powerful spiritual battle technique that the enemy often uses effectively against weak believers, but he shames believers who use this same literary device against him. God nor Jesus were afraid to use sarcasm. Believers should not be afraid to use it either. This life is a spiritual battle, so believers need to use their sharpest sword.
Jesus used these same techniques when debating the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus was so good at this technique, that the Jewish religious leaders “no longer asked him any more questions.”
This first question is a rebuke to modern secular scientists who believe in uniformitarianism. This is the belief system of the high priests of evolution who try to explain the origins of the past by present processes. God Himself completed the creation of the entire universe. Only He could do it. It is foolish thinking for an evolutionary scientist to claim that nothing exploded into billions of galaxies and lifeless dirt became alive. Man was created in the image of God, not in the image of monkeys. The Lord Jesus Christ did not evolve from a monkey, as Satan wants one to think. The Lord Jesus Christ was supernaturally conceived in the womb of a virgin. It is an insult to the Creator of the Universe for the evolutionist to teach in public schools that nothing created all things. Nothing is nothing and it will always be nothing. This is blasphemous teaching which will lead nations into rejecting their Creator. The end result of such blasphemy is a Sodom and Gomorrah type homosexual nation in which God will eventually have to judge (See Romans 1).
38:5 Who set its measurements—if you know— or who stretched a measuring line across it?
Only God knows the true size of the universe. There is no way that Job or any other godless and arrogant evolutionist can answer this question. Evolutionists like to evade this question by stating, “I am not an astronomist. You will have to ask him that question.”
38:6 On what were its bases set, or who laid its cornerstone—
The astronomist will also evade this question. His answer is that nothing created all things (or some will claim that they do not know). What they say they do know is that it was not the God of the Bible who created all things!
38:7 when the morning stars sang in chorus, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
The Hebrew word for "sang" is רָנַן (ranan), meaning to shout in unison, shout for joy, or to sing aloud in joy. The Hebrew word for "in chorus" is יָ֫חַד (yachad), meaning all together in unison. The Hebrew word for "shouted for joy" is ר֫וּעַ (rush), meaning to shout with joy, shout a battle cry, or sounding an alarm. Since there are two different words for "singing in joy" (רָנַן) and shouting in joy (ר֫וּעַ), then it does appear that angels do sing. At creation, the morning stars either shouted together in joy, sang together in joy, or most likely both.
God asked this question to Job in Hebrew parallelism. The stars of the heaven were not made until the fourth day. Therefore, they could not physically shout or sing at creation (since they did not exist). Therefore, according to other scripture references, the morning stars were the same as the “sons of God” (Genesis 6:2, Job 1:6, Job 2:1). The sons of God were angels.
38:8 “Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, coming out of the womb,
God’s question to Job reminded him of the global flood. God “broke forth” the waters from both the skies and the subterranean deep. Uniformitarianism has to invent the magic of “time” to force the fossils to fit their godless human viewpoint model.
38:9 when I made the storm clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,
There was no water before the Flood. After God broke upon “the windows of heaven,” then frozen water from the canopy poured down upon the earth and darkened it for forty days.
38:10 when I prescribed its limits, and set in place its bolts and doors,
After the Flood, God established great topographical changes in order to contain the waters of the great ocean basins.
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come and no farther, here your proud waves will be confined’?
Through the Noahic Covenant, God promised to never flood the earth again. He established natural barriers to control catastrophic rainfall and natural global floods.
38:12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, or made the dawn know its place,
God asked Job if he could turn day into night and night into day.
38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?
God asked Job if he could grab the corners of the earth and shake the wicked out of it. God will actually do this at the end of the Great Tribulation. He will purge all wicked people off of the earth. The Millennial Kingdom will begin with 100% Jewish and Gentile believers. Some unborn unbelievers will be born to the Gentiles, but not to the Jews.
38:14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features are dyed like a garment.
God turns the earth like a rotating clay seal. It is like a dyed garment, turning from the bright colors of the dawn to the dark colors of the night. The Bible nowhere teaches a flat earth. The Greeks were the ones who came around and flattened the earth.
38:15 Then from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised in violence is broken.
The wicked desire to do their dirty deeds in darkness where they cannot be caught or seen.
38:16 Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, or walked about in the recesses of the deep?
Modern science has only discovered springs on the sea bottom in recent years.
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deepest darkness?
God asked Job if he had ever visited the gates of death. He asked Job if he had ever visited the deepest darkness of Hell itself.
38:18 Have you considered the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know it all!
God asked Job if he had ever visited the global expanses of all of the earth. Job may not have known about the American continent.
38:19 “In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place, 38:20 that you may take them to their borders and perceive the pathways to their homes?
Modern physics has recently learned that light continually travels at immense speeds. Darkness exists in any place where there is no light.
38:21 You know, for you were born before them; and the number of your days is great!
God used irony to compare His eternal state to Job’s temporary state.
38:22 Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, or seen the armory of the hail, 38:23 which I reserve for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle?
Snow is considered white gold in the desert, because it replenishes their water supply. God will often use hail and snow to help Israel (and other Gentiles) win future battles. Hail and snow were significant in Joshua’s battle with the Amorites. Hail and snow will be used as one of God’s battle weapons during the Great Tribulation. Napoleon was defeated by Russian snow.
38:24 In what direction is lightning dispersed, or the east winds scattered over the earth?
Modern atmospheric physics research has discovered that the energy (“light”) from the sun controls the wind systems of the earth.
38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains, and a path for the rumble of thunder, 38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, a desert where there are no human beings, 38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land, and to cause it to sprout with vegetation?
Men do not care for the land they were given dominion over, but God does.
38:28 Does the rain have a father, or who has fathered the drops of the dew?
God asked Job if he knew the origin of rain or dew.
38:29 From whose womb does the ice emerge, and the frost from the sky, who gives birth to it, 38:30 when the waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?
God may be referring to the ice sheet of the mini Ice Age that covered the northern latitudes for many centuries following the Flood. The book of Job has more references to snow, ice, and cold than any other book of the Bible.
The Canaanites believed rain was the semen of the gods by which mother earth bears her children (the crops). No one knows completely how God sends rain and ice upon the earth.
38:31 Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades, or release the cords of Orion?
The Hebrew word for “bands” is מַעֲדַנּוֹת (madanut), meaning clusters or chains. It is now known now that the stars in the constellation Pleiades are bound together gravitationally. The stars in the bright constellation Orion are not so bound. God was asking Job if he could bind or loose the clusters of the constellations.
38:32 Can you lead out the constellations in their seasons, or guide the Bear with its cubs?
The Hebrew word for “constellations” מַזָּר֣וֹת (mazarut), meaning the signs of the zodiac. Zodiac means “the way to God.” The original zodiac before the Tower of Babel taught the victorious coming of the Redeemer Messiah. After the Tower of Babel, the zodiac was satanically perverted and was used polytheistically to worship the stars. Eventually, God forbid the use of the zodiac (Isaiah 47:12-14). God asked Job if he could cause the constellations to come out in their seasons.
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens, or can you set up their rule over the earth?
“The laws of the heavens” are the principles by which God regulates the stars, planets, and moon. God asked Job if he knew the laws of the heavens. He asked Job if he could administer the laws of the heavens on earth. If he could not do so, then how can he begin to criticize God?
38:34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
God asked Job if he could speak to the clouds and bring a thunder shower upon the earth.
38:35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
One of the most amazing discoveries of modern engineering is that electrical currents may be used to transmit information with “lightning” speed. This includes radio, television, satellite, internet, etc.
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the heart, or has imparted understanding to the mind?
God asked Job if he could place wisdom in the heart or understanding in the mind of men. God is so sovereign, that He controls the wisdom and knowledge which is imparted to the mind of each individual. One can only know God through divine revelation of the Word of God.
38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds, and who can tip over the water jars of heaven,
God asked Job if he could count the number of clouds in the heavens. He asked Job if he could cause these clouds to pour rain upon the earth. If Job cannot do these things, then he has no business criticizing God.
38:38 when the dust hardens into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together?
God asked Job if he could clump the dust into living creatures.
38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness, and satisfy the appetite of the lions, 38:40 when they crouch in their dens, when they wait in ambush in the thicket?
God asked Job if he could provide food for all of the lions on the earth.
38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven, when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
God asked Job if he could feed all of the birds of the earth. Jesus said that ravens were fed by God. The purpose of these questions was to refine Job and demonstrate to him that he does not have enough knowledge to criticize God.
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39:1 “Are you acquainted with the way the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young? 39:2 Do you count the months they must fulfill, and do you know the time they give birth? 39:3 They crouch, they bear their young, they bring forth the offspring they have carried. 39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; they go off, and do not return to them.
God continued to ask Job 77 different high-level questions in which Job could not answer. God asked Job if he understood the miracle of birth. Did he understand the gestation periods of goats and deer.
39:5 Who let the wild donkey go free? Who released the bonds of the donkey, 39:6 to whom I appointed the steppe for its home, the salt wastes as its dwelling place? 39:7 It scorns the tumult in the town; it does not hear the shouts of a driver. 39:8 It ranges the hills as its pasture, and searches after every green plant.
God asked Job if he could free the wild donkey so that he could travel to the salt lands. Wild donkeys preferred to range on hills away from the noises of human civilization.
39:9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant? Will it spend the night at your feeding trough? 39:10 Can you bind the wild ox to a furrow with its rope, will it till the valleys, following after you? 39:11 Will you rely on it because its strength is great? Will you commit your labor to it? 39:12 Can you count on it to bring in your grain, and gather the grain to your threshing floor?
The Hebrew word for “wild ox” is רְאֵם (raem), which is similar to a rhinoceros. God asked Job if he had the ability to tame the rhinoceros type of wild beast. God asked Job if he had the ability to capture this wild beast with a rope and make it thresh grain from the threshing floor.
39:13 “The wings of the ostrich flap with joy, but are they the pinions and plumage of a stork 39:14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and lets them be warmed on the soil. 39:15 She forgets that a foot might crush them, or that a wild animal might trample them. 39:16 She is harsh with her young, as if they were not hers; she is unconcerned about the uselessness of her labor. 39:17 For God deprived her of wisdom, and did not impart understanding to her. 39:18 But as soon as she springs up, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
God asked Job if he would be able to create such an odd bird as the ostrich. The ostrich grows to about eight feet high and 130 pounds, but it cannot fly. She is a very stupid bird, as she often forgets about her young. Often, she leaves her eggs in the dirt. She does not treat her young very well. She acts as though her young do not even belong to her. God did not give much wisdom to the ostrich, but she will spring up and challenge a horse and its rider.
39:19 “Do you give the horse its strength? Do you clothe its neck with a mane? 39:20 Do you make it leap like a locust? Its proud neighing is terrifying! 39:21 It paws the ground in the valley, exulting mightily, it goes out to meet the weapons. 39:22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed; it does not shy away from the sword. 39:23 On it the quiver rattles; the lance and javelin flash. 39:24 In excitement and impatience it consumes the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet is blown. 39:25 At the sound of the trumpet, it says, ‘Aha!’ And from a distance it catches the scent of battle, the thunderous shouting of commanders, and the battle cries.
God asked Job if he could have created a creature as magnificent as the war horse. The war horse possesses mighty strength, speed, and courage. He does not fear the sword or the battle. The horse cannot wait for the trumpet to blow so that he can charge in battle.
39:26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south? 39:27 Is it at your command that the eagle soars, and builds its nest on high? 39:28 It lives on a rock and spends the night there, on a rocky crag and a fortress. 39:29 From there it spots its prey, its eyes gaze intently from a distance. 39:30 And its young ones devour the blood, and where the dead carcasses are, there it is.”
God asked Job if he could have created any bird as magnificent as the hawk (or possibly the eagle, vulture, or another predator bird). The hawk soars high in the sky. Annually, in migration, she spreads her wings towards the south. She builds her nest high on the cliffs. She lives in the rocks of the high mountains. She has such keen eyes, that she spots her prey from high in the sky. She brings her prey to her young ones. The young ones devour a bloody feast.
God’s questions demonstrated to Job that he had no business criticizing the Creator God of the universe. This is God’s world, not Job’s. The Creator God not only possesses omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, but He is also a God of love in whom Job should trust.