GOD’S CONTINUED QUESTIONS AND JOB’S CONTINUED SILENCE

I pray that as we continue to go through each section of scripture in each upcoming post, you too will take time to ponder on these questions and what they reveal to us about our Creator.

Job 38:19–21 ““Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, That you may take it to its territory, That you may know the paths to its home? Do you know it, because you were born then, Or because the number of your days is great?”

God is saying that there is a source from which all light is derived and a place set apart for the darkness. He then asks Job if he knows where those places are and if he has the ability to control them. His questioning reminds Job that he wasn’t even born when those places were established.

Don’t we usually think of light as emanating from the sun, moon and stars? But these heavenly bodies were not created until the fourth day; the light and darkness were manifested and day and night defined in the first day. I have often simplistically described darkness as the absence of light, but it would seem that there is more to understand about both.

Again, the implied truth—God is in control of both and of how they are allowed to affect life on planet earth.

Job 38:22–24 ““Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war? By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?”

The LORD now asks Job if he knows where snow and hail are stored. Obviously, he doesn’t. Then He reveals a very interesting fact—God has reserved the snow and hail “for the day of battle and war.” Being a student of prophecy, I immediately thought of the judgments associated with the time of God’s wrath preceding the return of Jesus as King.

Revelation 8:6–7 “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”

Revelation 11:15 & 19 “And the seventh angel sounded….And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

Revelation 16:17 & 21 “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air….And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

Can you imagine getting bombarded with hailstones weighing 75-100 pounds?

We also now know that the snow is of great wonder in that every snowflake is unique. I thought the following might add to your meditation; (source: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/alike/alike.htm). It just emphasizes to me the awesomeness of the Creator of those snowflakes.

“The number of possible ways of making a complex snowflake is staggeringly large. To see just how much so, consider a simpler question -- how many ways can you arrange 15 books on your bookshelf? Well, there's 15 choices for the first book, 14 for the second, 13 for the third, etc. Multiply it out and there are over a trillion ways to arrange just 15 books. With a hundred books, the number of possible arrangements goes up to just under 10158 (that's a 1 followed by 158
zeros). That number is about 1070 times larger than the total number of atoms in the entire universe!

Now when you look at a complex snow crystal, you can often pick out a hundred separate features if you look closely. Since all those features could have grown differently, or ended up in slightly different places, the math is similar to that with the books. Thus the number of ways to make a complex snow crystal is absolutely huge.” [end quote]

God returns to the subject of light and asks Job if he can explain how the light is distributed over the earth or how the east wind moves over the earth. Research reveals that light travels from the sun to the earth, 92,957,000 miles, at a speed of 186,282 miles per second in just over 8 minutes. This gives another amazing insight on the power of the Creator of such phenomena.

I think the east wind is included at this point because in scripture it is always seen as a destructive force used in judgment in the same way as the hail. Just as the light spreads itself to impact a large area, so can the effects of the east wind.

Exodus 10:13 “And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.”

Jeremiah 18:15–17 “Because my people hath forgotten me….I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.”

Can you put yourself in Job’s shoes? Do you feel yourself getting smaller and smaller?