Jehovah’s Intervention.
IN a material age which questions the personality of Him who created and governs, who saves and will judge, one cannot wonder that it seems wholly incredible that He should appear and speak. Yet the great facts which abide before all eyes, and attest to every upright mind and conscience the only writings worthy to be considered divine revelations, bear witness to the same great truth, only on a larger scale. For it is impossible adequately to account for either the law or the gospel, either Old Testament or New, apart from the intervention of God. How God manifested His voice at this time is no more set out in detail here than elsewhere, save that He is said to have answered Job out of the storm or whirlwind. The fact is distinctly revealed, and this is enough for faith. It was what Job had ardently longed for, though dreading it, not because his conscience was bad, but through not yet knowing himself in His presence; and the end of the Lord that He is exceedingly pitiful and of tender mercy. The moral profit of such an intervention is beyond man’s estimate.
And Jehovah answered Job out of the storm and
said,
Who [is] this darkening counsel by words without
knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man, andI will ask thee,
and make Me know.
Where wast thou when I founded the earth?
Declare if thou hast understanding.
Who fixed its measure that thou shouldest know,
Or who stretched the line upon it?
Whereon are its sockets sunken,
Or who laid down its corner-stone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
And [who] shut up the sea with doors,
When it burst forth―came out of the womb,
When I made the cloud its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling-band,
And broke for it my law, and set bars and doors,
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther,
And here let one set against the pride of thy
waves?
Hast thou, from thy days, commanded the
mornings,
Made the dawn to know its place,
To take hold of the wings of the earth,
That the wicked might be shaken out of it,
That it may change like signet-clay,
And things stand forth like a garment,
And from the wicked their light is withheld,
And the uplifted arm is broken?
East thou entered into the springs of the sea,
And walked about the secret of the deep?
Have the gates of death been disclosed to thee?
And seest thou the gates of the shadow of death?
East thou strictly attended to the breadths of the
earth?
Declare if thou knowest the whole of it.
What [is] the way the light dwelleth,
And darkness, where [is] its place,
That thou mightest bring it to its bound,
And that thou mightest know the path [to] its
house?
Thou knowest! for thou wast then born,
And the number of thy days [is] great.
Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the
snow,
Or hast thou seen the storehouses of the hail,
Which I have reserved against the time of trouble;
Against the day of battle and war?
Where is the way the light is distributed,
The east wind is dispersed over the earth?
Who divideth watercourses for the torrents,
Or a way for the lightning of thunder,
To cause it to rain on the land [where is] no man,
The wilderness wherein [is] no man,
To satisfy the desolate and waste,
Audio make the place of the green herb to sprout?
Hath the rain a father? or who begetteth the
drops of dew?
Out of whose womb cometh the ice?
And the frost of heaven, who bringeth it forth?
The waters hide themselves like stone,
And the face of the deep cleaveth together.
Canst thou bind the bands of the Pleiades,
Or unloose the traces of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth the Zodiac in his season,
And as for Arcturus with its young, guide them?
Knowest thou the laws of heaven?
Canst thou set its dominion over the earth?
Canst thou apply thy voice to the cloud,
And abundance of water shall cover thee?
Canst thou send forth lightnings, and they shall go
And say to thee, Here we [are]!
Who put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who gave understanding to the perception?
Who regulateth the clouds by wisdom,
Or who inclineth the pitchers of heaven,
When the dust is poured into hardness,
And the clods are compacted together?
Thus magnificently does Jehovah challenge Job to that conference he had yearned after. But where is the hero now? Why silent before Him to whose seat he was so prompt to go? Doughty words he had uttered in abundance when he silenced his three friends. But now he must learn his own measure from Jehovah and confess it to Him, if the words of Elihu still left him silent, and his own mouth failed as yet to vindicate the unfailing ways of God with His people.
The first thing done is to overwhelm him, who pretended to sit in judgment on God’s moral ways, with the sense of his utter ignorance and powerlessness in the least things of divine energy, even in the creation. Where was Job when Jehovah founded the earth? What knew he of its measure fixed, or the line stretched on it, any. more than of its deep sunken bases, or its corner-stone? And where when He set limits to the sea? He whose understanding stood baffled at such a question was not in a position to judge of His deep things. Angels were there indeed to shout for joy when the sea was born and swaddled in the clouds and thick darkness; but, while its wild lawlessness strove to rise up against the divine restraint, bars and doors were set and the irrevocable sentence fixed. Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther; and here be the pride of thy waves staid. Where was Job in all this? Yet was it but a little and comparatively low part Of the Creator’s power and wisdom. For what of the sky, of the dawn? Had Job, since the beginning of his days, commanded the morning, or caused the day-spring to die. close the wicked in their ways, setting all out plainly as the impression of a seal, or the embroidered figures of a robe, so that evil had no longer its congenial darkness, and the arm was arrested in the very act of striking? Had Job so much as visited the fountains of the sea, and gone to explore the secret of the great deep? Had the gates of death been revealed to him, or those realms of darkness impenetrable to mortal eye? Or even to the breadth of the earth, could he say that he had bent his attention, or assert that he knew it all? Where the way to light’s dwelling, and where the place of darkness, that he might undertake their direction at their source? Of course Job must know, whose immense space of life took in their creation! And then the magazines of snow and hail, had he entered and seen their vast stores reserved by Jehovah for the time of trouble when the day of battle rages for men that war? And where the way whence light or the lightning is parted, and the east wind is driven over the earth? Who divided the courses of the torrents from above, or the path of the thunder flash, followed on the one hand by rain, where man is not, but all is desolate and waste, and on the other to swell vegetation where it is already? And what could Job say of the rain or the process of dew, of ice or of hoar-frost? What part did he play in these arrangements of God for the supply or the check of moisture here below? And what force could he exert on the heavenly bodies?’ Could he bind the Pleiades or loose the traces of Orion? Could he lead forth Mazzaroth in its times, or guide the Bear and its sons? What did Job know of the laws of heaven? and could he arrange their dominion over the earth? Could he call aloud to the clouds to cover him with abundance of waters? Could he commission the lightnings to stand submissive at his summons? Yet how small a part is all this of God’s ways, whose it is to put wisdom within and to give understanding to the spirit, who numbers the clouds and inclines (or stays) the pitchers of heaven, when the dust is dissolved, and the clods are compacted together!
From the wonders of inanimate creation above, beneath, and around, Jehovah now turns to the phenomena of the animal kingdom. The lion, the raven, the wild goat or ibex, the wild ass, the wild ox, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, and the eagle successively appear, to convince of ignorance and powerlessness him who ventures to sit in judgment on God’s doings.
Dost thou hunt prey for the lioness,
And fill the desire of the young lions,
When they couch in dens—abide in the covert in ambush?
Who provideth for the raven his meat,
When his young cry to God [El]—wander without food?
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bear?
Watchest thou over the calving of the hinds?
Numberest thou the months that they fulfill?
And knowest thou the time of their bearing?
They bow themselves, they bring forth their young;
They cast away their pangs.
Their young fatten, grow up in the desert,
They go forth, and return to them no more?
Who sent forth the wild ass free,
And who loosed the bands of the fleeing one?
Whose house I made the desert, and his abode the
salt land.
He laugheth at the tumult of the city,
The cries of the driver he heareth not,
The range of mountains [is] his pasture,
And he seeketh after every green thing.
Will the wild ox choose to serve thee?
Will he pass the night over thy crib?
Dost thou bind the wild ox in the furrow of his
cord?
Doth he harrow the valleys after thee?
Wilt thou trust him because his strength [is] great?
And wilt thou leave unto him thy labor?
Dost thou trust him that he will bring back thy
seed,
And gather up thy threshing-floor?
The wing of the ostrich waveth joyously;
Is it the pinion and plumage of the stork?
For she leaveth on the earth her eggs,
And warmeth [them] on the dust,
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them,
And that the wild beast may trample them.
She (lit. he) is hard on her young [as if] not for her;
Without fear her labor is in vain;
For God hath caused her to forget wisdom,
And hath not given her a portion in understanding;
What time she lifteth herself up on high,
She laugheth at the home, and at his rider.
Dost thou give to the horse might?
Dost thou clothe his neck with quivering mane?
Dost thou make him leap like the locust?
The majesty of his snorting is terrible.
They paw in the valley, and he exulteth strength;
He goeth forth to meet the armor.
He laugheth at fear, and trembleth not,
Nor turneth back from the face of the sword.
Against him rattleth the quiver, the blade of spew:
and lance.
With rush and rage he swalloweth the ground,
And stayeth not fixed when the trumpet soundeth,
Among the trumpets he saith, Aha!
And from afar he scenteth the battle,
The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting.
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,
And spread his pinions to the south?
Doth the eagle mount up at thy bidding,
And build his nest on high?
He inhahiteth a rock, and lodgeth
On the tooth of a rock, and a fastness.
Thence he espieth food; afar his eyes behold,
And his young ones lap blood,
And where the slain [are], there [is] he.
If the king of wild beasts is first named, it is not without purpose that the raven follows. The contrast is marked; but Jehovah cared for both. He is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Was Job the one to hunt prey for the lioness, and fill the craving of her young, themselves soon enough learning to catch the prey, and springing from the thickets where they couched? Was it for Job to provide the raven with meat? Did not the cry of its young enter the ear of God, as they wandered, voracious, without food? Again, was it Job that looked after the mountain goat, or kept watch over the hinds at a time most critical for themselves and their offspring? Assuredly there is not one whose months El does not count, whose time of bearing He does not know. He that reckons the hairs of our heads, sees every sparrow that falls, and has His part in all, as the Saviour let the trembling disciples know for their encouragement, as they went forth at His word. So here Jehovah shows that, if man boasts His scanty knowledge of beasts and birds, and counts their classification science, it is His province, not man’s, to enter into and watch over the need of every one, the most removed from human habitation, no less than those whose croakings disturb man’s ease, it may be, but are ever before God, who has made them all, and provides for each as a faithful Creator.
Think of the blindness of rationalism, which, in so magnificent a disproof of human presumption and complaint of God, sees no more than Job’s ignorance of the time a hind, or other animal named, takes in gestation! Clearly it is a question here, not of zoological lore, but of that beneficent care which accompanies perfect knowledge of every creature. If God exercised such vigilant oversight, according to the goodness and wisdom which made them, over young or old, beast or bird, even the least familiar or most inaccessible, was it not for Job to listen and learn, instead of darkening counsel by words without knowledge? And certainly His ways with saints are incomparably deeper than His dealings with the mere animal realm. Yet there we see everywhere His sovereign disposal. He, not man, has made them what they are, and ordered their habits and their habitations. If He has given some to be the burden-bearers of man, He has given others immunity from any such servitude, as the wild ass, with its house in the desert, and its dwelling-place in the steppe, where a city’s tumult, and a driver’s cries are unknown, and the mountain range he can reconnoiter at will, as he searches out every green thing.
Nor can Job, or any other, pretend, whatever their thoughts or talk, that they can reduce the wild ox to the purposes of man in ordinary labor, or to submit quietly to his control or care. His strength might be invaluable; but He who made all, and gave Adam dominion over fish and fowl, cattle, every reptile, and all the earth did not bind the wild ox to the furrow of his cord, nor to harrow after Job; nor did He ask Job to leave labors of the field to his responsibility, whether at the beginning, or at the end.
And as to the ostrich, let its wing speed ever so joyously, still God is sovereign here, let man reason as he may, and makes it to differ as widely as one can conceive, from the pinion and plumage of the stork, whose care for its offspring is proverbially familiar. No bird is, on the contrary, so stolid as she, where natural instincts are usually strongest, none less cautious. But this is not without God, who takes in more than man can grasp, and is pleased, of His own will and wisdom, to deprive the ostrich of wisdom, though He has also endowed her with a swiftness which mocks the swiftest horse with its rider. Let man then mark, learn, and worship, and not set up to judge God or to murmur. This were folly more guilty than the racer’s of the desert, as well as irreverence and rebellion.
From this Jehovah turns to the war-horse, described in a way worthy of Him who spoke, which makes the more vivid impression, as here He comes down to where we might be disposed to think ourselves at home. Other animals might be more or less strange and distant; but though man, and Arab man above all, might conceive himself to have some title to speak of what he most loves to use for use or ease, for pride or love, what had he to do with giving the horse its might or fluttering mane? its locust like bound? the glory of its snorting, a terror to others? its pawing, impatient of restraint, and exulting in its strength? or its undismayed advance, no matter what the clang or the flash of arms? See how with impetuous rage it seems to bite the ground, so that it is not to be hold in when the trumpets sound, and it answers each blast with Aha! as it scents the fight from afar, and the thunder and the shouting of the chiefs.
Next, was it man that taught the hawk to soar, and spread his wings to the land of Teman? Was it he who bade the eagle mount up, and build his house on the high rock, whence his piercing eye descries food, or gives his young ones to lap blood? or himself to be where the slain are found?