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, and I 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?
Hast 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?
Hast 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,
And to 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 here 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 disclose 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 pot, 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!