Job 38:33 - Exposition

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? i.e. the physical laws by which the course of nature is governed (comp. Psalms 119:90 , Psalms 119:91 ; Psalms 148:6 ). The general prevalence of law in the material world is quite as strongly asserted by the sacred writers as by modern science. The difference is that modern science regards the laws as physical necessities, self-subsisting, while Scripture looks upon them as the ordinances of the Divine will. This latter view involves, of course, the further result that the Divine will can at any time suspend or reverse any of its enactments. Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? If Job does not even know the laws whereby the world is governed, much less can he establish such laws himself, and make them work.