Job 38:1 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Job 42:6

The discourses of Jehovah.

At length, in answer to the repeated appeals of Job, the Almighty appears, not to crush and overwhelm, as fear had often suggested, but to reason with his servant; to appeal to his spiritual intelligence, rather than to smite him into lower prostration by some thunderbolt of rebuke. "Come now, and let us reason together," is the gracious invitation of him who is Eternal Reason, amidst the wild clamours of our passion and despondency. At the same time, this revelation of the majesty of God humiliates and purifies the recipient of it, teaching him his own littleness and limitation in presence of this fulness of might and of wisdom. God, as the Almighty and only Wise, with whom no mortal may contend in judgment, may appoint the sufferings of the righteous for their probation and purification. And thus the great problem of the book, the enigma of life, receives from the highest Source its long-delayed solution.—J.

Verse 1-39:30

First discourse of Jehovah: God the Almighty and the All-wise: man may not contend with him.

I. INTRODUCTION . APPEARANCE OF GOD ; SUMMONS TO JOB . ( Job 39:1-3 .) Out of the storm, in all its grandeur and beauty, which had been gathering while Elihu was speaking, the voice of the Creator is heard, calling upon Job, as one who has been obscuring the Divine counsel by ignorant words, to gird up his loins and prepare for the contest he has so often invoked.

II. GOD 'S QUESTIONS TO MAN 'S REASON AND CONSCIENCE . (Verse 4- Job 39:30 .) These questions all appeal to man's wonder and curiosity, which impel him to seek the causes of things, and are therefore indirect reminders of his ignorance which can find no last answer to the questions he cannot but ask.

1 . Questions on the mode of creation. (Verses 4-15.)

"Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form

Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,—

Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm,

Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime

Dark-heaving—boundless, endless, and sublime,

The image of eternity, the throne

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime

The monsters of the deep are made; each zone

Obeys thee: thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone"

2 . Question continued : earth ' s depths and heights , and the forces that thence proceed. (Verses 16-27.)

3 . The wonders of the air and starry heavens. (Verses 28-38.)

4 . The animal world. (Verse 39- Job 39:30 .) A rich field of study is opened here in the evidences of natural history to the creative power and the loving providence of God for all his creatures. We cannot turn our sermons into lectures on natural history; to descend into details would be to lose sight of those grand elementary truths of which nature's every page furnishes such abundant illustrations. For purposes of teaching, religion and science must to some extent be kept apart in their consideration. That is, we must not burden religious teaching with natural details, however interesting; nor interrupt at every step a scientific lesson, in order to pronounce a homily, or thrust forward a moral application. But viewed in a general way for the purpose of stimulating intelligent religious feeling, the animal world presents: