But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowl of the heavens, and they shall tell thee;
Zophar has just lectured Job on the greatness of God. Job answers with sarcasm, and points him to the animals, the birds, the earth and the fish. The invitation to "ask the beasts" is no gentle nature meditation. It is an argument, and commentators read what the creatures teach in more than one way.
Job aims his appeal to the animal world straight at the friend who has just lectured him.
This is also in answer to Zophar's argument. Zophar had spoken of the greatness of God. The wisdom which Zophar had tried to impress upon him is so elementary that the beasts themselves know something about it.
One reading takes the animals as Job's evidence, and the evidence is grim.
"But ask now the beasts" — there is something triumphant here. "Why," he says, "the very beasts know more than you, and prove more than all your speeches!"… That is, the whole creation — God's lower creation on the earth — is a proof that things are not yet according to God. Do they not prey on one another? Do not the great swallow up the small? And is not man the one who deals death to beasts and birds and fish, and everything else, for his own pleasure? I do not mean only for food, but to please himself at all costs.
Commentators differ here. Others hear Job beating Zophar at his own subject. He calls the creatures as witnesses to the Creator's power.
He proceeds then, in verse 7, to show far more than Zophar did, the greatness and wisdom of God. He appeals to creation, the beasts, the birds, the earth, the fish as witnesses of the great variety of actions of power and greatness on the part of the Creator. "The hand of the Lord has done this" (v.9).
Both readings meet at the same place. The hand behind it all is God's, and Job presses that on the friends themselves.
In that hand of power, Job says, is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind — not only his own breath, but his three friends' breath too. He would not let them think of themselves as detached onlookers, free to judge others while no one judged them.
Some read this verse as a standing invitation to learn from the created world.
Nature itself, even more fully than the Old Testament, is an object lesson, a divine picture-writing, a teaching by type. It surely is. We may not yet hold the full key to it, but in every age its lessons have been taught and learnt — most simply, perhaps, in the earliest ages. As we grow older we lose the unsuspecting faith of childhood, which in many respects is the truest wisdom.
Asking the animals takes a person only so far.
The unbeliever may tell us that God is to be known in creation. Did anyone ever find Him out there? No doubt creation does prove the existence of a Creator. The first chapter of the letter to the Romans says: "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Creation gives a testimony the nations were bound to receive. Had they received it, a higher light would certainly have shone on them. But they did not receive it. Instead they worshipped the things that were made, rather than the One who made them. Philosophers talk of rising from nature up to nature's God. But nature is a ruin, and man himself is a ruin inside that ruin. Instead of rising to nature's God, he makes a god of nature, and sinks below the level of a beast.
- Sarcasm. Job's opening move is sharp. What Zophar called deep wisdom about God is so basic that animals could teach it.
- Witnesses. Job calls beasts, birds, earth and fish into court. Commentators differ on the verdict. Some hear them proving that the world is not yet as God means it to be. Others hear them declaring the Creator's power.
- Hand. Both readings end in the same confession. This is God's doing, and He holds the breath of every creature — and every critic — in His hand.
- Book. The created world is God's second book — an object lesson whose lessons have been taught and learnt in every age.
- Limit. The creatures can convict, but they cannot introduce. They leave a person without excuse; they never, on their own, bring anyone to know God.
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Job is answering Zophar. Instead of arguing back point for point, he sends his friends to the animals, the birds, the ground and the sea to learn. That raises two questions. What do the creatures know that his friends do not? And can nature teach us about God on its own?
Job is answering a claim his friends had made about how God runs the world.
In verse 6 Job challenged the main position that his friends had taken. They said that God always rewards the godly with prosperity on earth, and brings disaster down on the wicked. He said it was not so. There were cases when robbers prospered, and men who provoked God were safe. As proof he pointed to what anyone can see in the lower creation — beasts, birds and fishes. He was pointing, we suppose, to the disorder that man's sin has brought in even there. The weaker meet disaster and destruction from the stronger, and all of this happens by God's permission.
The lesson the creatures give is not a comforting one.
The whole creation — the lower creation of God on the earth — is a proof that things are not yet according to God. Do they not prey on one another? Do not the great swallow up the small? And is not man the great dealer of death to beasts and birds and fishes, and everything else, for his own pleasure? I do not mean merely for food, but to please himself at all costs. In short, it is not merely what the Lord allows, but man makes it serve his lusts, his luxury, everything except God.
Job's confidence that the earth can teach a man is not poetic exaggeration.
Scripture being witness, however, nature does teach. "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." (Rom. 1:20.) "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." (Ps. 19:1.) The work must declare the Craftsman. And the Worker, we are assured, is He who is called the "Word of God" because He is the Revealer. (John 1:1-3.) So creation must be part of this revelation.
If the earth teaches, why not learn from it and leave the Bible aside? Because nature teaches in parables, and a parable does not settle doctrine.
Now, if this is true, as it surely is, the continuity of Nature and Revelation is assured. It does not mean, as one writer suggests, that the book of nature is the simpler to read, the surer to follow, and therefore the more authoritative. The opposite is true. For if nature teaches by parable, no parable is the first authority on doctrine. Its importance is still hard to exaggerate. But it leaves Scripture as the one place where God speaks to us "face to face."
Commentators differ on how well Job handles his own evidence. One writer sees a real danger in where Job's argument lands.
Creation — in earth and air and sea — will confirm him in witnessing that God is everywhere and does everything. His conclusion from this, however, leads him dangerously near charging God with being the author of evil. If he means only that God is all-powerful, everyone would agree at once. But the words that follow show his gloomy mind and distorted view dwelling on the dark side of nature. It is in this that his danger lies.
The disorder Job points to has a cause and an end. Man dragged the creatures down with him.
Man's sin has not only brought ruin on himself. It has spoiled his home and dragged down all the creatures that depend on him... God made man, unlike angels, the centre of a system of things. The whole of this lower creation either suffers or rejoices with its head. This is its time of suffering. "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now" (Rom. 8:22)... When Christ comes, bringing with Him the whole glorified family of God, creation will be set free. Its bondage to corruption will give way to the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
- Ask. Job does not offer a better theory. He tells his friends to go and look: the ground and the sea are witnesses they never called.
- Hear. Their witness is that things are not yet as God intends. The strong devour the weak, and man kills for pleasure — all by God's permission.
- Learn. Creation is real revelation, because the Maker is the Revealer. His power and divine nature show in the things He made.
- Check. Nature teaches by parable, so it cannot settle doctrine alone. Scripture is where God speaks to us face to face.
- Wait. Job read the dark side alone and came close to blaming God. That same groaning creation is waiting to be set free with the children of God.
Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this?
Job has just heard Zophar lecture him on the greatness of God. He answers with sarcasm — the beasts already know what his friends call deep wisdom — and with a hard question: if God's hand has done all this, what does the state of the world say about Him?
Job's friends held a simple rule: God rewards the good with comfort and strikes the wicked with disaster. Job disputes the rule, and points to the animal world as his evidence.
In verse 6 Job challenged the main position his friends had taken. They said that God always rewards godly people with prosperity here on earth, and brings disaster down on the head of the wicked. Job held that it was not so. There were cases where robbers prospered and men who provoked God were left secure. As proof he pointed to what can be seen in the lower creation — beasts, birds and fishes. He meant, we suppose, the disorder that man's sin has brought in even there, so that the weaker meet disaster and destruction from the stronger — and all of this by God's permission.
Job's reply is aimed straight at Zophar.
This is also in answer to Zophar's argument. Zophar had spoken of the greatness of God. The wisdom which Zophar had tried to impress upon him is so elementary that the beasts themselves know something about it.
Job calls witnesses that cannot even speak.
The fish of the sea have practically no voice, and do not know how to talk — yet they too will declare it to you. That is, the whole creation — the lower creation of God upon the earth — is proof that things are not yet according to God. Do they not prey upon one another? Do not the great swallow up the small? And is not man the great dealer of death to beasts and birds and fishes, and everything, for his own pleasure? I do not mean merely for food, but to please himself at any cost. In short, it is not only what the Lord allows: man makes it serve his lusts, his luxury, everything except God. … "Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?" He cannot deny that the Lord has left it in this way.
One detail here is easy to miss: which name of God the verse uses.
Notice how "the Almighty" (how God had revealed Himself to the fathers) appears freely in the speeches of Job and his friends, as well as "God" as such. The writer uses "Jehovah" only when he is describing God, or introducing Him as speaking. The one exception is in Job 12:9.
The name is not just another word for God. It speaks of relationship, and it is the name used when God Himself speaks in the book.
You will notice that this name has not appeared after Job 2 (except in Job 12:9) in the historical part. But now, before the history itself closes, the book brings Him in again. We have Him speaking with His authority and in His relationship — that is exactly what "Jehovah" means. This is not God in the abstract, but God in relation to man on the earth.
Job is right that God's hand is behind everything. The danger is what he does next with that truth.
Creation — in earth and air and sea — will back him up as he witnesses that God is everywhere and does everything. The conclusion he draws from it, however, brings him dangerously near to charging God with being the author of evil. He would appeal to age and experience to confirm it. If he means only that God is all-powerful, everyone would agree at once. But the words that follow show that his gloomy mind and distorted view are dwelling on the dark side of nature. That is where his danger lies.
When God Himself answers, He asks Job about the same creation Job had called as his witness.
They are not so much a revelation of truth as a question to Job, asking whether he knows the truths that lie all around him in the vast creation of God. That is what makes these words of Jehovah so wonderful. He speaks, not "in a tongue no man can understand," but in the language of nature — about the earth, the sky, the clouds and rain, and beasts and birds.
- The taunt. Job answers Zophar's grand talk of God's greatness by sending him to the beasts. They already know what his friends called deep wisdom.
- The witness. Creation teaches what his friends refuse to hear. The strong devour the weak, the world is not yet as God means it to be, and so far God has left it that way.
- The name. One word lifts the verse: "the LORD." It is the only place that name appears in the whole debate, and it means God in relation to man on the earth.
- The drift. Job's starting point is sound, but his conclusion slides. Dwelling on the dark side of nature brings him near to blaming God for evil, and that is where his danger lies.
- The answer. God replies in the language of nature Job had appealed to. He asks whether Job understands the creation lying all around him.
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man.
Job's friends insist that suffering always proves guilt. He answers by pointing to the animals, the earth and the sea. Every creature alive holds its life at God's disposal. Few verses say so plainly that life is not owned but only held. The harder question is whether Job says it in worship or in protest.
Job begins this argument back in verse 6.
In verse 6 Job challenged the main position that his friends had taken. They said that God always rewards godly people with prosperity here, and brings disaster on the wicked. He said this was not true. There were cases where robbers prospered, and where people who provoked God were safe. To prove it he pointed to what we can see in the lower creation — beasts, birds and fishes. He was pointing, we suppose, to the disorder that man's sin has brought in even there. The weaker meet disaster and destruction from the stronger, and God permits all of it.
Job tells his friends to ask the animals. What they show is a world not yet running the way God will have it.
"Why," he says, "the very beasts know more than you, and prove more than all your speeches!"… The whole creation — the lower creation of God upon the earth — is a proof that things are not yet according to God. Do they not prey on one another? Do not the great swallow up the small? And is not man the great bringer of death to beasts, birds and fishes, and to everything else, for his own pleasure?… "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind" — and yet He allows them to break forth in this lawless way.
Job uses two different Hebrew words in one line. Older translations show this by reading "soul" where the ESV reads "life."
Other passages in the Old Testament show us that soul and spirit were not confused. They were known and kept apart… Job also contrasts soul and spirit. The first belongs to every living thing. The second is found in man alone. He asks, "In whose hand is the soul (nephesh) of every living thing, and the breath (rooagh) of all mankind?"
If God holds animal life and human breath alike, what makes the human case different? Commentators trace it back to how man received life in the first place.
God did not only put the rest of the animal kingdom under man here below. Man alone also had his life direct from above. "The LORD God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." No other animal became a living soul in this way… This is why man alone stands in direct moral responsibility to God. He must give account for the things done in the body to the God who gave him his soul and spirit in this way.
(The older translation Kelly quotes reads "man became a living soul.")
The statement itself is true. But commentators note that Job is pressing it in a direction that begins to accuse the One who holds the breath.
Creation — in earth and air and sea — will confirm him in witnessing that God is everywhere and does everything. His conclusion from this, however, leads him dangerously near charging God with being the author of evil… If he means only that God is all-powerful, everyone would agree at once. But the words that follow show his gloomy mind and distorted vision are dwelling on the dark side of nature. It is in this that his danger lies.
Away from the debate, the verse tests an assumption most people live by.
Men delight in the thought that they are independent of God, but it is a delusion, they are not, for in Him we live and move and have our being. He is the faithful Creator, giving to all life and breath, and all things. His mercies preserve us. Every breath of our nostrils and every throb of our feeble hearts is by God's power and ordering.
Another writer turns the verse on the reader as a warning: "'And the God in whose hand your breath is'… 'Your breath' too is in His hand. The little string of life only has to break, and you pass from time into eternity." (W. T. P. Wolston)
- One hand. Job's whole case rests on one fact. Every creature's life and every person's breath sit in God's hand, not their own.
- Creation testifies. Ask the animals and the friends' tidy rule falls apart. The strong devour the weak, and God allows it. So suffering today is no proof of guilt.
- Two words. "Soul" covers every living thing. "Breath" belongs to mankind alone. Job marks the difference with two words.
- One responsibility. Man alone received life breathed from God. So man alone must give account to Him for what he does in the body.
- One warning. Job held this truth bitterly and came close to blaming God. Hold it humbly instead. Nobody lives a day free of the hand that holds the string of life.