Job 38:4–7

The whole address is largely in the form of questions. Job had presumed to sit in judgment on the Lord and His ways; his competence for this is tested: what does he know? What can he do? The creature is so small in power, so ignorant, and yet so full of empty pride. Shall he presume to instruct God about His duties, to point out His failures, in fact to take over what belongs to Him alone?

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" (v.4). Does the earth have foundations — an earth that turns in space with nothing to hold it up? Yes, it could not even exist without a basic foundation of truth, but could Job explain this? Can anyone today explain it? No! For one thing, none of us was present when God laid these foundations. And who can understand how creation came into existence? "For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm" (Psalm 33:9). The earth's foundations and the earth itself were created at the same instant, simply by the word of God.

When, in the end, all the cloud of words had died away, the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind. What will He say? How will He explain the things that Job's friends have failed to explain? How will He complete the explanations that Elihu began? He didn't do it! God did not utter one word of explanation about Himself. Not one word to answer the questions Job had asked. His words were entirely about the things of this earth and of nature.

Present-day knowledge can talk in a learned way about nebulae and the solar system, about attraction and the laws of gravitation. It can explain how these laws work together to give the earth its shape and its stable place among the heavenly bodies. It can explain how the particles of the earth hold together, by the laws of cohesion and chemical affinity. But law means a Law-giver. Who established these laws? How do they act without ever failing? Revelation, and revelation alone, gives the answer — "in him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17). Where was Job, where was man, when the Lord established and set these laws in motion?

In these words God takes up only a small part of His wisdom and power in the outward world. He does so because that part is so small a thing compared with the ways of His grace. They are no more than what, so to speak, His fingers have formed... Do you suppose that His ways with us are merely the product of such skill? They speak of incomparably more. His heart, His thoughts, His plan of love and goodness — all that God is — has come out in the blessing of His saints.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God." This is where faith begins. So is the truth that whoever comes to God must believe that He is. Job did believe in God as existing, but his faith was not simple and settled in the might of God, in His greatness. He is now called to consider whether he could explain or know the origin of any of God's works.

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" He does not mean that Job did not know Him at all. But He did mean that his knowledge was limited, and that he had no adequate knowledge of the dealings of God. Job had been questioning the dealings of God. Now God turns it back on him; now He says, I am going to ask you, and answer Me like a man if you can. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" What an overwhelming question! What did Job know about it? "Who determined its measurements — surely you know!" He did not know. "Or who stretched the line upon it?"

"Who determined its measurements — surely you know!" (v.5). Of course Job knew that only God could do this. "Who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?" (v.6). Certainly the foundations of the earth are not fastened to anything visible to us. Whether Job knew this at that time or not, he could not answer God's question.

It almost looks as if Paul were alluding to God's work in creation, as stated in Job 38:5, where God Himself asks, of the earth, "Who determined its measurements — surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?" He is a God who works by measure and by line, whether in creation or in the administration connected with His grace.

Present day knowledge can speak in detail about nebulae and the solar system, about attraction and the laws of gravitation. It can explain that the working together of these laws has given the earth its shape and its steady relation to the heavenly bodies. It can explain that the particles of the earth cling together by the laws of cohesion and chemical affinity. But law means a Law-giver. Who has established these laws? How do they act unfailingly? Revelation, and that alone, gives the answer — "By Him all things consist" (Col. 1:17). Where was Job, where was man, when the Lord established and set in motion these laws and principles? The form of the question met Job's knowledge at that time; it equally meets man's advanced knowledge at the present.

Who, Jehovah further asks, has laid down the measures of this great fabric and set His line upon it? The question suggests the possibility of another Presence. It points to One who was with Him, and who acted for Him in laying down and carrying out the whole vast plan. Who was this? "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old… Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth" (Prov. 8:22, 25). Or in the language of the New Testament, "All things were made by Him" (John 1:3).

And yet Jehovah is not seeking to crush Job. He is seeking to bring him to a true knowledge of himself and of God… The very fact that Jehovah addresses Job in this way shows His purposes of mercy for him. His appeal is to reason, and so to conscience. He leads Job through the vast, and yet familiar, scenes of creation. Can he solve one of ten thousand of its riddles?

Though Job had heard something about the Lord, it was not enough to meet Job's actual need. Now the Lord brought him face to face with His own greatness and glory. The result was, "I abhor myself." It was not simply a matter of what he had done that he abhorred, but himself. This was the root of what he may have done, and God was dealing with that root: the pride of Job's very character. Every believer needs to be brought down to this very point.

God appears on the scene for the express purpose of flattening the pretensions of man. He does it in the most magnificent language, as far as I know, that was ever spoken on such subjects — language worthy of Him who is said to have spoken it. Jehovah appears to put Job in his true place, and that place was dust and ashes. Jehovah only touches the skirts of His power, the outer edge of His glory; yet what had man to say? And did he who could not explain God's least things presume to judge the deepest part of His ways and designs?

"To what were its foundations fastened?" Two things are true of the earth. Stability for the time — that is the point here, and that is why the verse speaks of foundations. But this same book of Job gives another view: the earth hangs on nothing. That never entered anyone's mind until recent times. Even scientists have only just arrived at it. But there it was in Scripture before them.

Jehovah begins with the earth, the home of man. Does Job know the history of his own dwelling place? Where was he when the great Architect laid its foundations? They were sunk not in shifting sand, nor on lasting rock, but in the empty space of apparent nothingness.

Who, Jehovah further asks, has laid down the measures of this great structure and set His line upon it? The question suggests the possibility of another Presence, of One who was with Him, His agent in laying down and carrying out the whole vast plan. Who was this? "The LORD possessed Me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old… Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth" (Prov. 8:22, 25). Or in the language of the New Testament, "All things were made through Him" (John 1:3). Here was a truth more wonderful even than creation.

The corner stone, the foundation of the earth — who laid it? Where is it? What is the basic law of physics or of chemistry? Does science know any more now than Job did then? Atoms and ions are grouped together, clasped and unclasped, as other great laws are brought to bear on them. Where is the foundational law? "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11). To be brought to God, to know Him, is the object of all facts.

God is speaking here to Job, a man on earth. He names sons of God who were present, and who showed their delight, when He made the foundation of the earth firm and laid the corner-stone. Intelligent creatures, heavenly beings, already existed then, and they watched God prepare the earth for man.

God appears on the scene for the express purpose of destroying the pretensions of man. Here the Lord uses the most magnificent language I know of on such subjects. He appears to put Job in his true place, and that place was dust and ashes. Who and what was Job to speak or murmur against God? The Lord only touches the skirts of His power, the outer edge of His glory; yet what had man to say? And did the man who could not explain God's least things presume to judge the deepest part of His ways and designs?

There is no doubt the sons of God are angels (Job 1:6), who were therefore created before the earth was. If "the morning stars" are literal stars, then the stars too were created before the earth was. Some may object that Genesis 1:16 seems to place the making of the stars on the fourth day, when the earth was made over. But that notice is likely not in time order. It records a creation earlier than the history of the fourth day. We may question whether literal stars can sing, but science tells us a harmony of sound comes from the stars. At the very least there was a great celebration among God's creatures when He created the earth.

Job 38:7 seems to express in poetry the joy of the heavenly bodies when God first brought them in as the hosts of heaven. With it came the audible shout of the angels, whom this book, like Genesis, calls God's sons.

The expression "sons of God" seems to suggest not merely a spirit-nature, but moral likeness to God as well. The mention of "Satan" in contrast underlines this further. "Sons of God" shouted for joy when God founded the material universe. We know too that infernal beings will also own that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). But that is by compulsion; the worship of the "sons of God" flows out of their hearts.

There has been a creation song, when the earth came fresh from the hands of God and "the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy." But sin spoiled that beautiful creation, and singing gave way to weeping, and songs to groans. In the thousand-year day to come, earth will become new. Creation's groan will stop, and heaven and earth will unite in a new song.

The corner stone, the foundation of the earth — who laid it? Where is it? What is the basic law of physics or of chemistry? Does science know now any more than Job did then? Other great laws come to bear on atoms and ions, grouping them, clasping and unclasping them. Where is the foundation law? "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). To be brought to God, to know Him, is the object of all facts, and nature is only in harmony with the great mediatorial law when it leads us to Him. Only when seen this way do we hear the morning stars sing together. Only then do the sons of God shout aloud for joy.