Whereupon were the foundations thereof sunken? or who laid its corner-stone,
God finally answers Job out of the storm, and He begins not with Job's suffering but with the making of the world. The verse reads like a builder's challenge — footings, a cornerstone, a site no human being ever saw.
These questions are not curiosity. God aims them at a man who had argued with Him about His government. They show how little Job knows of even the outer edge of God's power.
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?
Footings for the earth raise an obvious problem. What could they rest on? One writer, whose translation reads "foundations" where the ESV has "bases," finds two truths here. He notes that Scripture stated the second long before anyone else did.
"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.
Ordinary builders sink footings into rock or sand. God had neither.
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.
The measuring line of the previous verse hints at more than one worker on the project, and commentators trace that hint through the rest of Scripture.
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.
Job could not answer. Neither, says one writer, can the laboratory — and the search for the bottom-most law drives the reader past nature to Christ.
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.
Job was absent, but the site was not empty. The singing of verse 7 tells us who stood there.
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.
- Who asks — God meets Job's complaints with questions. They put a man who judged His deepest ways back where he belongs: dust and ashes.
- Who founded — the earth stands firm, yet hangs on nothing. Scripture said so long before science caught up.
- Who else was there — the question hints at Another present at the work, spoken of in Proverbs 8 and in "All things were made through Him."
- Who laid the cornerstone — no chemistry or physics reaches the foundational law. The only foundation anyone can build on is Jesus Christ.
- Who watched — heavenly beings already existed. They showed their delight as God prepared the earth for man, and man himself was nowhere on the scene.
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
God answers Job by asking about the day He laid the earth's foundations. Job was not there to see it, but others were — and they sang.
Job had spoken and murmured against God. God's reply strips away every claim man makes for himself.
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?
The verse names two choirs. One is named "sons of God." Who they are answers another question: when did angels come into being?
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.
Commentators differ here. The next writer reads the stars' song as poetry, and the angels' shout as a sound truly heard.
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 name given to these beings says something about their character. Their joy also stands in contrast with a confession that is forced.
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.
That first chorus did not last. One writer follows what became of creation's music, and what will become of it.
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 song here answers a question God asks just before it: who laid the earth's corner stone? Science still has no answer.
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.
- Foundation. God answers Job's complaint by pointing back to the day He founded the earth. Job never saw it, and he was in no place to judge the One who did.
- Witnesses. The "sons of God" are angels, so angels existed before the earth did. Some take the "morning stars" as literal stars; others as poetry for the same heavenly host.
- Worship. Their shout was not forced. Evil powers will one day confess Christ because they must; these sang out of their hearts.
- Silence. Sin broke the song: singing gave way to weeping, and songs to groans.
- New song. The corner stone question points past physics to Christ. The earth that lost its music will join heaven in a new song.