Who shaketh the earth out of its place, and the pillars thereof tremble;
Job is answering Bildad with a picture of God's power: mountains overturned, the earth shaken out of its place, sun and stars switched off at a word. The description is grand, but a painful question drives it: if God is this strong, how can a man ever be right with Him?
The trembling pillars are earthquake language. One writer takes the pictures one at a time — earth, then sky, then sea.
God could remove mountains by an earthquake. It shakes the earth and makes even its steadiest parts tremble. Also, high above the earth, He could command the sun not to rise — that is, as far as we can see. Of course He does this by placing clouds in the sky, and the clouds hide the stars too... Whether the earth or sky or sea, He is in perfect control.
Job piles up this power for a reason. It belongs to a question he raised at the start of the chapter.
He began by admitting that God's disciplinary ways are right. But he raised the all-important question: how could a man be right with God? In our day the short sentence, "Get right with God," has been used to awaken interest in the gospel message. It might well provoke the reply, "Yes, but how is it to be achieved?"
One answer is to fight back and argue the case out with God. Job weighed that and saw where it ends.
Sin has made mankind into rebels, so defying God is their first instinct. But Job saw how ruinous such an attitude would be. God is so infinitely great that no rebel can prosper... The earth and the heavens with their constellations proclaim the Creator's greatness and glory.
Commentators differ on Job's tone here. One holds that every word of the description is true, and that something vital is still left out of it.
In this part Job enlarges upon the power and greatness of God. The language is noble and the description is true. But underneath lies the awful doubt about this great and powerful Being's goodness. God overturns the unconscious mountains in His wrath; He makes the earth to tremble... These are marvellous sweeps of language, taking in the whole heavens. But sadly it is not, "The heavens declare the glory of God." It is a declaration of absolute, unstoppable Power.
The same writer hears a cornered man in the opening lines. Job grants that God is just because there is no appeal against Him.
This is terrible. It is not someone humbly asking God for a reason, as Jeremiah does in similar circumstances (Jeremiah 12:1-4). It is the hardness of despair — might is right, and God has the might on His side.
His trouble was never doubt about the source of his suffering. That certainty was precisely the problem.
That is exactly where Job was. He was quite sure that it was of God, and that is the very thing that made the difficulty. Because his conscience was pure toward God, and he knew the goodness of God — and yet how was this? He could not understand it... He was not a proud man; but as all men are, until they learn in the way I have described, he had a very good opinion of himself. That must all come down.
One writer names what Job was missing — and what no one on earth knew then.
Job did not doubt that God would see him through all his difficulties. But he could not imagine on what ground of righteousness that could be done. If man was a poor sinful man, and yet God showed him saving mercy, how was man to be just? You cannot put justice and sins together until you have Christ. He died for the sins and rose again for the believer's justification. There the sins are completely blotted out. How could Job know anything about that? Nobody knew it; no man on earth.
- Power — the shaking earth and trembling pillars are earthquake language. What looks most solid moves when God acts, on land, in the sky and at sea.
- Question — Job piles up that power to press one point: how can a man be right with God? "Get right with God" is quickly said, but how is it to be done?
- Defiance — arguing your case against a God who overturns mountains can only ruin you. No rebel prospers.
- Doubt — the poetry is true but incomplete. It declares unstoppable power, not goodness; one writer hears despair in it, not worship.
- Answer — what Job lacked was Christ, who died for the sins and rose again for the believer's justification. Only there do justice and sins meet, and the good opinion of self comes down.
Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and he sealeth up the stars;
Bildad has argued that God is just, and Job agrees — then turns that agreement into a problem. He piles up pictures of a God so strong that the sun will not rise at His word, yet one question drives it all: how can a man be right with God?
Every line about mountains, sun and stars sits under one question raised a few verses earlier. One writer puts it in today's words:
Job's striking words in Job 9 begin by acknowledging that God's ways of discipline are right. But they raise the all-important question: how could a man be right with God? In our day the short sentence, "Get right with God," has stirred interest in the gospel message. It might well bring the reply, "Yes, but how is it to be done?" That is exactly the question Job asked in verse 2. The rest of the chapter shows how earnest and sincere he was in asking it.
The verse moves from the sun to the stars. One writer reads both halves as God shutting the sky off from our sight:
Also, high above the earth, He could command the sun not to rise — that is, as far as we can see. Of course He does this by placing clouds in the sky, which hide the stars too. He alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. Whether earth or sky or sea, He is in perfect control.
Job's picture sweeps from the mountains up to the whole heavens. Yet one writer notices what is missing from it:
Here Job dwells on the power and greatness of God. The language is noble and the description true. But underneath lies a dreadful doubt about the goodness of this great and powerful Being. God overturns the mountains in His wrath, and they know nothing of it; He makes the earth tremble. Moving from earth to heaven, He makes the sun and stars stop shining… These are marvelous sweeps of language, taking in the whole heavens. But sadly they are not, "The heavens declare the glory of God." They declare absolute, unstoppable Power.
Job speaks calmly here. The same writer weighs the spirit behind the calm and sets Job beside the prophet Jeremiah, who also questioned God's ways:
Although he speaks quietly, there is an intense bitterness in what Job says here. On the surface he agrees with Bildad that God is just. Job says, "Of course He is just, for there is no appeal from whatever He does. He has both wisdom and power, and can crush any useless effort to reason with Him." This is terrible. This is not a man humbly daring to ask God for a reason, as Jeremiah does in similar circumstances (Jeremiah 12:1-4). It is the hardness of despair — might is right, and God has might on His side.
Job believed God would bring him through. What he could not see was how God could count a sinful man righteous:
He knew man was weak and faulty. Still, Job did not doubt that God would bring him through all his troubles. What he could not work out was the ground of righteousness for it. If man was a poor sinful man, and God still showed him saving mercy, how was man to be just? You cannot put justice and sins together until you have Christ, who died for the sins and rose again for the believer's justification. There God blots the sins out completely. How could Job know anything about that?
- The question. The whole chapter grows out of one earnest question: how can a man be right with God?
- The power. God's control reaches past earth to the sky. He can hold back the sunrise and hide the stars. Earth, sky and sea are all in His hands.
- The gap. Job's words are noble and true. But they declare raw, unstoppable Power, not the glory of God, because doubt about God's goodness lies underneath.
- The danger. Job admits God is just only because no one can appeal against Him. That is not Jeremiah's humble questioning. It is the hardness of despair — might is right.
- The answer. Justice and sins only come together in Christ. He died for sins and rose again for the believer's justification — the ground of righteousness Job could not yet see.
Who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the high waves of the sea;
Job speaks these words while answering Bildad. He opens his reply with the question that drives the whole book: how can a man be right with God? What follows is not calm praise. It is a man measuring himself against a power he cannot argue with.
Job's description of God's greatness is not there for its own sake. It is his answer to a problem he cannot solve. One commentator points out that nobody alive yet had the answer.
Job describes in a very grand way what God is in His ways — His uncontrollable power and authority. He knew man was weak and faulty. Even so, Job did not doubt that God would see him through all his difficulties. But he could not imagine on what ground of righteousness. If man was a poor sinful man, and God still showed him saving mercy, how was man to be just? You cannot put justice and sins together until you have Christ. He died for the sins and rose again for the believer's justification. There the sins are completely blotted out. How could Job know anything about that? Nobody knew it; no man on earth.
The verse names two things God does alone. He stretches out the sky, and He walks on the sea. One writer sets that beside the earthquake and the darkened sun in the lines just before. (His wording, "treads on the waves of the sea," follows an older translation.)
God could remove mountains by an earthquake, shaking the earth and causing its most stable features to tremble. Also, high above the earth, He could command the sun not to rise — that is, as far as our vision is concerned. Of course He does this by placing clouds in the sky, so that the stars too are sealed off from view. He "alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea." Whether the earth or sky or sea, He is in perfect control.
Job's words travel. Another writer follows them from the ground up to the sky, then back down to the water.
God overturns the unconscious mountains in His wrath; He makes the earth tremble. Passing from earth to heaven, He causes the sun and stars to stop shining. Returning to earth, He walks upon the raging waves of the sea.
Here is the sting. Every word Job says about God is true. Yet the same writer hears something missing underneath.
The language is noble and the description true. But underneath it lies the awful doubt about this great and powerful Being's goodness… These are marvellous sweeps of language, taking in the whole heavens. Sadly, though, this is not "The heavens declare the glory of God." It is a declaration of absolute, unstoppable Power.
It shows in the way Job talks about God's justice.
Although he speaks quietly, there is an intense bitterness in what Job says here. Apparently agreeing with Bildad that God is just, Job says, "Of course He is just, for there is no appeal from whatever He does. He has both wisdom and power, and can overwhelm any pointless attempt to reason with Him." This is terrible. This is not someone humbly asking God for a reason, as Jeremiah does in a similar situation (Jer. 12:1-4). It is the hardness of despair — might is right, and God has might on His side.
Centuries later, men watched someone do this very thing.
There is a precious New Testament confirmation of His control of the sea, when "He came to them, walking on the sea" (Matt. 14:25), a clear proof that Jesus is God.
And He did it as a Man.
We see Him as a Man, yet the great "I Am," in a scene that shows in picture all the power of evil under His feet. He walks upon the sea as His by double right: in Godhead He created it, and in Manhood it forms part of His vast domain.
- Alone. Sky, sun, stars, earth and sea are all the work of one hand. Nothing in Job's world stands outside God's control.
- Alone, and out of reach. Job's problem is not that God is too weak. It is that no one can argue with Him. His real question is how a man can be right with God.
- True words, cold heart. Every line Job speaks about God is true. Yet it declares raw power, not glory. Despair can say right things.
- The missing answer. No one can put justice and sins together until Christ. He died for sins and rose again for the believer's justification.
- The feet on the water. The One who treads the waves later walked on the sea as a Man — the same power, now seen close enough to touch.
Who maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south;
Job is answering Bildad by piling up the works of God, and he ends with the stars. Why does a man in agony turn to astronomy, and does naming the constellations bring him closer to the God he cannot find?
The first name in the verse is hard to translate. Older English Bibles read "Arcturus"; newer ones read "the Bear."
The word ash or aish has always been a difficult one to translate, and the versions differ a great deal. But most now agree that this is not the star known as Arcturus, but the constellation known as the Great Bear. "His sons" are thought to be the stars in the tail of the bear. In the northern hemisphere this constellation shows all year round. It seems to circle the north star without ever stopping, and none but the mighty God can guide it.
The second group Job names is a cluster, and the Hebrew word says so.
Kimah. The Hebrew means "a heap or collection." The verse names it with Arcturus and Orion, so it doubtless refers to the group of stars that still bears the name Pleiades. In Amos 5:8 the same Hebrew word becomes "seven stars." There are many stars in the group, but seven are visible to the naked eye.
Job's list runs to every quarter of the heavens. It ends with a region he has never seen.
In this part Job enlarges on the power and greatness of God. The language is noble, the description true, but underneath it lies the terrible doubt about this great and powerful Being's goodness. He is the Creator of those distant glorious constellations. Arcturus is in the north. Orion is "sloping downward toward the west." Pleiades is in the east. And there are the unknown "chambers of the south," toward the horizon and beyond sight. This language sweeps across the whole heavens. But sadly it is not "The heavens declare the glory of God." It is a declaration of absolute, unstoppable power.
The first three names belong to the northern sky. The fourth does not.
These are all in the northern sphere. But the people of those days had explored far enough to cross the equator, and they knew there was a southern world. They did not know much about it; they knew very little.
Job is not guessing at any of this.
All the constellations of the stars are His workmanship. Notice that people already knew these astronomical facts at this early date. Job could speak with real knowledge about the greatness of God just as well as Bildad, if not much better.
Job's knowledge of the Creator left him one question he could not answer: how can a sinful man be just before God?
Job did not doubt that God would see him through all his difficulties. But he could not see on what ground of righteousness. If man was a poor sinful man, and God still showed him saving mercy, how was man to be just? You cannot put justice and sins together until you have Christ. He died for the sins and rose again for the believer's justification. There God blots the sins out completely. How could Job know anything about that? Nobody knew it; no man on earth.
When God Himself speaks, He takes up Job's own words and turns them into questions.
Pointing next to the heavenly host, the Lord almost takes up the words of Job (Job 9:9)... Some think the Pleiades stand for a cluster of brilliant jewels: "Can you fasten the shining brooch on the bosom of the night?" Others say the Pleiades is the constellation of Spring, as Orion is the constellation of Winter. To loose the bands of Orion would break up the Winter. To bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades would delay the Spring. Can you hold back the coming of Spring, or bring Winter to an end?
Commentators differ on what these names picture.
Job spoke before God had revealed Himself fully in His Son.
Such passages come before the full revelation of God in the Son that we have today. They show the thoughts and feelings of the creature towards his Creator. It could not be otherwise while Jehovah remained behind the veil. He asserted His majesty in many ways: in His rightful claims in the testing of man, and in view of the coming down of the Son. In the Son He has now shone out in the full glory of His Being and Nature as God.
- Bear — the hard Hebrew word ash is now read as the Great Bear. It circles the north star, and none but the mighty God can guide it.
- Heap — kimah, the Pleiades, means "a heap." The group holds many stars, but the naked eye picks out seven.
- Sweep — north, west, east and the unseen south: Job takes in the whole sky. Yet he confesses unstoppable power, not declared glory.
- Silence — all this knowledge of the Creator still left Job unable to see how a man could be just with God. That answer waits for Christ, who died for sins and rose again.
- Answer — God Himself later takes up Job's own constellations and asks whether Job can bind the Pleiades or loose Orion, turning Job's list into a question.
Who doeth great things past finding out, and wonders without number.
Job is answering Bildad. He piles up the works of God — mountains overturned, the sun and stars darkened, the constellations made — and verse 10 sums them all up. The words are true and beautiful. But a desperate question drives them: if God is this great, how can a man ever be right with Him?
The verse gathers up the list Job has just made. No one can search His works to the bottom. No one can count them. One writer notes how much Job already knew of the sky. He also notes that the God who made it moves through the world unseen:
"He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades and the chambers of the south" (v.9). All the constellations of the stars are His workmanship. Notice that people knew these astronomical facts at this early date. Job could speak of the greatness of God with as much knowledge as Bildad, if not far more. As he says, God "does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number." In fact, God moves in such a way that Job could not see Him at work. Yet God can do what no one can stop.
Everything Job says here is accurate. What is missing is any warmth toward the One he is describing. So his sweep across the heavens does not land where you would expect:
In this part Job enlarges upon the power and greatness of God. The language is noble and the description true. But underneath lies an awful doubt about the goodness of this great and powerful Being. God overturns the unconscious mountains in His wrath; He makes the earth to tremble. Passing from earth to heaven, He causes the sun and stars to stop shining… These are marvellous sweeps of language, taking in the whole heavens. But sadly, it is not, "The heavens declare the glory of God." It is a declaration of absolute, unstoppable Power.
Job's problem is not that he sees too little of God in the sky. It is that what he sees there cannot tell him whether God is kind. Wonders beyond counting prove that Someone is behind them; they do not tell you what that Someone is like:
Unbelief rests on nature as its way of rising from the visible to a knowledge of the Invisible. But nature fails to tell who and what God is. Nature was never intended to tell us. But men reasoned away even what creation should have shown — His eternal power and divinity. The heavens declare His glory, and the sky shows His handiwork. But even that glorious display of wisdom and power could only tell us that there must be a God. It could not tell us that God in His nature is light and love.
Job opened this speech by asking how a man can be right before such a God. His list of unsearchable works only sharpens the question. It waited a long time for an answer:
To justify a man is to reckon him righteous… To justify someone who has done no wrong is simple. Every court in the world can do it. But to justify a sinner is another matter altogether; this presents a problem that only God can solve. Long ago both Job and his friend Bildad raised the question, "How can man be just with God?" (Job 9; 25). Both had in mind that man is fallen and guilty. Their question found no clear answer in Old Testament times. For this answer, as for many another riddle, men had to wait until God sent His beloved Son. "But now," says the Apostle, "the righteousness of God has been manifested" (Rom. 3:21).
Job's question is not a dead end. Pleading your own record with God is:
A man never knows God until he gets to that point — "How shall a man be just with God?" Men are willing to argue with Him. But what good is that? says God. God does love righteousness; but what does that do for me? How many sins today, yesterday, and so on, have I committed? It is no good pleading with God on that ground.
- Unsearchable — Job's list of God's works ends in a confession. No one can trace out the great things or count the wonders.
- Unseen — the God who does them passes by unnoticed, and no one can stop what He does.
- Unwarmed — every word is true, yet doubt of God's goodness runs underneath. It is a hymn to power, not the heavens declaring His glory.
- Unable — creation shows that God is, and shows His eternal power. It was never meant to tell you that He is light and love.
- Unanswered — until Christ — in Job's day the question this greatness raises had no full answer. Now God has made His righteousness known.
Lo, he goeth by me, and I see [him] not; and he passeth along, and I perceive him not.
Job is deep in misery, and he answers his friends by describing a God whose power he can trace everywhere but whom he can never see. So the verse raises the hardest question a sufferer asks: if God is at work in my life and I cannot see Him, how can I get a hearing with Him?
Chapter 9 is one long speech in stages. This verse opens the stage where Job turns from God's power to God's distance. One writer sets out the parts of the speech:
Job's reply begins quietly, moves on to bitter charges against God, and ends in a wail. It falls into seven parts... (1) God supreme; who can contend with Him? (Job 9:1-4). (2) His irresistible power (verses 5-10). (3) His inaccessibility, and His dealing as He pleases (verses 11-24). (4) Job's utter weakness (verses 25-28). (5) Longing for a daysman (verses 29-35)...
The pain in the verse is not doubt that God exists. It is that God moves past Job without stopping, and Job cannot summon Him to explain.
Now Job comes to the heart of his trouble. His words are beautiful poetry; only the misery of his complaint runs deeper. He says he can have no access to this great and mighty Being who hides Himself and gives account of His ways to no one. He passes by, unseen as the wind; He acts in anger, but no one can ask a reason.
Job has just spoken of God's works as past finding out. The point of this verse is that the Worker stays unseen while the work stands unopposed.
As he says, God "does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number" (v.10). In fact, God moves in such a way that Job could not see Him at work, though God can do what no one can hinder (vv.11-12).
Job never suspected that his troubles came from some other hand. That certainty is what made his trouble so hard. It also began to work on something in Job himself.
"Behold, He passes by me, and I see Him not; He moves on, but I do not perceive Him"... That is exactly where Job was. He was quite sure that it was of God, and that is the very thing that made the difficulty. Because his conscience was pure toward God, and he knew the goodness of God, and yet how was this? He could not understand it... He was not a proud man; but as all men are, until they learn in the way I have described, he had a very good opinion of himself. That must all come down.
One writer takes Job's words as an honest confession of something true of everyone, not just a bad mood in a bad week. If we cannot find God by looking, He must show Himself.
One serious effect of sin entering the world was that mankind lost the true knowledge of God. Once lost, no effort of man's will or intellect could win back that highest and best of all knowledge... Job confessed his inability in that direction, saying, "Behold, He passes by me, and I see Him not; He moves on, but I do not perceive Him" (Job 9:11). Since, therefore, we cannot discover God, it is necessary that He should make Himself known to us. Revelation becomes a necessity. God reached the crowning point of that revelation of Himself when He made Himself known in Christ as Father.
Later in the same chapter Job asks for a "daysman" — an umpire who could lay a hand on both sides at once. Commentators point to Christ as the answer to that longing.
He is, indeed, that "Daysman" whom Job sighed for, who "might lay His hand upon us both" (see Job 9:32-33). Job knew that God is not a man as he was. So there was an absolute need for One great enough to lay His hand upon God, yet gracious enough to lay His hand upon someone like Job.
Others trace the same longing forward inside the book itself, to the man Elihu who steps in later to speak for God:
He reminds Job of his own desire for such a person: "Neither is there any daysman between us, who might lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33)... To this desire Elihu now replies: "Behold, I am as you wish, in God's stead; I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon you."
- Unseen. God passes by and moves on; Job can trace the effects everywhere but cannot see the One at work, and cannot hinder Him.
- Inaccessible. This verse opens the section on God's inaccessibility. The pain is not that God is absent. It is that He gives account of His ways to no one.
- Undeniable. Job never doubted the hand was God's. That certainty, with a clear conscience, made the trial so hard. It also began to bring down his good opinion of himself.
- Unfindable. No effort of will or intellect can recover the knowledge of God. So God must reveal Himself, and He reached the high point of that when He made Himself known in Christ as Father.
- Answered. The chapter cries out for a daysman who could lay a hand on both sides. Christ answers that cry — great enough to touch God, gracious enough to touch a man like Job.
Behold, he taketh away who will hinder him? Who will say unto him, What doest thou?
In this chapter Job describes God's power, and that same power is what crushes him. Verse 12 is where his description turns into a complaint: God takes away, and no one can call Him to account.
Here Job turns from God's power to God's distance.
Coming to the heart of his trouble, Job says that he can have no access to this great and mighty Being, who hides Himself and gives no account of His ways to anyone. His words are beautiful poetry, and only the misery of his complaint runs deeper than their beauty. He passes by, unseen as the winds; He deals in anger, but no one can ask a reason.
Job never doubted where his losses came from. That certainty is what tightened the knot.
"Behold, He snatches away; who can turn Him back? Who will say to Him, What are You doing?" That is exactly where Job was. He was quite sure that it was of God, and that is the very thing that made the difficulty. Because his conscience was pure toward God, and he knew the goodness of God, and yet how was this? He could not understand it, and neither did they in the slightest degree.
Job states the fact in despair. Taken on its own, the same fact gives rest, because of who this sovereign One is.
He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, "What are You doing?" We rest, because we know who reigns. It is not mere sovereignty, the almighty despotism of bare will, to which we bow because we must, but the sovereignty of wisdom, holiness and goodness — of One in whom love is revealed in light.
No one has the standing to cross-examine God. Yet God did not shelter behind His rights. He opened His dealings to full examination.
He is, and must be, sovereign in His doing, so that "none can stay His hand, or say to Him, What are You doing?" Yet He will allow the question, and let everything come into the fullest light. He takes away Job's hedge and allows Satan wide limits within which to deal with him. The end, of course, is blessing for the sufferer and full vindication of God's perfect ways.
Earlier in the chapter Job asked how a man could be right with God. His words about a God no one can stop come out of that unsolved problem. He saw God's power and God's mercy, but no righteous ground where the two could meet.
Job did not doubt that God would see him through all his difficulties. But he could not see on what righteous ground God would do it. If man was a poor sinful man, and God still showed him saving mercy, how was man to be just? You cannot put justice and sins together until you have Christ, who died for the sins and rose again for the believer's justification.
Later in the same speech Job looks for a "daysman" — an umpire who could stand between himself and God.
Where is there a daysman, a mediator who could enter into judgment, laying his hands upon God and Job alike? Consumed with terror, Job cannot speak. Thank God, we know, as Job later knew in part, that there is such a Daysman.
Job also assumed that God neither hears nor replies. That assumption was wrong, and so was his verdict that the wounds had no cause.
That was great ignorance of God, because God does answer and God does hear. "For He breaks me with a tempest" — and that was true — "and multiplies my wounds without cause." Ah, without cause; that is a little too much to say. He had His own wise cause; He had His own blessed purpose. He meant that Job should be a far happier man, and brighter in his state, than he had ever been before.
- Fact. No one can hold God back or call Him to account. That is true of God, whoever says it.
- Colour. Job says it in despair, as of a God who hides Himself and explains His ways to no one. The mistake is in his tone, not in the fact.
- Character. God rules by wisdom, holiness and goodness, not by bare will. Knowing who reigns turns that fact into rest.
- Patience. God need not answer. Yet He allows the question and brings the whole case into the light. The end is blessing for Job and full vindication of His ways.
- Answer. Job longed for someone to stand between himself and God. There is such a Daysman: Christ, who died for our sins and rose again for the believer's justification.