Job 38:16

We come now to these questions about God's creation. They give us a complete cycle of divine truth as shown in His works, grouped in seven parts. (1) The foundations of the earth (verses 4-7). (2) The bounds of the sea (verses 8-11). (3) Day and night (verses 12-15). (4) Unknown depths (verses 16-21). (5) The elements (verses 22-30). (6) The heavenly bodies (verses 31-33). (7) The clouds and their control (verses 34-38).

In close connection with the all-revealing power of the light, God probes Job further. Does he know secret things? — "which belong to God." The hidden depths of the sea with its countless dead; the gates of death and what lies beyond. Has Job searched this out?

Now God asks Job if he had entered the springs of the sea or walked in search of the depths (v.16)… All the population of earth — human, animals, insects and birds — is nothing compared to the population of the seas. Life fills the seas in all areas and at every level. Job had no idea of what was unseen beneath the surface of the seas.

The first thing God does is to overwhelm the man who pretended to sit in judgment on God's moral ways. He makes him feel his utter ignorance and powerlessness in the least things of divine power, even in creation… The man whose understanding stood baffled at such a question was in no position to judge His deep things… Had Job even visited the fountains of the sea, or gone to explore the secret of the great deep?

These questions cover every department of what man calls the "natural sciences." They take in geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography, astronomy, and more. Job had not a single answer to these questions and if he had spoken his words would have been folly. And we, 3000 years or more later, still cannot answer these questions in a satisfactory way. All our boasted progress and our scientific discoveries of the great laws of nature have not changed that… But what is the aim of the Lord in asking these questions? To show that God is greater than man and to humble man, to bring Job to the needed true knowledge of himself and to deliver him from the pride of his heart.

It is enough to show what God said to overwhelm Job in his self-confidence. His ignorance was so great and his powerlessness was evident. He lacked the wisdom to enter into even the outer works of God. And, after all, what was God speaking about? Earthly things… And Job is completely unable to answer one of these questions. In fact they are not answered to this day, for all the bragging of science. If that is the case about earthly things, what about the heavenly?

One of the questions God asked Job was, "Have you walked in the recesses of the deep?" I would ask myself and others this. Are we content with the outward side of Christianity? Or have the deep things of God gripped our hearts in power?… Are we content with only a surface knowledge of the things of God? Or do we know, in the power of the Spirit of God, the blessedness of the deep things of God that He has revealed to us?

But this message tests and humbles man. He who boasted in his righteousness, who seemed to consider his knowledge enough, is obliged to own his ignorance, weakness, and his unrighteousness. It is divinely done, and done so effectively that the lesson brings Job to his true place for all time.