Job 38:24

What questions these are. They cover every department of what man calls "natural sciences" — geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography, astronomy. Job had not a single answer to these questions, and if he had spoken his words would have been folly. And we, three thousand years later, with all our boasted progress and our discoveries of the great laws of nature, still cannot answer them in any satisfactory way... But what is the Lord's aim in putting these questions? To show that God is greater than man and to humble man. To bring Job to the true knowledge of himself that he needed, and to set him free from the pride of his heart.

God is here bringing to nothing all the proud talk of Job. But He is not satisfied with showing man's littleness by what is vast. He takes up what we might think of as comparatively small things... It matters little whether we look at the greatest or at the least of the works of God. Everywhere we meet what is entirely beyond the reach of man's mind... Job had even presumed to judge God's moral dealings. But he could not face what God is in the least part of His universe. He had not the slightest adequate idea of it.

How amazing are the "partings" of the light — reaching every part of the earth where its rays fall. How unimaginably swift are "the wings of the morning," flashing from sun to earth in a few moments. How beautiful those "partings" are in the spectrum, where the rainbow paints the whole landscape in living colours. Why and how is one object green, another blue, another red?... Science has much to tell us that might well fill us with wonder and amazement, and with awe and worship — of Whom? The more we know only of His displays, the less we really know of Himself. We know Him only as He makes Himself known in Christ.

Man likes to think he is in control of things. But can he control the snow, the hail, or the wind? Verse 24 inserts the matter of the way in which light is diffused before speaking of the east wind. For Job had to realise that the light of God was at work in all His actions. It was at work just as surely when He sent His east wind of strong adversity. God's ways had really been darkness to Job, so he did not understand the way God was diffusing His light.

From the east, the apparent source of the light, comes also the sweeping east wind, spread over the land in the storm. It is a picture of wrath — the wrath of Him who in the light had spoken so quietly. But even the east wind is held in His fists, controlled by His will.

The east wind was destructive to plants and dangerous to ships at sea. It is a symbol of the withering power of God's judgments.

But storms and storm-clouds are only the prelude to the rain. Here too God is seen, bringing refreshment after the storm. So with Job — his chastening will be followed by the showers. Who knows how to "divide," to distribute, these refreshing showers? Man would distribute them unevenly, or at the wrong time. God knows when and how to send the welcome relief.