Job 38:33

Most of the address comes in the form of questions. Job had presumed to sit in judgment on Jehovah and His ways, so God tests his competence for it. What does he know? What can he do? Shall the creature dare to instruct God about His duties, to point out His failures, in fact to take over His rights? He is so puny in power, so ignorant, and so full of empty pride.

"Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?" Conditions have an immense effect upon the earth. All of it is having an influence, either of a terrible kind or a beneficial kind. Who is it that has fixed all that? Was it you, Job?

So the stars were common knowledge this early in history, and their names have stayed the same. But did Job know the ordinances God had established in the heavens? Did he even understand how the stars relate to the earth — let alone set them in places of dominion over the earth? Astrologers try to link the movement of the stars to events on earth, but their efforts only expose how little they know.

It is important to see this. When God formed the present system of this world, He made a heaven to this earth, so that heaven should rule the earth. The earth's blessing, in material things and in moral things, depends on its connection with heaven.

Every great movement of the powers here below turned on the mind of heaven. And the opening chapters let us know it is just as true of a single saint... The world might be in confusion, the eyes of the judges blinded, oppression in the place of righteousness, groaning and misery everywhere. Yet despite the misrule and rebellion, heaven is the spring and centre of power... Even Satan himself cannot act without God. What an immense comfort!

And yet modern science must not claim it can answer what Job could not. There has been advance in outward knowledge, with discoveries of great laws and principles of nature. But can the scientist of today give truer and more satisfying replies to these divine questions than the patriarch of old could?... What is the key to all these questions? It is God, the true knowledge of Himself. Knowing Him, we know the Author and Source of all knowledge. Leave Him out of account, and the sum of all science is a blank wall, beyond which the hidden truth still lies.

One thing we do know. He, and He alone, can hold the stars in His hand. He numbers them and calls them all by name, and brings them out in due order, "because he is strong in power, not one is missing" (Isa. 40:26). The prophet reminds afflicted Israel that this One knows their affliction and their way.