who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond 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 words themselves
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:
Leslie M. Grant"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.
True words, hidden doubt
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:
Samuel RidoutIn 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.
What creation cannot tell you
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:
The Bible TreasuryUnbelief 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.
The question underneath the wonders
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:
W. W. FeredayTo 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).
What Job's struggle is for
Job's question is not a dead end. Pleading your own record with God is:
J. N. DarbyA 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.
Summary
- 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.