Job 38:4 - Meaning and Application

For Job’s humbling, God first shows him how little he knows, even about the earth and the sea. These are close to us and huge in size, yet Job cannot explain how they began. If he cannot do that, how can he explain heaven above, hell beneath, the smallest parts of matter, or, above all, God’s hidden plans?

God starts with the making of the earth. If Job claims such deep insight into God’s purposes, let him first account for the world beneath his feet, which God has given to people. Let him say where he was when the lower world was made, and whether he helped in that great work (Job 38:4). God says, in effect, “You make great claims, but were you there when I laid the earth’s foundations?” This shows God’s greatness and glory. He alone is the living and true God, the God of power (Isaiah 40:21; Jeremiah 10:11-12), and that should lead us to trust him at all times (Isaiah 51:13, 16).

It also shows human weakness and smallness. “Where were you then?” God asks the man who had made such a name for himself and had spoken as if he understood God’s counsel. We were not there at all. We were not even in existence when the world was made. The first man was not there, and neither were we. Christ is honored because he was present when all this was done (Proverbs 8:22 and following; John 1:1-2), but we are of yesterday and know nothing. So we should not criticize God’s works or try to direct him. He did not ask our advice when he made the world, and yet it was well made. Why should we expect him to take his direction from us in ruling it?

God then says, if Job can, let him describe how the world was made and how this strong and beautiful structure was formed. Those who claim to understand more than others should be able to prove it. Let Job show his knowledge by his words. Let him explain how the world was shaped with such exactness, balance, and harmony of all its parts (Job 38:5). “Who decided its size, and who stretched the measuring line over it?” God asks. Was Job the builder who made the plan and measured everything by it? The earth is vast, yet it is formed as carefully as if it had been drawn with a line and rule. But who can explain how it was given that shape?

God also asks how the earth came to be so firmly fixed. It hangs on nothing, yet it stands steady and cannot be moved. But who can say what its foundations rest on, so it will not sink under its own weight, or who laid its corner-stone, so its parts would not fall apart (Job 38:6)? What God does will last forever (Ecclesiastes 3:14). So we should not find fault with his work, and we need not fear for it. His creation will endure and fully serve its purpose. His rule over all things is just as firm as his act of creation, and the work of redemption is no less secure. Christ himself is both its foundation and its corner-stone. The church stands as firmly as the earth.

God then asks Job to repeat, if he can, the songs of praise that were sung at that great moment (Job 38:7). The morning stars were the holy angels, the first bright ones in the dawn of time. They shone before the light God called out of darkness to shine upon the early earth, which was formless and empty. These sons of God shouted for joy when they saw the earth’s foundations laid. The world was not made for them, but for people, and it would add to their work and service. Yet they knew that eternal Wisdom and the Word, whom they were to worship (Hebrews 1:6), would delight in the inhabited parts of the earth, and that his joy would be among the children of men (Proverbs 8:31).

The angels are called sons of God because they bear much of his likeness, live in his house above, and serve him as a son serves a father. Here we learn that God’s glory as Creator should be celebrated with joy and triumph by all thinking creatures. They are meant to gather praise from the lower creatures, who praise God simply by showing his workmanship. We also learn that praising God is the work of angels. The more we give ourselves to humble, thankful, joyful praise, the more we do God’s will as they do.

The angels also praised God together, with one heart and one voice. There was no discord in their song. The sweetest harmony is found in praising God. And all of them did this, even those who later fell and left their first place. Even those who once praised God can, through sin’s deceptive power, be led to blaspheme him. Yet God will still be praised forever.

Next, God speaks about the sea and how he set its limits (Job 38:8 and following). This points to the third day of creation, when God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place” (Genesis 1:9), and it happened. Out of the great deep, where earth and water were mixed together, the waters burst out at God’s command, like a child coming from the womb (Job 38:8). The waters that had covered the deep and stood above the mountains quickly withdrew. At God’s rebuke they fled (Psalm 104:6-7).

This newborn thing is then clothed and wrapped (Job 38:9). The cloud becomes its covering, and thick darkness, meaning shores so far apart that they are hidden from one another, is like its swaddling band. See how easily the great God governs the wild sea. Though its tides are strong and its waves are powerful, he handles it as a nurse handles a child wrapped in cloth. Scripture does not say he used rocks and mountains as swaddling bands, but clouds and darkness, things we would least expect to serve that purpose.

There is also a cradle prepared for this baby. God says, “I broke out a place for it,” meaning he set a fixed home for the sea (Job 38:10). Valleys were sunk into the earth wide enough to hold it, and there it lies at rest. If storms sometimes toss it about, that, as Bishop Patrick notes, is only the rocking of the cradle, which makes it sleep more soundly.

The same is true of the sea and of each of us: God has set a fixed place for everything. He who appointed the times beforehand also set the limits of our dwelling. For this baby, now made wild and dangerous by human sin, the source of all unrest and danger in this lower world, God has also provided a prison. He has set bars and doors for it (Job 38:10). In this way, he checks its pride and says, “This far you may come, but no farther.”

The sea belongs to God because he made it, and he also holds it back. He says to it, “Here your proud waves must stop” (Job 38:11). This shows God’s power over the sea. Even though it is so vast and its motion can be violently strong, God keeps it under control. Its waves do not rise higher, and its tides do not go farther, than he allows.

This should make us stand in awe of God (Jeremiah 5:22). It should also encourage us to trust him, because the one who quiets the roaring of the sea, and the noise of its waves, can also, when he chooses, calm the uproar of the peoples (Psalm 65:7). We should also see this as an act of mercy toward the human race and an example of his patience toward a sinful world. He could easily cover the earth again with the sea, and every tide that comes in twice a day seems to warn us of that power. Yet he holds it back, because he does not want anyone to perish, and he has kept this present world until the day of fire (2 Peter 3:7).