THE LORD SPEAKS

Job 38:1-30 / Keywords 38:2

Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?

 

The Lord Speaks

38:1 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

2 “Who is this that obscures my plans

    with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man;

    I will question you,

    and you shall answer me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

    Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

    Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,

    or who laid its cornerstone—

7 while the morning stars sang together

    and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors

    when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment

    and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it

    and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;

    here is where your proud waves halt’?

12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,

    or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges

    and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;

    its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light,

    and their upraised arm is broken.

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea

    or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?

    Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

    Tell me, if you know all this.

19 “What is the way to the abode of light?

    And where does darkness reside?

20 Can you take them to their places?

    Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

21 Surely you know, for you were already born!

    You have lived so many years!

22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow

    or seen the storehouses of the hail,

23 which I reserve for times of trouble,

    for days of war and battle?

24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,

    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,

    and a path for the thunderstorm,

26 to water a land where no one lives,

    an uninhabited desert,

27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland

    and make it sprout with grass?

28 Does the rain have a father?

    Who fathers the drops of dew?

29 From whose womb comes the ice?

    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

30 when the waters become hard as stone,

    when the surface of the deep is frozen?

Footnotes

a. Job 38:7 Hebrew the sons of God

1. Finally, the LORD spoke to Job. He prefaced this by asking, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?” God was patient with Job and his friends. Now he spoke. Now he would bring Job to answer him. He did this by questioning Job over the next several chapters.

 

2. God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” God is the Creator and the Sovereign over all the earth. He laid the foundations of the earth. He created the seas and set their limits. He is over life and death, darkness and light. He rules over snow and rain, thunder and lightning. He can turn a desolate wasteland into fertile grassland. God did this by asking Job questions. This is how he revealed his greatness to Job.

 

Prayer Lord, thank you for speaking your word. Give me ears to hear. Help me to stand before you and answer.

One Word Listen to God