Job 39: 1-12 comments: God, the Bible, unicorns, taxonomy, and evolution

1 ¶  Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve? 2  Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth? 3  They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows. 4  Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them. 5  Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? 6  Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. 7  He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. 8  The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing. 9  Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? 10  Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? 11  Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? 12  Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

God continues to speak to Job with rhetorical questions asking him questions for which the obvious answer is no. Mankind has studied the gestation periods of animals but did not create those time-lengths. He can alter or interrupt with drugs or environmental stimuli but he is altering something that he did not create. God determined how long gestation periods are for kinds of beasts in general and He determines when an individual animal will give birth. This is out of Job’s hands and not in his power. Solomon, the great scholar of all things in the natural world, did not have God’s power over it.

1Kings 4:31  For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about. 32  And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. 33  And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. 34  And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.

 The instinct, the imparted wisdom, of an animal is implanted by God. The wild ass eventually leaves the care of his mother and is no longer dependent upon her for anything. This ability of animals to care for themselves rather quickly is the understanding given by God through imparted wisdom implanted in each creature. In De Witt Talmage’s 19^th century sermon on evolution entitled, “Evolution,” he pointed this out as one of the problems with the atheistic scientist linking human beings with other animals.

The animal in a few hours or months comes to full strength, and can take care of itself. The human race for the first one, two, three, five, ten years, is in complete helplessness. The chick just come out of its shell begins to pick up its own food. The dog, the wolf, the lion, soon earn their own livelihood and act for their own defense. The human race does not come to development until it reaches twenty or thirty years of age, and by that time the animals that were born the same year the man was born – the vast majority of them – have died of old age. (42)

As verse 7 indicates, wild animals are wild animals and it is well known that it is difficult or impossible, in many cases, to make them domestic animals useful for man’s purposes. One of the results of the change in the earth after the great flood of Noah’s time was that wild animals would become wary of man and afraid of him generally, as man’s diet was now changed to include flesh. Remember what God said to Adam;

Genesis 1:29 ¶  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

And then, after the flood, to Noah and his sons;

Genesis 9:1 ¶  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2  And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Many skeptics have made hay over a word found in verse 9, the word,” unicorn.” A review of over 200 lexicons from the Early Modern English Database reveals that a unicorn was understood to be an animal with one horn.(43) Sounds understandable. The technical name for the Indian Rhinoceros is Rhinoceros Unicornis. Marco Polo, the famed Venetian traveler of the Medieval Period of Western European history, referred to the Javan Rhinoceros as a unicorn among other one-horned animals. (44)  

The ancient Greeks referred to unicorns, not in their mythologies, but in their natural histories, and although Ctesias made the earliest mention of unicorns in his book, Indika, it was obvious he was just going on legend and had not seen them with his own eyes. He described a wild ass colored white, red, and black. Such a fanciful description was carried on by Aristotle and Strabo, and it was not until Pliny the Elder in his On the Nature of Animals that he describes something realistic, an Indian ox, a monoceros, which in all likelihood was the Indian Rhino.

It is generally understood by the existence of them in the Lascaux cave paintings in France that the Rhinoceros once had a much larger range of living than it does today, the mythological horse with a horn being a totally separate concept from the reality spoken of here in Job, evidenced in later Greek writings, or found in nature and cave paintings.

The Rhinoceros is a wild animal, a wild beast, Job. He’s not going to pull your plow, plant your fields, or submit to your will. Go ahead, and try to harness him up, if you think you can.

This brings to mind a point that must be made about the Bible and its discussion of animals. Much is made by the creationist minded and the fundamentalist about the phrase, “after their kind,” in Genesis 1:21,25; 6:20; & 7:14. The word, “kind,” contrary to what is said often, does not refer to an individual species, whichever of the many definitions of species you use (45), whether it be a local, isolated group of finches or something like the, “breed,” of Animal Husbandry’s dog breeding. (Although there are significant differences between breed and species they are also not from the same disciplines so the issue is basically one about definition of terms that refer to similar but not identical things.)

 One of the things Charles Darwin was against was the popularly preached by clerics and many pre-Darwin biologists view that every species of animal that existed in his day was said to have come down from an original ancestor just like them in a doctrine called, “the immutability of species.” If there are a hundred species of a type of bird today then those species would have existed back to Noah’s Ark, goes the idea. This is, of course, absurd as mankind created many breeds of dogs in the last two hundred years alone. If you regarded a breed and a species as having similar meanings but under different types of scientific disciplines, Zoology versus Animal Husbandry, then you can imagine speciation, the process where different breeds or species of dogs, cats, horses, or birds came about taking place rather quickly in history.

 But the word, “kind,” doesn’t mean species at all. It is more like a general type of creature. Many species of cats came from the first cat creatures on Noah’s Ark. The problem with evolution is that the cat never became a dog, the pea never became a chrysanthemum, and an ape-like creature never became a man. There is no evidence of such a thing occurring without twisting the evidence into knots and the whole popularly understood concept of evolution in that regard, called macroevolution, is a fairy tale for atheists and in complete opposition to the Bible and reality.

Modern taxonomic classifications of living things are purely man-made and are totally subjective to what man chooses to include as a characteristic of the creature being named. God classifies animals differently based on characteristics that would be understood by men without microscopes. For instance, fowls fly, so the bat is a fowl in Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18 and the Hebrew could not eat fowl with certain characteristics. The words reptile and mammal were classifications created by man for his own convenience and study. The Bible speaks of, “beasts of the field,” domestic animals, and, “beasts of the forest,” wild animals. It speaks about animals in the way of their usefulness generally to agricultural man or military man, not their peculiarities to the curious, modern man. Trying to force man’s definitions of everything from beasts to sin on the Bible’s definitions is futile and arrogant. When you argue allowing your opponent to control the definitions of words you are surrendering all leverage to them. Finally, a whale is a large creature that swims in the sea and therefore can be called a great fish, because fish are creatures that swim in the sea. Compare Jonah 1:17 and Matthew 12:40. The order, Cetacea, for whales, is not a concern of the Bible. A whale simply signifies a Leviathan, a large creature which, like all creatures, came first from the sea and then from the earth. (Genesis 1:20-24) Human taxonomic classifications are different language for a different purpose.

Don’t read your own definitions, preferences, or opinions any more than your own personal fears, hatreds, or bigotry back into the Bible.

(42) Thomas De Witt Talmage, The Life and Teachings of Rev. T. De Witt Talmage D.D.  (New York: D.Z. Howell Publishers, 1902), 74. https://archive.org/stream/lifeteachingsofr00talmiala#page/n7/mode/2up (accessed 1.12.2015).

(43) “Lexicons of Early Modern English,” (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2015), http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/results.cfm, (accessed 1.13.2015).

(44) Henry Yule, ed. & transl. The Book of Ser Marco Polo (London: John Murray Publishers, 1903), 285. https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo002polo#page/n9/mode/2up (accessed 1.13.2015).

(45) John S. Wilkins, “A List of 26 Species “Concepts”, Science Blogs: Evolving Thoughts, http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2006/10/01/a-list-of-26-species-concepts/ (accessed 1.14.2015).

Job 38:25-41 comments: God's absolute control over every event

25 ¶  Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; 26  To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; 27  To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? 28  Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? 29  Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? 30  The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 31  Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32  Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? 33  Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? 34  Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? 35  Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? 36  Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? 37  Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, 38  When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? 39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

In God’s rhetorical interrogation of Job He asks several questions which may seem perplexing to us. In verse 25 a connection is made between lightning and thunder, which we know now that one causes the other. Aristotle, as late as the third century BC, attributed thunder to a collision between clouds.  The disturbing, again, implication in verse 25 is that even when there is flooding, God disperses overflowing water as He sees fit. This is a frightening prospect if we consider what the Bible is telling us that even in a seemingly random process God is in control. Did you ever imagine that?

If you remember the old Zen koan, “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Here, God speaks about how He causes all things, even where man is nowhere around to witness the things. It rains in places where man is not to soak the parched ground and cause plants to grow that man will never see. Think about this. From the dense forests of Borneo to the jungles of Brazil there is life and there are events happening that we will never know about experientially. There are things happening a million light-years from us that we have no knowledge of now or at any time in our lives. Man is not the measure of all things. The universe God built for Himself. We are a part of His plan. But, we are not the only part.

Verse 28 places God squarely as the author of every drop of dew. Think of that. Imagine it, if you will. Every snowflake, the ice on a pond, the frost on the ground, all of it, every microscopic piece of it created by God, not just the result of a random process, an, “accident of nature,” but a direct execution of divine will. It staggers the modern mind.

The anthropologist, Susan Friend Harding, wrote, “The membrane between disbelief and belief is thinner than we think.” (41) Most Christians in America seem to believe in a caretaker God, like a gardener, watching over life processes and natural events that He can only affect in a minimal way by exerting Himself from outside of the process, by interrupting the process, like a landlord we call on to fix the plumbing in our apartment when it leaks. American Christians, even fundamentalists, can’t wrap their minds around the God presented in the Bible. They can wrap their minds around the God presented in their culture. That God is a sort of manager, or at times a warrior-king, or at times a big brother, and at times even a benefactor, but He is most certainly not the God presented in the Bible who controls every moment everywhere in His universe. He is neither surprised nor at a disadvantage when a thing happens. He either made it happen or permitted it to happen. Period. And that is just and right and as it should be, your fear, your grief, your pain, your discomfort notwithstanding.

God now moves masterfully in His speech to the farthest reaches of outer space, to the nearby atmosphere of earth, and into the human heart, the spiritual heart of understanding, emotion, and reason, to underscore His sovereign reign over the sum total of reality. He even speaks of causing clods of dirt and providing food for wild animals and birds. He does this, Himself. He is the author of it.

This is a different earth, a different universe, than what we are used to imagining. Be honest with yourself, when the snow piled deep in your yard you didn’t think of it being a direct act of God any more than when you started your car did you think that.  

We have lived for several hundred years in a universe we thought was governed by blind forces. The only difference between many Christians and atheists have been that Christians thought there was a benevolent and powerful entity who wound up those forces and who would intervene occasionally to interrupt those blind forces on the Christian’s behalf. Both are wrong. Dead wrong.

(41) Susan Friend Harding, The Book of Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 58.

Job 38:12-24 comments: God's universe

12 ¶  Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; 13  That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? 14  It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment. 15  And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken. 16  Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? 17  Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? 18  Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all. 19  Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, 20  That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof? 21  Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great? 22  Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, 23  Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? 24  By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?

God asks Job if, since he began on the earth, if he has controlled the start of day. Do you, Job,  make the sun to rise, in a manner of speaking? The dayspring is a reference to the morning light as it slowly appears. Jesus is likened to that morning light. There are a lot of references to Jesus being light and breaking through the night. These Old and New Testament references indicate that we are living in a type of night and we await the morning provided by Christ when He returns.

Psalm 130:6  My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

John 13:30  He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.

Romans 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Malachi 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Luke 1:78  Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us...

2Peter 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts...

Revelation 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Verse 13 shows that there is a prophetic import to these verses in regard to Christ’s return to judge and rule the nations of the world. God has appointed the dayspring to visit the earth as much as He has appointed the morning to come. It is stamped with His impression as an ancient seal of a potentate was stamped on clay asserting that earthly ruler’s authority and power. The wicked stand as a piece of clothing ready to be shaken out like people would do when they beat a garment to get the dirt out of it. The wicked don’t see the light of the spiritual morning and are not illuminated by it. Their power, their, “high arm,” shall be broken. Notice how the Holy Spirit uses the phrase, “high arm,” as might and power.

Acts 13:17  The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.

Regarding verse 16, fresh water springs coming up from the bottom of the world’s oceans and seas have been observed at least since the time of the ancient Phoenicians. There are now thought to be massive fresh water aquifers under the world’s oceans in the depths where no man of Job’s time had gone. (40)

In verse 17 God points out how Job has no power over death and in this instance it appears that God is referring to that place where we pass over into death. We have no power over it or, as Solomon says, “there is no discharge in that war.”

Ecclesiastes 8:8  There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

Only Christ had the power to lay down His life and take it up again, being God in the flesh.

John 10:18  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

God challenges Job in Job’s ignorance of the source of light and darkness. Even today scientists are uncertain if light is a wave or a particle or both and there is still much discussion over its fundamental properties.

God referring to weather events as treasures or coming from a treasury is also found elsewhere.

Psalm 135:7  He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.

We know God used hail as a weapon against Egypt in Exodus 9 and again against the Amorites as Joshua and his army defended Gibeon.

Joshua 10:11  And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.

If indeed, Job represents an older tradition than other books of the Bible, as I asserted in the beginning, then God had done that previously, as well.

Finally, in verse 24, we have discussed the synonymous relationship between the words wind and storm in the Bible. There is a direct relationship between the light and heat generated by the sun and weather on earth. This is well-known and needs no citation. The earth absorbs the sun’s heat and releases it into the atmosphere, heating the air above, and causing it to move, that being instrumental in producing wind and even violent weather. While reducing this process to simplistic terms I believe that is the general view of science. The ultimate source of natural light, the paths and the house thereof, are still subjects of study and debate. There are many mysteries regarding light and its effect and God has declared to Job and those listening to Him that they don’t even know just how ignorant they are of all of the mysteries of the universe, God’s universe, not Job’s. Not yours.

(40) Ethan A. Huff, “Freshwater Breakthrough As Huge Aquifers Discovered Beneath Ocean Floor,” Natural News, December 11, 2013, http://www.naturalnews.com/043205_freshwater_aquifers_ocean_floor.html

(accessed 1.10.2015).

Job, chapter 38, 4-11 comments: God affirms His rule over nature

4 ¶  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5  Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6  Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7  When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8  Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? 9  When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, 10  And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, 11  And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

There are several ways of looking at what verse 4 actually says but generally only one meaning. God is saying to Job, “where were you when I created the earth?” It is a challenge showing God’s knowledge superior to Job’s as the Creator of the very earth he is standing or sitting on. In historical scholarship there is what is called a primary source. That is usually a first-hand eyewitness account or an interview with an eyewitness. The book of Genesis represents an eyewitness account of creation and the first half of human history by the one who created and oversaw it, with Moses as the interviewer or the amanuensis, secretary. It is a primary source in contrast to what 19^th century preacher, DeWitt Talmage, whom my grandfather was named after, called in a sermon, “The Guess of Evolution.”

It would be easy to view this as poetic language, talking about the earth’s foundations and its corner stone, as this is comparable to how we discuss building a building. As we know it has already been said that the earth hangs in empty space there can be no misunderstanding that God is talking about the earth sitting on something. See chapter 26, verse 7. It may be tempting to talk about the earth’s mantle, on which the earth’s crust sits, as being its foundation but I think it would be more reasonable to view this as a figurative argument with references to building a building as metaphorical descriptions. It is not God’s purpose here to give a science lesson but to make a point about His sovereignty and Job’s ignorance.

Verse 7 reveals something interesting. The terms, “morning stars,” and the, “sons of God,” are synonymous, perhaps? Jesus Christ is, “the bright and morning star.” (Revelation 22:16). He is the Son of God, uppercase S. (Mark 1:1).

We became the, “sons of God,” when we believed on Christ (John 1:12). Perhaps we will replace those beings that left, “their first estate.” (Jude, verse 6). Angels, as appearances of the sons of God, is a word that is used interchangeably with that phrase.

Genesis 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose...4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

These supernatural beings which became natural beings are awaiting their final judgment now.

2Peter 2:4  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment...

While the following verse may be a reference to future events, if it is a reference to past events then, by cross referencing one might assume that chapter 12 of Revelation is a summary of spiritual events in history.

Revelation 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4a  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth...

Of course, this raises as many questions as it answers but helps explain why human history appears, as some have said, to be the autobiography of a madman with the reptilian cherub, Satan, and the rebellious sons of God influencing mankind in every way.

But, in the beginning the morning stars, the sons of God, patterned after THE Son of God, as we will be one day (1John 3:2) rejoiced.  

Again, in verses 8 through 11 we have poetic metaphor mentioning the sea that came from out of the earth as in Genesis 8:2. Those who study these things believe that there exists now more water in the earth’s mantle, the foundation if you will permit me, perhaps as much as in the oceans above the crust. (39). The point here is that there is order on the earth, natural limitations to what we see around us. The idea here is staggering. The sea stays in its place by God’s command and, therefore, the opposite must be true, that when there is a tsunami, such as in 2004 on the day after Christmas, or a tidal wave that washes over a city like Japan’s Fukushima in 2011, that it was by God’s permissive will that these disasters occurred.

This goes against the thinking of modern Christians of God as being a benign bystander watching a building catch fire and then responding to the screams of some by rushing in to carry them to safety. It suggests that God built the building, placed the people in it, set the fire or gave permission for it to be set by Satan, and then saved whom He chose. We have a huge problem with God’s sovereignty and the activity of our Creator in every function of and aspect of life because we wish so much to believe that we are gods and we demand to be the measure of all things and the judge of right and wrong.

God has enlightened Job somewhat to His sovereign authority and dominion and rule over nature and, indeed, over all creation.

(39) Becky Oskin, “Rare Diamond Confirms that Earth’s Mantle Holds an Ocean’s Worth of Water,” Scientific American, March 12, 2014. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-confirms-that-earths-mantle-holds-an-oceans-worth-of-water/

Job 38:1-3 comments: God shows up

1 ¶  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2  Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3  Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

God appeared to men and women in the Bible most often in an appearance or messenger, called an angel of the Lord. (Understand that, “of,” can signify from or by, as well. See Ephesians 2:8; Matthew 4:1.) An angel represents an individual (Matthew 18:10; Luke 1:11,19) or group of individuals (Revelation 1:20) and for all practical purposes is that person or persons. In our limited technology of today we might think of a three dimensional hologram, only one that can act on its surroundings, carrying the same authority and power of the original. There are no angels with wings in the Bible. That concept is a holdover from Persian mythology in paganized Christianity. Cherubims and Seraphims are specific creatures, not angels. The phrase, “angelic being,” is a construct of paganized Christianity and not Biblical.

Notice the phrase, “the angel of his presence,” here.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Notice here that the angel carries the same authority as God because God’s name is in Him.

Exodus 23:20 ¶  Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21  Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 22  But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

Judges 2:1  And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

Indeed, Jesus Christ, who is the body of God, the visible image of an invisible God, is the angel of God.

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Note the use of, “even,” in the following to mark two things which are the same.

Galatians 4:14  And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

This verse shows that Christ appeared to Paul in a time of trouble.

Acts 27:23  For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,

God spoke to men and women by this method face to face because no one can see God the Father, nor could they bear the glory that surrounds Him and some even thought they would die when they saw His angel (John 4:24; John 1:18; Exodus 33:20; Genesis 32:30; Judges 13:22; Judges 6:22,23).

Exodus 33:11  And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.

And directly from heaven;

Genesis 22:11 ¶  And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

Acts 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And from a cloud;

Exodus 24:16  And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Matthew 17:5  While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

Here God the Father speaks out of a whirlwind. This isn’t a dust devil. This is a storm.

Nahum 1:3  The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

From this awesome and terrifying platform God speaks to Job and gives Job what he so desired, a direct audience, reinforcing, however, His glory and majesty.

Who is this that speaks without knowing what he is talking about? Come on, Job, stand up like a man. I will demand of YOU and YOU answer ME. Now things heat up.

Job 37:14-24 comments: man's finite understanding

14 ¶  Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. 15  Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? 16  Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? 17  How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind? 18  Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass? 19  Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. 20  Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.

Elihu admonishes Job to consider God’s amazing works, to focus his mind on them. Elihu declares that Job does not have complete and perfect knowledge of God’s activity in natural processes. Job, and mankind in general, don’t understand why or even how God does things. The Bible is not a science manual, explaining how processes work, but explains why processes work, in that God causes them to do so. It is the task of mankind to attempt to understand the intricate details. But, when man assumes the first cause or the background of why a process functions cannot include God then mankind shuts himself off from understanding.

Elihu, in speaking in terms and phrases that would be understandable to a man of Job’s time but seem rather poetic in our jaded age of science textbooks and instruction manuals, asks Job to render a better explanation than what he has given. Our knowledge is imperfect. God’s knowledge is immediate and complete. What can we tell Him that He doesn’t already know? How, can we, in our ignorance, even address God?

Science is about understanding by what method a thing is done. Science, due to the finite and limited capacity of man, is wholly incapable of determining why. When a scientist delves into the realm of speculating on what happened that cannot be measured or studied by the method of science; observation, experimentation that can be repeated by others, and a constant reevaluation of the most basic, foundational principles of his or her theories, then he drifts into guesswork and even makes a scientific matter an issue of faith. “It is true because I believe it,” is not a valid scientific argument and neither is, “all of our future beliefs must be based on this foundation of atheistic evolution and nothing contrary can be considered or taught.” We have now come to a point where a leading geneticist has declared the insane theory that human beings came about as a result of the mating of a chimpanzee and a pig due to the difficulties they admit to man descending from an ape-like creature but the terrifying fear that other possibilities may lead to God. (38)

 The same goes with the science of Bible translation. I have read statements in many books and scholarly journals in debates on Bible translations the phrase, and forgive me for paraphrasing it in my own understanding, “This verse must be mistranslated because I cannot believe the writer would say such a thing.” This hardly constitutes a negation of what Christians have believed for hundreds of years anymore than saying, “there cannot be a God because I can’t accept the idea that God exists,” is a matter of scientific certainty. It has been said that a conclusion is the place where you have stopped thinking.

Surely, mankind who rejects God’s revelation will be swallowed up in astonishment and blindness, and eventually by God’s very wrath.

(38) Eugene McCarthy, “The Hybrid Hypothesis: A New Theory of Human Origins,” Macroevolution. http://www.macroevolution.net/human-origins.html. (accessed 1.5.2015).

21 ¶  And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them. 22  Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty. 23  Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. 24  Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.

Men see only in a limited fashion what is the inconceivable majesty and glory of God. The storm will always pass and fair weather will come. You can sit and scratch your head and try to understand why this happened or why that happened, look for a reason as you might, but you cannot find Him out. We don’t understand His power or His dispensation of judgment and justice as things seem so random and arbitrary at times. Like Job’s friends we always assume reasons and explanations for what we see without accurate knowledge. It is overwhelming. But we have His promises that He doesn’t afflict us without a reason nor does He take pleasure in our suffering but wishes for us to repent.

Lamentations 3:32  But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Ezekiel 18:32  For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

Men who have true wisdom and understanding fear the Lord, as that is the beginning of wisdom, understanding and knowledge.

Job 28:28  And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Psalm 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

And, God has no regard for the so-called wise men that are filled with the self-conceit of the person who rejects God as the first and primary cause of all things.

Psalm 14:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Psalm 53:1  « To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David. » The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.

In this passage Elihu may be hurrying to finish his argument as he realizes that God Himself is about to speak. Whatever the case, God does take over and speaks directly to Job, which is what the righteous Job pleaded for throughout his arguments. We’ll see if Job will make his own case, as he promised he would do if he could stand before God.

Job 37:6-13 comments: Is God involved?

6 ¶  For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength. 7  He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work. 8  Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places. 9  Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north. 10  By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. 11  Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: 12  And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. 13  He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.

Here, Elihu overthrows much of even contemporary Christian thought about natural events. The implication here is that God is involved in the execution of what we have been taught to believe are automatic, natural process, things that just happen based on conditions, without direction. But, any study of meteorology will show you that weather conditions can suggest certain events might happen but the exact location or the intensity of the event is virtually unknowable except by probability and computer model. Volcanologists will tell you that even if they have measuring instruments on a volcano they expect to be active they have no certainty when the event will happen or if it will even occur above the surface at all. Those who study hurricanes as well deal with existing conditions, probability, and statistics and try to project the path of a hurricane but always speak in terms of likelihood of direction and intensity. The seismologist cannot tell you for sure when an earthquake will happen or what its intensity will be only relay the warning signs and the likelihood based on where the expected quake should occur. In fact, there is a great deal of uncertainty in all predictions of natural phenomenon.

With regard to forces on the subatomic level, the naked eye has never seen the particles that are talked of in volumes of scientific literature even through magnification because we are talking about things too small for such observation. It is only the effects that are measured and assumptions made about the nature of the particles based on the effects they cause. But, the one thing about all of these predictions and assumptions and theories is that they represent a way of understanding our world that excludes supernatural forces and entities. In fact, one aspect of modernity is that it cannot bear the thought that anything exists apart from the natural world or the randomness of events. As the popular Dr. Tyson is reported to have said on the TV series, Cosmos, “The Cosmos is all there ever was, all there is, and all there ever will be.” Theoretical science is based, in fact, due to the worldview of many of its adherents, has to be based, on the absolute belief that there is nothing else but the physical universe.

They will acknowledge that there is not enough mass in the universe to account for gravity as they believe it to be so some invisible thing is holding it all together. They must postulate Dark Matter and Dark Energy, unseen, invisible but perfectly natural and without a personal will, to explain why things consist. But, a true Bible-believer knows that it is Christ, the Word of God, God Himself, who holds it all together.

Colossians 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

It should give the Christian pause as he or she examines their most basic beliefs about day-to-day reality.

On one level, verse 7 is thought to be a reference, unapproachable to mankind before its discovery for unique, personal identification purposes in the latter half of the 1800’s, the 19^th century, to fingerprints. On another level, understandable by God’s people for thousands of years prior to that discovery, is from the context. When the weather was overpowering and awful, men were unable to perform their work. They were prevented from pursuing the means of their livelihoods and professions, forced to give pause to consider God’s handiwork, of course, until recently when even God’s people stopped believing He had a hand in the storm. The beasts of field and forest also tried to stay out of the elements.

Verse 9, on one level, is thought to be a reference to the hurricanes and typhoons that afflict the warmer climates with extreme cold the bane of the northern. The next couple of verses impress upon Job God’s direct hand in extreme weather. Verse 13 has been referenced by some conservative preachers as a statement of God’s using the weather as a judgment upon America for challenging modern Israel’s right to and safety in the land given to them thousands of years previously by God. It is an interesting and intriguing thought regarding the meaning of these verses and it may very well be true, although Elihu himself could not have understood it that way. From the first George Bush and for the presidents that succeeded him there have been devastating weather events that accompanied the signing of agreements where an America pressured Israel surrendered territory, from the famous, “Perfect Storm,” of movie fame to Hurricane Katrina.

Still, I am not trying to turn this into a study of prophecy, which while very interesting, is very subjective. The point of these passages is Elihu’s proclamation of God’s direct involvement in natural events. American Christians have been brainwashed far too long in the idea of a watchmaker God winding it up and walking away, who, paradoxically, they will pray to for a parking space close to the doctor’s office but who has nothing to do with earthquakes and can’t preserve the words He wants us to have. It does seem kind of odd that you would think God would care about whether or not the day you plan on a picnic is sunny or rainy but that a typhoon slamming into the Philippines is something He has no part in unless someone brings it to His attention that people are in danger.

We have created a senile, doddering God who we go to for protection from forces He had nothing to do with, a God whom the saved and the unsaved can resist at their discretion, and a God who is seemingly unaware of a volcanic eruption unless we alert Him to it.

The God presented by the Bible is not so.