Job 42 part 9

 

Tonight we will finish up the book of Job. We only have one chapter left, but before we examine it, I want revisit some the questions that God asked Job to show how the things He asked about can be backed up by what we have learned by our modern day science. While we have come a long way and have expanded our knowledge about our planet and how things work, we will never fully understand the wisdom or the power of God because His ways are past finding out.

 

Our first example comes from:

 

Job 38:4 " Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.  5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?  6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,

 

God is wanting to know if Job was there when the earth was created and of course he was not, but notice God talks about laying a foundation for the earth, which is the same language used to describe laying a foundation for a house. Then God asked in verse 6, “To what were its foundations fastened?

 

The word foundations used here is a different Hebrew word “eden” and it means a socket. This is the same word is used to describe the sockets into which pegs were inserted in order to secure the planks of the tabernacle (Ex. 26:19ff). The word “fastened” means to sink down.

 

It is now believed that the earth is covered by an outer curst of rock (some seven to thirty miles thick) which in turn rests upon a mantle (foundation) of heavy rock called peridotite, which extends down into the heart of the earth some 1,800 miles. Based upon seismic data, scientists suggest that the great land masses of our planet are anchored in “sockets” which plunge deep into the earth’s mantel (averaging more than 300 miles in depth. So, our current data of the building blocks of the earth fits well with God’s description of the foundation of the earth and how it fastened.

           

God also mentions how the earth has a precise measurement, which neither Job nor anyone during his day could have known, but we know today that the earth’s diameter around its equator is 7,926 miles, but at the poles it is only 7,899 miles. So, our earth is not a perfect sphere. According to man by the name of Price there is a reason for the earth not being a perfect sphere.

 

“The simple fact is that if the world were a perfect sphere, its rotation would pile up the waters of the ocean around the equator to an enormous extent, drawing them away from all the northern and southern parts… In short, the shape of our world shows design on the One who created it, and who adapted its size, form density, etc., to its rotation, and to all the other physical laws that now govern it.”

The next thing we learn about is what God says about the ocean.

 

Job 38:8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb;  9 When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band;  10 When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors;  11 When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'

 

 It has been said that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the surface of the ocean. However, the more time that has passed the more we have learned. For instance the ocean covers 71 % of the earth and on average it is 6 times deeper than that the average height of the land. It has been estimated if the earth surface was made smooth that the ocean would completely cover it by a depth of 2 miles. God created the earth in such a way that the oceans have their place because they have been fixed by God.

 

God also asked:

 

Job 38:16 "Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?

 

When people think of the sea, they think salt water and the majority of it is, but as God as mentioned, there are fresh water springs that can be found in the oceans. The earliest secular reference to such was recorded by the Roman geographer, Strabo (63 B.C. – 21 A.D.). These types of springs have been found on the coast of Greece, Italy, Israel, and Syria. There is abundance of fresh water in the ocean off the coast of Australia

 

In 1976 the U.S. Geological Survey discovered fresh water in the Atlantic along the sea coast from New England to Georgia.

 

Once again, we can see that the Word of God was spot on even though it was written so long ago.

 

God also asked Job about the recesses of the deep and in similar passage, David was singing a song to God and said,

 

2 Samuel 22:16 Then the channels of the sea were seen,

 

Also the writer of Psalms 37 says:

 

Psalm 33:7  He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses.  

 

Finally, Jonah 2:6 it talks about how when Jonah was cast into the ocean that he went down to the bottom of the mountains. All these verses describe details about the ocean floor and it depths and mountainous terrain all before man had the ability to know such things.

 

The science of oceanography didn’t have its start until around the year 1873 when some British scientists set out to discover more about the ocean. This was known as the challenger expedition (1873-76) and they made a lot of new discoveries including a canyon that 5 ½ miles deep in the pacific, which is recess of the deep as God said or as the Psalmist said it is a storehouse for the ocean. Since that expedition, we have found many more recesses of the deep in various places. For instance, one near the Philippines is over 7 miles deep.

 

Another interesting point comes from A.E. Parr who served as the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He wrote,

 

“Before the invention of echo-sounding equipment it was generally thought that the bottom of the oceans would present the appearance of plains, plateaus and gently rolling terrain. Now we know that it also has valleys and mountain ranges, and even canyons, to equal all the forms we find on land.”

 

Again, God’s Word got it right.

 

Next, God gives us some facts about light and darkness.

 

Job 38:19 " Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place,

 

God is saying that light dwells in a way. The word “way” literally means a traveled path or road and darkness is in its place. In other words, it doesn’t travel it remains where it is. However, this was not known in times past because according to Dr. Morton,

 

“Until the seventeenth century, it was believed that light was transmitted instantaneously. Then Sir Isaac Newton suggested that light was composed of small particles which travel in a straight line. Christian Huygens proposed the wave theory of light. Olaus Roemer measured the velocity of light as evidenced by its delay as it traveled through space.”

 

Today we know that light travels in a straight line at 186,000 miles per second. For example, it takes about 8 min for the light from the sun to travel its path to the earth. Again, God’s Word had it right that light does have a way or a path.

 

God also asked,

 

Job 38:24 By what way is light diffused,  

 

The word diffused can mean departed or divided and to be fair, God could have been asking Job if he understand how light is distributed on the earth, but also a known fact that light can be divided by using a prism, which produces colored lights. Sir Isaac Newton was the first scientist to demonstrate this, but God had already shown this truth by means of the rainbow.

 

The last one I want to examine is what God said the constellations in,

 

Job 38:31  " Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion? 

 

I mentioned last week that God may have just been asking Job if he could control the seasons as Pleiades appears in the spring and Orion in late October. As I said, last week, there is another possible meaning here.

 

Since we have the ability to see the stars beyond what our eyes can see on their own, we know that Pleiades contains over 200 stars that are bound together, but we can only see 7 of it stars with our naked eyes, which makes up the constellation we see. So, God could be asking Job do you have the power to bind the stars of Pleiades together as I have?

 

Orion is another interesting constellation because we know now that the stars we can see with our naked eye are actual not bound to one another and they are separated from each other by vast distances. So, God could be asking Job if he could loose the belt of Orion as I have?

 

If this is what God is talking about in these verses, then they show scientific foreknowledge of the stars that could not have been known during Job’s time or before the invention of the telescope.

 

There is even more we could discuss about the spot on science that God has mentioned in his questions to Job, but I believe these are sufficient to add to the evidence that God’s Word is God breathed, and even though His Word was not designed to be science book when it does speak of science it is always correct. If the Bible had been written by man there is no way it could stand the test of time. When we examine information like we have looked at tonight, it just adds to our faith and proves once again that God exist and that we have His inspired Word in our Bibles.

 

Now let’s finish up the book of Job by examining the last chapter.   

 

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD and said:  2 "I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.  3 You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.  4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.'  5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.  6 Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."

 

After God finished His speech, Job answers God. We can see from what Job says that he has learned his lesson and realized how rash he has been. He now claims that God can do everything and nothing can interfere with His will. Then Job answers God’s question “Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?”

 

Job now realizes how foolish his words were and he admits that he has spoken without understanding and talked about things that he could not comprehend. But now his eyes are open and he understands where he fell short. As the song of Amazing grace says, I was blind, but now I see.

 

When Job says I abhor myself, he is not saying that he hates himself, but that he hates that he wrongfully accused God of injustice. Since he could see how he had sinned against God with his words and so he repented with dust and ashes. Job was convicted of his sin and he was willing to repent of it, but he was not repenting of any of the things his 3 friends had accused him of because they were wrong in their accusation. Again, he is repenting of his words and his attitude toward God as he suffered physically.

 

 Job had learned a lesson that we must all learn and that is the spiritual must always take precedence over the physical. Next God direct his attention to Job’s 3 friends.

 

Job 42:7 And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.  8 "Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has."  9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD commanded them; for the LORD had accepted Job.

 

Job’s 3 friends started out with good intentions to come and grieve with their friend, but then they turned on him and made many false accusations about Job that were assumed, but not proven. Now God is letting them know that they were wrong and that Job was right. He tells them to get 7 bulls and 7 rams for a burnt offering and to come before Job so that he can pray for them.

 

After all their false accusations and thinking the were correct, they have now been served a big piece of humble pie because they know now that they were wrong, and they have to let Job offer up prayer on their behalf because God has accepted Job because Job learned his lesson and repented. Job’s 3 friends didn’t fight against this truth or turn and walk away. Instead they obeyed God’s instructions. Sometimes we can find ourselves in this situation when we make false accusations against someone and we must be willing to eat our slice of humble pie as well and repent in accordance with God’s Word.

 

Before we move on I want us to take a closer look at verse 7 and 8 because there are those who believe that verse 7 and 8 teaches that Job did not sin during this whole process because God says,

 

"My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.

 

And in verse 8 He says:

 

because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has." 

They give other reasons such as Job proclaiming his innocence throughout his speeches and Job was not asked to make an animal sacrifice like his friends had to. Since James 5:11 says that Job was an example of endurance how could have sinned during this time.

 

Based on these 2 verses, they will interpret everything Job’s says in his speeches in a way that makes him sin free, but I have to disagree with this position because we have examined on several occasion where Job was falsely accusing God of injustice and how he dealt with certain people. Also, if he was not guilty of sin with his words then why was God asking Him all those question and why did he repent with ashes and dust if he had not sinned? The answer is easy, he did sin and that is why he repented.

 

When you look at our 2 verses we can see that God is talking about a specific instance and it not a blanket statement to cover everything that was said by Job or his friends. If you go back and look at the speeches again, you will find that Job’s friends did say some things that were correct about God and likewise you can find several things that Job said about God that were incorrect.

 

To give you one example of what is meant by God’s statement in these verses. Job’s friends were adamant that God always punishes those who sin with suffering, but Job disagreed with this and Job was right because Job was an upright man and that is why God choose him to be tested by the devil. Since Job was the upright man who never would curse God or fully turn his back on him, he does serve as a great example for us to follow and he did exercise great patience through most of what was happening to him. It wasn’t until he started talking with his friends that he allowed his mouth to sin, but he did not allow his sin to conquer him, because after he heard God’s speech, he repented.

 

Again this is a great example for us to follow because like Job, we may endure the hardships of life for awhile, but we may stumble along the way and just like Job, we must be humble enough to admit that we were wrong and be willing to repent. Job’s friends had not done this. They were silent about their foolish words, so God told them what they had to do to take care of their sin.

 

Job 42:10 And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.  11 Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.  12 Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.  13 He also had seven sons and three daughters.  14 And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch.  15 In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.  16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.  17 So Job died, old and full of days.

  

Since Job was a righteous man who never fully turned from God and was willing to repent for his foolish words, God blessed him with twice as much as he had before. Even his brothers and sisters and all that knew him came back into his life and ate with him and consoled him for what he had gone through and they gave him a token of their appreciation. Once again, Job was reaping the benefits of God’s blessing. He had his livestock back and he had 10 more children. Out of all of the children he had, we are only given the names of the last 3 daughters who were very beautiful, and like their brothers, they were allowed to have part of Job’s inheritance.

 

We are not told anything about Job’s wife, so we will just have to wonder about her. We can see that Job lived another 140 years and was able to be part of 4 generations of children and grandchildren. All in all we can estimate that Job lived over 200 years, which again fits perfectly with Job living during the patriarchal period and so ends the book of Job.

 

As we come to the conclusion of this great book, I want to briefly mention some of the great lessons we have learned:

 

1. God is all powerful and is full of wisdom beyond our comprehension.

2. We learned about God’s sovereignty in how He is in control, and we are in no position to judge God’s actions as He brings about His will.

3. God is a just God and He has His eye on the righteous, but sometimes even the righteous will suffer. In Job’s case, God blessed him in the end.

4. God is worthy of our praise even when things are not going well for us.

5. Sometime we may not find the answers we are looking for right away.

6. The devil is our arch enemy and he wants to fail, but if we keep the faith he will not conquer us.

7. Even when your friends or family turn their backs on you, God will always be there.

8. When we repent and turn to God, He will forgive us and we will be blessed.

9. Even when we suffer or go through difficult times, we should never give up on God or turn away from Him.

 

I want to give credit where credit is due. Wayne Jackson’s book on Job has been very helpful in the preparation of these lessons especially the last two. Nearly all of the science section of this lesson is word for word out his book from pages 126-129. If you want a great book on the book of Job, I recommend Wayne Jackson’s book.