Context is always important when reading and studying God’s Word. God has been putting Job to the test in the opening verses of this chapter. Job had demanded answers from God and God turned things around and was demanding answers from Job. We noted already that no one has the right to demand anything from God.
God is gracious and He gives us many good things we do not deserve. The saved person has been granted forgiveness of sin and a peace that passeth all understanding. He has been given eternal life and has a true hope.
God began His demands toward Job by pointing to His Creation work. He talked of the foundations. He talked of establishing the boundaries for the water, etc. In the context of those words, God spoke of the morning stars singing together and all the sons of God shouting for joy. We believe God is speaking here of angels.
Some people confuse this phraseology with that used in Genesis 6. They believe that angels were involved in immorality with wicked people. We find the same phrase in Genesis 6:2 and verse 7 in our text. They are not talking of the same group of beings.
In our verse the sons of God is a reference to the angels. The angels were created by God. We do not find the use of the word “angel” in Genesis 1 or 2. However, we know that the angels are created beings and they were created in Creation week. They witnessed most of God’s Creation work. They shouted for joy as they observed God creating the various things.
Job was not there at that time. He was not born then. He came later on. He came after the fall and after Noah’s flood. Thus there was quite a time gap there. Job was not infinite and thus he could not claim to have been there during Creation week. Since he was not there, he proved that he was way out of line in making his demands before Almighty God.
In verse 8 God continued to speak of the boundaries He established for the seas. There are foolish men today who claim that the water levels are going to go up and much land will be flooded if we do not deal with their mythological “climate change.”
Job had nothing to do with the limitations God put on the expanse of the seas. In verse 9 God spoke of the clouds. God created the clouds as part of the watering system for earth. Prior to the flood of Noah’s day, the earth was watered by a mist. The temperatures were more moderate and the atmosphere was like that of a greenhouse. Things changed drastically during the flood. God made things with order and with purpose. He changed the climate at the time of the flood and it never went back to what it was before the flood.
God tells us in Genesis 1 that He separated the waters from the dry ground. He limited the movement of the waters at that time. Of course that all changed at the time of the flood. However, after the flood, God again set the boundaries of the waters and they stay within those boundaries. There is a certain amount of flooding in the spring or after a heavy rain, but the waters always go back to their boundaries. There will never be another world-wide flood because God has decreed it to be so.
In verse 12 God turned to the morning. Job had nothing to do with when morning comes. God established the length of a day. He set the time in place. Morning comes because God established it. We know that we will never have morning in the middle of the day. The morning is marked by the rising of the sun. That is caused by God. The earth rotates and we go through the various aspects of the day.
In verse 13 we see that due to God’s design for daytime, the wicked cannot hide for long. They will be exposed. Darkness is not a constant. Daytime is also not a constant. God established the details of day and night in part to keep the wicked from being able to run rampant with their sin. They go into hiding when exposed by the light of day. We have some wicked people who are quite bold and they will commit crimes in broad daylight. However, they generally look for some type of covering to try to get away with their crime. God told Job here, that wicked people will be discovered because they cannot find a consistent hiding place.
We can be thankful that God has set up the day and the night as He did so that crime cannot take over. We know that crime is on the increase at this time. Of course many lying politicians will try to suggest that crime is down and that our streets are safer than they ever were. Anyone who has their eyes open knows this is not true. However, God exposes the criminals with the light of day. In the end, the wicked will stand at the great white throne judgment. They will be fully exposed and they will be cast into the lake of fire.
The time to repent and be saved is now. After death it is too late. We do not know the moment of our death. God does. He gives man opportunity to turn to Him now. Those who reject His warnings and His invitations will have no excuse. They will find out too late that they were fools.
Job was not a fool, but he needed to learn to humble himself to a much greater degree than he had to this point. Life had gone fairly well for him. He had walked in the fear of the Lord and the Lord had been blessing him in many ways. He had grown accustomed to those blessings. When trouble came, he was not prepared for it and he did not know how to handle it.
We have been greatly blessed in our country as well. We have been given many years where we could expand and build and make money and spend money and we knew there would always be jobs available and money to be made.
Things are changing rapidly. God has allowed wicked governments to take a much greater roll in the affairs of this nation. The “good old days” appear to be over for us. Life is getting much tougher now. Many young people are realizing this and they are quite hopeless. They are turning to drugs and alcohol. The crime rate among youth is increasing.
In Alabama there was a “sweet sixteen” birthday party at which a disagreement of some type turned deadly. Four people were killed and the last I saw, 28 were wounded. In Chicago there was a large uprising and much damage caused by young people. In Canada we are reading of stabbings taking place in the big cities. There are also shootings taking place.
Troublesome times are here. The solution to this problem is for people to repent toward God and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. We are not going to see a massive revival coming. There are those who claim this will happen. They have redefined revival to suit their deluded plans.
God is still offering His salvation to all. Some will still get saved. However, God’s clock is ticking. Soon there will be a trumpet sound and the New Testament saints will be taken out of this world, and the antichrist will be given his time of seven years. Those will not be good years.
God has shown us we do not need to be in despair because of this troubled future. We need to be sure that we know Him and that we serve Him faithfully. God is still giving the saints opportunity to serve Him and to remind others of the importance of knowing the true God.
If you are reading this and not saved, today is the best day for you to be saved. Tomorrow never comes. The longer you delay this important choice, the more trouble you bring upon yourself and all of a sudden it will be too late and you will find yourself in hell.
Those that are saved need to be mindful of the importance of walking humbly with the Lord and seeking to know Him better and seeking to help others to know Him as well.
Pastor Bartel