From: Job 38:1, 8-11
The Lord Speaks to Job
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[1] Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
[8] "Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb; [9] when I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, [10] and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, [11] and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?"
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Commentary:
38:1-42:6. The theophany and the Lord’s discourse that follow it form the climax of the book: after each of the friends and the impertinent Elihu have opined on Job’s attitude and on the meaning of suffering, and after Job himself has repeatedly called on God to pronounce judgment, God’s intervention gives a perfect finish to the whole debate. The Lord upbraids the friends for rejecting the very idea that he would appear in person to reply to Job, and he commends Job for his desire to meet with Him.
The content of the Lord’s speeches are along the lines of the previous Ones as regards created beings reflecting the power and wisdom of their Maker; but the tone is very different. The Lord does not take issue with Job’s views or lament his misfortune, or even respond directly to Job’s demand that his innocence be recognized; what he wants him to do is to watch a fiIm documentary, as it were, recording the wonders of creation; to discover the beauty and endowments of created beings; and to acknowledge, in all simplicity, the sovereignty and wisdom of the Creator.
From a literary point of view, the Lord’s discourses contain typical descriptions of all kinds of creatures, such as the ostrich (39:13-18), the warhorse (39:19-25), and Behemoth and Leviathan (40:15-41:26). These animals are depicted so expertly, with a mixture of realism and fantasy, that we don’t know whether they belong to the world of reality or that of mythology. But they are all creatures of the Lord.
The theophany consists of two lengthy speeches by God (38:4-39:30; 40:15-41: 26), each preceded by an appeal to Job (38:1-3; 40:6-14) and each followed by a grateful and humble response from Job (40:3-5; 42:1-6).
38:1-39:30. The Lord’s first speech is very rich in language and very skillfully constructed, but the message is quite simple: God is present in places where Job or no one else has ever been; he has acted and does act where no human being ever could or can: he arranges things most wisely and takes the greatest care of created beings (stars, birds, animals) far beyond man’s reach. In other words, God is infinitely more powerful than Job; yet here he is, inviting him to engage in conversation and join him in contemplating the wonders of the cosmos and of the animal world.
This speech cannot be described as a class in Creation Theology; and in fact in few places does it overlap with creation accounts in Genesis or in the book of Wisdom; it is rather, a sapiential description of the entire universe and of the way created beings operate; no account is taken of secondary causes or of the usefulness these beings may have for man.
The speech consists of an introduction (38:1-3) and two lengthy sections. The first of these focuses on the inanimate world (38:4-38), and the second on the animal world (38:39-39:30). The first has a certain logical order to it, ranging out from the better known to the more remote phenomena -- earth, sea, light, the ends of the earth, and the abyss, the elements, stars … But the animal section seems to have no particular order to it; instead, the writer uses devices found in wisdom literature: his list of animals runs to ten (ten being a number symbolizing completeness) – lion, raven, goat, deer, wild ass, wild ox, ostrich, horse, lark, eagle; by choosing undomesticated animals, he accentuates the power of God.
38:1-3. The introduction to these speeches provides keys to their meaning. It uses the proper name of the God of Israel, the Lord (Yhwh), as does the prologue (2:1-7) and epilogue (42:7-17) of the book itself, whereas in the preceding debate, as we have seen, the generic Greek name appears ('El, Eloah, Elohim, Shaddai). This serves to underline that genuine wisdom belongs to the God of Israel, and he communicates it to his people. The text keeps repeating that it is God who is speaking: "And the Lord said …”, "the Lord answered.” The theophany "out of the whirlwind” would alone have made this plain; it was a whirlwind that took Elijah up to heaven (2 Kings 2:1,11) and it figures in the eschatological appearances of the Lord (cf. Ezek 1:1-3; 15; Zech 9:14); even if God had made himself silently present, Job would have had his desire fulfilled: he would have met the Lord. But by responding to Job with words, God is bestowing on him the same sign of favour as he gave to the patriarchs and to Moses, with whom he spoke face to face. In this way the sacred writer shows how very worthy a person Job is.
"Who is this that darkens counsel” (v. 2): the Hebrew word translated as ''counsel” ('esah) means God’s plan, his purposes, which stay unchanged for all eternity (cf. Is 25:1) and are irrevocable (Is 14:24, 26). What the word primarily means here is governance of the universe, that is, divine providence: "Since human reason on its own cannot comprehend the truth of divine providence, the argument between Job and his friends needed to be resolved by divine authority [...]. So the Lord, as arbitrator of the dispute, criticizes the friends whose words do not judge Job fairly, and Elihu for his mistaken assumptions” (St Thomas Aquinas, Expositio super lob, 38, 2). But, given that in the Old Testament this word is always connected with divine intervention in the lives of nations and individuals (Jer 32:19), here it also applies to God’s part in making Job’s life so miserable. Job has raised objections to this. The Lord himself now invites him to view this counsel, these "plans”, from the point of view of God, not man. Man’s perspective is narrow and blurred.
"I will question you, and you shall declare to me” (v. 3). In keeping with the tone of irony that surfaces elsewhere in the speech (38:4, 18, 21), the Lord grants Job the status of interlocutor and implies that he is capable of answering all the great questions and of supplying the sort of sapiential argument he will use in his speech. At no point does God try to humiliate Job; he is simply encouraging him to accept with a good grace the teaching he is going to offer him.
38:4-15. The description of the earth (vv. 4-7), the sea (vv. 8-11) and the sunlight (vv. 12-15) contains a lot of symbolism. For example, the earth is depicted as an impressive building which the stars find awesome. St Gregory the Great does well to apply this description to the Church, God’s beloved, built on the foundation of the apostles and with Christ as its cornerstone; earth and Church are a source of amazement to the angels (cf. Moralia in lob, 6:28, 5-7, 14-35).
The ocean, which was full of bluster in the high seas, becomes all mild when it reaches the shore, just as a restless baby becomes quiet when it is held and clothed. "The gates of the Holy Church”, St Gregory explains, "may he battered by the waves of persecution, but they cannot he destroyed; the wave of persecution may rock the gates from without, but it cannot break through to the heart of the Church” (Moralia in lob, 6, 28, 18, 38).
The light of dawn dispels the darkness (vv. 12-13), which is an accomplice of evil-doers, as Job previously acknowledged (cf. 24:13-17): "Evildoers love the dark of night, and flee in despair at the dawning of the day. For this reason he adds: "And you shook out the wicked”, that is, you forced them to flee into hiding when the light of day stripped away their cover of darkness” (Fray Luis de Leon, Expositio lob, 38, 13).