Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 4. Concerning the mysteries of creation.
I. THE MYSTERIES OF CREATION ARE MANIFOLD IN THEIR VARIETY. Jehovah directs Job's attention to some examples of these hidden things, or secrets, of nature.
1. The depths of the ocean. The sea, perhaps more than any other object in nature, the universal emblem of the mysterious, in respect of its immensity, inconstancy, potency, harmony, is specially invested with a veil of wonder when the mind reflects upon its unfathomable profundity. Ever sounding and singing on its surface, now chanting weird melodies as its tiny wavelets break upon the shore, now bellowing and roaring with discordant fury when the raging winds catching the ruffian billows by the top bid them clash in mortal conflict, underneath all is still, silent, solemn, voiceless, and, except where there are currents, motionless as the grave. Above inviting man's approach and investigation, below it has deep and dark recesses, untraversed by human foot, unscanned by mortal eye. Continually sending forth its treasures to the upper air in magic trains of mist, doing homage to the golden sun, it has "springs" or "fountains" underneath (Genesis 7:11), whence its waste is supplied.
2. The realms of the unseen world. The grim and gloomy subterranean regions so eloquently described by Job (Job 10:22; Job 26:5) as the abodes of disembodied spirits, are here similarly represented as the habitations of the dead, who are shut. within the sunless receptacles by means of doors and bars. Without expressly asserting that the two places," the interior parts of the earth" and "the realm of shades," were identical, the language of Jehovah imports that both alike were among the secret things as yet unveiled to man. And this witness is true. To saint and sinner equally the manner of existence, when the now embodied spirit shall have shuffled off this mortal coil, is an unfathomable mystery. A terra incognita is the country beyond the tomb. Nor has man yet been able to explore the innermost recesses of the earth. His investigations and researches have been confined to the earth's crust, possessing a thickness of only a few thousand feet. Whether the central substance of the globe is a solid mass or a glowing fire is yet with physicists a quaestio vexata.
3. The extent of the earth. That the earth was in patriarchal times popularly believed to be a plain is no proof that even then its sphericity was not guessed at, though perhaps not definitely ascertained by geographers and astronomers (vide Job 26:7, homiletics). Still, with all the appliances of modern science for observing the transit of Venus, upon which calculations for the earth's dimensions depend, the most that can be thus obtained is only an approximation towards the truth—an approximation no doubt sufficiently accurate for working purposes, but still an approximation as distinguished from the absolute truth.
4. The origin of light and darkness. Among the discoveries of modern science few surpass in interest those relating to the composition and the laws of light. The prism by untwisting a solar beam, and the spectrum by analyzing its very substance, have widened man's knowledge in this department of physics to an astonishing extent. Yet what light itself is, what are its physical causes, and how it produces its particular effects, are still among the unascertained facts of nature.
5. The sources of snow and hail. Here again it is not the physical power or force which causes snow or hail which constitutes the mystery; but the fact that they seem to descend upon earth in inexhaustible supplies at the moments when they are most required, viz. when God has some time of trouble in store for man or some terrible judgment to inflict on earth. Scripture speaks of hail as having been employed by God for the destruction of his enemies (Exodus 9:18; Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:10).
6. The distribution of light and wind. Jehovah alludes to the laws in accordance with which the beams of light and the air-currents spread themselves across the surface of the globe, and exercise their respective influences upon the earth and its inhabitants.
7. The inner principles of rain, dew, ice, and frost. The causes that immediately produce these phenomena were probably to a large extent unknown in the days of Job, though they are now understood by persona of a moderate degree of culture. But it is the power behind the immediately operating material causes after which Jehovah inquires.
II. THE MYSTERIES OF CREATION ARE UNDISCOVERABLE BY MAN.
1. The oldest man was not present at their formation. "Knowest thou it [i.e. where the light dwelleth] because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy months is great?" Jehovah means that neither Job nor any other human intelligence was cognizant by personal observation of the institution of this or any other of the above-named mysteries. The establishment of nature's laws took place before the birth or creation of man. Each individual as he opens his eyes upon the theatre of existence witnesses their operation. When they first began to operate no man was there.
2. The wisest man does not know them through intuition. "Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?" Has the knowledge of this or of any of these mysteries flashed in upon thee, or risen up within thee by a kind of scientific intuition? The human understanding we believe to be sent into the world with a definite amount of mental furniture in the shape of mental and moral intuitions, which gradually assert their presence in and power over the soul; but among these innate ideas are not to be discovered solutions of the physical problems of the universe.
3. The most diligent man cannot roach them by personal investigation. "Hast thou come in thy walkings upon the fountains of the sea?" Have thy researches conducted thee to the secrets of creation? At the best man's knowledge of the material universe is comparatively superficial. It is doubtful if his powers of investigation can conduct him to the first principles of natural phenomena; and, even if they were sufficient in themselves, the limited extent of time during which man can apply them to the task renders ultimate success well-nigh impossible.
III. THE MYSTERIES OF CREATION ARE ALL UNDERSTOOD BY GOD.
1. They are all of his making. The sea with all its springs and caves is of his production. The dark underworld of spirits has been constructed by him. His was the voice that summoned the light into being. Snow, hail, wind, rain, frost, and dew, are each and all his creatures.
2. They are all of his hiding. If man knows so much and no more about natural phenomena, that is traceable solely to the Divine will. God could have endowed man with a deeper insight into the final causes of things had he chosen. If, therefore, God has power to hide, he must likewise know what he hides.
3. They are all of his directing. It is God who bids the fountains of the ocean spring, who says to the light, "Be distributed across the face of the earth," who charges the snow to fall upon the ground, who causes it to rain upon the wilderness where no man is. Hence the entire secret of their working must be known to him.
Learn:
1. In the presence of nature's mysteries, a lesson concerning our own ignorance.
2. In presence of our ignorance, a lesson of humility.
3. In presence of the God of nature, lessens of reverence, trust, and submission.