Job 38:38 | KingComments | STEP | In God comes back to the weather, to the clouds and the rain. He asks Job if he can shout so loudly that the clouds hear him and obey him, so that a downpour comes over him. Of course Job cannot do that. He can shout as loudly and as long as he wants, but the clouds will continue their way impassive without dropping a drop of water. They only listen to the voice of God. If we want it to rain, we must ask Him ( ; ). Neither is Job involved in sending and commanding the flashes of lightning ( ). God alone has authority over this ( ; ; ). They go and come at His command and stand in His service. All that a man can see of creation, all the wisdom he has about it, has been laid in his innermost being by God ( ). No one has any insight into the works of God other than through the insight that God puts into his heart. Man is naturally darkened in his mind ( ). As a result, he is in the dark about the origin of creation. Only when God gives him wisdom and insight, he is able to see how everything was created and also how everything is maintained. Despite the wisdom and insight God can give a man, man remains incapable of counting the clouds by wisdom ( ). Only God can count the number of clouds, so that there are enough to pour out somewhere an amount of rain determined by Him. Also, no man can “tip the water jars of the heavens”, meaning that the clouds are like jars filled with water and they are tipped to let the water out (cf. ). What the rain does with the dust and the clods is and remains a miracle for man ( ). The incoherent dust clumps through the water, and when it dries up, it “hardens into a mass”. Lumps that are hard become soft through the water and stick together. Man cannot imitate this process as such. It has not been invented by man. God has incorporated that process into His creation. As an application we can see here a loving act of God with man. It is He Who gives the rain. Man is dust ( ; ) and responds naturally with hardening ( ) to the gift of God. God must first do a work in man; He must plow and prepare the ‘ground’ of his heart so that His word is accepted (cf. ). Job’s silence shows that God’s plow has already drawn deep furrows in his heart.

‏ Job 38:38

The Clouds and the Control Over Them

In Job 38:34 God comes back to the weather, to the clouds and the rain. He asks Job if he can shout so loudly that the clouds hear him and obey him, so that a downpour comes over him. Of course Job cannot do that. He can shout as loudly and as long as he wants, but the clouds will continue their way impassive without dropping a drop of water. They only listen to the voice of God. If we want it to rain, we must ask Him (Zec 10:1; Jam 5:18).

Neither is Job involved in sending and commanding the flashes of lightning (Job 38:35). God alone has authority over this (Lev 10:2; Num 11:1 ; Num 16:35; 2Kgs 1:10 ; 12). They go and come at His command and stand in His service.

All that a man can see of creation, all the wisdom he has about it, has been laid in his innermost being by God (Job 38:36). No one has any insight into the works of God other than through the insight that God puts into his heart. Man is naturally darkened in his mind (Eph 4:18). As a result, he is in the dark about the origin of creation. Only when God gives him wisdom and insight, he is able to see how everything was created and also how everything is maintained.

Despite the wisdom and insight God can give a man, man remains incapable of counting the clouds by wisdom (Job 38:37). Only God can count the number of clouds, so that there are enough to pour out somewhere an amount of rain determined by Him. Also, no man can “tip the water jars of the heavens”, meaning that the clouds are like jars filled with water and they are tipped to let the water out (cf. Job 26:8).

What the rain does with the dust and the clods is and remains a miracle for man (Job 38:38). The incoherent dust clumps through the water, and when it dries up, it “hardens into a mass”. Lumps that are hard become soft through the water and stick together. Man cannot imitate this process as such. It has not been invented by man. God has incorporated that process into His creation.

As an application we can see here a loving act of God with man. It is He Who gives the rain. Man is dust (Gen 3:19; Job 30:19) and responds naturally with hardening (Eph 4:18) to the gift of God. God must first do a work in man; He must plow and prepare the ‘ground’ of his heart so that His word is accepted (cf. Mt 13:3-9 ; 18-23). Job’s silence shows that God’s plow has already drawn deep furrows in his heart.