Job 38:31-38
Can you bind the chains of the
Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their
season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances
of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
Can you lift up your voice to the
clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may
go and say to you, 'Here we are'? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or
given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who
can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the
clods stick fast together?
Isn’t it amazing that these ancient people studied the heavens to such a
degree? I don’t know about you, but I
feel like our culture has tried to paint an unfair picture of the ancients as
barely more than cave-dwelling, knuckle-dragging savages. I am impressed with the Bible’s portrayal of
ancient man as highly intelligent, industrious, inventive, and
inquisitive. God speaks to ancient Job
here as an intelligent man. He asks him
about star formations, and other natural phenomena. True, God does this in order to expose Job’s
pride and spiritual overreaching. He
does so to humble Job and to remind him of his place in the grand scheme of
things. But his questions to Job are
questions asked of an intelligent, observant being – one made in the image of
his Maker.
I will say
this: modern man has made nothing to
rival the Pyramids of Egypt, or the Ziggurat of Ur. The ancients were as smart as us (maybe more
so), and they worked as hard as us (probably even harder). They also sinned like us, and struggled in
their relationship with God.
And so the
questions continue...and Job is about to be taken to the zoo...
