Job 38:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Through His death, He opened our minds to the truth and illuminated the path we ought to pursue. In the Gospel, He instructs His disciples, ‘And He said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations’ Luke 24:46-47. Although only a portion of the Israelites received His message, a multitude from the Gentiles embraced the way of life made available through His sacrifice. He faced the trials of pride, enduring suffering steadfastly, and triumphed over them through His passion. This mirrors what Samson once expressed, ‘And there were more dead whom he slew at his death than they whom he slew in his life’ Judg 16:30. The Lord did not merely condemn some for their pride, as we refer to being ‘dead in sin’ in His lifetime; through the destruction of His body, He simultaneously subdued the chosen Gentiles He had carried throughout His life with His death. He demonstrated that He descended into all realms of the abyss and rightfully acknowledged the breadth of the earth: Have you considered the breadth of the earth? It is as if He spoke to the man who was being scourged, ‘Reflect upon what I have suffered and recognize what I have achieved, and do not voice your complaints about the whip when you remain unaware of the rewards that await you.’ In light of these words from the Creator, it is fitting for us to momentarily shift our focus from the collective good and contemplate what He is accomplishing within each of us individually. For He says:

Through the challenge of understanding these basic physical realities, He aimed to reveal the far greater impossibility of grasping moral quandaries (38:1-3).

Initially, the Lord inquired of Job about the origins and early conditions of the earth, seemingly to demonstrate the limitations of human understanding and the vast expanse of the unknown that surrounds him if he cannot answer this singular question (4-6). Meanwhile, God effortlessly brought forth the earth, as effortlessly as a person would construct an ordinary building. The act of creation under His hand was so awe-inspiring and glorious that the heavenly beings proclaimed His majesty in joyous acclaim (7). Equally magnificent are the Creator’s power and wisdom as He confines the waters of the deep (8-11) and distinguishes between light and darkness (12-15). However, these depths and the boundaries of light and dark are not beyond the reach of human observation (16-20). The simplest phenomena of the earth—snow, hail, rain, and frost—elude human control and influence (21-30), and even less so can one dictate the movements of celestial bodies and meteorological changes (31-38). Transitioning then to the wondrous occurrences within the world, which are subtly close to humanity, the Lord highlights to Job that it is by His paternal care that predators and birds are nourished (39-41).