Page 139 - Reading Job to Know God

foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. Yet many of the
priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men
who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the
foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many
shouted aloud for joy, (listen to the noise here) so that the people
could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of
the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout,
and the sound was heard far away.”

You see, when the earthly temple was completed, when the foundation of
the temple was laid, God’s people began to sing and to shout. They
praised the Lord so loudly that their voices were heard far away. And God
is saying, Job, when I laid the foundation of the earth something like that
happened. But it was not men singing and priests singing because they
were not around. It was the angels of God. The Cherubim and Seraphim.
And, Job, you should have heard that choir! I finished creating the
universe, and the angels began to sing and praise and rejoice. Were
you there Job? Did you see that? Did you hear that choir? You see, He is
overwhelming Job. And then chapter 38, verse 8-11, he begins talking
about the sea.
“Or who enclosed the sea with doors when, bursting forth, it went out
from the womb; When I made a cloud its garment and thick
darkness its swaddling band.”
Do you see what he is doing? He is illustrating His greatness. The mighty
ocean is just like a newborn babe in God’s arms.

“And I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors,
and I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall
your proud waves stop’?
Then God takes that little baby and puts it in its crib, and says to the
ocean, “No more”. You see, He is referring to the great laws that govern
the tides, and God has controlled the sea so it can come so far and no
further.
“Job, where were you when I did that?” Chapter 38:12–15. “Job, when
was the last time you commanded the sun to rise in the morning and the
night to go away?” Verse 16, “Say, Job, can you tell me where the springs
of the ocean are? Have you explored the depths of the sea?” Try to
capture the wonder of this. Job has challenged this One to a debate. This
One who hung the stars in space, the One over Whom the angels sang.

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