Job 37:6 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 37:6

Comments

At his command a blanket of snow covers the earth and the landscape is transformed. Work is brought to a halt; movement is prevented and society – especially in the agrarian days of the Bible – is brought to a standstill. You cannot continue to work the land under these conditions. Likewise he sends the winds and the rains, sometimes gently watering man’s crops, at other times coming with tremendous force as floods tear holes in the landscape and carry away all before them in their destructive power; hurricanes and tornados rip up trees and wreck human habitations.‘He seals the hand of every man’. The commentators are agreed that this expression describes the halt that is put on human industry as a result of the change of seasons. This is apparent from the following verses. The winter comes when – certainly in ancient times – it was impossible to work the fields and agricultural man was forced to put down his tools and wait for the more favourable conditions of springtime. God commands work and he commands rest and in this case he does so by putting in place circumstances which man has no choice but to yield to. He is subject to the seasons and his enforced rest tells him that he lives as a dependant creature subject to God who has arranged all these things. How can any fail to be aware of such an invasive influence on his life?The beasts go into their dens and caves of the earth, and some spend the winter there in hibernation, not emerging until the days start to lengthen again. They too are driven by the seasons into behaviour which would not be their choice if the winter did not compel them. God has provided for this time also by strangely allowing their bodies to slow their normal metabolism into a state in which they can survive for long periods without food. So men and beast are interrupted in their lives and man who observes all these things should take it to heart that he, like the beasts, lives under the government of the Almighty.‘Out of the south’ – the word ‘south’ is the Hebrew word for chambers. From his chambers come the storm-winds, and ‘out of the north’ – literally, ‘the scattering winds’ – comes the cold as God summons weather systems from far away. He works on a scale which dwarfs us, but we see it and the eye of faith learns much about the Lord from studying these things. The word ‘chambers’ or inner rooms suggests that God has in reserve any number of these storms which he can send at will, and though we cannot tell where they proceed from, he understands it all. Destructive winds presumably from the south and cold snow laden winds from the north are at his disposal.The frost is also under his control and the plunging of the temperatures in winter which freezes the lakes. What a profound change this brings to the landscape of our world. We would, as Matthew Henry says regard it as an astounding miracle if it were not so common.

Application

How good it is for us to realise that we live in a world superintended by God who is constantly doing things which are vital to our welfare but which are far beyond our capacity to understand, or follow, or even be aware of. It teaches us a true spirit of dependency which fosters humility. How bad for us it is to substitute for this reverence towards God, an admiration of impersonal nature to which we can give no thanks. We may heap all the praise we like on nature, but it is a meaningless act and not one of submission to a person. Since we too are part of nature, ultimately we end up praising ourselves not the Lord. This is inevitable because, nature being impersonal, there is no one we must give thanks to, no one we have to submit to, no one who has the right to command us how to live. We are free from all authority and we become the highest authority ourselves. But if we are reliant on the provisions made by the Lord for us, and helpless without them, then we ought to view ourselves as incomplete and owing not just our existence but our continued well-being to the Lord. What pride is evident in man when he thinks he could live without the Lord! Like a child that is ignorant of how much is done for them by their parents and in its rebellion does not wish to give them any credit, and who therefore feels it can dispense with parental care, so men and women want to live in a world from which their Creator and Provider has been expelled.

Questions

This is of course a very different picture from that presented by deist, who tell us that the world is self-sustaining and continues without the intervention of the Lord, operating according to laws which were put in place from the beginning. Scripture teaches that, although we do not know how, God is constantly at work, and that all that happens is according to his sovereign will. He can wait to judge the wicked and is willing to bear with them until the time of the harvest. What if he shows them undeserved kindness for a while? Do they get the advantage over him by this? Not at all, for he only makes clear how unreasonable they are in their sin, and how deserving is their final judgment.

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Job 37:6 Commentary and Bible Study