Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:25 belongs to God's own speech to Job, forming part of the larger passage in Job 38:4-27. As poetry it stands among the earliest utterances known to humanity and the most sublime in majesty, unequaled and unapproached by the loftiest productions of human genius. In beauty it is not inferior to Balaam's prophecy of blessing over Israel.
The verse asks who has cut a channel for the overflowing waters and made a way for lightning and thunder, showing that God Himself directs the forces of nature in rain and storm. It points to His care in causing rain to fall on land where no person lives, on uninhabited wilderness, to satisfy waste and desolate ground and to cause tender grass to spring forth. The question belongs to a series showing that human beings cannot command creation or fully understand it.
It is one of the divinely inspired questions concerning the mysteries of God revealed in nature that even persons of greatest intellect and most profound learning cannot understand or answer. It was not asked in order to be answered, but to call attention to the deep mysteries of God and to teach that human wisdom is limited. It shows that in the surroundings of daily life there are many things beyond the comprehension of finite beings, revealing infinite power. In both nature and divine revelation God has given mysteries to command faith, so that people are ever searching, ever inquiring, ever learning, yet an infinity remains beyond, and God is to be acknowledged as much for what He does not reveal of Himself as for what is open to limited comprehension.
Job 38:25 belongs to God's own speech to Job, forming part of the larger passage in Job 38:4-27. As poetry it stands among the earliest utterances known to humanity and the most sublime in majesty, unequaled and unapproached by the loftiest productions of human genius. In beauty it is not inferior to Balaam's prophecy of blessing over Israel.
The verse asks who has cut a channel for the overflowing waters and made a way for lightning and thunder, showing that God Himself directs the forces of nature in rain and storm. It points to His care in causing rain to fall on land where no person lives, on uninhabited wilderness, to satisfy waste and desolate ground and to cause tender grass to spring forth. The question belongs to a series showing that human beings cannot command creation or fully understand it.
It is one of the divinely inspired questions concerning the mysteries of God revealed in nature that even persons of greatest intellect and most profound learning cannot understand or answer. It was not asked in order to be answered, but to call attention to the deep mysteries of God and to teach that human wisdom is limited. It shows that in the surroundings of daily life there are many things beyond the comprehension of finite beings, revealing infinite power. In both nature and divine revelation God has given mysteries to command faith, so that people are ever searching, ever inquiring, ever learning, yet an infinity remains beyond, and God is to be acknowledged as much for what He does not reveal of Himself as for what is open to limited comprehension.