How would you interpret and explain Job 38:31-33?
Listen: 151.5
Let’s look at Job 38:1-3 first, which reads “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me” (NASB). God had been patiently listening to Job as he, in pride, proceeded to show his three friends his great knowledge of God and His creation. But instead of speaking with true knowledge, his words misrepresented God and His truth. God finally addresses Job in a series of forty questions, with the purpose of exposing Job’s ignorance and pride. His questions relate to the EARTH in verses 4-7, the SEA in verses 8-11, the SUN in verses 12-15, the UNKNOWN DEPTHS in verses 16-21, the SNOW, RAIN, FROST and DEW in verses 22-30, the HEAVENS in verses 31-33, and the CLOUDS in verses 34-38. These questions were meant to humble Job, as well as to show him that God alone has intimate knowledge of His creation, and that God alone can sustain everything that He has created.
Job 38:31-33 says, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or fix their rule over the earth” (NASB)? Job had spoken of God’s creation of these stars and constellations in Job 9:9, “Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south.” But though he knew OF THESE THINGS, did he have “CONTROL OVER THEM?” Could he BIND, LOOSE, LEAD and GUIDE them in order to make them appear in their proper seasons? Of course the answer is NO, so Job wisely “kept his mouth shut!” Had he tried, in vain, to answer the Lord, he would have exposed his foolishness once again. What a lesson this is for astronomers and other “scientists” today who profess to know the secrets of God’s creation when in truth they are just as ignorant as Job! God alone knows everything about these heavenly bodies; He has even counted them and named them! Psalm 147:4 tells us “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.” And He alone controls them, as we see in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth….He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (NASB). (151.5) (DO)