God’s questions relate to His creative activities and follow the pattern of Creation outlined in Genesis 1, including references to the alternation of darkness and light and the living beings in each sphere of creation. Strangely, however, He does not mention human beings as a part of creation. Perhaps He implies humanity in two types of questions that He employs. We could classify the questions as either “Who are you?” or “Where were you?” (The third type of question God uses in His speech is “Can you?”)
The divine speeches have troubled many commentators because they feel that God comes across as a tyrant. A superficial reading may give the impression that He only wants to put Job in his place. But a more careful examination reveals that He has no desire to humiliate Job or ridicule him.
Throughout the book of Job, the patriarch and his four fellow human beings have argued as though they understood how the world operated. Despite the mystery of his suffering, even Job at times thought he had God all figured out. The patriarch never really rejected the principle of retribution—he just did not understand how his case fit into it. Now through His questions, God begins to open His servant’s eyes to the fact that the world is far more complex than he had realized. The human beings in the book of Job have often spoken of God’s power—now Job begins to realize the extent and awesomeness of that divine power.
God commences His first speech with the question, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2). Although the speech is addressed at Job, it is not clear to whom exactly God has in mind here. Job? Elihu? All of the friends? But it does not really matter. The divine questions challenge all humanity.
As already pointed, the order of the questions follows that of Creation week.
The physical world
The earth (Job 38:4-7)
The sea (vv. 8-11)
The dawn (vv. 12-15)
The netherworld (vv. 16-18)
Light and darkness (vv. 19-21)
Weather phenomena (vv. 22-30)
Constellations (vv. 31-33)
Thunderstorms (vv. 34-38)
The animal and bird kingdoms
The lioness and raven (Job 38:39-41)
The ibex, or mountain goat, and fallow deer (Job 39:1-4)
The wild ass (vv. 5-8)
The wild ox, or aurochs (vv. 9-12)
The ostrich (vv. 13-18)
The horse (vv. 19-25)
The hawk and the eagle, or vulture (vv. 26-30)
Through questions, God emphasizes that He alone has the power to create. He shows how He has placed limits on the chaotic forces that could threaten His creation, something that only He can do. For example, at creation, God had set boundaries for the sea (an ancient Near Eastern symbol for chaos), telling it, “This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!” (Job 38:11).
But even in His descriptions of how He controls the powerful forces of nature, God relates them to the human situation. For example, in His poetic imagery of dawn (vv. 12-15), He reminds Job that while the wicked may do their thing in the darkness when dawn and its light comes, it reveals and thus stops their evil deeds. Both the sea and the wicked can go only so far. Sin and suffering cause great tragedy, but they never destroy everything. We do not know why God draws the boundaries where He does, but we can trust that He knows what He is doing and seeks only His creation’s ultimate good.
The Deity does not explain why He permits evil and suffering, but He does declare that it has definite limits. Just as God addressed the sea in verse 11 and defined its limits, so He told Satan that he could go only so far in his attacks on Job.
After exploring His creation of the earth and its physical phenomena, the Lord turns to His animate creation. Except for the horse (and it is an almost uncontrollable warhorse), all the animals He lists are wild creatures from the deserts and rocky hills of Palestine.
God wants these creatures to live independently of humanity. Even the warhorse has an untamed aura about it as it responds to the excitement of the battle charge and can easily break from its driver’s control (though Job 39:18 mentions a rider, men did not typically mount them yet—instead, the animals pulled chariots). The wild ox, or aurochs (not the unicorn of the KJV), was the most powerful of the hoofed animals. Only the hippopotamus and the elephant were larger land mammals in Palestine.
All these creatures are under God’s care and protection. The Lord is the one who has let the wild ass go free (v. 5), and He gives it the stepped and salt flat for its home (v. 6). The Lord endows the horse with strength and clothes it with its mane (v. 19). The hawk soars through the sky with the aid of the wisdom the Creator has provided, and the eagle or vulture makes its nest on lofty crags at the divine command (vv. 26, 27). The emphasis is not on “Why suffering?” but on “Behold how He cares for His creation!” In essence, God is saying to Job, “If I take pride in the horse and the lesser creatures of My creation, don’t you think I care for you, one of the beings I made to rule over My creation? Yes, there are chaotic forces at loose in the world, but I put limits on them just as I do the sea.”