Job 38:41 Komentář

In most disputes the strife is who shall have the last word. Job's friends had, in this controversy, tamely yielded it to Job, and then he to Elihu. But, after all the wranglings of the counsel at bar, the judge upon the bench must have the last word; so God had here, and so he will have in every controversy, for every man's judgment proceeds from him and by his definitive sentence every man must stand or fall and every cause be won or lost. Job had often appealed to God, and had talked boldly how he would order his cause before him, and as a prince would he go near unto him; but, when God took the throne, Job had nothing to say in his own defence, but was silent before him. It is not so easy a matter as some think it to contest with the Almighty. Job's friends had sometimes appealed to God too: "O that God would speak!" Job 11:7. And now, at length, God does speak, when Job, by Elihu's clear and close arguings was mollified a little, and mortified, and so prepared to hear what God had to say. It is the office of ministers to prepare the way of the Lord. That which the great God designs in this discourse is to humble Job, and bring him to repent of, and to recant, his passionate indecent expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him; and this he does by calling upon Job to compare God's eternity with his own time, God's omniscience with his own ignorance, and God's omnipotence with his own impotency. I. He begins with an awakening challenge and demand in general (Job 38:2, Job 38:3). II. He proceeds in divers particular instances and proofs of Job's utter inability to contend with God, because of his ignorance and weakness: for, 1. He knew nothing of the founding of the earth (Job 38:4-7). 2. Nothing of the limiting of the sea (Job 38:8-11). 3. Nothing of the morning light (Job 38:12-15). 4. Nothing of the dark recesses of the sea and earth (Job 38:16-21). 5. Nothing of the springs in the clouds (Job 38:22-27), nor the secret counsels by which they are directed. 6. He could do nothing towards the production of the rain, or frost, or lightning (Job 38:28-30, Job 38:34, Job 38:35, Job 38:37, Job 38:38), nothing towards the directing of the stars and their influences (Job 38:31-33), nothing towards the making of his own soul (Job 38:36). And lastly, he could not provide for the lions and the ravens (Job 38:39-41). If, in these ordinary works of nature, Job was puzzled, how durst he pretend to dive into the counsels of God's government and to judge of them? In this (as bishop Patrick observes) God takes up the argument begun by Elihu (who came nearest to the truth) and prosecutes it in inimitable words, excelling his, and all other men's, in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper.

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 38 In this chapter the Lord takes up the controversy with Job; calls upon him to prepare to engage with him in it, and demands an answer to posing questions he puts to him, concerning the earth and the fabric of it, Job 38:1; concerning the sea, compared to an infant in embryo, at its birth, in its swaddling bands and cradle, Job 38:8; concerning the morning light, its spread and influence, Job 38:12; concerning the springs of the sea, the dark parts of the earth, the place both of light and darkness, Job 38:16; concerning the various meteors, snow, hail, rain, thunder, lightning, and the influences of the stars, Job 38:22; and concerning provision for lions and ravens, Job 38:40.

Who prepareth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry to God, wandering because they have not meat? 28. For what is designated by the name of the raven, and its young ones, but the Gentile world blackened with sin? Of which it is said by the Prophet; Who giveth to beasts their food, and to the young ravens which call on Him. [Ps. 147, 9] For the beasts receive food, when minds before brutal, are satiated with the food of Holy Scripture. But food is given to the young ravens, namely, to the sons of the Gentiles, when their longing is refreshed by our conversion. This raven was food, while Holy Church was seeking for it. But it now receives food, because it seeks out others for conversion. 29. And its young, that is, the holy preachers which are sprung from it, truly trust not in themselves, but in the strength of their Redeemer. Whence it is well said: When his young ones cry to God. For they know that they can do nothing by their own strength. And though in their pious wishes they hunger for the gain of souls, yet they desire these effects to be wrought by Him Who works all things within. For they understand by true faith, that neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God Who giveth the increase. [1 Cor. 3, 7] 30. But in that which is said, Wandering because they have no meat, nothing else is designated by this wandering but the wishes of eager preachers. For while they desire to receive people into the bosom of the Church, being kindled with great warmth, they put forth their desire now to gather in these, and now those. For this very agitation of thought is, as it were, a kind of wandering; and they pass over as if to different places, with change of will, whilst they run here and there with ravenous mind, in numberless ways, and into different parts, for uniting souls together. 31. This wandering the young ones of the ravens, that is the sons of the Gentiles, learned from the teacher of the Gentiles himself. For in proportion to the strong love with which he burns, does he pass with rapid wandering from place to place; he wishes to pass from one place to another, because the love itself which fills him, urges him on. For when placed far away from the Romans, he writes, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you: for I long to see you. [Rom. l, 9-11] When kept at Ephesus, he writes to the Corinthians, Behold this third time I am ready to come to you. [2 Cor. 12, 14] Again, when tarrying at Ephesus, he speaks to the Galatians, saying, I desire to be with you now, and to change my voice. [Gal. 4, 20] When he was shut up also at Rome in the close keeping of the prison, because he is not permitted to go himself to the Philippians, he promises to send a disciple, saying, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good heart, having known your state. [Phil. 2, 19] When bound also in chains, and detained at Ephesus, he writes to the Colossians, For though I be absent in body, yet am I with you in the Spirit. [Col. 2, 5] Behold how he wanders, as it were, in his holy longing; he is detained here in body, he is led thither in the Spirit; and exhibits the affection of fatherly love to those who are present, makes it known to those who are absent; bestows his labours on those who are before him, expresses his wishes for those who only hear him; efficaciously present to those with whom he was, and yet not absent from those with whom he was not. But we gain a better notion of his wandering, if we consider still further his words to the Corinthians; for he says, I will come to you, when I shall have passed through Macedonia ; for I shall pass through Macedonia; but I shall perhaps remain with you, or even winter. [1 Cor. 16, 5. 6.] Let us consider, I pray you, what is this wandering. For behold in one place he remains for a while, in another he says that he will go, and in another he promises that he will turn aside. Why is it that he so anxiously distributes himself through so many places, except that he is bound around all with one love? For love, which is wont to unite things that are divided, compels the one heart of Paul to be divided amongst many things. And yet he gathers it together the more closely in God, the more widely he scatters it forth in holy longings. Paul therefore wishes to say all things at once in his preaching, to behold all men at once through his love; because he both wishes, by remaining in the flesh, to live for all, and, by passing out of the flesh, to profit all by the sacrifice of faith. Let therefore the young ones of the ravens wander, that is, let the sons of the Gentiles imitate their master, let them shake off the torpor of their mind, and when they find not the gain of souls, that is, their food, let them not rest; let them stretch themselves forth to advancement after advancement; and, toiling for the benefit of many, let them wander, as it were, and hunger for their own refreshment. But because, in running to and fro by the works of preaching, they cease not to feed the Gentile world with the refreshment of faith, let it be rightly said, Who prepareth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry to God, wandering because they have no meat. 32. But by the name of 'raven,' the people of the Jews, black with the demerit of unbelief, can also he designated. For its young ones are said to cry to God, that food might be prepared for this very raven by the Lord; doubtless, because the holy Apostles, begotten of the flesh of the people of Israel, while they were pouring forth prayers to the Lord for their nation, fed with spiritual wisdom their parent people, as the young ravens feed him from whom they are sprung in the flesh. While therefore his young ones cry out, food is provided for the raven; because, while the Apostles entreat, the people, which was before unbelieving, is led to the knowledge of the faith: and from the preaching of its sons is fed, as it were, by the voice of its young ones. But we ought in this verse carefully to notice that point, that food is said to be prepared for this raven, first when his young ones are crying, and afterwards when they are wandering. For food is prepared for the raven, at the cry of his young ones, while at the preaching of the Apostles, Judaea, on hearing the word of God, was filled with spiritual wisdom, at one time in three, and at another in five thousand persons. But when, through the multitude of the reprobate, it was exercising its cruelty against the preachers, and was destroying, as it were, the life of the young ravens, they were dispersed also into every quarter of the world. Whence also they say to these their fathers in the flesh, who were opposing their spiritual preaching, We ought to speak the word of God to you first, but since ye reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo! we turn to the Gentiles; [Acts 13, 46] knowing full surely that after the Gentiles believed, Judaea also would come to the faith. Whence also it is written, Until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved. [Rom. 11, 25. 26.] Because therefore the holy Apostles especially endeavoured, first to preach to those who heard them, and afterwards to set before those that resisted the example of the converted Gentiles; the hungry young ones sought its food for this raven, first by crying, and afterwards by wandering. For the raven finds food from the quarter where the young ones wander; for whilst the Jewish people beholds the Gentiles converted to God by the labour of preachers, it blushes sometime at the last, at the folly of its own unbelief, and then understands the sentences of Holy Scripture, when it perceives that they were known to the Gentiles before they were known to itself. And the wandering of its young ones having been fulfilled, it opens the mouth of its heart to take in the holy word; because when the courses of the Apostles through the world have been completed, it at last spiritually understands those things, from which it had long abstained through the bondage of unbelief. But because the virtue of Divine Power alone effects all these things, it is rightly said, Who prepareth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry to God, wandering because they have no meat. Thou understandest, Except Myself, Who both bear with the unbelieving people, when its sons entreat, and feed it by their preaching, and support it, to be converted at length in the end, when they wander to other places. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 33. There is something further, which can be understood of this raven in a moral sense. For when its young are hatched, it declines, as is said, to give them food to the full, before they become dark in their plumage, and allows them to suffer from want of food, until its own resemblance appears in them, through the blackness of their wings. But they wander hither and thither in the nest, and seek for the support of food with open mouth. But when they have begun to get black, it seeks the more eagerly for food to be given them, the longer it has deferred feeding them. Every learned preacher, who cries with a loud voice, whilst he carries the memory of his own sins and the knowledge of his own infirmity, as a kind of black shade of colour, is doubtless a raven. To whom disciples indeed are born in the faith, but perhaps they still do not know how to consider their own infirmity: perchance they turn away their memory from their past sins, and thus display not that blackness of humility which ought to be assumed against the pride of this world. But they open their mouth, as it were, to receive food, when they seek to be instructed in sublime secrets. But their own teacher supplies them the more scantily with the food of sublime instruction, the more he perceives that they bewail inadequately their past sins. He wails for them in truth, and warns them, first to become black, from the brightness of this life, by the lamentations of penitence, and then to receive afterwards the suitable nourishment of most subtle preaching. The raven beholds in the young ones their gaping mouths, but he first looks for their bodies to be covered with the blackness of wings. So too a discreet teacher imparts not inward mysteries to the understanding of those, whom he considers to have not yet in any way cast themselves off from this world. The less black then his disciples are, as it were, outwardly, through devotion to the present life, the less are they filled with the food of the word within: and the less they strip themselves of bodily glory, the more are they bereft of spiritual refreshment. 34. But if in the confession of their past life, they put forth the groans of their lamentation, as darkening plumage, the teacher immediately flies in contemplation, to bring down food from on high, as a raven thinking of the refreshment of its young ones; and brings back to them in his mouth the food they are gaping for: whilst with that wisdom which he has begun, he supplies by his teaching the food of life to his hungry disciples. And he refreshes them the more eagerly from above, the more truly he perceives that, by the lamentation of penitence, they are turning black from the brightness of the world. 35. But whilst the young are clothing themselves in the dark hue of their wings, they also give promise of flying; because the more disciples think meanly of themselves, the more they despise and afflict themselves, the more do they hold out the hope of advancing to higher things. Whence also the teacher takes care to feed those more speedily, whom by certain marks he now foresees to be capable of assisting others. For hence Paul admonishes Timothy to nurture, as it were, with greater anxiety the newly fledged young, while he says; And the things that thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. [2 Tim. 2, 2] And while this discretion in teaching is carefully preserved by a preacher, a more abundant power of preaching is given him from above. For whilst he knows through love how to sympathize with his afflicted disciples, whilst through discretion he understands the fit season for teaching, he enjoys the greater gifts of his understanding, not only for himself, but for those also, to whom he devotes the efforts of his labour. Whence it is here also fitly said; Who prepareth for the raven his food, when his young ones cry to God, wandering because they have no meat. For when the young ones cry to be filled, food is prepared for the raven; because while good hearers hunger after the word of God, greater gifts of understanding are given to their teachers for their refreshment.

There is also another wonderful thing observed in the birds as we see in the crow. For one expert says that, "the crow does not feed the chicks when they leave their eggs until she sees their feathers turn dark knowing from their feathers that they are hers." So she does not give any food to them for seven days, but they are sustained by natural strength given to them by God, and so he says, "Who prepares food for the crow when her little ones cry out to God stretching out?" looking here and there, "because they do not have food," as though abandoned by their parents. This does not mean that the chicks of the crow know God, but he says this because all natural things in their desire, which is to desire the good, intend in some way to acquire something from God who is the author of good things.

The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, and challenges him to answer, Job 38:1-3. He convinces him of ignorance and weakness, by an enumeration of some of his mighty works; particularly of the creation of the earth, Job 38:4-7. The sea and the deeps, Job 38:8-18. The light, Job 38:19-21. Snow, hail, thunder, lightning, rain, dew, ice, and hoar-frost, Job 38:22-30. Different constellations, and the ordinances of heaven influencing the earth, Job 38:31-33. Shows his own power and wisdom in the atmosphere, particularly in the thunder, lightnings, and rain, Job 38:34-38. His providence in reference to the brute creation, Job 38:39-41.

Who provideth for the raven - This bird is chosen, perhaps, for his voracious appetite, and general hunger for prey, beyond most other fowls. He makes a continual cry, and the cry is that of hunger. He dares not frequent the habitations of men, as he is considered a bird of ill omen, and hated by all. This verse is finely paraphrased by Dr. Young: - "Fond man! the vision of a moment made! Dream of a dream, and shadow of a shade! What worlds hast thou produced, what creatures framed, What insects cherish'd, that thy God is blamed? When pain'd with hunger, the wild raven's brood Calls upon God, importunate for food, Who hears their cry? Who grants their hoarse request, And stills the glamours of the craving nest?" On which he has this note: - "The reason given why the raven is particularly mentioned as the care of Providence is, because by her clamorous and importunate voice she particularly seems always calling upon it; thence κορασσω, α κοραξ, is to ask earnestly - Aelian. lib. ii., c. 48. And since there were ravens on the banks of the Nile, more clamorous than the rest of that species, those probably are meant in this place." The commencement of Cicero's oration against Catiline, to which I have referred on Job 38:3, is the following: - Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quamdiu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata jactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium palatii-nihil urbis vigiliae, - nihil timor popuii, - nihii concursus bonorum omnium, - nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus-nihil horum ora, vultusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia nan sentis? Constrictam jam omnium horum conscientia teneri conjurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, - ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, - quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris? O tempora! O mores! Senatus haec intelligit, - consul videt; hic tamen vivit! Vivit? immo vero eitam in senatum venit; fit publici consilii particeps; notat et designat oculis ad caedem unumquemque nostrum! Nos autem, viri fortes, satisfacere reipublicae videmur, si istius furorem ac tela vitemus! "How long wilt thou, O Catiline, abuse our patience? How long shall thy madness out-brave our justice? To what extremities art thou resolved to push thy unbridled insolence of guilt? Canst thou behold the nocturnal arms that watch the palatium, - the guards of the city, - the consternation of the citizens, - all the wise and worthy clustering into consultation, - the impregnable situation of the seat of the senate, - and the reproachful looks of the fathers of Rome? Canst thou behold all this, and yet remain undaunted and unabashed? Art thou insensible that thy measures are detected? Art thou insensible that this senate, now thoroughly informed, comprehend the whole extent of thy guilt? Show me the senator ignorant of thy practices during the last and preceding night, of the place where you met, the company you summoned, and the crime you concerted. The senate is conscious, - the consul is witness to all this; yet, O how mean and degenerate! the traitor lives! Lives? he mixes with the senate; he shares in our counsels; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he enjoys the murderous thought, and coolly marks us to bleed! Yet we, boldly passive in our country's cause, think we act like Romans, if we can escape his frantic rage!" The reader will perceive how finely Cicero rushes into this invective, as if the danger had been too immediate to give him leisure for the formality of address and introduction. See Guthrie's Orations of Cicero. Here is eloquence! Here is nature! And in thus speaking her language, the true orator pierces with his lightnings the deepest recesses of the heart. The success of this species of oratory is infallible in the pulpit, when the preacher understands how to manage it.

(Job 38:1-41) Jehovah appears unexpectedly in a whirlwind (already gathering Job 37:1-2), the symbol of "judgment" (Psa 50:3-4, &c.), to which Job had challenged Him. He asks him now to get himself ready for the contest. Can he explain the phenomena of God's natural government? How can he, then, hope to understand the principles of His moral government? God thus confirms Elihu's sentiment, that submission to, not reasonings on, God's ways is man's part. This and the disciplinary design of trial to the godly is the great lesson of this book. He does not solve the difficulty by reference to future retribution: for this was not the immediate question; glimpses of that truth were already given in the fourteenth and nineteenth chapters, the full revelation of it being reserved for Gospel times. Yet even now we need to learn the lesson taught by Elihu and God in Job.

job 38:41Luk 12:24. Transition from the noble lioness to the croaking raven. Though man dislikes it, as of ill omen, God cares for it, as for all His creatures. Next: Job Chapter 39