By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Job 38:24
When God speaks audibly in the Scriptures, His words are usually few. By far the longest speech of Jehovah is when He corrects His servant Job. Over four consecutive chapters, God responds to the unwise questions Job has uttered regarding the dealings of his Maker. Yet God does not directly answer the misrepresentations made against Him. Instead, Jehovah demonstrates His unquestionable wisdom and authority by posing a series of unanswerable questions regarding His creation.
Amongst the many dumfounding questions that God rhetorically asks is an enquiry regarding the operation of the sun. The heathen nations dwelling beside Job harboured great superstitions regarding this great light. In defiance of the truth they once knew, the Egyptians devised fables about the sun, portraying it as the god Ra. Their novel ideas stated that Ra died every evening only to be reborn in the morning by the sky goddess Nut. The mystery schools of modern science have likewise formulated their own mythos regarding the sun. Aside from the belief that it is of a vast size and distance from Earth, the sun’s light has been postulated to be the result of a theoretical concept called nuclear fusion, which is itself based upon the atomic theory. Wild speculations of ancient and modern man aside, the truth is that we know no more about the sun than the few details provided in Scripture, and the effects we observe from Earth.
In one of His questions to Job, God mentions one such effect of the sun that His servant was acquainted with. In the country of Job, as in other places, the morning light was observed to ‘scatter the east wind upon the earth’. As ground and ocean temperatures heat up in the morning light, wind speed generally increases and often changes direction. But God was not asking Job to inform Him about observable phenomena. To demonstrate how foolish Job had been to question the Almighty, God asks him to explain a secret of creation that only its Creator knows. He asks Job, ‘By what way is the light parted?’ In other words, explain the means whereby sunlight is distributed from a single source across the face of the Earth, lighting and warming it, and creating the weather patterns you observe.
The creator of the locomotive could explain how the motion of a train’s wheels trace back to the pistons pushed by the steam generated in the boiler. By the same token, for Job to explain how light is distributed would require him to possess an intimate knowledge of the workings of the sun. He would need to know how it is powered, and through what lens the generated solar energy is parted over the Earth. Since the sun is beyond physical reach, and incomparable to anything that man is acquainted with on Earth, any answer that Job, or any other man in history could give, would be mere speculation.
God’s 66+ questions restored in Job the humility he seemed to have somewhat lost in his grief and confusion. Reading the questions posed in Job 38-41 is also a great exercise in humility for the modern man. Academia in its various forms has planted in mankind an unholy sentiment. Spoiled at the school of infidelity and puffed up in his fleshy mind, multitudes feel at liberty to criticise and reject the utterances of holy writ. While we may not be hearing God speak out of a whirlwind, we must nevertheless receive the same instruction that Job did and be healed as was he. Contrary to the oppositions of science falsely-so-called, we must confess that we cannot explain the many mysteries of creation, and simply rest upon the things that have been revealed. For this reason, the truth of Biblical Cosmology is more than simply an alternative understanding of creation – it is a test of humility. Receiving this message enables us to be cured of much pride. It helps to restore in us a childlike faith; the wisdom of trusting in God’s Word over anything men might say.
Christopher Sparks