Job 26:14 See, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand? The patriarch, extolling the majesty and might of Jehovah, adduces various exhibitions of His power in the natural world. The meaning of Job is, "These manifestations of the Deity, grand and imposing as they are, present but a very inadequate display of His character and works. They are, as it were, but a breathing of His power." It is the feeling of every devout philosopher engaged in the researches of natural science, "These are parts of His ways." When he meets with difficulties, therefore, which baffle his sagacity, he modestly refers them to his own ignorance, satisfied that there must be principles or facts, as yet undiscovered, that will explain them. It is the sciolist who draws sweeping conclusions from scant premises. It will do much to save science from repeating its mistakes, to keep in mind that in its profoundest researches into the arcana of nature it sees but "parts of His ways who made and governs all." What is here affirmed of creation is no less true of His providence. Providence comes home to us all. It has to do with everyone's affairs at every moment of life. Who does not feel that this whole dispensation under which we live is a mystery? We come into being heirs of a depraved nature. The world is a scene replete with temptation, and filled with suffering. Sin, sorrow, and death range over every part of it. The mystery which enfolds this whole condition of things deepens when we consider the character of the Supreme Being. It seems, at first view, to be incompatible with His moral perfections. We are all pressed with these moral difficulties. It is a tangled web which we cannot unravel. Sometimes, in meditating on it, our faith almost gives way. If there be any method of removing or mitigating these trials, we ought to know it. Take the text as equivalent to the declaration of the apostle, "We know in part." To take this world by itself, dissevered from its relations to the great scheme of providence, and from its own past and future, is to consign ourselves to atheism and despair. To contemplate it as a part, and an infinitesimal part of a "stupendous whole," will relieve even its darkest features, and assist us in believing that although "clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne." "These are parts of His ways." There is a prime truth presented in these last words. We are not to escape from the perplexities of our position by denying that the Divine government extends to this moral chaos around us. Whatever is, is by His direction or permission. All these inequalities of our condition proceed according to a purpose. It is chaos only to our limited and imperfect vision. It is something to be assured of this. If these events are but "parts of His ways," both reason and religion forbid us to judge of them as though they were the whole of His ways. As parts of God's ways, we can so far understand as to perceive that it is what it is because we are what we are. We may not attempt to penetrate the Divine counsels and inquire why this order of things was established in preference to any other. But since it is established, we cannot fail to see that it expresses in a most emphatic manner God's hatred of sin. And it is adapted to supply the very training which we need. We are under the discipline of temptation. (Henry A. Boardman, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand? |
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