Questions questions there are always questions galore L-rd. Guess we were made as inquisiting people seeking answers to enlarge our knowledge. We run to and fro to find the answers but not all the answers can be found.
You seem to sit and lesson to the debates going on, just to see were we are all coming from. How far have we advanced in our intimacy with you, for it is by our questions and answers that tell of our growth.
Have we learn to know Your will?
Have we studied Your Word to follow Your character?
What attributes of Yours have we pick up?
Who’s path are we trotting on?
We all seem to have an opinion, even to things we know nothing about. Everyone wants to be heard even if they are just airing out their head. Didn’t Scripture say “silence is golden”, no, that is one of man’s sayings. Very recently a friend made an astounding statement “We don’t want the G-d in us to be overcome by the character of the humanist in us.” Scripture does say in Ps. 32:3 “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” Therefore through all my questions, pleas and cries, I eventually learned what is needed to be repented of, and thanking a friend for not remaining silent.
And in 1 Pet. 2:15 “For so is the will of G-d, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” In paraphrasing, “ignorance is no excuse of the Law,” and I heard a quote from Arthur Burt once saying: “G-d doesn’t need my wisdom but He can do without my ignorance!” So some questions need to be asked to keep from being ignorant.
When You have heard enough of our debates, You step up to the plate to take matters now into Your own hand to straighten out the mess we have dug for ourselves. Surprisingly You did not answer any question directly, in fact seemed to avoid them all together. Why is that? Are all our questions tribal to You? I do not think so, but maybe we are not asking the right questions.
We are not to be challenging You or debating as if we know better or have found a better way. Many times we speak as if in Your name when it is really not. And people follow a blind Shepard for lack of discernment.
What we need is more holy fear, more reverence to You and Your word. For it says in
Prov. 9:10 The fear of the L-rd is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. And in Ps. 111:10 The fear of the L-rd is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endureth for ever.
In all the questions one has asked, You seem to politely put us all back into our place just by not answering a single one of the direct questions, but reminding us who’s great and marvelous plan everything was in the first place.
Who is in control is the one that created everything, not the creation.
Those six marvelous questions You came back with reminds us that we are but clay in the Potter’s hand. Having Your favor from time to time did not make us surpass the Creator in all seeing and all wisdom.
Those therefore that would thrive must have an eye to Your blessing, and acknowledge their obligations to You for Your blessing. The last days of a good person sometimes prove their best days, their last works their best works, their last comforts their best comforts; for Your path, like that of the morning-light, shines more and more to the perfect day.
In respect of outward prosperity You are pleased sometimes to make the latter end of a good person’s life more comfortable than the former part of it has been, and strangely to outdo the expectations of Your afflicted people, who thought they should never live to see better days, that we may not despair even in the depths of adversity. We know not what good times we may yet be reserved for in our latter end.
What we do know is that Your DNA was placed in us; all we need to do is let it shine forth as we serve You without all those doubting questions for we know all things are done for Your glory. We see only in part but You see the whole picture and we place our trust in You.
Compared to a Raven
Job. 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and G-d feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Matt. 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
According to the Jews there are three sorts of ravens, the black raven, the raven of the valley, which is said to be white, and the raven whose head is like a dove. The raven is a black carnivorous bird Proverbs 30:17; The Hebrew oreb is applied to the several species of the crow family. Fowls of very little worth, and disregarded by men, and odious to them, as well as unclean by the Law; (Solomon 5:11 Forbidden as food Leviticus 11:15 ; Deuteronomy 14:14 for it is unclean) and yet these are taken care of by G-d.
As ravenous beasts, so ravenous birds, are fed by the divine Providence. Who but G-d provides for the raven his food? Man does not; he takes care only of those creatures that are, or may be, useful to him. But G-d has a regard to all the works of His hands, even the meanest and least valuable. The ravens' young ones are in a special manner necessitous and G-d supplies them, Ps. 147:9. G-d's feeding the fowls, especially these fowls in Matt. 6:26, is an encouragement to us to trust Him for our daily bread.
Raven – Transition from the noble lioness to the croaking raven. Though man dislikes it, as of ill omen, G-d cares for it, as for all His creatures.
1. What distress the young ravens are often in: As soon as they are able to fly they turn them out of their nests, and even drive them out of the country where they are; when, as it is said in Job 38:41, they wander for lack of meat. The old ones, they say, neglect them, and do not provide for them as other birds do for their young: and indeed those that are ravenous to others are commonly barbarous to their own, and unnatural.
2. What they are supposed to do in that distress: They cry, for they are noisy clamorous creatures, and this is interpreted as crying to G-d, who gibes it to them. It being the cry of nature, it is looked upon as directed to the G-d of nature. The putting of so favourable a construction as this upon the cries of the young ravens may encourage us in our prayers, though we can but cry, Abba, Father.
3. What G-d does for them. Some way or other He provides for them, so that they grow up, and come to maturity. And He that takes this care of the young ravens certainly will care for His people or theirs.
The providence of G-d is so much concerned for such worthless creatures, the people of G-d, and disciples of the Messiah, ought by no means to distrust it: for as it follows, The Hebrews acknowledge this, that the least and meanest of creatures are fed by G-d. Do not you differ from them? Are you not much more excellent than they? And if G-d feeds and provides for inferior creatures, such as are very mean and contemptible, how much more will He not provide for you? There is a passage in the Talmud, which has great affinity to this of Y’Shua and appears to have in it pretty much of the like kind of reasoning. In the Mishna. This, being but one instance of many of the divine compassion, may give us occasion to think how much good our G-d does, every day, beyond what we are aware of.
Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and G-d feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Matt. 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
According to the Jews there are three sorts of ravens, the black raven, the raven of the valley, which is said to be white, and the raven whose head is like a dove. The raven is a black carnivorous bird Proverbs 30:17; The Hebrew oreb is applied to the several species of the crow family. Fowls of very little worth, and disregarded by men, and odious to them, as well as unclean by the Law; (Solomon 5:11 Forbidden as food Leviticus 11:15 ; Deuteronomy 14:14 for it is unclean) and yet these are taken care of by G-d.
As ravenous beasts, so ravenous birds, are fed by the divine Providence. Who but G-d provides for the raven his food? Man does not; he takes care only of those creatures that are, or may be, useful to him. But G-d has a regard to all the works of His hands, even the meanest and least valuable. The ravens' young ones are in a special manner necessitous and G-d supplies them, Ps. 147:9. G-d's feeding the fowls, especially these fowls in Matt. 6:26, is an encouragement to us to trust Him for our daily bread.
Raven – Transition from the noble lioness to the croaking raven. Though man dislikes it, as of ill omen, G-d cares for it, as for all His creatures.
1. What distress the young ravens are often in: As soon as they are able to fly they turn them out of their nests, and even drive them out of the country where they are; when, as it is said in Job 38:41, they wander for lack of meat. The old ones, they say, neglect them, and do not provide for them as other birds do for their young: and indeed those that are ravenous to others are commonly barbarous to their own, and unnatural.
2. What they are supposed to do in that distress: They cry, for they are noisy clamorous creatures, and this is interpreted as crying to G-d, who gibes it to them. It being the cry of nature, it is looked upon as directed to the G-d of nature. The putting of so favourable a construction as this upon the cries of the young ravens may encourage us in our prayers, though we can but cry, Abba, Father.
3. What G-d does for them. Some way or other He provides for them, so that they grow up, and come to maturity. And He that takes this care of the young ravens certainly will care for His people or theirs.
The providence of G-d is so much concerned for such worthless creatures, the people of G-d, and disciples of the Messiah, ought by no means to distrust it: for as it follows, The Hebrews acknowledge this, that the least and meanest of creatures are fed by G-d. Do not you differ from them? Are you not much more excellent than they? And if G-d feeds and provides for inferior creatures, such as are very mean and contemptible, how much more will He not provide for you? There is a passage in the Talmud, which has great affinity to this of Y’Shua and appears to have in it pretty much of the like kind of reasoning. In the Mishna. This, being but one instance of many of the divine compassion, may give us occasion to think how much good our G-d does, every day, beyond what we are aware of.
Hydrologic Cycle
Rain is well known that rain falls copiously in thunder-storms. The flash is first seen, the clap is next heard, and last the rain descends. The lightning travels all lengths in no perceivable succession of time. Sound is propagated at the rate of 1142 feet in a second. Rain travels still more slowly, and will be seen sooner or later according to the weight of the drops, and the distance of the cloud from the place of the spectator.
Now the flash, the clap, and the rain, take place all in the same moment, but are discernible by us in the succession already mentioned, and for the reasons given above.
Lighting is represented as coming immediately from the hand of G-d.
Thunder, the clap is the effect of the lightning, which causes a vacuum in that part of the atmosphere through which it passes; the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium may cause much of the noise that is heard in the clap.
How does the thunder cause rain? By the most accurate and incontestable experiments it is proved that water is a composition of two elastic airs or gases as they are called, oxygen and hydrogen. In 100 parts of water there are 88 1/4 of oxygen, and 11 3/4 of hydrogen. Pass a succession of electric sparks through water by means of a proper apparatus, and the two gases are produced in the proportions mentioned above. The rain descending after the flash and the peal and the electric spark or matter of lightning, passing through the atmosphere, ignites and decomposes the oxygen and hydrogen, which explode, and the water which was formed of these two falls down in the form of rain. The explosion of the gases, as well as the rushing in of the circumambient air to restore the equilibrium, will account for the clap and peal: as the decomposition and ignition of them will account for the water or rain which is the attendant of a thunder storm. Thus by the lightning of thunder G-d causes it to rain on the earth. How marvelous and instructive are his ways!
Dew is a dense moist vapour, found on the earth in spring and summer mornings, in the form of a muzzling rain and appears to differ from rain as less from more. Its origin and matters are doubtless from the vapors and exhalations that rise from the earth and water.
Ice is a solid, transparent, and brittle body, formed of water by means of cold. Some philosophers suppose that ice is only the re-establishment of water in its natural state; that the mere absence of fire is sufficient to account for this re-establishment; and that the fluidity of water is a real fusion, like that of metals exposed to the action of fire; and differing only in this, that a greater portion of fire is necessary to one than the other. Ice, therefore, is supposed to be the natural state of water; so that in its natural state water is solid, and becomes fluid only by the action of fire, as solid metallic bodies are brought into a state of fusion by the same means. Ice is lighter than water, its specific gravity being to that of water as eight to nine. This rarefaction of ice is supposed to be owing to the air-bubbles produced in water by freezing, and which, being considerably larger in proportion to the water frozen, render the body so much specifically lighter; hence ice always floats on water. The air-bubbles, during their production, acquire a great expansive power, so as to burst the containing vessels, be they ever so strong.
Hoar-frost is the coagulation of dew, in frosty mornings, on the grass. It consists of an assemblage of little crystals of ice, which are of various figures, according to the different disposition of the vapors when met and condensed by the cold. Is it enough to say that hoar-frost is water deposited from the atmosphere at a low temperature, so as to produce coagulation?
25-28 After the great flood, the whole world was a wilderness, and there were no men to irrigate or till the ground. In the pre-flood world, there had been no rain (Gen. 2:5), but the ground had been watered by a daily mist, or dew, and by a system of rivers fed by artesian springs emerging from the great deep, a vast system of underground pressurized reservoirs. The prehistoric water above the firmament and the great deep had been dissipated at the flood, so G-d had to devise a new system for watering the earth. This he accomplished by activating the marvelous engine which we know today as the hydrologic cycle. See Gen. 7:11.
In directing the course of the rain He does not neglect the wilderness, the desert land, where no man is. Since rain fails also on places uninhabited by man, it cannot be that man guides its course. Such rain, though man cannot explain the reason for it, is not lost. G-d has some wise design in it.
Now the flash, the clap, and the rain, take place all in the same moment, but are discernible by us in the succession already mentioned, and for the reasons given above.
Lighting is represented as coming immediately from the hand of G-d.
Thunder, the clap is the effect of the lightning, which causes a vacuum in that part of the atmosphere through which it passes; the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium may cause much of the noise that is heard in the clap.
How does the thunder cause rain? By the most accurate and incontestable experiments it is proved that water is a composition of two elastic airs or gases as they are called, oxygen and hydrogen. In 100 parts of water there are 88 1/4 of oxygen, and 11 3/4 of hydrogen. Pass a succession of electric sparks through water by means of a proper apparatus, and the two gases are produced in the proportions mentioned above. The rain descending after the flash and the peal and the electric spark or matter of lightning, passing through the atmosphere, ignites and decomposes the oxygen and hydrogen, which explode, and the water which was formed of these two falls down in the form of rain. The explosion of the gases, as well as the rushing in of the circumambient air to restore the equilibrium, will account for the clap and peal: as the decomposition and ignition of them will account for the water or rain which is the attendant of a thunder storm. Thus by the lightning of thunder G-d causes it to rain on the earth. How marvelous and instructive are his ways!
Dew is a dense moist vapour, found on the earth in spring and summer mornings, in the form of a muzzling rain and appears to differ from rain as less from more. Its origin and matters are doubtless from the vapors and exhalations that rise from the earth and water.
Ice is a solid, transparent, and brittle body, formed of water by means of cold. Some philosophers suppose that ice is only the re-establishment of water in its natural state; that the mere absence of fire is sufficient to account for this re-establishment; and that the fluidity of water is a real fusion, like that of metals exposed to the action of fire; and differing only in this, that a greater portion of fire is necessary to one than the other. Ice, therefore, is supposed to be the natural state of water; so that in its natural state water is solid, and becomes fluid only by the action of fire, as solid metallic bodies are brought into a state of fusion by the same means. Ice is lighter than water, its specific gravity being to that of water as eight to nine. This rarefaction of ice is supposed to be owing to the air-bubbles produced in water by freezing, and which, being considerably larger in proportion to the water frozen, render the body so much specifically lighter; hence ice always floats on water. The air-bubbles, during their production, acquire a great expansive power, so as to burst the containing vessels, be they ever so strong.
Hoar-frost is the coagulation of dew, in frosty mornings, on the grass. It consists of an assemblage of little crystals of ice, which are of various figures, according to the different disposition of the vapors when met and condensed by the cold. Is it enough to say that hoar-frost is water deposited from the atmosphere at a low temperature, so as to produce coagulation?
25-28 After the great flood, the whole world was a wilderness, and there were no men to irrigate or till the ground. In the pre-flood world, there had been no rain (Gen. 2:5), but the ground had been watered by a daily mist, or dew, and by a system of rivers fed by artesian springs emerging from the great deep, a vast system of underground pressurized reservoirs. The prehistoric water above the firmament and the great deep had been dissipated at the flood, so G-d had to devise a new system for watering the earth. This he accomplished by activating the marvelous engine which we know today as the hydrologic cycle. See Gen. 7:11.
In directing the course of the rain He does not neglect the wilderness, the desert land, where no man is. Since rain fails also on places uninhabited by man, it cannot be that man guides its course. Such rain, though man cannot explain the reason for it, is not lost. G-d has some wise design in it.
Magnificent Six Questions
Noticed in all of Job’s problems and questions, G-d does not answerer a one of them. If He had we would have made a doctrine out of it. G-d proceeds to ask Job many puzzling questions instead, to convince him of his ignorance, and so to shame him for his folly in prescribing to Him. If we will but try ourselves with such interrogatories as these, we shall soon be brought to own that what we know is nothing in comparison with what we know not.
Job is here challenged to give an account of six things:--
I. Of the springs of the morning, the day-spring from on high, 38:12-15.
2. Of the springs of the sea, 38:16. G-d's way in the government of the world is said to be in the sea, and in the great waters Ps. 77:19, intimating that it is hidden from us and not to be pried into by us.
3. Of the gates of death, 38:16. Man knows not his time. Let us make it sure that the gates of heaven shall be opened to us on the other side death, and then we need not fear the opening of the gates of death, though it is a way we are to go but once.
4. Of the breadth of the earth, 38:18. The divine perfection is longer than the earth and broader than the sea; it is therefore presumption for us, who perceive not the breadth of the earth, to dive into the depth of G-d's counsels.
5. Of the place and way of light and darkness, 38:19. Light is not to be located in a certain place or situation. Neither does it simply appear, or disappear, instantaneously. Light is traveling! It dwells in a ‘way’, always on the way to someplace else. Though usually traveling in waves, sometimes it seems to move as a stream of particles, but it is always moving. When light stops traveling, there is darkness. Thus, darkness is static; staying in place; but light is dynamic, dwelling in a way.
G-d glories in it that He forms the light and creates the darkness; and if we must take those as we find them, take those as they come, and quarrel with neither, but make the best of both, then we must, in like manner, accommodate ourselves to the peace and the evil which G-d likewise created. Isa. 45:7.
If we would, in like manner, reckon upon changes in our outward condition, we should neither in the brightest noon expect perpetual day nor in the darkest midnight despair of the return of the morning; G-d has set the one over against the other, like the day and night; and so must we, Ecc. 7:14.
6. Of the treasures of the snow and hail, 38:22-23. The direct words of G-d, in His final message to Job, are especially interesting, though still mysterious, for we know only a little about the treasures of the snow and the treasures of the hail. To serve the purposes of Providence, in G-d's fighting for His people and against His and their enemies, against the time of trouble, the day of battle and war, when G-d will either contend with the world in general (as in the deluge, when the windows of heaven were opened, and the waters fetched out of these treasures to drown a wicked world, that waged war with Heaven) or with some particular persons or parties, as when G-d out of these treasures fetched great hail-stones wherewith to fight against the Canaanites, in Joshua 10:11.
Treasures of the hail - It is easier to account for the formation of snow than of hail. Hail, however, is generally supposed to be drops of rain frozen in their passage through cold regions of the air; and the hail is always in proportion to the size of the raindrop from which it was formed. But this meteor does not appear to be formed from a single drop of water, as it is found to be composed of many small spherules frozen together, the centre sometimes soft like snow, and at other times formed of a hard nucleus, which in some cases has been of a brown colour, capable of ignition and explosion. In the description given of snow, 37:6, it has been stated that both snow and hail owe their formation to electricity; the hail being formed in the higher regions of the air, where the cold is intense, and the electric matter abundant. By this agency it is supposed that a great number of aqueous particles are brought together and frozen, and in their descent collect other particles, so that the density of the substance of the hailstone grows less and less from the centre, this being formed first in the higher regions, and the surface being collected in the lower. This theory is not in all cases supported by fact, as in some instances the centre has been found soft and snow-like, when the surface has been hard.
Hail is the only meteor of this kind, from which no apparent good is derived. Rain and dew refresh and give life to the whole vegetable world; frost, by expanding the water contained in the earth, pulverizes and renders the soil fertile; snow covers and defends vegetables from being destroyed by too severe a frost; but hail does none of these. It not only does no good, but often much harm-always some. It has a chilling, blasting effect in spring and summer, and cuts the tender plants so as to injure or totally destroy them. In short, the treasures of hail are not well known; and its use in the creation has not yet been ascertained. But frost is G-d's universal plough, by which He cultivates the whole earth.
See what folly it is to strive against G-d, who is thus prepared for battle and war, and how much it is our interest to make our peace with Him and to keep ourselves in His love. G-d can fight as effectually with snow and hail, if He pleases, as with thunder and lightning or the sword of an angel!
Do we really take time to enjoy His creation? To examine it? To sit in amazement of it? In all that we think we know we find out we know nothing at all.
Job is here challenged to give an account of six things:--
I. Of the springs of the morning, the day-spring from on high, 38:12-15.
2. Of the springs of the sea, 38:16. G-d's way in the government of the world is said to be in the sea, and in the great waters Ps. 77:19, intimating that it is hidden from us and not to be pried into by us.
3. Of the gates of death, 38:16. Man knows not his time. Let us make it sure that the gates of heaven shall be opened to us on the other side death, and then we need not fear the opening of the gates of death, though it is a way we are to go but once.
4. Of the breadth of the earth, 38:18. The divine perfection is longer than the earth and broader than the sea; it is therefore presumption for us, who perceive not the breadth of the earth, to dive into the depth of G-d's counsels.
5. Of the place and way of light and darkness, 38:19. Light is not to be located in a certain place or situation. Neither does it simply appear, or disappear, instantaneously. Light is traveling! It dwells in a ‘way’, always on the way to someplace else. Though usually traveling in waves, sometimes it seems to move as a stream of particles, but it is always moving. When light stops traveling, there is darkness. Thus, darkness is static; staying in place; but light is dynamic, dwelling in a way.
G-d glories in it that He forms the light and creates the darkness; and if we must take those as we find them, take those as they come, and quarrel with neither, but make the best of both, then we must, in like manner, accommodate ourselves to the peace and the evil which G-d likewise created. Isa. 45:7.
If we would, in like manner, reckon upon changes in our outward condition, we should neither in the brightest noon expect perpetual day nor in the darkest midnight despair of the return of the morning; G-d has set the one over against the other, like the day and night; and so must we, Ecc. 7:14.
6. Of the treasures of the snow and hail, 38:22-23. The direct words of G-d, in His final message to Job, are especially interesting, though still mysterious, for we know only a little about the treasures of the snow and the treasures of the hail. To serve the purposes of Providence, in G-d's fighting for His people and against His and their enemies, against the time of trouble, the day of battle and war, when G-d will either contend with the world in general (as in the deluge, when the windows of heaven were opened, and the waters fetched out of these treasures to drown a wicked world, that waged war with Heaven) or with some particular persons or parties, as when G-d out of these treasures fetched great hail-stones wherewith to fight against the Canaanites, in Joshua 10:11.
Treasures of the hail - It is easier to account for the formation of snow than of hail. Hail, however, is generally supposed to be drops of rain frozen in their passage through cold regions of the air; and the hail is always in proportion to the size of the raindrop from which it was formed. But this meteor does not appear to be formed from a single drop of water, as it is found to be composed of many small spherules frozen together, the centre sometimes soft like snow, and at other times formed of a hard nucleus, which in some cases has been of a brown colour, capable of ignition and explosion. In the description given of snow, 37:6, it has been stated that both snow and hail owe their formation to electricity; the hail being formed in the higher regions of the air, where the cold is intense, and the electric matter abundant. By this agency it is supposed that a great number of aqueous particles are brought together and frozen, and in their descent collect other particles, so that the density of the substance of the hailstone grows less and less from the centre, this being formed first in the higher regions, and the surface being collected in the lower. This theory is not in all cases supported by fact, as in some instances the centre has been found soft and snow-like, when the surface has been hard.
Hail is the only meteor of this kind, from which no apparent good is derived. Rain and dew refresh and give life to the whole vegetable world; frost, by expanding the water contained in the earth, pulverizes and renders the soil fertile; snow covers and defends vegetables from being destroyed by too severe a frost; but hail does none of these. It not only does no good, but often much harm-always some. It has a chilling, blasting effect in spring and summer, and cuts the tender plants so as to injure or totally destroy them. In short, the treasures of hail are not well known; and its use in the creation has not yet been ascertained. But frost is G-d's universal plough, by which He cultivates the whole earth.
See what folly it is to strive against G-d, who is thus prepared for battle and war, and how much it is our interest to make our peace with Him and to keep ourselves in His love. G-d can fight as effectually with snow and hail, if He pleases, as with thunder and lightning or the sword of an angel!
Do we really take time to enjoy His creation? To examine it? To sit in amazement of it? In all that we think we know we find out we know nothing at all.
Post-flood Ice Age
[Job 38: 11] And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?[There are even hints of the post-flood Ice Age scattered throughout the book of Job. When the thermal water vapor blanket (the waters above the firmament) rained on the earth during the flood, the greenhouse environment dissolute. Snow began to fall in the polar latitudes and eventually great ice sheets fanned out over the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. This glacial period did not last for a million years or more, as evolutionary geologist believe, but it could have persisted for several centuries.
The ice sheets did not extend into Bible lands, but they did undoubtedly affect their climates, producing much more rain, snow, and ice than occur today in those regions, known today for their heat and dryness.
Hitherto shall thou come - The tides are marvellously limited and regulated, not only by the lunar and solar attractions, but by the quantum of time also which is required to remove any part of the earth's surface from under the immediate attractive influence of the sun and moon. And this regulation takes place by means of the rotation of the earth round its own axis, which causes one thousand and forty-two miles of its equator to pass from under any given point in the heavens in one hour; and about five hundred and eighty miles in the latitude of London: so that the attracted fluid parts are every moment passing from under the direct attractive influence, and thus the tides cannot generally be raised to any extraordinary height. The attraction of the sun and moon, and the gravitation of its own parts to its own centre, which prevent too great a flux on the one hand, and too great a reflux on the other; or, in other words, too high a tide, and too deep an ebb, are also some of those bars and doors by which its proud waves are stayed, and prevented from coming farther; all being regulated by these laws of attraction by the sun and moon, the gravitation of its own parts from the sun and moon, and the diurnal motion round its own axis, by which the fluid parts, easily yielding to the above attraction, are continually moving from under the direct attractive influence.
No further - its rolling tides shall go up so far in rivers that go out of it, and then return, keeping exactly to time and place; this is said by Jehovah, the Word of G-d, and through His almighty power is tended to. Here a world of wisdom and management was necessary, in order to proportion all these things to each other, so as to procure the great benefits which result from the flux and reflux of the sea, and prevent the evils that must take place, at least occasionally, were not those bars and doors provided. It is well known that the spring-tides happen at the change and full of the moon, at which time she is in conjunction with and opposition to the sun. As these retire from their conjunction, the tides neap till about three days after the first quartered, when the tides begin again to be more and more elevated, and arrive at their maximum about the third day after the opposition. From this time the tides neap as before till the third day after the last quartered; and afterwards their daily elevations are continually increased till about the third day after the conjunction, when they recommence their leaping; the principal phenomena of the tides always taking place at or near the some points of every lunar syndic revolution.
Proud waves - though they may toss up themselves as proud men toss up their heads, for which, reason pride is ascribed to them, yet they shall not prevail, (Jer. 5:22); all this may be accommodated to the afflictions of G-d's people, which are sometimes compared to the waves and billows of the sea, (Ps. 42:7. 88:7); and these issue out of the womb of G-d's purposes and decrees, and are not the effects of chance; they are many, and threaten to overwhelm, but G-d is with His people in them, and preserves them from being overflowed by them.
Stayed - Hebrew, "a limit shall be set to." He has set the bounds and measures of them, beyond which they cannot go; see (Isa. 27:8, 45:2); and also to the world, and to the men of it, who are like a troubled sea, (Dan. 7:2-3; Isa. 57:20); and who rise, and swell, and dash against the people of G-d, being separated from them who were originally mixed with them; but the L-rd restrains their wrath and fury, and suffers them not to do His people any harm; whom He has placed in the monition of rocks out of their reach, that those proud waters cannot go over them as they threaten to do; (Ps. 76:10, 124:2-6).
It is also to be looked upon as an act of G-d's mercy to the world of mankind and an instance of His patience towards that provoking grace. Though He could easily cover the earth again with the waters of the sea, and show what the sea could do, and would do, if He would give it leave), yet He restrains them, being not willing that any should perish, and having reserved the world that now is unto fire, 2 Pet. 3:7.]
The ice sheets did not extend into Bible lands, but they did undoubtedly affect their climates, producing much more rain, snow, and ice than occur today in those regions, known today for their heat and dryness.
Hitherto shall thou come - The tides are marvellously limited and regulated, not only by the lunar and solar attractions, but by the quantum of time also which is required to remove any part of the earth's surface from under the immediate attractive influence of the sun and moon. And this regulation takes place by means of the rotation of the earth round its own axis, which causes one thousand and forty-two miles of its equator to pass from under any given point in the heavens in one hour; and about five hundred and eighty miles in the latitude of London: so that the attracted fluid parts are every moment passing from under the direct attractive influence, and thus the tides cannot generally be raised to any extraordinary height. The attraction of the sun and moon, and the gravitation of its own parts to its own centre, which prevent too great a flux on the one hand, and too great a reflux on the other; or, in other words, too high a tide, and too deep an ebb, are also some of those bars and doors by which its proud waves are stayed, and prevented from coming farther; all being regulated by these laws of attraction by the sun and moon, the gravitation of its own parts from the sun and moon, and the diurnal motion round its own axis, by which the fluid parts, easily yielding to the above attraction, are continually moving from under the direct attractive influence.
No further - its rolling tides shall go up so far in rivers that go out of it, and then return, keeping exactly to time and place; this is said by Jehovah, the Word of G-d, and through His almighty power is tended to. Here a world of wisdom and management was necessary, in order to proportion all these things to each other, so as to procure the great benefits which result from the flux and reflux of the sea, and prevent the evils that must take place, at least occasionally, were not those bars and doors provided. It is well known that the spring-tides happen at the change and full of the moon, at which time she is in conjunction with and opposition to the sun. As these retire from their conjunction, the tides neap till about three days after the first quartered, when the tides begin again to be more and more elevated, and arrive at their maximum about the third day after the opposition. From this time the tides neap as before till the third day after the last quartered; and afterwards their daily elevations are continually increased till about the third day after the conjunction, when they recommence their leaping; the principal phenomena of the tides always taking place at or near the some points of every lunar syndic revolution.
Proud waves - though they may toss up themselves as proud men toss up their heads, for which, reason pride is ascribed to them, yet they shall not prevail, (Jer. 5:22); all this may be accommodated to the afflictions of G-d's people, which are sometimes compared to the waves and billows of the sea, (Ps. 42:7. 88:7); and these issue out of the womb of G-d's purposes and decrees, and are not the effects of chance; they are many, and threaten to overwhelm, but G-d is with His people in them, and preserves them from being overflowed by them.
Stayed - Hebrew, "a limit shall be set to." He has set the bounds and measures of them, beyond which they cannot go; see (Isa. 27:8, 45:2); and also to the world, and to the men of it, who are like a troubled sea, (Dan. 7:2-3; Isa. 57:20); and who rise, and swell, and dash against the people of G-d, being separated from them who were originally mixed with them; but the L-rd restrains their wrath and fury, and suffers them not to do His people any harm; whom He has placed in the monition of rocks out of their reach, that those proud waters cannot go over them as they threaten to do; (Ps. 76:10, 124:2-6).
It is also to be looked upon as an act of G-d's mercy to the world of mankind and an instance of His patience towards that provoking grace. Though He could easily cover the earth again with the waters of the sea, and show what the sea could do, and would do, if He would give it leave), yet He restrains them, being not willing that any should perish, and having reserved the world that now is unto fire, 2 Pet. 3:7.]
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