I Know That You Can Do Everything. A Commentary on Job 42:2

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I know that you can do every thing, and that no thought can be withheld from you.

Job said these words to God when God appeared to him. Reading this verse, I lost myself in deep thought: Job had never seen God. There was no Bible at that time and Job didn’t have meetings with others. Then how did he feel God’s true existence, see His power and know His rule over everything? It is recorded in the Book of Job, “With Him is wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. Behold, He breaks down, and it cannot be built again: He shuts up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, He withholds the waters, and they dry up: also He sends them out, and they overturn the earth” (Job 12:13–15). “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against Him, and has prospered? Which removes the mountains, and they know not: which overturns them in His anger. Which shakes the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Which commands the sun, and it rises not; and seals up the stars. Which alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. Which makes Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Which does great things past finding out; yes, and wonders without number” (Job 9:4–10). “God understands the way thereof, and He knows the place thereof. For He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and He weighs the waters by measure. When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder” (Job 28:23–26).

These verses are Job’s knowledge of Jehovah God. Obviously, Job focused on practically feeling and knowing God’s sovereignty from all things created by God and the rhythm of them in his daily life. He saw that God can water dry up, remove the mountains and shake the earth. Sunrise and sunset, moon and stars are administered in God’s hands. The wind and rain, thunder and lightning are controlled by God. He realized that God’s deeds are everywhere, His wisdom is wonderful and unforeseen and His power cannot be transgressed by any person. Just as God says, “Job had not seen the face of God, or heard the words spoken by God, much less had he personally experienced the work of God, but his fear of God and testimony during his trials are witnessed by all, and they are loved, delighted in, and commended by God, and people envy and admire them, and, moreover, sing their praises. There was nothing great or extraordinary about his life: Just like any ordinary person, he lived an unremarkable life, going out to work at sunrise and returning home to rest at sunset. The difference is that during these several unremarkable decades, he gained an insight into the way of God, and realized and understood the great power and sovereignty of God, as no other person ever had. He was no cleverer than any ordinary person, his life was not especially tenacious, nor, moreover, did he have invisible special skills. What he did possess, though, was a personality that was honest, kind-hearted, upright, a personality which loved fairness and righteousness, and which loved positive things—none of which are possessed by most ordinary people. He differentiated between love and hate, had a sense of justice, was unyielding and persistent, and was diligent in his thoughts, and thus during his unremarkable time on earth he saw all the extraordinary things that God had done, and saw the greatness, holiness, and righteousness of God, he saw God’s concern, graciousness, and protection for man, and saw the honorableness and authority of the supreme God. The first reason why Job was able to gain these things that were beyond any normal person was because he had a pure heart, and his heart belonged to God, and was led by the Creator. The second reason was his pursuit: his pursuit of being impeccable, and perfect, and someone who complied with the will of Heaven, who was loved by God, and shunned evil. Job possessed and pursued these things while being unable to see God or hear the words of God; though he had never seen God, he had come to know the means by which God rules over all things, and understood the wisdom with which God does so. Though he had never heard the words spoken by God, Job knew that the deeds of rewarding man and taking from man all come from God. Although the years of his life were no different from those of any ordinary person, he did not allow the unremarkableness of his life to affect his knowledge of God’s sovereignty over all things, or to affect his following of the way of fearing God and shunning evil. In his eyes, the laws of all things were full of God’s deeds, and God’s sovereignty could be seen in any part of a person’s life. He had not seen God, but he was able to realize that God’s deeds are everywhere, and during his unremarkable time on earth, in every corner of his life he was able to see and realize the extraordinary and wondrous deeds of God, and could see the wondrous arrangements of God. The hiddenness and silence of God did not hinder Job’s realization of God’s deeds, nor did they affect his knowledge of God’s sovereignty over all things. His life was the realization of the sovereignty and arrangements of God, who is hidden among all things, during his everyday life. In his everyday life he also heard and understood the voice of God’s heart, and the words of God, who is silent among all things yet expresses the voice of His heart and His words by governing the laws of all things.”