Job 38:28

38:25-41 Hitherto God had put questions to Job to show him his ignorance; now God shows his weakness. As it is but little that he knows, he ought not to arraign the Divine counsels; it is but little he can do, therefore he ought not to oppose the ways of Providence. See the all-sufficiency of the Divine Providence; it has wherewithal to satisfy the desire of every living thing. And he that takes care of the young ravens, certainly will not be wanting to his people. This being but one instance of the Divine compassion out of many, gives us occasion to think how much good our God does, every day, beyond what we are aware of. Every view we take of his infinite perfections, should remind us of his right to our love, the evil of sinning against him, and our need of his mercy and salvation.

Hath the rain a father?.... None but God; hence the Heathens themselves call God (y), and (z); see Jeremiah 14:22 ; he that is our Father in heaven is the Father of rain, and him only; whatever secondary causes there be, God only is the efficient cause, parent, and producer of it: so the Gospel is not of men but of God, is a gift of his, comes down from heaven, tarries not for men, and is a great blessing, as rain is; or who hath begotten the drops of the dew? which are innumerable; he that is the parent of the rain is of the dew also, and he only (a); to which sometimes not only the word of God, and his free favour and good will, but the people of God themselves are compared for their number, influence, and use; see Psalm 110:3; and their new birth is similar to the generation of dew, it being not of the will of man, but of God, according to his abundant mercy, free favour, and good will, is from above, from heaven, and is effected silently, secretly, suddenly, at an unawares; John 1:13. (y) Aristot. de Mundo, c. 7. (z) Pausan. Attica, sive, l. 1. p. 60. (a) Though a certain poet (Alcman Lyricus apud Macrob. Saturnal. l. 7. c. 16.) says that dew is the offspring of the air and of the moon; but these can only at most be reckoned but secondary causes. The Arabs speak of an angel over dew. Abulpharag, Hist. Dynast. p. 75.

Job 38:28-30 . Hath the rain a father? — Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure? No; this is my peculiar work. The hoary frost, who hath gendered it? — What man can either produce, or doth fully understand where or how it is generated? The waters are hid as with a stone — That is, with ice as hard as a stone. And the face of the deep is frozen — Of the great sea, which is often called the deep, and which in some parts is frozen, so that its surface grows solid. The ice and the frost are very common things, and therefore do not appear to us remarkable; but considering what a mighty change is made by them in a little time, and how the waters of rivers, lakes, and oceans, are hid by them, as though a grave- stone were laid upon them, we may well ask, Out of whose womb came the ice? What created power could produce such a wonderful work?

Verse 28. - Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? How do rain and dew come into existence? Can Job make them, or any other man? Can man even conceive of the process by which they were made? If not, must not their Maker, who is God, be wholly inscrutable? Job 38:28

To wit, besides me. Is there any man upon earth than can beget or produce rain at his pleasure? No, this is my peculiar work. And therefore seeing thou knowest and canst do nothing as to the government of these ordinary effects of nature, how great presumption is it to arrogate to thyself the knowledge and management of the secret and mysterious affairs of my providence in the disposal of men!

Hath the rain a father? - That is, it is produced by God and not by man. No one among men can claim that he causes it, or can regard it as his offspring. The idea is, that the production of rain is among the proofs of the wisdom and agency of God, and that it is caused in a way that demonstrates his own agency. It is not by any power of man; and it is not in such a way as to constitute a relation like that between a father and a son. The rain is often appealed to in this book as something whose cause man could not explain, and as demonstrating the wisdom and supremacy of God. Among philosophic and contemplative minds it would early excite inquiry, and give occasion for wonder. What caused it? Whence came the water which fell? How was it suspended? How was it borne from place to place? How was it made to descend in drops, and why was it not poured down at once in floods? Questions like these would early excite inquiry, and we are not to suppose that in the time of Job science was so far advanced that they could be answered; see the notes at Job 26:8; compare Job 38:37 notes. The laws of the production of rain are now better understood, but like all other laws discovered by science, they are adapted to elevate, not to diminish, our conceptions of the wisdom of God. It may be of interest, and may serve to explain the passages in this book which refer to rain, as illustrating the wisdom of God, to state what is now the commonly received theory of its cause.

That theory is the one proposed by Dr. James Hutton, and first published in the Philosophical Transactions of Edinburgh, in 1784. In this theory it is supposed that the cause consists in the vapor that is held dissolved in the air, and is based on this principle - "that the capacity of the air for holding water in a state of vapor increases in a greater ratio than its temperature;" that is, that if there are two portions of air which would contain a certain quantity of water in solution if both were heated in an equal degree, the capacity for holding water would be alike; but if one of them be heated more than the other, the amount of water which it would hold in solution is not exactly in proportion to the heat applied, but increases much more rapidly than the heat. It will hold much more water when the temperature is raised than is proportionate to the amount of heat applied. From the experiments which were made by Sanssure and others, it was found that while the temperature of the air rises in arithmetical progression, the dissolving power of the air increases nearly in geometrical progression; that is, if the temperature be represented by the figures 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc., the capacity for holding moisture will be nearly represented by the figures 2, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. Rain is caused in the following manner.