Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 38:35
Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we [are]?
Canst thou send lightnings? – That is, lightning is wholly under the control of God. So it is now; for after all that man has done to discover its laws, and to guard against it, yet still man has made no advances toward a power to wield it, nor is it possible that he ever should. It is one of the agencies in the universe that is always to be under the divine direction, and however much man may subsidize to his purposes wind, and water, and steam, and air, yet there can be no prospect that the forked lightning can be seized by human hands and directed by human skill to purposes of utility or destruction among people; compare the notes at Job 36:31-33.
And say unto thee, Here we are – Margin, Behold us. That is, we are at your disposal. This language is derived from the condition, of servants presenting themselves at the call of their masters, and saying that they stood ready to obey their commands; compare 1Sa 3:4, 1Sa 3:6,1Sa 3:9; Isa 6:8.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 38:35
Canst thou send lightnings?
Spiritual telegraphy
Lightning is not a thing of yesterday. Whether Job knew the philosophy of lightning, or the facts of science, as taught in modern times; or whether, when he spoke of sending lightning, he only uttered an unconscious prophecy of what was to be actualised in the future, we of course cannot positively say. Natures great laws and forces are the steeds of the Almighty. The degree of civilisation and progress attained by any people or nation is exactly indicated by the extent to which mere human power is supplemented or superseded by these great laws and forces, in the industries of the people. Since the days of Franklin, what marvellous progress has been made in the study of electricity, and how it has been utilised for the benefit of man. What marvels it has wrought in annihilating time and space! These constantly improving methods of human intercourse I shall use to illustrate the more perfect medium of communication between earth and heaven, a medium planned and perfected through the atonement of Christ. In Eden man had no need to send communications, or make requests known to a distant God. The terrible catastrophe of the Fall broke the bond of harmony between man and God; and by this fearful moral convulsion, mans spiritual gravity was shifted, and turned the other way, and to some dread, unknown, infernal centre, downward weighed. God was no longer a magnet to attract, but a Being to repel. Continents of moral space and gloom lay between them, with neither power nor desire on the part of man to return, and as yet no medium of recovery announced. A medium of communication was announced in the seed of the woman. These, as the condition of approach to God, the blood of Calvary began to be typically poured forth, and flaming altars rolled their incense to the skies. On downwards, through the patriarchal dispensation, men held intercourse with God through the blood of the promised Saviour typically shed, in their sacrifices. The economy of Moses was afterwards instituted, during which time men held intercourse with God through the medium of divinely appointed priests. In the fulness of time Jesus came to open up new and living way to the Father. Single-handed and alone, and in the face of the most terrible discouragements, He prosecuted and completed the work of laying this glorious line of intercommunication between earth and heaven. This new line was not in thorough working order until the day of Pentecost. Jesus Christ is the only medium through which fallen man can approach and hold fellowship with God. This glorious medium of intercourse is permanent and lasting, in every practical phase of its working. Now, after fully nineteen hundred years of trial, it abides as perfect and as serviceable as ever, equal to every emergency,–the joy of the present, and the hope of the future. It is one of the most perfect and wonderful spiritual devices in Gods moral universe. There are no delays or disappointments, as there often are with the electric telegraph. The great operator is always at His post, is never too busy to hear, is never confused, and is always ready to reply to every message. (T. Kelly.)
Mans utilisation of electricity
Yes, we can. It is done thousands of times every day. Franklin, at Boston, lassoed the lightnings, and Morse put on them a wire bit, turning them around from city to city, and Cyrus W. Field plunged them into the sea; and whenever the telegraphic instrument clicks at Valentia, or Hearts Content, or London, or New York, the lightnings of heaven are exclaiming in the words of my text, Here we are! we await your bidding; we listen to your command. What painstaking since the day when Thales, 600 years before Christ, discovered frictional electricity by the rubbing of amber; and Wimbler, in the last century, sent electric currents along metallic wires, until in our day, Faraday, and Bain, and Henry, and Morse, and Prescott, and Orton–some in one way and some in another way, have helped the lightnings of heaven to come bounding along, crying, Here we are! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 35. Canst thou send lightnings] We have already seen that the lightning is supposed to be immediately in the hand and under the management of God. The great god of the heathen, Jupiter Brontes, is represented with the forked lightnings and thunderbolt in his hand. He seems so to grasp the bickering flame that, though it struggles for liberty, it cannot escape from his hold. Lightnings – How much like the sound of thunder is the original word: Berakim! Here are both sense and sound.
Here we are?] Will the winged lightnings be thy messengers, as they are mine?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Canst thou send at thy pleasure, and upon thy errand?
Here we are; an expression of servants, declaring their readiness to obey their masters commands; of which See Poole “Gen 22:1” See Poole “Isa 6:8“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
35. Here we areat thydisposal (Isa 6:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we [are]?] Thy humble servants; we have been where thou didst send us, and have executed what we were bid to do, and are returned, and here we are waiting further orders; see Mt 8:9; no; lightnings are only at the command of God, and there have been some awful instances of it, Le 10:1; but not in the power of men; indeed we have an extraordinary instance in Elijah, who, at the motion, and under the impulse of the spirit of prophecy in him, called for fire, or lightning, to consume captains with their fifties, and it came down on them, and consumed them, 2Ki 1:10; but he is not to be imitated herein: when the disciples of Christ desired the same upon a provocation, they were severely reproved by him, Lu 9:54; were these at the call and dispose of men, what dreadful things would be done in the world! for if good men, when provoked, would make use of such a power to destroy the lives of men, much more bad men; and our eyes would continually behold the flashes of lighting, and our ears hear the roarings of thunder, and the terrible effects thereof; but neither mercies nor judgments are at the command of men, but of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
35. Canst thou send lightnings Electric forces man may wield, but the lightnings, who can send and who control?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 38:35. Canst thou send lightnings that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? Nothing can be more elevated and sublime than this verse. How strong the image! how simple the expression! We read of winged lightnings in the heathen ports; but where do they live, and act, and speak, and wait for orders with impatience, as here? See Peters, and Longinus on the Sublime, sect. 9 and Dr. Smith’s notes on sect. 18.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 38:35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we [are]?
Ver. 35. Canst thou send lightnings? ] Nunquid emittes. Canst thou send forth lightnings and thunder bolts, as hurtful creatures, out of the cave wherein they are kept? or as so many soldiers or servants, to do as thou commandest them? The poets feign that Mercury had once a mind to steal Jupiter’s thunder bolts, but durst not, lest they should burn his fingers. Histories tell us of a king of Egypt, and of Caligula, the Roman emperor, that they attempted to thunder and lighten, but with very ill success. Job is here told that that is too hard a work for any creature to do, Admirari duntaxat potest, efficere non potest (Brent.).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Canst: Exo 9:23-25, Exo 9:29, Lev 10:2, Num 11:1, Num 16:35, 2Ki 1:10, 2Ki 1:14, Rev 11:5, Rev 11:6
Here we are: Heb. Behold us, 1Sa 22:12, Isa 6:8, *marg. Isa 65:1
Reciprocal: Job 36:30 – he Psa 18:14 – he shot Psa 29:7 – flames Jer 10:13 – uttereth Mat 8:9 – Go Mat 24:27 – as