“Tell Me, if you know…” Job 38:18b

The Almighty posed four more questions to Job – each of which challenged Job’s understanding of activity in dimensions which he had no earthly knowledge. They were all ‘other-worldly’. The first query also informed Job of something he probably never knew: the springs of the oceans are found in the farthest depths of the sea. Even with scuba gear, one is unable to reach them (though Jacques Cousteau’s son, Jacques-Yves, has recently worked with a team that designed, manufactured and used a small submarine to reach depths never reached before by man). The ocean deep is an ‘other-world’ kingdom with creatures unlike any seen on land. Theologian Matthew Henry asserted that God’s way in governing this world is said to be as deep as the sea, and in the great waters (Psalm 77:19), intimating that it is hidden from us and not to be pried into by us.

God’s second and third questions challenged Job’s understanding of death and the afterlife. Death is a great mystery… whose depths are deeper than the oceans. None of us knows just how we are to leave this earth: by what disease, catastrophe, calamity, or evil… or if we will simply live to a ripe old age and breathe our last breath. No one knows his/her appointed time. Each of us has an expiration date. Mr. Henry’s commentary on these two questions are worthy of contemplation:

“We cannot describe what death is, how the knot is untied between body and soul, nor how the spirit of a man goes upward (Ecclesiastes 3:21), to be - we know not what, and live - we know not how, as Mr. Norris expresses; with what dreadful curiosity (says he) does the soul launch out into the vast ocean of eternity and resign to an untried abyss! Let us make it sure that the gates of heaven shall be opened to us on the other side of 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.” (The Matthew Henry Complete Commentary of The Bible, )

In any case, God used two ways to describe death: the gates of death, and the gates of the shadow of death. They are both plural, leading one to understand there are more than a thousand ways to die. The latter gates hint of a worldly experience when one comes close to death (though some translations read, “the gates of the deepest darkness”). The first description of death’s gates point to what lies beyond this life, pointing to an afterlife. I wonder why God chose to call it the gates of death, when it could just as easily be called the gates to life after death… or simply, the gates of eternal life. Possibly, because there is but one gate to enter into Heaven’s rest, The Lord, Jesus Christ – the narrow gate (read Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23; Luke 13:23-25).

As with every question God had directed to Job up to this point, each answer is an expected, “No.” No human could ever see from God’s vantage point or understand from God’s limitless mind. God’s demand for Job to reply was preparing Job’s heart for the teachable moment. Job had to come to the end of himself… the end of his own understanding.

Tell me if you know all this… the answers to God’s questions. The most important being, “Why should I let you into My Heaven?” (Read 1 John 5:13)

Have a blessed day…