Not only do we find distinct references to Creation, the Fall, and the Curse, but the book of Job continues to amaze with specifics about The Flood of Noah’s day.
Keeping in mind the Genesis record of human debauchery and continual evil in the days preceding the Great Purge (see Scripturosity article series “Who were the Giants of Noah’s Day?” Parts 1, 2, 3), notice the following reflection in the third discourse of Eliphaz (22:15-18). “Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: Which said unto God, Depart from us…Yet He filled their houses with good things…”
Not only was knowledge of the Flood fresh, but it was established that the trigger was divine and that man’s wickedness was the reason.
How could Eliphaz be so emphatic about that?
Do you recall the setting that we established earlier (see Scripturosity article “Understanding the Book of Job” – Part 2)? The chronology places the events in the book of Job at or around 2,000 BC, which would be 300-400 years following the Flood. Noah lived 350 years after the Flood. Shem lived 502 years after disembarking outliving Abraham and dying when Isaac was 130 years old. The survivors from the lost world were undoubtedly revered (or loathed) figures in the rebounding population with tremendous respect and consideration given to their words.
It is easy to see how the Flood account could be so vivid.
Job, in particular, had an acute sense of the historicity of the Flood. We can make that claim based on his multiple references.
“He (God) is wise in heart and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered? Which removeth the mountains (intimating that mountains were a part of the created, antediluvian landscape), and they know not: which overturneth them in His anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place (intimating a different axial attitude), and the pillars thereof tremble (9:4-6).”
In this passage (vv.1-10) Job acknowledges both God’s creative exploits and His destructive force. It is His world; He can break it if He chooses to. “Who will say unto Him, what doest thou (v.12)?”
“Behold, He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: He shutteth up a man (in this hydrologic, judgment context, this man must be Noah; Gen. 7:16), and there can be no opening. Behold, He withholdeth the waters (atmospheric and subterranean) and they dry up: also He sendeth them (the waters) out, and He overturneth the earth (12:14,15).”
Job’s point to his “friends” was that God has, in the past, chosen to set one man apart, uniquely, for the purpose of accomplishing that which is unprecedented. He did it with Noah; now God was doing it again with him.
He recognized that the post-Flood landscape was dramatically different from the topography of the early earth as a result of judgment at God’s hand.
“…by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (2 Pet.3:5,6).”
“For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again…through the scent of water it will bud…As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not…If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come (14:7-14).”
Job uses the phenomenal retreat of the Flood waters and subsequent ecological rebirth to express his faith in a hope beyond the grave.
“He (God) hath compassed (determined the extent of) the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end (26:10).”
Job reflects on God’s promise kept since the time of Noah’s altar and takes comfort in His faithful maintenance on earth. “…And the Lord said in His heart, I will not…again smite any more every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (see Scripturosity article “Noah’s New World” – Part 1).”
Job continues in his answer to Bildad (26:11-14) exposing the egotism and ignorance of the friends by highlighting the power necessary for Creation and the authority requisite for global judgment as merely “parts of His ways.” Simply put, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. He mocked their folly in claiming to be His worthy delegates (v.2-4). The sovereign dynamic that formed the mountain ranges and towering peaks has the right to demand humility of the creatures that inhabit them (v.12).
“He (God) putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He overturneth the mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; His eye seeth every precious thing (28:9,10).”
Job seems to have been aware of or conceptualized “run-away” or catastrophic plate tectonics as well as appreciated the destructive hydrologic flows that cut the deep, stratified canyons during the Flood-water retreat (see Scripturosity article “Noah’s New World” – Part 2). To Job, every phenomenon of nature was a signpost pointing the observer to the Creator/Redeemer.
With regard to the Flood and its signature left all over the earth, Henry Morris offers the following (The Remarkable Record of Job, p.28).
“The Noahic flood marked a great discontinuity (break from the established sequence), both in the course of human history and in the normal operation of the natural processes that God established supernaturally in the beginning. The rates of most geological processes (such as erosion, sedimentation, tectonism, and volcanism) were vastly accelerated during the year after the Flood. God finally allowed the Flood to run its course, after which all these rates gradually slowed, though much “residual catastrophism” persists even to the present day.”
The earthquakes and volcanoes that we experience today are reminders of when the Creator judged His earth “with the earth (Gen.6:13).” These are only remnant tremors and eruptions compared by magnitudes to the geologic events that continued to shake the earth beyond the retreat of the waters (see Scripturosity article “Is Earth’s Fire Responsible for its Ice?”).
When God finally breaks heaven’s silence in the discourse, He amplifies His authority in Job’s life by taking credit for an intimate management of the Flood; from its initiation to its cessation. “…Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb…and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hither to shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed (38:8-11)?”
His message to Job (and all that come across this record) was, “I am the God of the Flood; I’ve got a pretty good grasp of your situation.”
Thanks for all the hard work you put into your blogs. It doesn’t go unnoticed, I can testify that I have been blessed and strengthened by your work. Keep it up, I need it.
Love ya,
Dad
Of the many blessings in my life, one of the most appreciated is the love and encouragement that comes from you. I have never had to wonder if you were pleased or had to clamor for your approval. I know this trait is a result of the grace in your life demonstrated by your heavenly Father because the paternal template was simply not available as you were growing up.
Much love and admiration,
Your son