> BAKER 1/14
> Job 38:28-30 I believe is referring to the ice age. The deep he is
> referring to is not the oceans but the waters of the canopy. Only one
> ice age occurred, and unless we develop another water canopy, which
> then in turn collapses, there won't be another one.
MWF later on 1/14
Let's take a look at the part of the book of Job where Ronal is
inferring historical geological climatic data.
This is towards the very end of the book, after all of Job's
suffering, where most of us would infer the "morals" of the story are
being expounded.
Using the Jerusalem Bible (the english is by far the best), the
editors divide the book into five distinct sections.
I. Prologue
1,2 "Satan tests Job"
II. The Dialogue
a.first series of speeches'
3. Job curses the day of his birth
4-5. Confidence in God
6-7. Only the sufferer knows his own grief
8. The unswerving course of God's justice
9-10. God's Justice is above all law
11. Job must acknowledge God's wisdom
12-14. God's wisdom is best seen in the dreadful
works of his omnipotence
b.second series of speeches
15. Job's own words condemn him
16-17. The injustice of man and the justice of
God
18. Anger is powerless against the course of
justice.
19. Faith at its height in desertion by God and
man
20. The course of justice admits of no
exception.
21. Facts give the lie.
c. third series of speeches
22. God punishes only to vindicate justice.
23-24. God is far off, and evil is victorious
25-26. A hymn to God's omnipotence
27. Job reaffirms his innocence while
acknowledging God's power
d. A hymn in praise of Wisdom
28. Wisdom is beyond man's reach
e. Conclusion of the Dialogue
29. Job's lament and final defense
30. His present misery
31. Job's apologia
III. The speeches of Elihu
32. Elihu joins the discussion
33. Job's presumption
34. The three Sages have failed to justify God.
35. God is not indifferent to what happens on earth
36-37. The real meaning of Job's sufferings
IV. The Speeches of Yahweh
First speech
38-40:{1-5&31-35}. Job must bow to the creator's
wisdom
Second speech
40-41 God is master of the forces of evil
42:1-6. Job's final answer
V. Epilogue
42:7-17 Yahweh rebukes the three Sages.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, after reviewing the structure of the book, we can see that
the verses Ronal is ripping out of context are part of a speech of
Yahweh, the omnipotent, to mortal man.
I'll do a edited outake of the first speech which includes the
verses Ronal refers to:
"Then from the heart of the tempest Yahweh gave Job his answer.
He said:
"Who is this obscuring my designs with his empty-headed words?
* * *
"Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning or sent
the dawn to its post . . .
* * *
"Have you ever visited the place where the snow is kept,
or seen where the hail is stored up,
which I keep for times of stress,
for days of battle and war?
From which direction does the lightning fork
when it scatters sparks over the earth?
Who carves a channel for the downpour,
and hacks a way for the rolling thunder,
so that rain may fall on lands where no one lives,
and the deserts void of human dwelling,
giving drink to the lonely wastes
and making grass spring where everything was dry?
28---> Has the rain a father?
Who begets the dewdrops?
29 What womb brings forth the ice,
and gives birth to the frost of heaven,
30 when the waters grow hard as stone
and the surface of the deep congeals?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
I'll let the reader decide--poetry where god is demonstrating
just how insignificant the mortals are, or paleo-climate report?
A brief synopsis of ice ages over the ages from;
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/when_ice_ages.html
When have Ice Ages occurred?
Many glacial advances and retreats have occurred during the last billion
years of Earth history. These glaciations are not randomly distributed
in time. Instead, they are concentrated into four time intervals. Large,
important glaciations occurred during the late Proterozoic (between
about 800 and 600 million years ago), during the Pennsylvanian and
Permian (between about 350 and 250 million years ago), and the late
Neogene to Quaternary (the last 4 million years). Somewhat less
extensive glaciations occurred during parts of the Ordovician and
Silurian (between about 460 and 430 million years ago).
During each of these periods, many glacial advances and retreats
occurred. For example, over 20 glacial advances and retreats have
occurred during the last 2 million years.
If "ice age" is used to refer to long, generally cool, intervals during
which glaciers advance and retreat, we are still in one today. Our
modern climate represents a very short, warm period between glacial
advances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So the diggers have found solid physical evidence which has
convinced those who have made it there business to learn what has
actually happened that the ice has advanced 20 times in the last 2
million years.
Alone.
And that's ignoring all those other ice ages.
Ciao.
-- Michael Fisher, ET1/SS USN ret., law student* * * He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine
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