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THE EXPANSE (1)

SMcC We have often heard reference to the expanse, and it is thought that as we enquire together in the light of the temple we might get some help as to what it means, and its bearing upon us. The more you look into the Scriptures, the more you are impressed with the extensiveness and vastness of what is linked with the thought of the expanse. J.N.D. referred to it many years ago and said that it involves a sphere of heavenly power over the earth, and how much that suggestion itself spreads before the view as we go through the Old Testament into the New, and especially take account of the epistle to the Ephesians, which is full of the thought of the expanse, and the book of the Revelation, where it comes on to our view in such a peculiar way. I thought we might begin with these two sections that we have read, and see how it stands in its primary setting in Genesis 1. While taking account of its material significance, we should have in mind particularly its spiritual significance, because in Genesis 1 it is apparent that it is a great area and sphere of things into which light and rule enter in a very distinctive way. Then I thought of the section in Job, as particularly reminding us of the hidden resources that God has in the expanse. It is an amazing chapter, where God takes matters in hand personally, and speaks about the wonderful things that we read of, unfolding to us the marvellous hidden resources and reserves that are linked with the expanse. It should serve to encourage our hearts and strengthen our hearts together in the sense that God has the resources and the reserves in relation to the expanse to meet all the wickedness and evil that has introduced itself into it. In the geophysical year men are thinking much of their accomplishments; no doubt Satan is entering into them in a peculiar way as he did at Babel, in the building of the tower, and then what followed in Abraham’s time, he being called out of a scene of idolatry as it is referred to by Joshua (Joshua 24: 15) where demons become worshipped as gods. There is no doubt that what is obtaining at the present moment will lead into the same kind of thing, resulting in the full thought of the apostasy. But what is in mind to see is how God would impress us as to His thoughts about the expanse, and the peculiar place that Christ and the assembly have in the divine mind in relation to it, the expanse suggesting a sphere and realm of operations that God has provided in the second phase of creation. It did not obtain in the first creation, but it obtains in the second phase of creation. God thus affording Himself room to operate and to give effect to the greatness of His thoughts, especially in relation to Christ and the assembly, but involving the whole universe, as we shall see. One does not have too much defined in mind as to what it may lead into, or how it may open up, but one trusts that there may be liberty with one another so that we may get help in regard to this thought which seems to be very great in the divine mind. The Psalms are full with the thought of it; in fact the climax of the ways of God brings in the great thought, “Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in the firmament of his power” (Psalm 150: 1), showing what a refined result is to be arrived at as evil and wickedness are met and dealt with in the expanse, and the great result of God’s marvellous operations appears.

LWT You have referred to the fact that the expanse is not mentioned in the first creation; to what extent is the expanse a provisional thought?

There does not appear to be any reference to it in Revelation 21.

SMcC Not as to the actual use of the word, but I think in the light of the epistle to the Ephesians we are warranted in taking account of it in the result of divine operations in it as something that will abide. Although its great bearing is on the provisional side, in connection with influence upon the earth, spiritually the thought goes through, in the sense of what is heavenly, because the expanse brings in the thought of what is heavenly.

JMcK Do you think in the assembly gospel, Matthew, the Lord’s face shining as the sun would confirm that to us?

SMcC Yes. That is an interesting reference, because Matthew bears very much on the thought of the expanse, and rule and administration as they work out in relation to it. The sun, as it is referred to in Genesis 1: 14, 15, has a very special place in it, pointing to Christ in that way. But what would you say more as to the setting of it in Matthew?

JMcK I wondered if the present bearing of light in the heavenlies is to be upon us.

SMcC Yes, it is interesting that preceding the great administrative chapter in Matthew (chapter 18), where the assembly so singularly appears in such an august way, we should have that reference to Christ in that great glory chapter; chapter 17. It is as if the administration is to be affected by the glory that shines in that relation.

APCL Is it primarily in your mind that the expanse is connected with divine operations?

SMcC Yes, that is the main thought in one’s mind, for I think the great idea of the expanse in the mind of God is to make special room for Christ and the assembly, and the particular influence that they have in the sphere of rule. We shall see it worked out in the city in the Revelation.

APCL So it is not simply the idea of expanse, but “an expanse” being a determined matter in the divine mind.

SMcC I think it is important to see that. It is not ‘and let there be expanse,’ as if it were a general undefined thought; it is a very defined thought, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters.”

PHH Is it at all significant that the expanse mentioned, involving mainly divine operations, as you say, comes in after God has called for light and made the division? Are His operations therefore in the light?

SMcC I think that is the way we are to see it. If we apply it spiritually, as, of course, we have the right to do, verses 3, 4 and 5 would involve the presence of Christ in manhood. What a wonderful time it was when Christ came into manhood. God as it were saying, “Let there be light.” John very carefully tells us, that “the life was the light of men.” Following that, we get God making the expanse and dividing between the waters that are under the expanse and the waters that are above the expanse, no doubt leading our thoughts to what is linked with the position of Christ in glory.

ECM What would you say as to the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters preceding the thought of light? Is that connected with the operational side in any way?

SMcC I think it is. We might liken that to the whole testing period of man, after the chaos and dislocation had come in, all through the Old Testament we can see the Spirit of God hovering. You take the Psalms and the prophets, how they bring out that feature. I am now alluding to it in a general way. We can apply it, of course, in other ways, but the Odd Testament is like that. In the midst of the dislocation introduced by sin, the Spirit of God is hovering, but then we come to verses 3 and 5, and they are suggestive of Christ coming into humanity. God causing light to come in. Then we get the expanse, followed by the ordered system of things linked with dry land appearing. Then we get the setting of the specific light, not light in a general way now, but light in a very specialised way, in bodies of light in the expanse.

JTS You spoke to us recently of heavenly influence in the sun and the moon and the stars. Would that link a little with what we read finally, “Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? dost thou determine their rule over the earth?” And (without wishing to anticipate), would that bring us to the close of Ephesians 1?

SMcC It does. “The ordinances of the heavens,” links with what was suggested in Matthew, indeed, we have a book, have we not, on ‘The ordinances of the heavens,’ notes of readings in Matthew? Matthew’s great feature is to impress us with the rule of the heavens in that way, and how Christ and the assembly are viewed in relation to it.

JMcK So that on the first day, in Christ, the division was absolute, but on the fourth day there remains this continual dividing of light and darkness.

SMcC We get in the gospels, as Christ came into the world, specially in John, the immediate and absolute division between light and darkness. But then, as we come into the Acts and the epistles, where the expanse comes on to our view in a peculiar way as the sphere of divine operations, involving Christ in heaven and the Spirit down here in the assembly in relation to Christ there, we get the continuance of this thought, dividing between the day and night.

JM Why is the work of the second day not said to be good?

SMcC We have often pondered that, and as it has been alluded to, there may be contemplated the enemy’s invasion of the expanse. I thought the chapter we read in Job threw some light on the matter. That is, God said there, in chapter 38: 8 - 11, “And who shut up the sea with doors, when it burst forth, issuing out of the womb? When I made the cloud its garment, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it; When I cut out for it my boundary, and set bars and doors. And said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” That is a remarkable passage as entering into the creational side, indicating an element that God had to keep in control - “thy proud waves” is a remarkable allusion. The expanse comes in in connection with the division of waters, and the point as I would apprehend and understand it, is that divine control comes into the operation to limit what would interfere with those operations.

AJG In chapter 1: 31 it says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good.” So that while what He made on the second day was not called good, yet is it not included in a general way in that final statement? Even though evil is permitted to come in, is it not permitted in order to bring out how completely God can control it, and bring good out of it?

SMcC I think that helps us very much as to it. It is interesting, along with what you say, that in regard to the expanse on the fourth day, it says (verse 18), “And God saw that it was good.” That is, He is referring to the expanse. While the expression “it was good,” is held up in verses 6, 7 and 8, I think it is included in verse 18 and what you referred to in verse 31.

DWG So would it be right to say that it is good, in result, as moral matters are dealt with in the expanse, and Christ and the assembly come into their right place?

SMcC It is. That is, the result will show God’s complete triumph over evil. The enemy has come into the expanse - how, when and where, what can we say? We have to leave it, for Scripture is rather silent on the subject, but Scripture clearly sets out that evil has invaded the expanse to interfere with divine operations. In the final thoughts in the Revelation, we can see the good result in the complete triumph over evil.

JM Do you think that the work of Christ on the cross would enter in some way into the second day?

SMcC It must do. All things look back retroactively from the cross, and look forward in prospective to the cross, and the matter of dividing finds its supreme centre in what transpired there in Christ.

MPS Does the end of verse 13 of Job 38 “and the wicked might be shaken out of it?” connect with Luke 10: 18, in which the Lord says that He beheld Satan falling as lightning out of heaven? That is followed by His praising the Father as “Lord of the heaven and of the earth.”

SMcC There we get a foreshadowing of what comes about in the ways of God. When we come to the Revelation, as we shall see, the enemy is cast out of heaven, he is cast on to the earth, and his activities then are directed towards what is on the earth. But in the meantime he is concentrating on the operations in the expanse, on the heavenly line, for Satan is especially concerned to hinder these operations.

JBS Why is he called “the ruler of the authority of the air”? “And you, being dead in your offences and sins - in which ye once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,” Ephesians 2: 1.

SMcC That is one of the passages that helps us to see that the enemy has entered the expanse. How long he has been in it, Scripture does not tell us, but he is in it, because the air alludes to the expanse,

the expanse bearing peculiarly on the atmospheric side.

AWGT Is the expanse co-extensive with what Mr. Darby calls ‘creation’s vault’?

SMcC I do not know, of course, what Mr. Darby had in mind. We sometimes hear ‘the vault of heaven’ alluded to. No doubt, there is some link with the expanse in that thought.

EM When you speak about this vast expanse being under control, is it confirmed in Ezekiel 1: 26, “And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne”?

SMcC Yes, we shall see, in the course of the readings, how Christ appears in figure and in type in relation to the expanse in a peculiar way. So that we have the thought here as in Ezekiel 1, of the waters that are under the expanse and the waters that are above the expanse.

WRM It says, “God made the expanse.” It is the first thing that He is said to have made. Wisdom and skill of workmanship would enter into that, do you think?

SMcC I think so. That is why one referred to Ephesians as giving a wealth of knowledge in regard to the expanse as it bears on us spiritually, because it is in Ephesians that we get the acme of God’s workmanship, in this setting. It says there, “we are his workmanship,” not just His work, but we are His workmanship; all the resources of divine skill and wisdom enter into that workmanship.

PHH Does this thought of the expanse and the operations in it test us as to how we are in it, whether we are in it sympathetically with God, or in some way allowing evil to operate?

SMcC I thought we might see that, because the expanse is an indication to faith that God is going to stress the heavenly side. We shall find further on in Genesis, how God comes into a scene of idolatry and calls a man out of it, and then operates on the line of the expanse, developing the heavenly side, in Abraham, Jacob and in Joseph. God wants us to be heavenly, and as another has said, the expanse is really the native air that faith breathes. Well, that is very important. Where are we breathing? and what are we breathing? We want to breathe this wonderful native air that belongs to the realm of God’s operations on the heavenly line.

PHH Do you think this chapter 1 would encourage us to be with God sympathetically in our minds and affections, so that we are prepared for whatever He may do in the sense of heavenly operations?

SMcC That is what I thought. If we are breathing the native air of the expanse we shall have no difficulty spiritually when we come to the lights in the expanse in verse 14, and the setting of the two great lights, that is, with God’s appointed channels and avenues for the diffusion of light. It is when we get on the earthly line, and under the influence of the enemy, that we get into difficulty about the great lights in the expanse.

CH What would you say about the fixity connected with the dry land coming after the making of the expanse?

SMcC I think there is something suggestive in it, but we would value any help that you could give on it.

CH You spoke about faith, and the intervention of God in making the expanse, and in dividing between the waters above and the waters below. As brought into faith’s realm we have what is fixed in the dry land, and fruitfulness as flowing from that.

SMcC I think it helps greatly to see that, how this dry land appears and how the great matter of food comes in here. The dry land suggests an ordered state of things in which certain specific thoughts are going to be set out, as it says, “God called the dry land Earth,” because man is going to be formed out of that. It is a remarkable thing that in relation to what God calls Earth here, man is going to be formed out of it, according to Genesis 2, and God sees that it is good. Then He says, “Let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed, fruit-trees yielding fruit after their kind.” The point is food, to sustain life, comes into view.

APB Is it your thought that the land appears in the expanse?

SMcC I would not put it that way. I would rather put it that the dry land appears in relation to the expanse; not in it, but in relation to it. The divine idea thus is that heaven is to control the earth. We should notice that, for men are trying to work it the other way round. They are trying to control heaven from the earth, but the divine and primary thought of God is that the heaven, or the expanse, is to control the earth.

WJT Does that involve response, in that it says, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy”?

SMcC I thought it was remarkable that that passage comes in there. Why does God allude to that, in the way in which He does, in that section in Job?

AH In verse 9 it says, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together to one place,” that is defined, is it not, “under the heavens,” showing the influence of heaven over it.

SMcC I think it is a great encouragement, and comfort to take account of that, because men are afraid of the waters and of their breaking forth. Even while they go forward and deal with things that are really beyond their control, there is an inherent fear of the waters, and what will result if things get out of control, but God would assure faith, in this native air in which it breathes, that that is all divinely controlled. The Assyrian may come into Emmanuel’s land, and waters in torrential flow may jeopardise the whole position, but it is only to the neck, not over the head; Isaiah 8: 8. God says, as it were, “Hitherto shalt thou come and no further.”

APCL Does Jehovah show in chapter 7 how He can use these resources to purify the earth as it would appear to get out of hand; and then in chapter 12 He calls someone from it in relation to what is heavenly in itself?

SMcC It is very enlightening to see these features in Genesis. First there is the cleansing in relation to the earth, but then, when man departs further and degenerates into something worse than ever, into idolatry (for Joshua reminds the people that their fathers served the gods beyond the river, alluding to what followed the flood), God called Abraham out of it. He does not cleanse it, as He did in Noah’s time, but He resorts to another method of operation in calling a man out of it, as beginning in him, as the head of the accepted race, the race of God, the wonderful operations that will produce such a result in God’s world.

WHT Could you say a little as to the principle of continual division?

SMcC I thought in relation to these great bodies of light - giving influence in the section from verses 14 - 19, the sun and the moon, and the stars; what a power for good they are, and they are especially helpful when it comes to dividing between day and night. You remember how Daniel speaks of those that turn the many to righteousness that they shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; Daniel 12: 3. What an influence for good Daniel and others were as they moved in the light of the expanse!

ACSP Does the repetition of the use of the expression “the expanse of the heavens” help us to get an impression of the greatness of what is heavenly?

SMcC I think it does. It is not ‘the expanse of the earth,’ it is “the expanse of the heavens.” And especially do we get an impression of what is heavenly as we come to Christianity and see the greatness that is involved in Christ in the expanse, in the heavens, as we are told, in Acts 3, “whom heaven indeed must receive till the times of the restoring of all things.”

Ques Would Psalm 19: 1 help, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse sheweth the work of his hands”?

SMcC Yes, we shall see that in the course of our readings, how Christ comes into the expanse and how the assembly comes into it. Psalm 19 shows us how the sun comes into its circuit in the expanse. It is a very interesting thing, from Genesis to Revelation, that you will always notice that linked with the thought of the expanse there is restoration and recovery. If you search the passages in which the heavenly side is alluded to, and the thought of the firmament and the expanse, you will find in the context, or near by, some allusion to restoration or recovery. I am thinking of Psalm 19 particularly. The first half of it alludes to the marvellous influence in the expanse, the last half of it begins with “The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul.”

WRM Is Nebuchadnezzar’s history a striking example of that? He had to learn that the heavens do rule, and he eventually lifted up his eyes to the heavens and restoration came about.

SMcC There you see it. I think the thought as suggested in the book of Daniel should help us in these days. We have had ‘The Times of the Nations’ before us, and we are especially to see the bearing of the heavenly side in regard to all matters. Men may talk about reaching certain things, but we are not to be drawn into that kind of thing. The enemy would lure the younger ones into what is so spectacular on that line; but we are to repair into the expanse, into the heavenly side, for that is the native air that faith breathes, as C.A.C. says.

PHH You said a little while ago, in referring to the lights that there were certain channels which God used. Would you be free now to say a little more about that, in view of the fact that we have spoken of the sun and so on?

SMcC I thought it linked with Ephesians 4, where we have the moral universe and the features of it outlined for us. We have the great place that Christ has in the expanse, exalted above as Man, and then the subsidiary lights as seen in the gifts. Christ is the supreme light, and then the subordinate and subsidiary lights all enter into the work of the ministry. I think we are warranted in thinking of that. Would you agree with that?

PHH Yes, indeed. I gather you are referring to the gifts, and comparing them with stars - is that it?

SMcC Yes. The sun suggests Christ, and the moon in a general way suggests the assembly, Israel may come into it in a dispensational way, but it particularly brings into our thoughts the assembly as shining in Christ’s light; and then the stars bring out the diversified glory in individuals linked with the expanse.

PHH So that if God sets them, as it says, in the expanse of the heavens, first of all He did it for His own pleasure, and then it is to command our respect in the way He does things.

SMcC I think we want to see that, because there is a good deal of objection to the expression ‘authoritative ministry.’ But I think if we noted the bearing of the expanse, and the lights set in it, we would see that the great thing in mind is rule, and rule carries authority. These benign light-giving bodies have in mind rule and government, the ordinances of the heavens are linked with them.

JMcK Would the idea of spiritual orbits come into the matter?

SMcC It would, and now that you mention the word ‘orbit,’ it is a great thing that we should each be in our own orbit. If we are in our orbit we will not clash with one another.

JMcK And an orbit cannot be questioned.

SMcC It cannot. It is divinely appointed. That is why one had that passage read in Job 38 as bearing on the expanse. Verse 31 says, “Canst thou fasten the bands of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?” Can you do that? He says to Job, “Dost thou bring forth the constellations each in its season? or dost thou guide the Bear with her sons?” What has happened in Christendom is that man has attempted to control the ministry. But the Spirit of God refuses human control of the ministry in the assembly; it is divinely controlled in the expanse.

CMM Does the idea of a constellation suggest that these individual stars, each according to his glory, are set together in the wonderful pattern according to the divine mind?

SMcC I think it is very affecting that in these three-day occasions, brothers who serve can be together; not as trying to out-vie one another, but as working together in relation to the dissemination of heavenly light and influence among the saints. There is something very attractive about it.

CH Is not that specifically in the mind of the Spirit in this passage in Genesis? It says, God set them “to give light on the earth.” It is not just a question of viewing the luminaries in an objective way, but the reason for which they have been set there is to give light on the earth.

SMcC That is it. It is the particular bearing of them on the earth, where practical matters have to be worked out and practical difficulties have to be faced.

AWGT Is that confirmed in verse 33 of your chapter in Job, “Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? dost thou determine their rule over the earth?”

SMcC So you can see that, as Paul goes up to Galatia to meet the difficulties in regard to the glad tidings. Would Jerusalem determine the rule over the earth? Never for a moment! Paul says that what he had was not from men, nor through man. He insisted on his own position in the expanse, and the related side of the expanse to his ministry.

GHSP Does Paul’s conflict with the wicked spirits at Ephesus show how Satan was entrenched there, and how that was met in Acts 19?

SMcC We have got a little preview there of how what is wicked and evil will be cast out of the expanse. It is a great thing to get a sense of that in our souls, that as we pursue what is evil to the final thought of it, it will be met.

LWT Might I ask about the two lights? Relatively one is great and the other is small, yet, is it beautiful the way they are spoken of as “the two great lights”? Does that bring out the distinctiveness of the assembly?

SMcC Yes. It is almost paradoxical the way it reads. It says, “God made the two great lights, the great light to rule the days, and the small light to rule the night - and the stars,” The added allusion “and the stars” is very affecting. It is almost like an added touch, subserving the great thought of the sun and the moon, the great thought of Christ and the assembly.

WJT In relation to your mention of authoritative ministry, do you think God follows up the authoritative ministry of Elihu which Job had not fully received?

SMcC I thought so. That is God fully supports what Elihu had been bringing before Job, as speaking in the power of the Spirit. God accredits it Himself. So that that section of Job is a remarkable section as to the way that God speaks to Job. He speaks about the sea in a way which gives us a measure of stability and comfort in the sense that things will be controlled. God says, “I cut out for it my boundary,” not ‘its boundary,’ but “my boundary”; and then, “hast thou caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked might be shaken out of it?” It is not a question of angelic forces being sent here to put the wicked out; it is a question of dawn coming in, light coming in, and the wicked being shaken out.

JMcK Is it interesting in chapter 38 that Jehovah appears to take over from Elihu? Elihu gives a good introduction in the previous chapter, now it is Jehovah speaking out of the whirlwind. Would that be something like the greatness of God in the rights of His own domain?

SMcC I think it is, and it would be a helpful thing, you feel, for all of us to ponder this. Could God take over where we leave off? What you have referred to is very fine, that God took over where Elihu left off.

ERS Is it to be noted that Elihu’s name means ‘God is He’?

SMcC Yes, it carries the thought of ‘El,’ implying supremacy in power. The sense of the power that is linked with God should always be present in our souls.

RGB The Spirit of God took over as Peter was speaking in the Acts, and confirms and adds to what he had effected by his word.

SMcC It is remarkable how immediate the action is, there is no hesitation or let up. That is very fine in regard to ministry and service, that divine Persons can link on with it immediately.

APCL Does the reference in Philippians 2: 15 extend the matter further, to all the saints, “irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation; among whom ye appear as lights in the world”?

SMcC That is a very fine reference which I thought we might allude to later. But it bears out what we are saying, and 1 Corinthians 15 too bears out the extension of the thought of the stars to the saints, the children of God. Star differing from star in glory is the thought in 1 Corinthians 15, but Philippians has in mind what we are in the world, shining as lights.

DWG The note to the word ‘appear’ there is ‘the rising or appearing of heavenly bodies.’ That is very fine as bearing on our influence. What kind of influence do we have in our setting in the world? Is it a benign influence, an influence for good on one another and on men?

APB Did you not say earlier that in the Acts and the epistles we have this thought of separating the day from the night?

SMcC I think God has caused the dawn to know its place, and it has taken hold of the ends of the earth. I suppose that would involve, as we would apply it, Paul’s ministry. It is not only the Jewish side, but the ends of the earth. And then, “It is changed like the signet-clay; and all things stand forth as in a garment.” That is, the figure of speech is to convey the silhouetting of everything on the horizon, as the dawn lays hold of things. We all know how things stand out in silhouette against the horizon as the dawn takes place. Well, Paul’s ministry helps us as to all that, the way that things stand out and are detailed.

CH He was apprehended by a light out of heaven. It is remarkable that he should be thus converted, as we speak, to become the great servant of Christ and the assembly. It just speaks of it that way, “there shone round about him a light out of heaven,” Acts 9: 3.

SMcC It does. And the voice out of heaven, too, in the Acts, is interesting. There was the immediate impression that Paul got of the expanse, of what is heavenly, and it coloured all his ministry.

PHH He would even bring Peter to book as to that, speaking about it in Galatians. Paul and Peter were, as we might say, stars, each one of them, yet Paul has to be looked to at the end, do you think?

SMcC That is very striking, how Peter, as in his own orbit, accepts it in such a touching way. He later alludes to him as “our beloved brother Paul.”

GEE Would Acts 20 bear on this, he discoursed until day-break?

SMcC Yes, it would, and the many lights in the upper room all allude to the influence of what is heavenly in that particular setting, when Paul is so prominent. Then we get this verse 22, “Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow, and hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail.” These are all allusions to the expanse, but the hidden reserves of the expanse to meet things; and it goes on to say, “Which I have reserved for the time of distress, for the day of battle and war?” Think of the hidden reserves in the expanse to meet the apostasy, and to make way for the holy city to come into the expanse, and to rule benignly with Christ for God.

ERS Are they like God’s armaments?

SMcC Well, they are in that way.

LWT So is all this section leading to what Job says in chapter 42: 2, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”? Is that what God has in mind to bring Job to in this section?

SMcC Just so. I think that at the present time when men are talking out of bounds in regard to reaching the moon and other things, the young people want to be drawn into God’s expanse, and to breathe the native air of faith and not be drawn into all that side of things which God will meet with the hidden reserves of the expanse. He has treasured them up for the day of battle and war, that is coming.

MPS May I ask about the whirlwind? Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind. Is that to be taken in contrast to the voice out of heaven which Peter speaks about, which would be more characteristic of our dispensation? Peter speaks about the voice “being uttered to him by the excellent glory,” 2 Peter 1: 17.

SMcC You can see how Peter had been affected in his soul by that heavenly scene, and God speaking out of it; because it was a heavenly scene. The mount of Transfiguration is a touch of the expanse in the gospels, and Peter was affected by it, and it comes out in the way that he speaks of it. It is interesting to see how touchingly God in wrath remembers mercy, as it says here, “Who hath divided a channel for the rain-flood, and a way for the thunder’s flash; to cause it to rain on the earth, where no one is; on the wilderness wherein there is not a man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the sprout of the grass to spring forth? Surely these are not mentioned for nothing, they are to remind us how that in the midst of God’s governmental dealings, in wrath He remembers mercy. So with Nebuchadnezzar, as was referred to, it was a band of iron and brass, but it was in the tender grass of the field. The whole thing was modified by the circumstances in which it was. We have the reference there to the dew of heaven.

AJG It says he was bathed with it.

SMcC What a touch that is! It is not that God would send it arbitrarily or in a perfunctory way; the expression “bathed with the dew of heaven” suggests the excess of heavenly influence, I think, whether we view it judicially or otherwise.

HC And does it come back to Genesis 1: 11, where the first thing that the earth brings forth is grass, springing up?

SMcC Just so, I think the expanse has a great relation to what the earth produces, and if there is to be the tender growth that we look for in our gatherings, there must be the maintenance of the holy and heavenly atmosphere as is linked with the expanse.

PHH Can you entertain the thought that in our cases of discipline and sorrow we may not know what to do, but we may find comfort in the fact that God has resources which He can use, apart from ministry, to affect the persons who are in our minds?

SMcC I think that is right. Oftentimes we wonder what can be done, but yet God is impressing Job. The three persons reasoned with him night and day, and never reached a result in regard to it, but Elihu brings in a word in the power of the Spirit. Then God links on with Elihu, and what God reminds us of is the hidden reserves and resources that He has in the expanse to make way for His own operations.

APCL Is that suggested in verse 2, that apart from this knowledge there will be the possibility of us darkening counsel?

SMcC I think so. “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” It is not the use of words, the use of words in itself will never bring about anything, especially as God refers to it here - “words without knowledge.” We may think, of course, that knowledge is conveyed in words, but it is striking that Jehovah says here, “words without knowledge.”

APCL I was wondering if that knowledge really was what Jehovah was seeking to impart to him as to what lay in His own resources.

SMcC I think so.

WGL What would you say as to Job’s own reference to the constellations in chapter 9 of this book? He refers to the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades.

SMcC I think it is to stress the matter of divine control. In Revelation the Lord holds and controls the stars, and we must see divine control entering into these matters. Then there is the other thought, namely the unity in these constellations; they are referred to as under divine control. So that we are all saying the same thing; there is no disparity, as it were, in our view of the truth, and what we say as to the truth. Each is moving in his own orbit, but under divine control. There is plenty of room for everybody in the expanse! We do not need to be afraid that there will not be room for us; there is plenty of room in the expanse, but each is to be in his or her orbit, and thus divinely controlled.

LWT “The stars from their courses,” as we have in Judges 5: 20.

SMcC Quite so. It is remarkable how Deborah refers to that “the stars from their courses fought with Sisera.” It is not only the stars giving light, but they are in the battle, in their courses.

HMH Is it interesting that in Ephesians 4 the reference to the gifts is preceded by the statement that He has led captivity captive?

SMcC Yes, it is very interesting, because it shows that evil has been met in the expanse, in order that way might be made for these orbs of light suggested on the fourth day.

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