By Ken Pierce

Each Fourth of July, many of my neighbors spend a chunk of change on fireworks purchased from pop-up vendors along the main road through town. The buying starts in late June. People really look forward to the holiday, many of them mainly because of the fireworks. Sporadic launches start a few days before the Fourth, as buyers give in to the temptation to test-fire “just one or two.” The real show starts at sundown on the Fourth as neighbors set up lawn chairs to watch the display. The show usually culminates in a mesmerizing ripple-fire barrage, a grand finale evoking “oohs and ahhs” and a round of applause. Why do people enjoy fireworks so much? Most of the dogs in my neighborhood would testify that such fascination is confined to the human species alone.

The Book of Job preserves a conversation that took place during ancient times between Yahweh and His servant, Job. The LORD described Job as “a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil” (1:8; 2:3). After Job endured an extended period of torment–aggravated by his ersatz counselors–Yahweh appeared in a whirlwind to engage His servant (38:1). Job was not alone. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, along with the younger Elihu, were present when the LORD began to speak.

Besides human spectators, the first two chapters of Job mention the sons of God (Bene ha-Elohim), an assembly of sentient beings subordinate to Yahweh (1:6; 2:1). Though they go unmentioned after chapter 2, the lack of further explicit mention does not rule out their continued presence and active interest in Yahweh’s conversation with his servant (cf. 1 Pet 1:12). Many reading Job 38 perceive a condescending, even mocking tone in God’s words. After all, He began with the question, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (38:2). That inference, however, stands at odds with the instructive content in Yahweh’s speech. By way of comparison, the Prophet Isaiah employed a similar technique of posing questions as he comforted Israel (Isa 40:12-14, 18, 21, 25, 27-28). Isaiah did not ask questions to mock his countrymen, but to offer eternal perspective on God’s plan, will, and providential care for the nation. Similarly, in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, He asked the credentialed Sanhedrin member, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things” (John 3:10)? Jesus was no more mocking Nicodemus than Yahweh was mocking Job. On the contrary, He was leading the senior Pharisee toward a spiritual understanding of regeneration that was conditioned on faith alone in Israel’s Messiah—insights that eluded Nicodemus despite decades of intensive Torah study and meditation.

As the LORD spoke to Job from the whirlwind, He recounted His creative work: laying the earth’s foundations (cf. Ps 104:5; Prov 8:29c; Isa 40:21; 51:13, 16), establishing its dimensions, and placing its cornerstone (cf. Ps 102:25).ⁱ He then posed two rhetorical questions, the first in 38:4. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” He asked, followed in 38:6-7 by, “[W]ho laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Yahweh’s aim was to nudge Job out of his subjective stance so that he might gain an appreciation of God’s transcendent power and authority. His question carried the same didactic sense as His query to Adam in Gen 3:9 (“Where are you?”). Like Isaiah’s questions to Israel and Messiah’s questions to Nicodemus, Yahweh’s questions to Job were designed to get him to reflect and think more deeply.

The Lord recalled two ecstatic responses as He described His work in primordial creation. First, He said that “the morning stars sang together” (Job 38:7). The phrasing pictures an angelic choir bursting forth in choral doxology at the overwhelming spectacle of His creative work. The scene was so exhilarating that “the sons of God shouted for joy.” Their response amounted to an involuntary reaction to the intense stimulation of minds and senses wrought by God’s creative genius. Though on a much grander scale, their reaction is similar to the way humans respond to a spectacular fireworks display.

In his Gospel, John clarifies that the member of the Trinity who performed and now sustains the work of creation was none other than the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:3; cf. Ps 102:25-27; Neh 9:6; Col 1:16; Heb 1:3b, 10). Because all who place faith in Him for eternal life are permanently adopted by God the Father as sons and daughters (cf. Luke 20:34-36; Rom 8:14, 16, 19; Gal 3:26; 1 John 3:1-2), they enjoy the right to witness and appreciate God the Son’s creative work in the future.

Scripture points to a coming creation event of even greater magnitude than what is recorded in Job 38. It will be greater and more wonderful because the looming shadow of sin and rebellion will be eliminated. After Christ’s thousand-year kingdom (Rev 20:2-3, 6) comes the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15), where the last vestiges of human and angelic resistance to His authority will be eradicated. Jesus Christ will destroy the present, sin-stained universe (2 Pet 3:12), so that He might present to His Father a pristine new creation (Rev 21:1-5). To accomplish that, He will speak into existence new heavens and a new earth (Isa 51:16b; 65:17; 66:22; Heb 12:26-29; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1).ⁱⁱ When He does so, all of Adam’s redeemed progeny will be on hand to witness the thrilling display.

So much of the popular culture’s depiction of the believer’s life in glory–especially the interminable harp strumming and halo polishing–grossly under-portrays the ecstatic reality that awaits. Human beings enjoy fireworks for a reason. God put something into the human soul that enables mankind to appreciate the spectacle of lights bursting out of darkness, appearing as though from nowhere and arcing across the expanse of the heavens. As ecstatically as people in fallen flesh may respond to a grand Fourth of July display, such enjoyment pales against the spectacle that awaits the regenerate in God’s exciting future.

When Yahweh spoke to Job from out of the whirlwind in Job 38, His indirect audience included the men with Job and the sons of God mentioned in chapters 1 and 2. Prominent in their midst was Satan, the disgraced rebel formerly known as “the anointed cherub who covers” (Ezek 28:14). With him were his horde of fallen rebels. Before the rebellion, he was called Lucifer. Ezekiel revealed one of his traits before he fell: “The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created” (28:13). Such wording hints at great musical prowess. When the morning stars sang for joy in response to original creation (Job 38:7), pre-rebellion Lucifer may well have been privileged to lead them.ⁱⁱⁱ Those times are forever past.

When the Son of God creates a new heaven and earth, the spectacle will be at least as exhilarating as the original event described in Job 38. This time, however, Satan and his minions, along with all who die apart from faith in Christ, will be denied access. But Adam’s redeemed progeny from every age and generation will be privileged to witness our Great High Priest and Savior in action, accompanied by myriads of elect angels. Just as in the beginning, all who see Jesus Christ’s work exploding across the expanse of the heavens will rejoice in song, erupting in shouts of pure joy that will be remembered and celebrated long into an endless future.

The One who made Adam and breathed life into his nostrils (Gen 2:7) instilled in him a capacity to appreciate and respond to the spectacle of His creative power. He did so for a reason, perhaps with just such a day of future creation in mind. Like the angelic beings who responded with overwhelming joy at the Master’s creation so long ago, Christ’s redeemed can look forward with great hope to that future event.

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Ken Pierce is a retired Navy intelligence officer with combat service in Panama, the former Yugoslavia, and Iraq. Ken studied Biblical Hebrew and Archaeology at the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies. Now retired, he leads a lively men’s Bible Study using Zane Hodges’ commentary on Romans, occasionally fills the pulpit for his and other pastors in NE Florida, and is contributing to a forthcoming GES commentary on the Tanakh (Old Testament). He and his wife Ana Maria recently celebrated thirty-eight years of marriage.

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ⁱ Note parallels to His work building the Church in 1 Cor 3:9-13; Heb 1:10; Eph 2:20-22; 1 Pet 2:4-6.

ⁱⁱ It is called “new heavens [plural] and earth” in Isa 65:17; 66:22; and 2 Pet 3:13. It is called “a new heaven [singular] and a new earth” in Rev 21:1.

ⁱⁱⁱ Scripture does not specify the timing of Lucifer’s fall, but it must have preceded the serpent’s infiltration to subvert Eve into sinning (Genesis 3). The time span between Adam and Eve’s creation and their fall also remains unknown. If Lucifer’s fall occurred after Adam’s creation (or just prior), and assuming Adam and Eve lasted perhaps a month before they fell, that would imply that the recruitment of a third of the angels into Lucifer’s rebellion would also have occurred within that month.