What is the meaning of Job 11:9? Their measure Job 11:9 opens with, “Their measure…,” pointing back to the “deep things of God” and the “limits of the Almighty” mentioned in verses 7–8. Zophar insists that God’s wisdom, power, and purposes are so vast they defy every human attempt at calculation. • Psalm 147:5 says, “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.” • Isaiah 40:28 echoes, “His understanding is infinite.” • Romans 11:33 marvels, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!” Together these passages reinforce the literal claim that whatever standard we use to “measure” creation, God’s ways exceed it. is longer than the earth The first comparison highlights length. Even if we could walk every mile of the planet, God’s workings stretch farther. • Jeremiah 23:24 reminds us that the Lord “fills the heavens and the earth,” so no one can hide from Him. • Psalm 93:1–2 affirms that His throne is established from of old, reaching back before the earth existed. • Micah 5:2 speaks of Messiah’s “origins…from the days of eternity,” showing that God’s redemptive plan predates and outdistances Earth’s timeline. The statement is not poetic exaggeration but a literal assertion that God’s reach spans beyond the physical dimensions we know. and wider than the sea The sea, to an ancient audience, represented the greatest expanse imaginable—mysterious, deep, and uncharted. God’s wisdom surpasses even that breadth. • Psalm 104:25 notes, “There is the sea, vast and expansive,” yet God formed it with a word (Genesis 1:9–10). • Proverbs 8:27–29 pictures wisdom present when He “set a boundary for the sea.” • Ephesians 3:18–19 prays that believers may “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” The sea’s width is the best yardstick we have; God’s wisdom and love are wider still. summary Job 11:9 teaches that the scope of God’s wisdom and purposes cannot be confined by the dimensions of creation. “Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea” is a literal declaration that God surpasses all spatial limits, assuring us that His sovereign plans, His justice, and His love remain inexhaustible and all-encompassing—immeasurably beyond anything we can chart or imagine. |
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