Job 12, Genesis, and Creation's Witnesses

So, what's so interesting when you look at Job 12? Job 12 points back straight back to Genesis 1, which is the days of creation, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do this on this Hebrew calendar date of Elul 25 tonight. So, let us review Job's witnesses and compare them with Genesis.

In Genesis 1:3-5, this is day number one. We remember it was the light and the darkness that Yahweh created. So He separated the light from the darkness. And creation begins communicating immediately through distinction: light, darkness, day, and night. And throughout the Holy Scriptures, these created realities become teaching imagery for spiritual truth.

In Genesis 1:6-8, day number two, He described the waters in the heavens, or He created the waters in the heavens. The firmament separated the waters. Now you have the realm in which Job's birds of the air would eventually move through.

In Genesis 1:9-13, excuse me, let me take down the banner really quick so I can read the rest of this. In Genesis 1:9-13, this is day number three. He created the earth and the vegetation. So the dry land appears on day number three. This connects remarkably directly with "speak to the earth, and it will teach you." So again, Job's reverting us back to the days of creation as well. So the dry ground emerges from the water. Then the earth produces fruit. The emergence to life to fruitfulness is the progression that we have. And that same earth later becomes a witness repeatedly throughout scripture, including Job 12.

In Genesis 1:14-19, day number four, He created the sun, moon, and stars. And the scripture explicitly gives them functions: signs, seasons, which are the moedim, which we all know, and which are days and years. So even the heavens function as an ordered testimony of Yah's appointed times. Amen.

Genesis 1:20-23, day number five, we have the fish and the birds. Now Job's language becomes almost unmistakably Genesis-like. Look at what he says: "the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea." Those are specifically day five creatures.

In Genesis 1:24-31, which is day number six, that's when Yahweh created the beasts and mankind. And what does Job say in Job 12? "Ask now the beasts." Then Job 12:10 finishes with "the breath of all mankind," which points back to day number six. Pretty amazing. So Job's language effectively moves across the created order: earth, sea, sky, fish, birds, beasts, and human beings. And they all are declaring, "The hand of Yah hath wrought this." Pretty amazing. This is a beautiful Genesis to Job connection. Then the scripture proves that Yah does use His creation.

So now we want to go through a couple of examples that will give you more revelation. And we all know these examples, but we really haven't thought of it in Job 12 or Genesis language. So, we want to tie this into the lesson tonight, which is Job 12 and also Genesis 1 as well. So, Yah's creation will tell us a story if we look at it the correct way. That does require a lot of things. So, before we get more into this, it does require a lot of things, and we'll go through it. Better yet, we'll go through it after we go through the examples. So, please excuse me.

So, we'll start with Noah with Genesis 8, which is the raven and the dove. I think most believers understand the story with Noah. So, the flood waters are receding. Noah cannot simply walk outside and determine what has happened. So, what does he do? First, he sends out the raven in Genesis 8:7. The raven goes to and fro until the waters dry. Then Noah sends the dove. The first time, the dove finds no resting place and then returns. The second time, the dove returns with an olive leaf. Noah recognizes the sign of what the Creator was telling him through the actions of the bird, which Yahweh influenced. In Genesis 8:11, it essentially says Noah understood from this that the waters had diminished, which proves the point that we're making tonight, that again, God uses His creation to tell Noah what was going down. Then He sends the dove again, and it does not return, which is a correlation to Job 12: "Ask the fowls of the air, and they will tell you." So, the birds didn't replace Yahweh; they were just used creation to communicate, excuse me, creation communicated information about why, what Yahweh was doing with His creation. So, Noah got a really firsthand look at what Job was describing in Job 12 because of the raven and the dove. He wouldn't have known any other way unless Yah provided Him with the provision of the animals, the creation, to tell him a story, to tell him that the land was dry and that he was about to exit the ark.

The second example, or major example, that we'd like to go through is Elijah. We're all familiar with the prophet Elijah and this story as well, but do we relate it back to Job 12? Do we relate it back to Genesis 1 as well? In First Kings 17:2-6, this is the prophet Elijah, and Yahweh commands the ravens. So, Yahweh tells Elijah to go to the brook. Then He says, then He told Elijah that He has commanded ravens to feed him. I mean, how awesome is that? The ravens bring Elijah bread and meat in the morning and the evening. This goes beyond just observing nature. You know, this is something pretty fascinating. I mean, I want to ask the question, I guess, to all of us: Has any bird brought us something to eat? Okay? So, it's pretty amazing what Elijah experienced with the raven when he needed nourishment and things like that, which is a very powerful understanding that the birds will provide that comfort, that nourishment, maybe not physical meat, but that comfort, that understanding, that prophetic knowledge, and so forth and so on. So, the raven brings Elijah the bread and the meat in the morning and the evening. This goes beyond, obviously, observing just nature. Yah sovereignly directs the raven, as He did with Noah, which brings you directly back to Job 12:10: "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing?" The raven is in Yah's hand, and when He desires, the raven becomes His delivery system for Noah and also for Elijah as well, two great men in the Holy Bible.

Numbers 22:21-35 will speak of Balaam, which we all know the story of Balaam and the children of Israel, etc., etc. But the donkey sees what the man cannot see. So, Balaam is riding his donkey in the story. The angel of Yah stands in the road, and Balaam does not see Him, but the donkey does. Three times the animal reacts to something the human being cannot perceive, which is kind of striking, isn't it? Eventually, Yahweh opens the donkey's mouth, and afterward, then Yahweh opens the eyes of Balaam. That's extraordinary, alongside Job: "Ask the beasts, and they will teach you," is what Job 12 says. So, in this case, the beast literally did. I mean, that's pretty amazing. Can we think about how that would be if you were riding on a donkey and the donkey started talking to you? I mean, could you imagine that? How that would work out? So, he experienced that. Balaam experienced that from the Most High as an understanding that we can tie in and correlate to Job 12 and also the days of creation as well. And the lesson wasn't that donkeys possess secret spiritual wisdom; Yahweh opened the animal's perception and eventually its mouth according to His sovereign purpose. Amen.

So, now let's go to the prophet Jonah. This is another amazing tie-in and correlation to it as well. We are all familiar with the Jonah story and the three nights, or three days and three nights, in the belly of the fish that relates to Messiah Yeshua. So, let's look at the prophet Jonah, and creation becomes an entire orchestration. In Genesis 1:4, Yahweh sends a great wind. In Genesis 1:17, Yahweh appoints, prepares a fish, a great fish. Jonah 4:6, He appoints a plant. In Jonah 4:7, He appoints a worm. In Jonah 4:8, Yahweh appoints a scorching east wind. So, let's think about that. That's pretty amazing what the prophet Jonah experienced as Yahweh was trying to teach him and get his attention on what He wanted Jonah to do by going into Nineveh to tell the people to repent. So, let's think about that. We have the wind, we have the sea, we have the fish, we have plant, worm, and the wind again. So, creation itself becomes part of the lesson Yah is teaching the prophet. That's Job 12 in narrative form. The creation isn't acting independently; the Creator is teaching through His creation. Amen.

Let's go to Exodus 7:11. We're all familiar with the 10 plagues of Egypt. Yahweh uses water, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, hail, locusts, and darkness. So, creation becomes a witness against Egypt's rebellion and a demonstration of Yah's sovereignty. And Exodus repeatedly explains why: "That Egypt may know that who is God? That Yah is God." So again, the creation communicates something about its Creator. Amen.

So, now let's turn to Exodus 14 and also Joshua 3:4. These again, these are just creation understandings. They might not tie directly back into Job, but I wanted to include them in the study tonight. So, Exodus 14 and Joshua 3:4, this is the Red Sea crossing and also the Jordan River crossing as well. And it just proves to you how Yahweh uses all of His creation to explain to us these things. So, at the Red Sea, the wind moves, the water divides, and the ground dry, the dry ground appears. That imagery deliberately echoes creation. The water separated, the dry ground revealed, and God's people pass into a new existence. Amen. Then Joshua 3:4, when they were crossing the Jordan River, waters stop, the dry ground appears, Israel crosses, the stones of the earth become memorial witnesses. And afterward, Yahweh commands them to explain the stones to their children. Pretty fascinating. That's a fascinating because not even stones from creation become witnesses. Excuse me, I'm sorry. That's fascinating because now even the stones from the earth, the creation, become witnesses to an act of Yah. What means these stones? What was asked? Creation becomes memorial not because stones inherently contain revelation, but because Yah attached testimony to them through what He did.