Fitting with the Order of Creation

If creation is orderly, then the last part of the Book of Job in the Bible starts to make sense. Job's life is in chaos. Everything he has ever loved is gone, his health is gone, and his "friends" have come to tell him that all the nasty stuff is happening because Job has offended God, which is not the case.

Then in chapter 38-41, God responds to all this chaotic stuff. Here are some snippets:

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4-6)

"Are you the one who makes the hawk soar and spread its wings to the south? Is it at your command that the eagle rises to the heights to make its nest? It lives on the cliffs, making its home on a distant, rocky crag. From there it hunts its prey, keeping watch with piercing eyes." (Job 39:26-29)

God is detailing from the creation the way in which all he has made is ordered at his command so that it is and does exactly what he wants. His purpose is obvious: The God who, by wisdom, formed an ordered world has also ordered human experience. No matter how chaotic life might appear, true wisdom understands that God is in full control. J.A. Loader wrote: "The existence of the world means, not chaos, but order. And if humans wish to exist in this order, they should integrate into the creational order. This is what wisdom is all about." (J.A. Loader, "Image and Order: Old Testament Perspectives on the Ecological Crisis." In Are We Killing God's Earth? ed. W.S. Vorster. Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1987. p.22.)