God asks 'On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?' introducing a note of cosmic celebration in creation. This verse adds a remarkable dimension to the creation account: the physical creation was accompanied by cosmic celebration, with morning stars singing and divine beings shouting in joy. The image of cosmic celebration suggests that creation was good and was recognized as good even by those heavenly beings present. God's question positions Job as excluded from this cosmic celebration, suggesting that Job's suffering, which leads him to question creation, stands outside the context of joy in which creation itself was established. The morning stars and divine beings are witnesses to creation's goodness; Job, by contrast, experiences only suffering. Yet the question also raises something profound: if creation was accompanied by such celebration, how is the present cosmos compatible with that original joy? How did a creation received with such celebration become a cosmos in which innocent people suffer?

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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