Job 40:9-14

As Job questions the manner of the Almighty's rule of the world, God invites him to deck himself with the thunder and majesty of the supreme ruler, and himself undertake the government of the world; and in the execution of this government to bring low all that is proud (comp. Isaiah 2:12 seq.), to subdue and keep down the forces of evil, and hide the faces of the wicked in darkness.

Under this ironical invitation to Job there lie two general thoughts, first, that omnipotence is necessary in the ruler of all; and second, that rule of the world consists in keeping in check the forces of evil. This is the idea under which rule of the world is conceived; in other words it is regarded as necessarily moral; and it is assumed that God's rule is in fact a rule of this kind. In his present frame of mind Job probably would not now contest this. But if God's rule be moral on the whole, it must be so in every particular; real exceptions are inconceivable, however like exceptions many things may appear.