SERIES: The Book of Job
Finally, A Word from God
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction to Scripture reading: Please turn in your Bibles to Job, chapter 38. Our Scripture text today is rather lengthy, but I want to appeal to you to listen carefully. The reading of God’s Word is not a ritual we endure, nor a transition between hymns, nor a time to read the bulletin inserts. It is a time for God Himself to speak to us, unencumbered even by the sometimes faulty comments of the hymnwriter or the preacher.
I thought of reading these two great chapters paragraph by paragraph in the course of our exposition this morning, but then I decided that some of the impact would be lost. It is the cumulative effect of God’s words in these chapters that communicate the profound message that “Who” is more important than “Why.” As you listen, please keep in mind that for weeks Job has been demanding an opportunity to speak with God, and for weeks His friends have been telling Him how foolish he is to make such a demand. In fact, in the 23rd verse of chapter 37 Elihu has just said, “The Almighty is beyond our reach,” and then just two verses later we read at the beginning of chapter 38, “Then the Lord spoke….”
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their season
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom
or gives the rooster understanding?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
41 Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
2 Do you count the months till they bear?
Do you know the time they give birth?
3 They crouch down and bring forth their young;
their labor pains are ended.
4 Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds;
they leave and do not return.
5 “Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who untied its ropes?
6 I gave it the wasteland as its home,
the salt flats as its habitat.
7 It laughs at the commotion in the town;
it does not hear a driver’s shout.
8 It ranges the hills for its pasture
and searches for any green thing.
9 “Will the wild ox consent to serve you?
Will it stay by your manger at night?
10 Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness?
Will it till the valleys behind you?
11 Will you rely on it for its great strength?
Will you leave your heavy work to it?
12 Can you trust it to haul in your grain
and bring it to your threshing floor?
13 “The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
though they cannot compare
with the wings and feathers of the stork.
14 She lays her eggs on the ground
and lets them warm in the sand,
15 unmindful that a foot may crush them,
that some wild animal may trample them.
16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers;
she cares not that her labor was in vain,
17 for God did not endow her with wisdom
or give her a share of good sense.
18 Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,
she laughs at horse and rider.
19 “Do you give the horse its strength
or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Do you make it leap like a locust,
striking terror with its proud snorting?
21 It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength,
and charges into the fray.
22 It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
it does not shy away from the sword.
23 The quiver rattles against its side,
along with the flashing spear and lance.
24 In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground;
it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
25 At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’
It catches the scent of battle from afar,
the shout of commanders and the battle cry.
26 “Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command
and build its nest on high?
28 It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night;
a rocky crag is its stronghold.
29 From there it looks for food;
its eyes detect it from afar.
30 Its young ones feast on blood,
and where the slain are, there it is.”
Introduction to sermon: For the past three months we have been studying together the Book of Job. For much of that time we have been analyzing and examining the 34 chapters which constitute the debate between Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu, and Job himself. What has been your reaction? Chances are it has been varied. I suspect there has been some …
appreciation for their theological brilliance,
repugnance at their self‑righteousness,
enjoyment of their occasional humor, and, more than likely,
boredom at their frequent repetition.
But let me ask you something: how do you think God reacts when He hears us debate with one another about such complex theological issues as eternal security, infant baptism, predestination, the time of the Rapture, or the gift of tongues? We assume that we have final and absolute truth on our side, and we argue as though our very lives depended upon the outcome. But what does God think of our efforts? Does He laugh? Or shake His head? Or turn away in disgust? Or cry?
God was a spectator all the while these five men debated the great issues of the nature of man, the character of God, and the problem of suffering. Silently He has listened to their lengthy speeches and watched as an immense pile of verbiage was collected. Finally, it is as though He can take it no longer, and He speaks out of the storm. It is refreshing to hear a word from the Lord, but there is something strange about it as well. It’s not what we would expect.
What God doesn’t say that we would expect Him to say.
Four things come to my mind as appropriate responses from God, but He chooses none of these.
He doesn’t indict Job or acquit him. Several times during his speeches Job has requested from God either a bill of indictment with specific charges which he could answer, or else a verdict which would vindicate him. Neither is forthcoming. God ignores entirely the question of Job’s guilt or innocence.
He doesn’t explain the cause of Job’s suffering. Those who have been with us on our journey through the book of Job are aware that Job’s terrible suffering is due to no sin of his own but rather to Satan’s slander. To prove to Satan that some people pursue God for reasons other than material reward, God removed from Job all possible material incentives. Even now, however, with the point already proven, God still tells Job nothing about the cause of his suffering. Perhaps the reason for withholding the full story is to keep Job walking by faith, not by sight; but whatever the reason, Job is left completely in the dark.
He doesn’t address the problem of evil. At the beginning of our study, we stated the problem of evil as philosophers have formulated it: They say that any two, but not all three, of the following propositions can be true:
1. God is good.
2. God is all‑powerful.
3. There is evil.
The Book of Job has made many claims to the effect that God is a good God and an all‑powerful God, yet He allows pain and suffering. But when He now has a perfect opportunity to explain how His goodness and omnipotence are not necessarily incompatible with allowing pain, He ignores the subject, leaving it to the theologians and philosophers.
He doesn’t even hint that Job’s affliction is about to end. If you’ve been reading ahead, you are aware that the terrible physical, emotional, financial, and family tragedies to which Job has been subjected are about to end. Renewed prosperity is just around the corner in chapter 42. Wouldn’t it make a lot of sense for God to open His speech to Job by saying, “Congratulations, Job, you’ve been faithful and your troubles are about over!” But He doesn’t. First, Job’s perspective must be straightened out, and God apparently believes he is more teachable while suffering adversity than he will be when enjoying prosperity once again.
So, everything we might have expected God to say He leaves unsaid. But that’s not our only surprise.
What God does say that we would not expect Him to say.
He challenges Job to “put up his dukes.” (38:1-3) That’s a paraphrase of verse 3, but it’s not far off. The first verse tells us that the Lord answers Job out of the storm. The storm was what had taken Job’s family. The Lord was in that storm, as He is in every storm. And He challenges Job by asking, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” The word “counsel”most likely refers to the omniscient plan God Almighty has for this universe. Job, and his four friends as well, had obscured and misrepresented this plan in their debate. So, God confronts Job and demands, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”
Not a lot of options are left to poor Job. He isn’t asked whether he’d like to talk now or later. He isn’t offered a negotiated settlement. God just says, “Put ’em up. We’re going to have it out.” That’s the first unexpected development in God’s speech. The second is that God gives Job a science quiz of about 70 questions, and this quiz consumes the remainder of chapter 38 and all of chapter 39.
If you had to take an exam on physical science today, you would probably prefer a true‑false test, wouldn’t you? There’s at least a 50‑50 chance of getting any question right. If you couldn’t have that, perhaps you would opt for a multiple‑choice test. Usually there are one or two choices you can eliminate, and that makes your guesswork more potentially productive. Even essay questions allow for a snow job. But when God quizzes Job there are no true‑false questions, no multiple choice, and no essays. In fact, the questions are all designed to show, not how much Job knows, but rather how ignorant he is compared to God and how little control he has over the universe compared to God.
But there seems to be another purpose. In these two chapters we are given rapid verbal sketches of at least a score of creatures. Both inanimate and living things pass in review, expanding our amazement at the range and complexity of the works of God. All the natural phenomena and all the animals he describes are beyond the control of mankind, yet all are among God’s pets. This discourse is designed to arouse in Job, and in us, a sense of awe at the beauty and order of the world, and ultimately in the Creator Himself.
He quizzes Job first about the physical universe.
1. The creation of the earth (4‑7). The work of creating the world is described in verses 4‑7 by analogy to the erection of a building, with foundation stones and supporting pillars set in sockets, and with the use of a measuring line. Job is asked, in a series of swift questions dripping with irony and sarcasm, what he had to with Creation. If he’s so wise as to criticize the Almighty, then he must have had some input or insight into such an important event! But no, as a matter of fact, the only creatures present, according to verses 6 & 7 were the stars and the angels who sang together and shouted for joy.
2. The creation of the primeval oceans (8‑11). The origin of the sea is described by vivid use of the metaphor of child‑birth. When the oceans burst forth from their subterranean chambers it is likened to a child emerging from the womb. As a child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, so the sea was wrapped in clouds. Then in verse 10 the imagery changes, and God speaks of the double door and the safety bar which were typical defense works of an ancient city. He compares them to the boundaries He has set for the oceans: “This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves must stop!” Obviously, we are unable to set such boundaries, even with huge flood walls and dikes and levees. But God merely speaks, and the wind and waves obey.
3. The miracle of light (12‑15). God continues, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?” The night here is depicted as a blanket covering the earth, which the dawn takes hold of by the fingertips of its rays and shakes out. The wicked, whose works are carried on under the cover of darkness, are shaken out of the blanket. The point is that the daily appearance of the dawn is another thing over which Job exercises no control, but it is carefully regulated by God.
There is an imaginative story about a morning when the sun didn’t rise. Six o’clock came and no sign of dawn. At 7 there was still no ray of light. At noon it was black as midnight and no bird sang. Then came the black hours of the black afternoon. No one slept that night. Some wept, some wrung their hands in anguish. In every church people were on their knees praying and they remained there through the night. Then they all turned anxious, tear‑stained faces toward the east. When the sky began to grow red and the sun rose once more, there was rejoicing in the streets. Why? Because after just one day of darkness the sun rose as it has every other day. The single break in the constancy of nature had made everyone sensitive again to what they had taken ungratefully for granted. As Lamentations 2:22,23 say, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”
4. The expansiveness of the universe (16‑21). Here Job is challenged to show his knowledge of the range and extent of things not visible to the human eye. Among the invisible things mentioned are the subterranean springs which feed the oceans, the gates of death, the expanse of the earth, and the home of light and darkness. Job is asked if he can guide the light and darkness as they find their way home. “Surely you know (v. 21), for you were already born. You have lived so many years.” The sarcasm is dripping, but it is deserved, for Job has presumed to criticize the Almighty God.
5. The elements of the weather (22‑30). Here God reiterates many of the points Elihu made in his speech, which we considered last Sunday. Allow me to point out just a few unique things. God claims to keep the snow and hail in storehouses. The Hebrew word translated “storehouse” is the term for a bank vault. Imagine! The Lord thinks about snow and hail the way we think of gold! In addition, these elements of weather are part of God’s military arsenal. When the Germans invaded Russia, the Russians developed a saying that winter was their chief general. More than once in the OT God used hail as His chief general. In Josh 10:11 we read that “the Lord cast down great stones from Heaven upon the five kings of Canaan and they died; they are more which died from hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.”
Note, too, that God sends rain (verse 26) “to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?” Why does God bother if no one is there to enjoy it? Because He enjoys it. Friends, these chapters should say something to us about ecology and environmentalism. Sure, there are some loonies out there who care more for turtle eggs than for unborn human beings, but a believer should be concerned about both. I think we should be as concerned as anyone about saving the rainforest and the rhinoceros and the whale and the wetlands. These are elements that God poured His creative power into, and mankind was assigned responsibility for their preservation. When God told Adam to subdue the earth, He did not mean for him to abuse it but to use it for godly purposes.
6. The constellations and the clouds (31‑38). The great constellations, far more familiar to people 4,000 years ago than many of us realize, have all their movements ordered by God, something no human could think of doing. God asks in 38:31-33,
“Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with her cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?”
Nor does anyone even understand the movements of the clouds, for no one can do what God does, namely raise His voice to the clouds and order them to provide Him an instant bath (34), or command the lightning to report in, “Here we are!” Verse 37 contains the quaint picture of God making rain by tilting water bottles in the sky. Modern scholars betray a dull imagination if they think anyone in antiquity took such language literally.
This concludes the first part of God’s science quiz—dealing with the physical universe. It is a fascinating review of God’s creative power and awesome control over the world as we know it. But without even a pause God immediately begins to test Job’s knowledge about the animals.
He quizzes Job about the animal kingdom. Chapter 39 should obviously begin with v. 39 of chapter 38, for it is there that God turns from the inanimate objects of the physical universe to the living creatures of the animal kingdom. Back in Genesis 1 Adam was placed in charge of the animal world; he named all the animals and was granted authority and dominion over them. However, the Fall infected everything, and mankind lost that peaceful coexistence and thorough enjoyment of God’s other creatures. He soon found himself in a struggle with the animals for survival. So, in this chapter God reminds Job of ten kinds of animals which are in some way outside man’s control in one way or another.
1. Two animals whose foraging for food is totally independent of humans (38:39‑41). The lion is the king of beasts and more capable of securing its own food than any man could be in its behalf. God has given it the strength and cunning to stalk its prey; in fact, God is the one who causes its prey to come into its territory. The raven is about as far from the lion as you could get, but it is mentioned in the next breath because its food, too, is provided by God. Does Job presume to tell a raven where to find food? On the contrary, ravens are more easily used by God to feed people (e.g., Elijah was fed by a raven) than are people to feed ravens.
2. Two animals whose birthing is unseen and whose young mature quickly (39:1‑4). Here Job is invited to reflect upon the mystery of instinct by which the mountain goat and the doe give birth, while the kid and fawn quickly learn self‑preservation. They don’t need doctors or midwives; they never give birth when humans are watching.
Furthermore, the rapid maturity and independence from parental care of the young mountain goat and deer stand in stark contrast to the human species. It is almost unheard of for a child to walk in less than nine months, or fend for itself before it reaches teen years. Yet these wild animals are running within hours of birth and leave their mothers and do not return (v.4) in a matter of weeks, or at most a few months. It is because the Lord God made them that way.
3. Two animals which cannot be domesticated (5‑12) and whose strength cannot be harnessed to the service of man. Isn’t the description of the wild donkey curious, particularly verse 7? “He laughs at the commotion in the town.” I think this means that the freedom of the open country is more exciting to him than all the hubbub of the city. Frankly, the wild donkey may be smarter than we are.
Scholars tend to believe the wild ox mentioned beginning in verse 9 is probably the species known as “aurochs,” which became extinct just 350 years ago. This enormous animal was the most powerful of all hoofed beasts, exceeded in size by only the hippopotamus and the elephant. It is the standard symbol of strength in the OT, where it is mentioned some nine times. But, according to verse 12, it cannot be trusted to bring in the harvest. What is Job to make of such a creature? Is there a hint that its Creator might be even more fearsome and unmanageable?
From the sublime God takes Job to the ridiculous, as he continues his zoology course.
4. An animal not endowed with good sense (13‑18). The sketch of the ostrich is hilarious. It is what it is, a silly bird—silly looking and silly acting—because God made it that way. Why? This comical account suggests that amid the profusion of creatures some were made to be useful, while others were made just for entertainment—to make our world interesting. The point of verse 17 seems to be that if God is pleased to create a bird that doesn’t have all its oars in the water, so what? Perhaps Job is being reminded that some of his behavior may be equally lacking in understanding.
5. An animal endowed with incredible courage (19‑25). The portrait of the war horse is generated by the last comment on the ostrich, who is said to laugh at horse and rider, a reference to the ostrich’s renowned ability to run at speeds up to 25 mph. The warhorse may not be the fastest animal alive, but it is a superlative animal in strength and vitality. Scholars have suggested that the poetry in verses 19‑25 may be the finest in existence anywhere in Hebrew literature. But the content is also powerful, for two questions are applicable to Job: Can you make such an animal? And can you control him? If you cannot, why are you struggling under the reins of Almighty God?
6. Two animals whose flight is unparalleled (26‑30). The hawk and the eagle were common in the ancient Near East. Eighteen species of hawks exist in Palestine, plus eight species of eagle. In Job’s day, of course, no man had flown, and to this day no human flight can compare with the flight of birds in gracefulness and maneuverability. This ability is God’s gift and is outside Job’s wildest imagination.
So far this morning we have seen some things God doesn’t say that we would have expected Him to say and some things He does say we wouldn’t have expected. We turn finally to the question of …
What God means by what He says.
What was the point of this detailed review of the physical universe and the animal kingdom? Is the Lord trying to humiliate Job into silence? Is He trying to beat him into submission? Some insight can be gained from the general tenor of the speech, as well as from Job’s response.
He doesn’t intend for Job to know “why.” Absolutely no insight whatever is given to Job on the cause of his suffering, and for the only species of God’s creation that asks “why” that is a hard pill to swallow. You know, we constantly ask “why;” we are compulsive in our desire to learn the rationale behind things. But God is silent on the “why.” However, …
He does intend for Job to know “who.” The conclusion to this first speech of God’s is really found in the first five verses of chapter 40: “The Lord said to Job: ‘Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!’ Then Job answered the Lord: ‘I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more.” What God’s speech does is to describe for Job who he is dealing with. Job isn’t complaining about some incompetent judge or some petty king or some greasy‑palmed politician! He’s complaining about the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord of the Universe, the Designer of the Weird as well as the Wonderful!
Either Job must show his competence to criticize God by answering the questions put to him or he must forfeit his right to criticize. One or the other! Listen to how Frederick Buechner sums up God’s speech:
“God doesn’t explain. He explodes. He asks Job who he thinks he is anyway. He says that to try to explain the kinds of things Job wants explained would be like trying to explain Einstein to a little-neck clam…. God doesn’t reveal His grand design. He reveals Himself.”[i]
To put it in other words, “Job, until you know a little more about running the physical universe, don’t tell me how to run the moral universe!”
But God not only wants Job to understand who He, God, is; He also wants him to know who he, Job, is. You see, a proper knowledge of God and a proper knowledge of oneself always need to go together. Once we catch a glimpse of God’s majesty and sovereignty and glory, we will no longer see ourselves as brilliant or powerful or independent; rather we will humble ourselves before Him.
But please note that God’s speech is intended to humble Job, but not to humiliate him. Humbling ourselves before God helps us understand our true nobility as the highest of God’s creatures—the only ones whom God seeks fellowship with for all of eternity, the only ones enrolled by God Himself in His School of Wisdom, whose school room is the world! Just as Jesus invited us to “consider the lilies of the field,” so God invites Job to walk around His garden and learn that “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, and all things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.”
Conclusion: In conclusion there is one fundamental, indispensable truth we must learn from today’s Scripture passage, and that is that while God won’t necessarily solve all our intellectual problems, He is always willing to solve our spiritual problems. And the fundamental spiritual problem of mankind is thinking he is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. That is, of course, the ultimate reason why so many reject the free gift of salvation—it is because they believe themselves to be good enough to make it to heaven on their own, having lost sight of the infinite holiness of God. But our God is not only a great Creator; He is also a consuming fire who is compelled by His very nature to judge sin.
The Bible says all of us have sinned and the wages of sin is death, but it also tells us that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We have been offered forgiveness of our sins and the privilege of a personal relationship with God if we will receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.
For those of us who have experienced that forgiveness, the message today is that we must not major on the “why” but on the “who,” and we must not put our faith in explanations but in God Himself. In the end Job does not say, “I finally see it all.” He never sees it all. But he does see God.
DATE: September 12, 1993
Tags:
Physical universe
Creation
Constellations
Animal kingdom
[i] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, 46.