Job (Part II)

Seeing God, Job forgets all he wanted to say, all he thought he would say if he could but see Him. –GEORGE MACDONALD

Let us now proceed to the thirty-eighth chapter of Job. Ironically, it is from a small tornado (a "whirlwind") that God answers Job regarding his indiscriminate suffering. In a series of rhetorical questions, the Creator God reveals to Job a power, knowledge, sovereignty, and righteousness far beyond what he had ever fathomed. Not that Job had previously put limits on any of these divine attributes. We already noted yesterday that he had always assumed and never doubted them. The difference here becomes one of perspective, for Job is now allowed to gaze at these attributes from God’s vantage point:

Job, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! On what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone? Or who shut in the sea with doors and prescribed bounds for it?

Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this. Where is the dwelling place of light, and where is the place of darkness? When and where did they originate? Surely you know, Job, for weren’t you alive then?

Have you entered the storehouses of snow, or have you seen the storehouses of hail? Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt? Who has brought rain on a land where no man is to make the ground put forth grass? Who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost?

Did you put the stars in their place—Pleiades and Orion? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you send forth lightnings? Can you number the clouds?

Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions? Who provides for the raven its prey? Do you know when the mountain goats bring forth? Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe his neck with strength? Do you make him leap like the locust? Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?

Job, you have found fault with Me and argued with Me. Now answer Me!

Finally given the chance to present his case to God, Job finds himself at a loss for words before Him. He declares himself "of small account" and covers his mouth in a symbolic gesture, vowing to remain silent.7 Why? Because Job is now aware—more than ever before—of the Creator God’s immeasurable power, knowledge, sovereignty, and righteousness. And, in comparison, Job is equally aware of his own impotence, ignorance, dependency, and sin.

Job’s refusal to cross-examine God is followed by a divine redirect:

Job, gird up your loins like a man. I will question you. Will you put Me in the wrong and condemn Me? Have you an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like His?

Do you not think that I am in control of evil, despite appearances to the contrary?

Who then is he who can stand before Me? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

For a second time the voice from the whirlwind ceases, awaiting a reply. But, again, Job declines the opportunity to rebut his Creator, offering only the following assessment of God:

I know that You can do all things!

("God, You are omnipotent!")

I know that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted!

("God, You are sovereign!") 

I know that Your knowledge is greater than mine!

("God, You are omniscient!")

I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes!

("God, You are righteous!")

And to what can we attribute this transformation of Job from indignant to repentant sufferer? What has happened—no small event by any means—is that God has revealed Himself and related to Job as never before. As Job puts it: "I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see Thee."

This encounter is the big event for Job, the turning point of the whole story. As the whirlwind departs, none of his suffering has been taken away and the reasons for it have not been explained. Instead of the vindication he so desired, just the opposite—a self-imposed guilty plea—has come to pass. Nothing outward has changed, but God’s revelation to and relationship with Job is enough in and of itself to make all the difference within. As the editors of The New Oxford Annotated Bible explain:

God has not justified Job, but he has come to him personally... Job is not vindicated but he has obtained far more than a recognition of his innocence... The philosophical problem (of suffering) is not solved, but it is transfigured by the theological reality of the divine-human rapport.

So should it to be for us today, we who gaze around the universe and realize that God has revealed Himself and related to us. Maybe not in a thunderous speech from a whirlwind, but often through a quiet voice in the human heart. Maybe not, like Job, in the midst of indiscriminate suffering too much to bear, but perhaps in the ups and downs of our everyday lives. Whenever and wherever it comes, our response to His voice should be, like that of Job, silent reverence and intense awe. In truth, we all worship a Creator God much more powerful, knowledgeable, sovereign, and righteous than we have ever imagined.

Oh, that we, finite creations of the Infinite, would catch a glimpse of the God that Job experienced! That encounter changed his whole life perspective and did so in the midst of his suffering, not at its conclusion. So would our perspective change, no matter our lot, if our view of God were so raised.