God’s Answers to Our Questions
Job 38-42
Rev. Brian Bill
3/9/08
I don’t travel much but I did have the opportunity this week to fly to Tulsa to be with my friend Ray Pritchard while he spoke at a pastor’s conference. Flying is not my favorite mode of transportation but I didn’t have much choice. I started getting a bit nervous on Sunday night when I saw that there were a lot of tornadoes in Oklahoma and bad weather slicing through my flight path. I got up early on Monday and drove to Midway in the rain. I arrived in plenty of time and sat in those hard chairs at the gate waiting for our flight number to be called. I got a bit more nervous when I heard a crew member say, “We better load up soon if we want to beat the storm.” I had a frightening flashback of being up in a plane with Scott Peterson several years ago while he practiced his “storm chaser” routine.
When we were all seated on the plane we were told to fasten our seat belts and then one of the flight attendants stood up and went through a safety demonstration. As she explained these very important instructions I looked around and saw that no one was paying attention and she seemed used to that – as a preacher I can relate to those feelings. Businessmen were reading their papers, young families were attending to their kids, and many had their eyes closed. I didn’t do much better but I did try to listen to a few things.
About half-way through our flight I wish I had paid a little more attention because the plane hit some incredible turbulence. I started searching for that laminated card that showed where the exits are and how to get the seat cushion to serve as a flotation device – I don’t think we were over any water but I wanted to be prepared just in case. Do you know what was happening? The stormy weather got me to pay attention to what really matters. Likewise, storms in our life can wake us up.
As we mentioned last week, Job lost everything and then his friends locked and loaded on him, tormenting him with questions and accusations, trying to get him to confess what it was that he had done wrong. Job has some of his own questions for God and asks them throughout the book. His candid questions are filled with angst and even anger. Here are just a few…
6:11 – “What strength do I have, that I should still have hope?”
7:20 – “Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?”
10:18 – “Why then, did you bring me out of the womb?”
It’s normal and natural to ask questions when we go through hard times: Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong to deserve this? Is God mad at me? I thought He was supposed to be loving and kind—what’s the deal with that? Why God, why?
John Calvin preached 159 sermons on Job but we’re trying to tackle the book in only two messages. I’m going to borrow Ray Stedman’s outline to help us understand these final chapters of the Book of Job. In chapters 38-39, we come face-to-face with The God of Nature and in chapters 40-41, we encounter The Nature of God. After both appearances by the Almighty, Job gives two brief responses.
The God of Nature
Some of you have experienced some terrible turbulence in your life. Maybe you’re suffering through a storm right now. As we come to the conclusion of the Book of Job, the man named Job is told to fasten his seat belt because he’s about to enter another whirlwind. Please turn to Job 38:1: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.” Let’s stop right there. You would think that at this point God would appear like a gentle shepherd, comforting Job by telling him that everything is going to get better. Or, that he would begin to answer his specific questions. He does neither. Instead, He speaks out of a tsunami-like storm, which probably brings back memories of the tempest that had taken the lives of his 10 children in 1:19.
At long last Job gets an audience with the Almighty but it doesn’t go as he wanted it to. You would think that Job had gone through enough storms, why did he need another one? Because Job needed to get to know God and have his perspective restored. When the Almighty appeared to Moses, Sinai was covered with smoke and the whole mountain trembled (Exodus 19:18). When God spoke to Ezekiel, He came to him in a “windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light.” (Ezekiel 1:4). This is not a God to play around with – and this is not just an Old Testament truth. After Jesus performed a miracle in Luke 5:8 Peter was petrified, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Hebrews 12:29 says that “our God is a consuming fire.”
Look at verses 2-3: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Job’s jabs at Jehovah were just making things worse as he spoke about things he had no knowledge of. There’s a lot of that in our culture today, isn’t there? God then challenges Job to a wrestling match. The phrase, “brace yourself like a man” or “gird up now thy loins like a man” in the KJV, is an image taken directly from the ancient sport of belt-wrestling. In this sport, the contestants would grab each other’s belt in an attempt to throw the other down, with the ultimate goal being the removal of the opponent’s belt. Job is invited on to the mat with the Almighty. In addition, this phrase was also used when an individual was subdued or found guilty in a courtroom. Jehovah the judge is about to render His sentence on Job.
Let me be quick to point out that God is not out to crush Job, but to make him contrite. He’s not interested in humiliating Job but He does want to humble him. Suffering is meant to teach us that we are not self-sufficient so that we’ll lean on the Lord’s all-sufficiency. In rapid-fire succession, God asks questions of Job instead of Job questioning the Creator. It’s interesting that God never gives Job an answer to the mystery of suffering but He does remind Job that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. And that alone is answer enough.
God is asking Job questions that he can’t answer not to be mean but to show Job His extravagant goodness. God then takes Job through a crash course in Theology 101. I wish we had time to read all of chapters 38-39 but we don’t. I’ll just read some of the verses. Let’s look at verses 4-12: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place…?”
In verses 31-33, the Almighty has Job gaze at the heavens: “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 its cubs?” Astronomers believe that there are 100 billion stars just in our Galaxy and there are probably millions of galaxies, with some estimating that there could be as many as 130 billion. If Job can’t move the stars around, then maybe he can make it rain: “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and the cover yourself with a flood of water? Can you send the lightning bolts on their way?” (38:34-35). Even Tom Skilling can’t do that.
In chapter 39 God turns to the animal kingdom: “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?” God delights in the animals He made from the awkward ostrich that lays eggs and then can’t remember where they are to the mighty horses that eat up the ground as they run into battle. He wonders if Job can direct the flight path of hawks and eagles.
I count 60 different questions that God asked in these chapters. After each question, if you listen carefully you can almost hear Job whisper, “I’ll pass on that one.” If Job can’t answer one of sixty, there’s no way he can answer the 60 million other extravagant intricacies involved with sustaining the universe.
Job’s First Response
Jehovah and Job don’t shake hands here and just go their separate ways. God wants Job to know that He is sovereign and wise. Look 40:2: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” God pauses here to allow Job to respond. This reminds me of the words from Romans 9:20: “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”
I’ve mentioned this before but I was on the wrestling team in high school. I wasn’t that good. In fact, during our homecoming match in my senior year I was captain of the team and got pinned in 7 seconds! I picture Job flat on his back in less than a nanosecond. As he looks up he has nothing to say. Look at 40:4-5: “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.”
Have you ever been completely at a loss for words? Along with the entire state of Wisconsin, I was silenced when Brett Favre announced that he was retiring from the Packers. I was speechless but that’s nothing like how Job felt when he was silenced in the presence of God’s power. You see, Job is learning quickly that God is greater than he can grasp.
The Nature of God
Not surprisingly, Round One goes to God. Unfortunately for Job, the bell for Round Two goes off in 40:7-8: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” This is a repeat of what God said in 38:3. Job has asked enough questions; now God will do the questioning as he puts Job on the witness stand. While Job is silenced, he is not yet convinced so God grabs his belt again and puts him on his back.
God then gets to the heart of Job’s heart. This had to hurt: “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?” While Job’s initial reaction to loss was submissive worship, as his misery increased his confidence wavered and he began to insist on his own righteousness at the expense of God’s justice. Friend, be careful about condemning God to make yourself look better. Job thought he deserved an answer; that it was somehow his right. What he had done was set himself up as judge over Jehovah.
God then asks Job to consider two great creatures, the Behemoth and the Leviathan. The Behemoth is likely the hippopotamus and many commentators believe the Leviathan is a super-sized crocodile. I hope you’ll read these very descriptive chapters for yourself. Referring to the Behemoth, God asks Job this question in 40:24: “Can anyone capture him by the eyes or trap him and pierce his nose?” Turning to the Leviathan God asks in 41:1: “Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?” If no one can control what God has created, how can man control the Creator?
Job’s Second Response
Job’s response to the Almighty’s second discourse is to say: “I’m powerless compared to the power of God.” Look at 42:2-3: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted…Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” Job hinted at this back in 23:13: “But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases.” Ray Stedman writes: “There is nothing more difficult for us than to see where we have been wrong when we were sure we were dead right.”
Job’s trust wavered. He mourned. He cried. He protested. He questioned. He even cursed the day he was born. Job begged God to answer his questions. He desperately wanted to know why all these bad things had happened to him. God answered him, but the answer was not what Job expected.
Job doesn’t get all his questions answered but He does get to know the Almighty. He had only heard of Him before, but now he sees Him in all His glorious splendor and goodness.
Job finally breaks down and in what is really the hinge of the entire book, says in 42:5-6: “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes.” Did you catch that? He repented, which means to change your mind and turn and go in a different direction. He needed to turn from what he had been thinking and start trusting God again. God not only has great might, He is always right. This means that we are wrong. Friends, when we really see God, we can’t help but be changed. That’s exactly what Pastor Ron Ayers taught us from Isaiah 6 – when we see God in his holiness we can’t stay the same. Job repented of thinking that he had the right to judge Jehovah.
Ultimately the only answer God gave to Job was Himself. It was if God said to him, “Job, I am your answer. Learn who I am. When you know me, you’ll know how to handle anything.” Job wasn’t asked to trust a plan but a person -- a personal God who is in ultimate control and knows what is best for us. This has been called the first rule of the Christian life: He is God, and we are not.
The main point of the book of Job is that life is unfair, that bad things do happen. The question really is not, “Where is God when it hurts?” Instead, the question is, “Where is Job when it hurts?” The most important battles take place inside of us. Let me personalize it a bit more. Where are you when it hurts? Where am I? The real question is not Job’s suffering but his faith.
I enjoyed being with a bunch of pastors this week but quickly realized that I wasn’t in the Midwest. I ate a lot of fried catfish, barbecue and biscuits and gravy. I’ve never been called “Brother Brian” so much in my life. One of my tasks at the conference was to talk with pastors and see if I could help encourage them in any way. After introducing myself I started asking each one this question: “What’s your biggest challenge?” The first couple guys told me that it was their deacons. One pastor mentioned that their church has very little money. Another one lamented that so many people in his town are struggling financially that he doesn’t know how to help them. Another pastor mentioned music wars. I could see that some were lonely and others were beat up. I then asked an older pastor what his biggest challenge was. I was expecting him to say something similar but instead he paused for a bit and said, “My biggest challenge is me.”
As I thought about that, I realized that that’s my biggest challenge as well. And it’s also yours. My problem is not you and my problem is not God; my problem is me. But the good news is that my problem can be handled by God.
God’s answer to Job is instructive because He basically challenged Job in the only thing he could control: his response. God moved the tragedy to the future -- now what will you do, Job? Blaming God got him nowhere; he needed to decide how he was going to respond. What was he going to do now? Was he going to shake his fist at God? Was he going to get better, or get bitter? His response was his responsibility. Likewise, we can’t change our circumstances, but we can change how we respond to them.
Video Clip: “The Reality of Suffering”
Life Lessons from Job
I want us to close with some lessons we can draw from Job.
1. The time to prepare for suffering is before suffering comes. Determine now how you’re going to respond because it’s easy to lose all perspective when problems show up.
2. We need a new view of God and a new view of ourselves. God is in control even when He appears not to be. God is greater than we can grasp and we are smaller than we surmise. Throughout this book God is enlarging His own greatness in Job’s eyes and simultaneously shrinking Job’s estimation of himself. Viewed against the backdrop of God’s glorious cosmos, our sufferings don’t disappear but they do grow small and more bearable.
3. God’s good will for each of us includes suffering. 1 Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” And suffering is used to refine us as we see in Job 23:10: “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” I like how John Piper puts it: “The sediment of pride is strained out of Job’s life through the sieve of suffering.”
4. We can and must, praise and worship God even when we are in pain. Job did this in 1:20: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Evangelist George Mueller, who cared for over 10,000 orphans in his life, preached at the memorial service for his wife Mary who had died of rheumatic fever. This is what he said: “I miss her in numberless ways, and shall miss her yet more and more. But as a child of God, and as a servant of the Lord Jesus, I bow. I am satisfied with the will of my Heavenly Father. I seek by perfect submission to His holy will to glorify Him and I kiss continually the hand that has thus afflicted me.”
5. God is not obligated to answer our accusations but we are obligated to answer Him. We can trust Him even when we have no explanation for what is happening to us.
6. Our response needs to be one of repentance. We might want to say something like this: “God, I’m wrong in what I’ve said. You’re God and I’m not.” God has the right to do whatever He wants with His creation. Acts 17:30 says that one of God’s goals is to get everyone of us to repent: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” I need to level with you that it’s a sin to seek to justify yourself rather than God. Instead of defending ourselves that we’re right we’re to defend the rights of God. He’s the God of nature and the nature of God is that He is powerfully present and sovereign over the world He has created.
7. God’s silence is not the same as His absence. When God feels far away it usually has more to do with us, or the problems we’re experiencing than with God Himself. It’s at times like this that we must have faith in God’s promises even when we don’t feel His presence. Someone has said it this way: “Don’t doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.”
Pastor Bob Russell, who is now retired, tells about a Native American rite of passage. When their boys would turn twelve, they would blindfold them and lead them deep into the woods and sit them by a tree. If the boy would sit there alone all night without removing the blindfold, he was considered a man. But he would have to just sit there, aware that there were predators and enemies lurking nearby. That would be hard to do with all the rustling of the leaves and the threatening noises of the woods at night. But in the morning when he removed his blindfold he would be surprised to see his father, just a few feet away, poised with his weapon ready to protect him. He’d been there, quietly waiting, protecting all night, and the boy wasn’t aware of it.
Friend, no matter what you’re going through right now, if you know Jesus as your Savior, He is with you. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Job discovered that he wasn’t alone after all.
If you don’t know Him, you need the Redeemer right now. You see, God did not give Job any answers, just more questions. But Job got what he really wanted in the first place – his relationship with His Redeemer was restored. God gives instructions while we’re flying through life – don’t tune Him out. These instructions tell us how to be saved.
The God of the whirlwind took on human flesh and came to die on the cross. The mystery of suffering and sin should always to take us to the Savior. If you have not yet put your faith and trust in Him for forgiveness of sins, it’s time to do so right now. Repent and receive the Redeemer. Job was able to say in 19:25: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” You can have that same certainty today. This prayer might help you do just that.
“God Almighty, I confess that I have been arrogant and angry in my search for answers. Like Job, I put my hand over my mouth and repent of my thoughts, my attitudes and my behavior. I am a sinner in need of Jesus to be my Savior and so I turn from the way I’ve been living and receive the free gift of your Son who suffered and died in my place on the cross and then was raised to new life. Please forgive me for my sins and make me into the person you want me to be. Help me to live with my sufferings, knowing that you will never leave me or forsake me. I want to live under your Lordship for the rest of my life, for you are God and I am not. Amen.”
