God is Good…All the Time!
“Got Questions?”
Job 38-40
Presidents Calvin Coolidge was a man of few words, and the words he spoke were often blunt. A female journalist once told him, “Mr. President I made a $100 bet with another journalist that I could get you to say more than three words. Would you care to comment?” Calvin Coolidge smiled and said, “You lose.” That’s how he got the nickname “Silent Cal.” Some people think of God as “Silent God.” When they are going through painful trials and tribulations, they cry out, “Why, God? Why me? Where are you, God?” And it seems as if heaven is silent. But the Bible teaches God cares and He has spoken–we may just not be listening carefully enough. Sometimes God brings storms into our lives so we will listen more intently.
For centuries, Job has been the poster child for enduring pain and suffering. Since we’ve been in Job for the past two months, let’s quickly review the story of Job. The story began with Job as a happy, healthy, wealthy man surrounded by his wife and ten children. Then Satan, the accuser of the brothers, accused Job of serving God only because he was so blessed. Satan contended if God allowed trouble and sorrow to come into Job’s life he would curse God to His face. God disagreed with this evaluation, and in order to prove His point, God allowed Satan to afflict Job. Satan gleefully attacked Job, first taking his wealth, and then his children. In addition, Satan violated Job’s body by covering him from head to foot with painful, oozing sores. Job’s wife said, “Job, give it up. Curse God and die.” But Job said, “The Lord gives, the Lord has taken away. May the Lord’s name be praised!” Then to add to his suffering, three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad visited Job. They told Job he was being punished by God for some terrible deed. Most of the book is devoted to a cycle of Job’s friends accusing him, and then Job defending himself. Job’s statements revealed that he ping-ponged between faith and doubt. His faith bent but it did not break.
It’s an understatement to say that Job found himself in the midst of a storm. Then suddenly, as the storm broke in all its fury, God spoke to Job out of the storm. Let’s read God’s remarks in Job 38:1-3. Now when it says God answered Job, it doesn’t mean God gave Job the answers he was seeking. Instead of giving Job an answer, God started asking Job questions. By the time He finished, God had asked Job over 180 questions. Hear God’s voice and notice:
I. QUESTIONS WE NEED TO CONSIDER (JOB 38-39)
We won’t study each of the 187 questions God asked Job, so let’s just notice five:
1. Where were there when I created the earth? Read Job 38:4-7. I don’t have time to address the ongoing debate between whether we came into existence by Divine creation or whether we are the product of blind chance and random evolution. I don’t apologize for stating that I believe God created the heavens and the earth, and I think intelligent design and creation should be taught alongside the theory of evolution in our schools. But don’t miss the point. The Bible is not a science textbook that tells us HOW we were created. It is God’s love letter that tells us WHY we were created. Man is arrogant enough to suggest how life began, but everything man says is pure speculation and hypothesis, because as God reminded Job, nobody was around to see it!
2. How many sunrises have you made? Read Job 38:12-13. The Bible teaches that God not only created the universe, but that He also maintains it. As you know, the earth is orbiting around the sun at a speed of 66,000 mph, while at the same time it is spinning around (at about 1,000 mph) so that one part of the globe is facing the sun while the other is in darkness. If this didn’t occur every day, one side of the planet would freeze and the other side would burn up. And every morning the sun rises in a different place, because the planet is also tilting on its axis 23 degrees to create the different seasons. Otherwise each hemisphere would be too cold or too hot to support life. This is a meticulous operation...oh, but it just happens to do that by accident. Every sunrise has God’s signature on it, as He reminds us that He is giving us another day to live. God is maintaining life and order in the universe. Until mankind can control the orbit, spinning, and tilting of the planet, we’d better keep quiet about how smart we think we are.
3. Are you older than light? Read Job 38:19-21. I like this question, because it proves God has a sense of humor. Hebrew humor often pictured the absurd–like screening out a gnat and swallowing a camel. God gently poked fun at Job by sarcastically saying he was already born when light was created. Albert Einstein contended the only constant in the universe was light. He used it as the key factor to demonstrate the relationship between mass and energy (E=mc²). Today, scientist’s measure light and use light, but they still don’t understand what light really is. And the Bible simply says in I John 1:5 that “God is light.”
4. Can you control the stars? Read Job 38:31-33a. People who believe in astrology state that the stars control our lives. But I’d rather trust the One who made the stars and controls the constellations. From ancient times until now, people have gazed into the star-filled sky at night to try to find meaning. About 7,000 stars can be seen by the naked eye. By connecting the dots, ancient people saw pictures. For instance, Orion is the figure of the mighty hunter who moved across the sky in the winter. They noticed that in one night, the stars seem to wheel around the sky, but there was one star, the North Star that served as the pivot point for this rotation.
We’re still gazing at the stars–we’re just using telescopes now. With the cheapest Sears telescope you can see a million stars. But even with the Hubble telescope, scientists have no clue about how many stars there are. They estimate there are 100 thousand million stars (100 billion; 1011) in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and there are millions of galaxies. The more we can see in the space, the more mysteries we find. The Psalmist was right when he sang, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)
5. Do all the animals rely on you? Read Job 39:1-2; 26-27. If you love animals, you should read all of Job 39. This chapter could be subtitled “God’s Animal Planet.” God describes eight different animals. He takes credit for creating and designing all the different species in the animal kingdom. He pointed out that He presides at the birth of every little fawn. Jesus said God notices whenever a tiny sparrow falls to the earth. (Matthew 10:19) God is such a powerful, caring Creator that He presides at the birth and death of all of the animals. Have you ever wondered how many animal species there are? About a million different species have been identified (750,000 are insects), but Terry Irwin, of the Smithsonian Institute, estimates there are 30 million different species on the planet! Arrogantly, modern man thinks he understands animals, and sits at the top of the food chain, but don’t tell that to a Great White Shark!
II. LESSONS WE NEED TO LEARN. (JOB 40:1-5)
The Lord continued His quiz in Job 40:1-2. “And the Lord said to Job: "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it." Notice Job’s reply in Job 40:3-5 “Then Job answered the Lord and said: "Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further." Job was pretty much saying I don’t have an answer and we don’t have any answers to God’s questions, either. So instead of trying to answer God, let’s consider three lessons to learn from this passage.
1. God still speaks to us in the midst of our storms. God speaks to his children in many different ways. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He used a whale to get Jonah’s attention. He used a donkey to speak to Balaam, and He even used a rooster to speak to Simon Peter. He spoke to Job out of a whirlwind. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the word “whirlwind” can be translated “hurricane.” God still speaks to his children during storms and if you are going through a personal storm, or a financial storm, or a relational storm–pause and listen for God’s voice.
Why does God use storms to speak to us? I think it’s because some of us are so hardheaded that we aren’t really paying attention when our emotional climate is sunny and mild. Sometimes God has to use storms to get our attention and life is full of storms. Annie Johnson Flint has written a poem capturing this idea: God has not promised skies always blue; Flower strewn pathways all our lives through; God has not promised sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, peace without pain. But God has promised STRENGTH for the day, REST for the labor, LIGHT for the way, GRACE for the trials, HELP from above, Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
An old seaman once said, “During the fiercest storms the only way a ship can survive is to keep its nose pointed straight into the wind. If you try to turn to the left or the right, the ship may capsize. If you try to run from the wind, the waves can surge over the stern.” That’s good advice for us. Whenever you’re in a storm, don’t turn away from God. Don’t run from Him. Instead, turn straight toward Him and seek His face. When you’re in the sunshine, you MAY have faith, but when you’re in the storm you MUST have faith.
2. We should be speechless before God’s power and wisdom. Earlier Job boasted that if he could face God he would cross-examine him. In Job 23:3-4 he said, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.” He reminds me of the Lion in the Wizard of Oz who said, “Let me at him! I’ll show him a thing or two!” Then when he finally faced the wizard, he crouched in terror. Job was the same. Before God appeared, he boasted that if he could get an audience with God he would tell him a thing or two. But when God finally showed up, he found himself speechless.
Have you noticed how many talk shows there are on television? Job presumed he was going to play Larry King Live with God. “Okay, God you sit there and I’m going to ask you a lot of tough questions. I want to know WHY I lost my fortune, my family, and my health. I’m going to ask the questions, and you’re going to give me some answers.” Wrong. When God showed up, Job said, “I am unworthy.” The King James Version says, “I am vile.” The Hebrew word means “lightweight.” Compared to God, Job realized he was an intellectual lightweight. After these questions, Job was overwhelmed by God’s greatness and he was underwhelmed by his own ignorance. When you truly see God for who He is, you get smaller and smaller and God gets bigger and bigger.
When you find yourself in the awesome presence of God, you will discover all your questions and your arguments vanish. With every question, God was communicating this powerful truth: “JOB, I’M GOD, AND YOU’RE NOT. Until you know a little bit more about running the physical universe, don’t tell me how to run the moral universe.” I’ve heard people say, “When I get to heaven I’m going to have a lot of questions to ask God!” I used to say it myself. But I’ve decided I’m going to stop saying it. Why? Because I have come to realize that when we enter the presence of a Holy God, we aren’t going to be on the level with God where we can demand a bunch of answers.
On of my favorite songs is “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me. Amazingly, that song about seeing Jesus has been played on a lot of secular radio stations. The chorus asks several questions: “Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in awe of You, be still? Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing Hallelujah, or will I be able to speak at all?” What do you think? I don’t really think we’ll be dancing—I think we’ll be in such awe that we will fall on our faces, totally speechless in God’s presence.
3. We can have peace when we surrender to God’s absolute sovereignty. We often speak of the “sovereignty of God,” but many people are clueless about what the word really means. If I asked you to write a definition of “sovereignty,” could you do it? Here’s my definition: God’s right to do whatever He pleases. The root of the word is reign. The prefix sov means “over,” so it means to “rule and reign over.” God rules and reigns over all.
God didn’t owe Job an explanation, and He doesn’t owe us one. But we must believe that God is not some evil, impulsive deity who wants people to squirm like a worm in hot ashes. No, God is a loving Father who grieves when His children are hurting. When you think of the sovereignty of God, the inevitable question arises: “Does man have a free will to choose, or is God, in His sovereignty, controlling everything?” The answer is yes to both questions. How can you balance the freedom and will of man with the absolute sovereignty of God? Perhaps this basic illustration will help you understand.
Let’s imagine you board American Airlines flight 777 at Tulsa airport to fly to London. The first step is placing your trust in the law of aerodynamics, you’re putting your trust in the pilots, and you’re putting your trust in the engineers and workmen at Boeing who designed and built the jet. Once you choose to board the jet, the destination has already been determined by the authorities. This is a faint picture of the Sovereignty of God. He has already determined the ultimate destination of each person’s life depending on whether you trust Him as your Lord and Savior or not—that’s why it’s called Pre-destination. But as a passenger on that jet, you aren’t kept in chains that bind you to your seat, just a seat belt that can be unfastened when the captain has determined it is safe to move around the cabin. Once that light goes off, you’re free to move around the cabin. You have some choices: You can choose to enjoy some delicious airline food or you’re free to decline. You have a choice. The flight attendant isn’t going to force-feed you.
You can choose to sleep or to watch a movie, or to walk around the cabin. As you move toward your destination, there are choices you can make. But all the while you are making these choices, the jet is moving steadily toward your destination. There is both freedom and sovereignty in play, and they do not contradict each other. I think this can be applied to God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom to choose. Like that jumbo jet, God is moving His creation steadily toward the goal He purposed in Christ before the world began. This is spoken of in Ephesians 1:4-5 “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” Now, within that Divine design He has given us the freedom to make moral and spiritual choices. Each of us has to decide whether or not we want to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Job chose to surrender to God’s sovereignty, and you can, too. You can choose for God to rule and reign over your life.
One of the scenes from the movie “Forrest Gump” is when Lieutenant Dan and Forrest are out on his shrimp boat. Lieutenant Dan lost both his legs in Vietnam and he was angry and bitter because he hadn’t died on the battlefield. Forrest and Lieutenant Dan weren’t catching any shrimp, so Lieutenant Dan sarcastically told Forrest he ought to go to church and pray that God would give them some shrimp. So Forrest did. On their next trip, they still didn’t catch any shrimp so Lieutenant Dan asked, “Where is this God of yours?” At that moment a hurricane blew in and Forrest said, “It’s funny that Lieutenant Dan would ask that because right then, God showed up.”
During the storm Forrest was scared, but Lieutenant Dan was angry. At the height of the storm, he was swinging at the top of the mast, screaming out to God, “It’s time you and me had a showdown! You call this a storm?” After the storm passed, Lieutenant Dan was a changed man. Not long afterwards, he said to Forest, “I never thanked you for saving my life.” And as he swam away to a new life, Forrest said, “He never actually said so, but I think he made his peace with God.”
Have you truly made your peace with God? You’ll never experience His peace until you hear His voice in the storm and simply surrender to the truth that He is God and you aren’t. You may be going through a crisis right now. If you aren’t; don’t worry, the next crisis is just around the corner. But you don’t have to be afraid. Just trust Him. Remember, God still speaks to us in our storms. He doesn’t speak to answer your questions of “Why?” or “Why me?” He speaks to demonstrate He is far greater than we can ever understand. God never intended for us to understand Him, instead He just wants us to TRUST HIM. It’s not a blind trust–it’s a trust that is borne when we open our eyes and look around. When you see the greatness of God, all you can do is shut your mouth, reach out to Him and say, “Abba. Father, I don’t understand You or your ways, but I will trust you with today and I will trust you with all my tomorrows.”
