How many of you have travelled to a place where the culture was noticeably different than yours? At times, didn’t you feel totally clueless? I’ve seen the bewildered look on American businessmen’s faces who came to Japan where I grew up. When meeting with a Japanese client for the first time, the American would stick out his hand for a handshake, while his Japanese counterpart would bow low in traditional Japanese greeting. It ended up looking like the American was about to karate chop the prostrated head of the Japanese! I knew what both men were thinking: “What’s the matter with this guy? Doesn’t he know how to greet?” The two men had different ways of doing things, and both no doubt thought the other man was “weird.”
Job thought something similar about God. After losing his wealth, his children, and his health—after putting up with his friends who blamed Job for his misfortune, Job demanded an audience with God. He felt that God was being unreasonable in his treatment of him. Job wanted the chance to point that out and hear what God would say in his defense. Job thought that this would bring him peace on his unpredictable path, just as we often think that if God would just tell us why he does the things he does, we too could be at peace. But what God would teach Job is that the way to find peace is by relaxing under the umbrella of his wisdom—even when that wisdom, like an umbrella, is often opaque and beyond our ability to see through clearly.
Our text began with Job’s cry: “…let the Almighty answer me” (Job 31:35b). No longer does Job call God “LORD” as he did in the first two chapters. “LORD” is a title in the Old Testament that emphasizes the gracious nature of God. But Job doesn’t see anything gracious or loving about God’s treatment of him. He only feels the weight of the Almighty’s thumb pressing down on him like someone trying to get the last bit of toothpaste from the tube. Job felt that God was squeezing all life and all hope from him. What was God up to? Job wanted to know, more than that, he demanded to know.
Would God answer Job’s summons? Yes, and no. The Bible records these words: “Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm…” (Job 38:1). Isn’t that interesting? It was the “LORD,” the God of faithful love who responded to Job, but he did so out of a violent windstorm. And God did not respond to Job’s questions. Instead, the LORD had questions for Job. “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” (Job 38:2-3).
Do you see the irony here? Job had blustered against God like a creaking fan that delivers more noise than relief. God, on the other hand, addressed Job from what may have been a Category 4 tornado! If God had come close enough, he would have ripped Job apart. But that was not God’s intent. God would put Job in his place, yes, but he had not come to destroy him. He was after all still the LORD, the God of faithful love.
So, what questions did God have for Job? Let me offer a sampling. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? 8 Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb…10 when I fixed limits for it …11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? 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? 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’? 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…? 2 Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” (Job 38:7-8, 10-11, 21-22, 34-35, 39-41; 40:2)
With a series of rapid-fire questions, God helped Job realize how much smarter he was than Job. Did Job (do you) know how exactly God created the world? Did Job (do you) know how God controls the lightning, which to our observation seems to strike the earth with no discernable pattern? Did Job (do you) know how God provides for all the animals of the earth from the proud lion down to the scavenging raven? No, Job did not know, as he humbly admitted: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. 5 I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more” (Job 40:4-5).
But Job wasn’t going to get off that easily. God continued his line of questioning—this time emphasizing how much more powerful he was than Job. He did so by talking about two animals that are probably now extinct. The first one sounds like a dinosaur, while the second, the animal we’ll focus on, sounds like a huge crocodile—fossils of which measure 40 feet long (compared to the largest crocodiles today which top out at 17 feet). God said: “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? 3 Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? 5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house? 8 If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! 10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? 11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me” (Job 41:1, 3, 5, 8, 10-11).
Are you understanding God’s point? He was saying, “I’m in charge of all this, Job. I made and I run the universe. I have a wisdom and a power that you can’t even begin to understand. And if you can’t comprehend the visible world you live in, how do you expect to comprehend a God you cannot see? You have criticized the way I rule the world. You have contended that I use my power arbitrarily. Are you prepared to take over the job of governing the world in my place? But if you’d think twice before messing around with Leviathan, that giant crocodile, shouldn’t you hesitate to insult the majesty of him who created that beast? You’ve said that I am unloving. And yet, if I control exactly where lightning strikes, and if I take care of the ravens’ little ones, does that not mean that I love my creation and that I will care for it…and care for you?” God’s discourses were a reprimand of Job’s sinful arrogance. Job had abused his privileged role as a child in the Lord’s family. He had tried to act like a big boy—big enough and smart enough to question and challenge his Father’s justice and kindness. (John Jeske)
Did you notice that in everything God said to Job, he never did answer Job’s question? Job had wanted to know why he was suffering. But God did not tell Job about his conversation with Satan. He didn’t explain how Job’s experience would instruct and inspire believers for thousands of years. He didn’t even say: “I’m refining your faith, Job.” He simply said, “I have a wisdom and a power that is beyond your ability to grasp. Stop…questioning…me.”
Does this disappoint you? Were you hoping that as we draw near the end of our study of Job that you would finally get the answer to why you are suffering the way you are? What we’re learning today, however, is that God does not owe you an explanation, nor is there any guarantee that it would help even if he gave you one. For even when we stand on our spiritual tippy toes, we still can’t reach the bottom step of the throne of the Eternal that we may fully grasp him. (Spurgeon – adapted)
Oh, it’s OK to ask God “Why?” Even Jesus did that from the cross. But it is not OK to charge God with wrongdoing—to feel as if God is cheating you. That was Job’s sin. God is God and he will run this world the way that he sees fit. And the way that he sees fit is always what is good and right…even when it doesn’t make any sense to us.
One important truth we are re-learning is what sin really is. Sin isn’t just doing “naughty” things like stealing $5 from your mother’s purse, or fudging the truth about why you didn’t get your homework done. Sin is claiming God’s throne. It’s saying, “If I were God…” when we really have no idea what we’re talking about or can begin to understand what really is best for ourselves or our family.
“Oh, but it’s so hard NOT to question and to doubt God! If only he would tell me just a bit more about his plans, then I’m sure I would be OK with them!!” It’s at times like this that we begin to understand what it means to be Christian. It means to live by faith—not just faith in Jesus as our Savior, but faith that the God of the Bible is truly good and will do what is the best for us even when we are suffering. Faith believes this even when God’s wisdom is opaque and hard to see through like an umbrella. But we can trust that, like an umbrella, God’s wisdom and power are protecting us. (cf. Hebrews 11:1-2, 13, 36-40)
We know that God’s wisdom is good and worth relaxing under because God has proven his concern for us through the person of Jesus. Job had said in the opening verses of our text: “Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense [literally: “Here is my mark or ‘X’”]—let the Almighty answer me” (Job 31:35). God should have shot back: “Oh, you’ve made your mark have you Job? Well, let me make mine!” Then God should have brought his foot down on Job and his three friends for all the untrue and unkind things they had said about him. Consider how instead God made his mark thousands of years later on a hill outside of Jerusalem—a mark which took the shape of a cross indicating the place where God’s foot came down on Jesus to manifest his love and forgiveness for arrogant sinners like Job…and us.
Therefore, although Job had said with hubris, “…let the Almighty answer me… 37 I would give him an account of all my steps; I would approach him like a prince” (Job 31:35b, 37), those are words that we can actually speak with humble confidence. We can give God an account for all our steps and still be sure that we can approach him like royalty rather than slink from him like a rat. Why? Because Jesus’ nail-marked footprints conceal the stray paths we pursued. No, you may not know what God has in mind with all that you are going through, but what you endure, you do so as a member of God’s royal family. As we’ve learned in a previous sermon, our heavenly Father is often mysterious, but he is never malicious. How can he be to his children for whom he paid so dearly?
The way God is treating us reminds me of the surprise proposals and surprise gifts you often see featured on social media. The one planning the surprise, films the person who is about to receive the surprise. To draw in the viewers and explain what is about to happen, the videographer holds up signs that the viewers can see but the person being surprised cannot. One example is of a cleaning lady in New York who received a surprise gift of free rent for two years in the luxury apartment where she cleaned. She was asked to go up to the penthouse suite. She thought she was being asked to clean it to get the suite ready for a viewing, so she was dressed in her cleaning clothes and carrying a bucket and sponges. In reality, the tenants had pitched in to pay for a two-year lease since she had recently lost her job due to COVID and had to move in with her sister. Unbeknownst to her, Rosa was actually on her way up to receive the keys to her new home! As she rode the elevator to the suite, the viewers were notified about what was really happening through a series of notes held up to the camera which Rosa herself could not see. It’s fun to watch the change in her expression. Rosa’s weariness, as she anticipates a long day of hard work, gives way to a shocked joy when she finds out what is really going on.
I wonder if the angels don’t exhibit that kind of joy and anticipation as they watch us struggle through life and listen to us complain about what God is up to. Perhaps the angels even shout: “Oh, just wait ‘til you see what God has planned for you!” Indeed, God has great plans for us—plans to prosper us, if not here and now then certainly with the eternal joys of heaven. So just relax. Relax under the umbrella of God’s wisdom, even when that wisdom, like an umbrella, is often opaque and beyond your ability to see through. God’s wisdom is sheltering you from that which is really harmful until he brings you to eternal glory.
Let’s give the Holy Spirit the final word on the matter. He prompted the apostle James to offer this encouragement to weary believers: “Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:10, 11). Indeed, God is full of compassion and mercy. He will bring you through your sufferings into an unmatched glory. Go ahead. Ask questions of your God, but don’t doubt his love for you. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(preservice warmup) Think of a time you were in a foreign country where the culture was considerably different than yours. What things did the locals do that you thought was “weird”? What things did you do that the locals thought was “weird”?
Fill in the blanks. God would teach Job that the way to find peace is by relaxing under the umbrella of his wisdom—even when that wisdom, like an umbrella, is often __________ and beyond our ability to _____________________.
Why is it significant that at this point in his suffering, Job no longer called God, “LORD” but the “Almighty”?
Why was it ironic that the LORD (note the special name for God!) responded to Job out of a violent windstorm?
Rather than answering Job’s questions, the LORD had questions for Job. The first set of questions emphasized what characteristic of God?
The second set of questions about two fearsome animals that are probably now extinct emphasized what other characteristic of God?
(for thought at home) Job had abused his privileged role as a child in the Lord’s family. He had tried to act like a big boy—big enough and smart enough to question and challenge his Father’s justice and kindness. So, God’s discourses were a reprimand of Job’s sinful arrogance. What are some ways that you have exhibited the same kind of arrogance as Job?
God never did answer Job’s question: Why am I suffering? Neither does God owe us an explanation for what he’s doing in our lives. Why not?
Fill in the blanks. One important truth we are re-learning is what sin really is. Sin isn’t just doing ____________ things. Sin is _____________________________. We are learning what it means to be a Christian. It means that we live by _____________.
We know that God’s wisdom is good and worth relaxing under because God has proven his concern for us through the person of Jesus. How so? How does this truth help us “approach God like a prince”?
The way God treats us is like the surprise proposals and surprise gifts you often see featured on social media. Explain the point of the illustration.
We learned again today that while God is often mysterious, he is never malicious. With whom can you share this truth this week?
