Week 6: Relax Under The Umbrella Of God’s Wisdom Series

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)