Job 38 GOD REVEALS HIMSELF Out of a mighty storm, the Lord spoke to Job specifically in a long series of questions that emphasized to Job how little he understood about God. The fact that He is Lord is a reminder that we do not have the right to approach Him with demands and questions as if He was obligated to us in some way. He is the One in control of everything, and He knows everything we are experiencing. What we know, and what we truly understand are often very different.
Job had wanted an answer from God for a long time, and had demanded a response that did not come. Elihu had made a good point that it wasn't that God didn't know what was happening that withheld the answer, but it was Job himself and his attitude that was the problem. For the Lord to condescend to speak with puny men is an act of grace that is hard to comprehend, let alone describe. The earth itself is but a footstool for His feet. The heavens and earth are a response to the power of His word. The insignificance of the world itself when compared with all that is around it would normally make it seem no more than a piece of lint on a garment of clothes to the Almighty God. And yet, on that piece of lint is one person among the millions who raises his feeble voice and squeaks out in anger making demands of such a lofty Person. How pitiful and ignorant that seems, and yet his voice is heard.
The Lord speaks, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" The whole scene of a suffering man, pompous friends and a mouthy young man who like to talk, is all of a sudden totally changed by the voice of the Lord out of the whirlwind. Phrases like. "The foundations of the earth... morning stars... proud waves... dayspring... treasures of the snow... overflowing water... lightning of thunder... frozen face of the deep," are used to minimize any thought of self-importance Job might have.
The Lord does not answer Job's complaints. he does not pay attention to the three friends. He does not speak of all the things that had happened nor explain why they happened. He does not comfort Job by telling him how sorry He was for all that had happened to him. He does not answer Job's questions nor does He reprove him. But He does take time to teach him some lessons, give him some insight and give him some hope.
To His "servant Job," who He knew better than Job knew himself, the Lord said, "Prepare yourself like a man!" There were important things for this servant of His to learn about himself and his Lord that he had not taken into consideration while complaining and challenging his Master. The Lord had concern for Job and so the best way for His servant to learn was by being challenged himself. He had accused God of acting arbitrarily and presumed he could even argue with God as he would an equal.
The Lord begins with questions about things that have no life to show Job how little he really knows about God. In one series of questions we learn the earth was created by a design in size with a foundation, measured lines and a starting point. Even though it was brought into being by the Lord's spoken word, it was done with a specific purpose in mind. It was to this small speck in the universe our Lord Jesus Christ came to get for Himself a people for His name and a bride with which to share His existence. The same One who spoke to Job, who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, is our personal Lord and Savior. No wonder we are called upon to confess with our mouth "Jesus Christ is Lord." What a time of joy it was as all "the sons of God shouted for joy," as they looked ahead to all the blessings in the universe that would come as a result of that creative work of the Lord.
The waters and land we mixed at first until God divided the waters from the land according to His design, separated them and put boundaries around the water. Job first learned that God controls the waters in spite of the power of the great waves. Then the Lord challenged Job by asking if he could make a new day dawn. Could he take the edge of darkness and gradually pull it back like a blanket until the wicked who love the darkness would be exposed like the Lord does. Each new day the darkness is removed by the power of light from the Lord and by the Lord.
Job had made his complaint to God, and then God took him by the power of His words to the bottom of the ocean, then to the breadth of the world, and then to the expanse of the sky above where "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." There was no answer as Job was likely as astounded as I am at the God of wonders. The Lord questioned Job about his lack of knowledge even about the weather and the "treasures of the snow." Snow brings to earth the nutrients needed to produce the plants and food we eat, and it all comes from the design of the Lord in the cycle of life He made to supply all of our physical needs from His own fullness. Even today, older farmers remember when they used to like to have some snow they could plow in the ground because they considered it "God's fertilizer."
Job had never seriously considered the functions of snow, hail, wind or why there is light and darkness. He was like us. We take most things for granted and never consider the fact that everything depends on the hand of God on the controls of each part of the universe. God sends water into brooks and rivers, and rain on places where no one lives to bless mankind where we do live. He even has arranged in His own design the best way to move what we need to where we are. The Lord describes ice on the surface of the water, not on the bottom. To people who observe and think, all of these things we do not understand, makes us consider that none of this was done by accident, but by specific design for specific purposes by and all-powerful, all- knowing Designer.
The next place the Lord directed Job to think about is the heavens above. The order of the stars, the fact that names have been given to them is made plain here. "The ordinances of heaven" places them all in assigned positions which have even helped men on earth to know where they are as they move about earth needing points to locate themselves. Every shape of the clouds and the position they have in the sky is known, arranged for, and used by God for His own purposes. When He chooses to send rain that has been "bottled up," the hard ground is softened allowing the seeds in the ground to respond to water, temperature and light, and then produce what God intends.
Behind all of these questions the Lord asked Job, is the response of God to Job's questioning attitude. If Job couldn't understand the way inanimate things in creation work, how could he expect to understand the works of the Lord who made them and who is infinite in every way. His mind is without limitation. His character is that of impeccable integrity and holiness. His wisdom and His ways are past finding out.
At the conclusion of this chapter, the Lord then uses His care over the animal creation that moves about on their own God-given instinct. That part of His creation is subject to Him which is developed more in the next chapter. When we reread this chapter, we are made to consider again the fact that God has all of nature and the forces of nature under His control. He alone knows the limits of the powers of nature. He alone understands how everything works because He created it all. If Job (or we) cannot explain nature, the physiology of the animal creation and the stellar heavens above us, how can we possibly explain or describe God. How can we ever question what He does or does not do? If common things are beyond our grasp of understanding, it certainly is impossible to understand the moral depths of the sovereign works of God and what He chooses to allow to happen to us.
Things on the earth, things in the seas, things in the heavens all declare visibly His ordered design of our universe. Who are we to question what is in the mind of God? In ourselves, human beings are totally dependent on God in "whom we live and move and have our being." How much more than our dependence on God for wisdom and understanding - and life itself.