Job 40 IT'S HARD TO SURRENDER After asking Job a large number of questions regarding nature, apparently the Lord paused and waited for a comment from Job. The Lord's first questions were about weather, storms and elemental forces that are extremely powerful, far exceeding anything humans can produce. The second series of questions were about animals which have the strength and power suited to the nature God gave them. All of these creatures are unique, and yet all were the result of God's creative power. It is God alone who can control the nature of animals and the actions of lightning, wind, rain and weather.
Job had nothing to say at first until the Lord frankly put him on the spot. "Can you correct God?" The complaints that Job had been making had all been heard by God. His demands that God answer him, implied that God needed to be corrected. Now the Lord responded to his challenge. Give an answer or lose your claim to innocence.
There are lessons for us to learn here when things don't go the way we had hoped. To whom do we turn when we lose our health, wealth, job or family? When something unexpected happens in the nation, government or in the assembly, how do we react and respond? Whether we like to admit it or not, we are inclined to wonder if God knows what is going on and why He doesn't do something about it. But that was Job's attitude - and may be ours. We have a frame of reference in which we live and it is usually within the bounds of our past experience or what we have observed in others.
It is up to us to stop and consider the whole matter with real faith in God, even though things that happen are beyond our understanding. It is important for us to learn to wait in silence with trust in our Lord and what He chooses to do. That kind of submission is not being brought down kicking and screaming, but in humility and obedience. Our Lord God knows, cares and has a reason behind all He does and allows to happen. "Here I can rest without a fear."
In response to the Lord's insistence for an answer, Job covers his mouth in a gesture that indicates he has no more to complain about. Now instead of being all consumed with himself and his problems, he has been made conscious of the Lord, His power and authority, His wisdom and infinite intelligence. But yet, he has not given up his position of innocence that he has stated once and again. As far as innocence, he is right. In his attitude toward the Lord he is wrong. So, to deal with this last vestige of Job's complaint, the Lord speaks again.
The great whirlwind and storm continued as a reminder to Job of the Person with whom he is dealing. He had tried to confront God with his loud cries and complaints. Now God confronts him again. We can picture Job with a fearful countenance, waiting without further comment for the Lord to speak. He had learned that frail, mortal men have no right nor ability to judge God. God had created every part of the earth, the stellar heavens, the plant and animal life - and mankind to bring evidence of His infinite being to humans who are intelligent, moral, but created beings. Everything there is, is a reflection of God: His power, His authority, His character and His glory. What He chooses to do or not do in no way depends on our demands. He knows what is best and will do what is right, not what we think is fair. But that being said, God does care for and loves His people. Love does not always make us comfortable.
In another series of questions designed to make Job stop condemning God for not answering his demands, the Lord begins by saying in essence, "Are you really wanting to nullify what I decide is right? Would you really want to condemn Me to justify yourself?" Lest we become too arrogant ourselves by condemning Job, we need to remember who we are, our limitations, our ignorance and inability to even create an anxious thought about eternity when we speak to others about the truths of the Gospel. In ourselves as Christians we are totally dependent on the Lord. Like Job, we need to be reminded of the power of God. His voice may be as loud as thunder or "a still small voice," but it is always greater and more authoritative than anything we might have to say. The splendor and majesty of God seen in creation and the large and small things God has created that defy human description, declare His glory. That surpasses all the pomp and ceremony of the greatest leaders the world has devised to exalt themselves or be exalted by others.
The righteous anger of God against sin is very different than the anger of human beings. God's anger is just and has a serious purpose behind it. How different this is from peevish human anger. God uses His deliberate anger against sin to let us know how seriously He looks upon the wickedness of man. Pride in man gives a wrong perspective of God, events and ourselves. The majesty and glory of God makes all the glory of man seem cheap and insignificant. The Lord challenges Job to see if he can control the proud and wicked. He can't even save himself with his right hand, or he wouldn't have been calling on God.
To every question the Lord asked Job if he could have said a word, it would have to be "No." He is incapable of doing any of the things that God does, and he couldn't deliver himself from all that was against him. The unmistakable point being made is, "Who do you think you are to demand Me to explain all I do and allow." Deliverance is from the Lord alone. The wise person will learn from the words of God, and words echoed by Fredrick Faber, "I bow me to Thy will, O God, And all Thy ways adore, And every day I live I'd seek, To please Thee more and more."
In an effort to make Job understand his Lord more than he ever had, the Lord takes the place of a wise benevolent teacher who has a stubborn servant-student. The last part of His lesson in zoology is to describe first, in detail the largest and strongest of land animals. Nothing can withstand the strength and size of behemoth. But God created this huge creature and only God can control it. If He can control the forces of nature, the animals He created, and the largest of them all, then give God credit that which is surely due Him. He controls such great things; surely, he is in control of what seems to be injustice and confusion to our finite minds.