Read Job 38:1-40:5.

Introduction⤒🔗

A housewife testifies: It was near the middle of April—with the deadline for filing income tax forms fast approaching—and my husband had not yet filed our return.

“Our tax forms should be mailed by now,” I badgered. But my husband was silent.

Thoroughly exasperated, I rifled through the papers lying on his desk. I soon realized I could do nothing with them without my husband’s help. I know nothing about filling out tax forms. Come Saturday, with the deadline two days away, my fears of not getting those tax forms mailed on time intensified.

“You’ll never get those tax forms done,” I charged, “I just know they’ll still be here a month after they’re due.”

At this point my husband took my hand in his, looked me in the eye, and said, “Trust me.”

Hugging my husband, I asked for his forgiveness. Then I renewed my vow to trust him. The taxes were paid on time.¹

Just as that housewife had to be reminded to trust her husband, so we must be reminded to place our confidence in the LORD, especially in times of trial or confusion.

Place Your Confidence in the LORD, Because He Is the All-Wise Creator² ←⤒🔗

The LORD now reveals Himself personally and directly to Job:

Then the LORD answered Job out of the tempest. He said, ²Who is this who darkens deliberations with words that lack knowledge? ³Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 38:1-3

The LORD charges Job with being one who “darkens deliberations with words that lack knowledge” (38:2). Since Job has spoken from his position of limited knowledge, he has produced darkness rather than enlightenment with regard to the issue of God’s justice and God’s just governance of the world. Job has darkened deliberations because he lacks a broad comprehensive perspective of God’s ways. The LORD will now proceed to demonstrate Job’s ignorance by interrogating him with regard to the creation and the maintenance of it (38:3).

The LORD begins by questioning Job about the formation of the world, using the imagery of the construction of a major building (38:4-7). He asks Job, “Who marked off the dimensions of the earth?” (38:5a); the site for this “building” (i.e. the world) was carefully surveyed. A “measuring line” (38:5b) was stretched out to ensure that the world, or the earth, was constructed exactly according to the LORD’s “blue prints;” by implication it is being said that everything created corresponds precisely to God’s plan.

The footings were set and the earth’s cornerstone was laid in place (38:6). In an ancient community, the laying of the foundation stone for a public building, such as a temple, was a high occasion and was commemorated by a festive ceremony. On the occasion of laying the earth’s cornerstone, the morning stars were assembled as an angelic chorus to sing praise to God. At the moment the stone was set in place the sons of God, (i.e. the angels), broke out in joyous singing, praising God, the Creator.

The marvelous, mysterious, incomprehensible “construction” of the world testifies to the awesome wisdom of the Creator; a wisdom that is beyond the scope of man’s ability to understand. This should cause man to bow in humble trust before the LORD, as opposed to charging God with unrighteousness based upon man’s finite knowledge and limited understanding.

The LORD goes on to describe Himself as a great “midwife” presiding over the “birth” of the sea (38:8-11). He inquires of Job, “Who knit the sea together behind [closed] doors?” (38:8a) Several ancient Near Eastern myths, (e.g. Enuma Elish from Babylon and the Baal Cycle from Ugarit), recount the fierce battle in which the supreme deity won his right to rule by defeating the sea god (or goddess). In contrast to the mythical thought of pagan religion, the sea is poetically being compared to an infant, being formed in his mother’s womb. Deep in the recesses of the universe’s womb, the LORD skillfully knit the sea together like a fetus. Then, at the end of its time of gestation, the LORD brought it forth gushing from the womb (38:8b). The LORD took care of the sea as gently as one cares for a newborn infant: He clothed the sea with clouds and wrapped it in dark mist. (38:9) Here is a poetic description of the heavy, dark clouds that often hover over the sea.

Employing a different metaphor, the LORD declares that he fixed limits, (i.e. natural boundaries), that the sea cannot cross. Or, using yet another figure, the LORD shut the sea behind bolted doors, as though it were confined in a fortress. Since He fully controls or restricts the sea, never can it at will inundate the inhabited world. Its mighty, proud waves break at the seashore, the line drawn by God. When the sea is aroused in a violent storm and its waves reach far inland, it is only by God’s permission, and for the purpose of doing His bidding.

Like a mighty general, the LORD commands the light to shine (38:12-15). He asks, has Job ever commanded the morning light to dawn, so that it “might take the earth by its edges, [like a huge tablecloth], and shake the wicked out of it?” (38:13). As the light of day spreads over the earth, the wicked, who belong to the darkness and perform their evil deeds in the darkness, flee from the spreading light just as crumbs are shaken off of a linen table cloth.

“The earth takes shape like clay under a seal” (38:14). Just as a lump of clay is turned into a beautiful design when a decorative seal is impressed upon it; so, too, the earth’s features glisten in beauty beneath the sun’s rays. In yet another picture, the light of day makes the earth appear as a beautiful garment, exquisite in design and glorious in color (38:14b).

Returning to the topic of the wicked, we read, “The wicked are denied their ‘light;’ their upraised arm is broken” (38:15). The light of day deprives the wicked of their “light,” the “light” by which they work, namely, the darkness. The sun’s rays restrain the wicked from wantonly pursuing their evil designs; consequently, their upraised arm, (a sign of their arrogant determination to enforce with violence their evil will), is broken. These verses speak directly to Job’s concern that the wicked prosper unchecked (cp. chapters 21, 24). The LORD has contained the wicked within limits, just as he has restrained the sea. Like the sea, the wicked may cause terror and turmoil, but the light is the boundary, ordained by God, to restrain the wicked.

Next the LORD interrogates Job about his acquaintance with the extremities of the creation: Has Job ever traveled to the outer limits of the world? (38:16-24) The LORD asks Job if he has ever entered into “the springs of the sea” (i.e. the origins of the sea) or “walked in the recesses of the deep.” (38:16) Beyond the depths of the sea lie the gates of death (38:17); this, too, is unknown to Job and is beyond his experience and comprehension. Nor has Job contemplated the underworld’s vast expanse (38:18); that whole realm that is beyond the present realm of earthly life is foreign to Job. (J. Hartley maintains that the Hebrew word, צר_ֶr, which has a broad range of meanings, including “earth,” “land,” “ground,” here has the meaning, “the underworld” [Hartley, p. 498-499]. The context of the verse lends support to this interpretation, as the LORD is here interrogating Job about the mysterious realm beyond the inhabited earth.)

Moving from the depths of the sea to the far-off horizons, the LORD asks Job if he knows “the way to the dwelling of light” or “the place where darkness resides.” (38:19-21) Poetically speaking, beyond the horizon are two chambers, one in the east for light and one in the west for darkness. If Job knew the path to these chambers, he would have control over the light and the darkness. His ignorance of this information indicates that his understanding is limited. The LORD wants Job to understand that there are vast dimensions of reality that are beyond Job’s comprehension and, therefore, due to his very limited knowledge and experience, it is wrong for Job to make definitive and disparaging statement’s about God’s governance of the world.

Next the LORD questions Job about the remote heavenly “storehouses” where the snow and the hail are kept (38:22-23). The snow and hail are described as part of God’s arsenal that He can unleash against His enemies.

Finally, does Job know the way to the place from where the west wind is dispersed, or the place from where the east wind is scattered over the earth? (38:24) The gentle west wind, coming off of the Mediterranean Sea, brings the much-needed rain; while the east wind, the mighty sirocco wind coming out of the desert, parches the earth.

The LORD thus confronts Job with the fact that He is the all-wise and all-powerful Creator. Here, then, is the first reason why we should place our confidence in the LORD: Because He is the all-wise and all-powerful Creator.

Why do you say, O Jacob, why do you assert, O Israel, My way is hidden from the LORD, and my cause is disregarded by my God? ²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither does he become weary. No one can fathom his understanding.Isa. 40:27-28

Place Your Confidence in the LORD, Because He Is the Caring Sustainer of His Creation←⤒🔗

Turning from His great acts of creation, the LORD now directs Job’s attention to the way in which He governs and maintains the world. He begins by questioning Job concerning the control and direction of the inanimate realm (38:25-38).

The LORD begins by appealing to Job to consider how He manages the weather (38:25-30). God dispenses the rain and snow for the benefit of every region of the world, even a desert without inhabitant. God’s creative wisdom and ability are also seen in the various forms that water vapor can assume: from rain to dew to frost to ice, all are at God’s command and serve His purposes in the governance and maintenance of the world.

Next the LORD directs Job’s attention to the heavens and questions him concerning the constellations (38:31-33). It is God who guides the stars and the planets in their heavenly courses; God’s wise governance of the world is not limited to the earth, it extends over the heavens and the whole universe. Rather than it being the signs of the Zodiac that control the affairs of men, as the ancients believed, it is the LORD who guides the signs of the Zodiac, He brings out the constellations in their seasons (38:32a).

When the LORD asks Job, “Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish their dominion over the earth?” (38:33) He is referring to the divine ordinances He established on the fourth day of creation:

¹⁴And God said, Let there appear lights in the expanse of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them serve as signs, to mark seasons, and days and years... ¹⁷And God appointed them in the expanse of heaven to give light upon the earth, ¹⁸and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. Gen. 1:14, 17­ 18

The LORD goes on to inform Job that it is He, the LORD, who controls the storm (38:34-38). At His command the clouds release their abundance of water in the form of rain, and the lightning bolts present themselves to the LORD as His servants, saying, “Here we are.” When the dry dust fuses together into hard lumps upon the sun-baked ground, it is the LORD who “tips the heavenly water jars,” causing the rain to pour out upon the earth.”³

The LORD now proceeds to question Job concerning the animate realm (38:39-39:30). Note: The creatures singled out for consideration are those especially associated with the wilderness, animals that are for the most part beyond man’s ability to domesticate: 1) animals that are incorrigible, like the wild donkey and the wild ox; 2) animals that are dangerous, like the lioness; 3) animals that are inaccessible, like the mountain goat; 4) animals that enigmatic, like the ostrich. These are all God’s creatures that serve His inscrutable purpose and who are objects of His care.

The LORD first turns Job’s attention to the lioness and the raven (38:39-41). By means of His questions, the LORD indicates that it is He who provides food for these wild creatures. They are His creatures and He cares for them, both the mighty lioness and the carefree little raven are dependent upon God and He provides for them.

Next, He turns Job’s attention to the mountain goat and the doe (39:1-4). The questions regarding the mountain goat and the doe giving birth to their young in places that are inaccessible or hidden from man, implies that only God can watch over them and assist them in the birth process.

Now Job’s attention is turned to the wild donkey (39:5-8). The wild donkey loves its freedom far removed from civilization: “he scorns the commotion of the city.” Unlike the domesticated donkey, the wild donkey does not submit to the yoke and command of the wagon master: “he does not hear the driver’s shout.” This very animal that resists domestication by man has been granted its independent nature and lifestyle by God: “it is God who untied his ropes” (39:5).

Next, the LORD points Job to the wild ox (39:9-12). The questions emphasize the independence as well as the unharness-able power of the wild ox; here is another animal that resists man’s control. But, being a creature of God, the wild ox is subject to God’s sovereign control and fulfills the purpose for which God has made him: although he is not useful to man, the wild ox is useful to God.

Then there is the ostrich (39:13-18). The ways of the ostrich may seem odd to man: she proudly waves her wings, but she cannot fly; she seemingly neglects her eggs and her young. It is because God, her Maker, did not endow her with wisdom, yet He sees to it that her young do not perish and that her species does not become extinct. God has also seen fit to endow her with speed enough to outrace the horse and rider: “when she spreads her feathers Ito run], she laughs at the horse and rider” (vs. 18). As one contemplates the ostrich, one finds that the ways and purposes of God are beyond human comprehension.

The next animal to which the LORD points Job is the horse (39:19-25). God has endowed the horse with might and fearless courage in the face of battle. He has made the horse to be a majestic creature; as such he bears testimony to the majesty of his Creator.

Finally, Job is invited to consider the hawk and the eagle (39:26-30). The hawk, as she migrates to the south each autumn (39:26), bears testimony to the wisdom of her Creator. Likewise does the eagle: she soars in the heavens and builds her nest high up in the rocky crag far removed from danger; but even from that lofty height her keen eyesight enables her to spot the prey far below. The birds of prey are yet further testimony to the wisdom of the Creator and to the wonderful provisions He has made for His creatures.

Thus, the LORD confronts Job with the fact that He is the all-wise and caring Sustainer of His creation: governing His creation and providing for all His creatures, each one uniquely endowed and fitted by their Creator to serve His purpose and display His majesty.

Here is a second reason to place our confidence in the LORD, namely, because He is the caring Sustainer of all His creation and all His creatures. How much more so is He the loving, covenant-keeping God who has special care for His children in Christ Jesus:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store up food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matt. 6:26

Place Your Confidence in the LORD, Because He Is Our Faithful Covenant God←⤒🔗

Not only has Job been confronted by God as the all-wise Creator and the caring Sustainer of His creation; Job has also been confronted by God as the faithful covenant LORD.

When He confronts Job, God reveals Himself by His covenant name: “The LORD [or, Jehovah] answered Job.” (38:1) The significance of the use of God’s covenant name is to be found from such a passage as Deuteronomy 7:9, “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”

Here is the great climax to the whole book. But how are we to understand this encounter with the LORD? What does it tell us about God’s justice and man’s relationship to His justice? Does the Book of Job come to any resolution concerning the justice of God?

One answer, which we may dismiss as soon as we have presented it, asserts that God is not bound by justice. This is the view propounded by the Jewish Old Testament scholar, M. Tsevat. He maintains that by His speeches at the end of the book, God is informing Job that justice does not apply to God­ it only applies to man in his relation to his fellow man. Tsevat apparently draws this conclusion from the fact that in His speeches, God reveals Himself as Creator and Sustainer, but He does not speak of Himself as the Dispenser of justice.⁴

But this view is utterly unacceptable. To begin with, it goes contrary to the whole testimony of Scripture concerning the person and justice of God. Just to mention a few of the multitude of passages that speak of God’s righteousness and justice, we note the following:

The LORD is righteous; he loves righteousness. Psl. 11:7a

God is a righteous judge. Psl. 7:11a

Furthermore, Tsevat’s thesis that justice does not apply to the Almighty, fails to take into consideration the use of God’s covenant name. The very fact He has entered into covenant with His people indicates that God is committed to a reciprocal relationship of justice with His covenant people.

We have mentioned Tsevat’s totally unacceptable view for the purpose of contrasting it with the traditional view of the divine speeches found at the conclusion of the Book of Job. The traditional view maintains that God’s justice is not comprehensible to man; just as man cannot fathom God’s work of creation, neither can he fathom God’s justice and how it works. As the Old Testament scholar, D. Kidner, remarks, the traditional view is probably the widest consensus on the final message of the Book of Job. It is most eloquently expressed by E. J. Young, who writes,

By constant appeal to the creation and the incomprehensible nature of the created universe, God brings to the fore the infinite, absolute distance between the Creator and the creature. Man, being a creature and hence finite, cannot comprehend the infinite wisdom of God or the mystery of His rule...Job and his sufferings have their place in God’s all-wise, incomprehensible disposition of things. All is well. Why should Job seek to penetrate the mystery? God is upon the throne. That is enough.⁵

But is it enough?

This view, which is the traditional view of the message of the Book of Job, is actually the converse of the view presented by M. Tsevat. Whereas Tsevat would separate God from justice, (blasphemously claiming that justice does not apply to God), the traditional view has the tendency of separating man from justice, (claiming that justice is beyond man’s comprehension). Neither of these views is consistent with the message of the Book of Job.

When we examine more closely the concluding chapters of the Book of Job, we discover that there is, indeed, a resolution!

Ironically, the key to understanding the final resolution of the book is to be found in what does not happen when Job encounters the LORD in the theophany (i.e. the visible manifestation of God).

When He appears in the theophany, the LORD answered Job “out of the tempest.” The fact that He makes His appearance “out of the tempest,” is an indication that God is coming in His capacity as the righteous Judge of all the earth, (note, for example, Psalms 18 and 29, and especially Nahum 1:2-6). We may also mention Exodus 20, where God again manifests Himself in the tempest as He comes to Israel as the Great Lawgiver.

Now observe what does not happen: although the LORD (the faithful, covenant-keeping God) answers Job “out of the tempest” (38:1), Job is not swept away! In the light of Proverbs 10:25, (“When the tempest has swept past, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever”), the significance of this is two-fold:

• First, it means that Job is justified before God: Job’s standing before the LORD as He manifests Himself in the storm of divine judgment demonstrates Job’s innocence, his righteousness; as Proverbs 10:25b testifies, “the righteous stand firm forever.”
   
• Second, it means that God is justified before the world: Job’s standing before the storm demonstrates God’s justice, God’s righteousness; it demonstrates that God does make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked.

Here we may take note of the LORD’s testimony recorded in Malachi 3:17-18, referring to the righteous, the LORD declares,

'¹⁷They will be mine', declares the LORD of hosts, 'in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. ¹⁸And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.'

Although Job is reduced to silence, he is not swept away before the tempest. Because of his devotion to God—and that produced in him by the grace of God—God has made Job to stand secure. Job experienced the very thing of which the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the LORD is able to make him stand.”

From Job’s encounter with the LORD, let us learn the third reason why we should place our confidence in the LORD; namely, the fact that He is our faithful covenant God.

Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Deut. 7:9

Discussion Questions←⤒🔗

1. When God does personally answer Job, what charge does He bring against him? See Job 38:1-2 What man does not speak “with words that lack knowledge,” i.e. what man does not speak from a position of limited knowledge? As Christians, must we not bear this in mind when we question God, or when we hear the ungodly disparage the Almighty? In contrast to finite man, how is the LORD described? See Psl. 147:5b,

Then the LORD answered Job out of the tempest. He said, ²Who is this who darkens deliberations with words that lack knowledge? Job 38:1-2

 Great is the LORD, and mighty in power; his understanding is infinite. Psl. 147:5

2. In contrast to the ancient Near Eastern myths that recount “the supreme deity” winning his right to rule only after defeating the sea god (or goddess) in fierce battle, how does the LORD poetically describe His relationship to the sea? See Job 38:8-11 What does the LORD tell us about Himself when He portrays Himself as a great “midwife” who presided over the “birth” of the sea, and then sovereignly sets its limits? See Psl. 147:5a,

Who knit the sea together behind doors; who brought it forth gushing from the womb; ⁹when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in dark mist, ¹⁰when I fixed limits for it and set its bolted doors, ¹¹and said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves will break'? Job 38:8-11

Great is the LORD, and mighty in power; his understanding is infinite. Psl. 147:5

3. How does the LORD poetically describe His sovereign work of causing the morning light of dawn to replace the darkness of the night? See Job 38:12-13 What effect does this have upon the wicked? See Job 38:15 What does this tell us about the LORD’s work of presently restraining and limiting the activity of evil men? Note Prov. 16:4,

Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,¹³that it might take the earth by its edges, [like a huge tablecloth,] and shake the wicked out of it? Job 38:12-13

Poetically speaking, the morning light causes the wicked to flee into the darkness, like crumbs shaken off of a table cloth.

The wicked are denied their “light;” their upraised arm is broken. Job 38:15

In their morally perverted world of evil, the darkness of the night is the “light” by which the wicked work their evil; the dawn denies them this “light.”

The LORD has made all [things] for himself; Indeed, even the wicked for the day of doom [or, calamity]. Prov. 16:4

For the wicked, the day of judgment is the day of calamity.

4. In contrast to the pagan belief that the signs of the Zodiac control the affairs of men, what does the LORD tell us about His control over the stars and the constellations? See Job 38:31-33 As a Christian, do you appreciate God’s providential care of His creation and over your life? See Neh. 9:6; Lk. 12:6-7,

Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords that bind Orion? ³²Can you bring out the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with her cubs? ³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish their dominion over the earth? Job 38:31-33

You alone [are] the LORD; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all things on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. Neh. 9:6

Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Lk. 12:6-7

5. By what divine name, or in what capacity, does God answer Job? See Job 38:1a What is the significance of this name? See Deut. 7:9 The LORD answers Job out of the midst of what phenomenon? See Job 38:1b What does Proverbs 10:25 tell us results when God appears in the tempest? What, if anything, happens to Job; what does this tell us about Job? What does this tell us about the LORD God? When will we witness the full revelation of the LORD’s righteousness? See Matt. 25:31-32,

Then the LORD answered Job out of the tempest. Job 38:1

Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Deut. 7:9

When the tempest passes by, the wicked is no [more], but the righteous [has] an everlasting foundation. Prov. 10:25

When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Matt. 25:31-32