This article is part of a series in this month’s issue and assumes that the earlier articles have been read. It would be good to first familiarize yourself with the discussion to this point in the book.
After the introduction in chapters one and two, God is silent. It is not until chapter 38 that he weighs in on the conversation that has been taking place and He does so by addressing Job directly and his friends indirectly.
That conversation is recorded in this order:
- God speaks Job 38:1-40:2
- Job responds Job 40:3-5
- God speaks again Job 40:6 – 41
- Job responds Job 42:1-6
God begins each of the two parts of his response with a similar challenge. God says: “
Now tighten the belt on your waist like a man, and I shall ask you, and you inform Me! (38:3)
“Now tighten the belt on your waist like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct Me. (40:7)
God calls upon Job to act like a man…to get ready, to marshal his strength and sharpen his mind. God called the ‘best version of Job into his presence…to attend to His words. And while it seems that God spoke rather sharply, He responded directly to things that Job had said in chapter 13. Job demanded his day in court before almighty God. He was sick and tired of what his ‘friends’ had to say and wanted them to stop talking.
Job had in an important sense gone ‘over their heads’ and called on God directly (13) saying: “But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God” (vs 2) “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him”. (vs 15).
Job was quite certain that he would be acquitted. But to make things fair, he wanted relief from physical misery and his pervasive sense of dread (vs 21). He wanted to think straight and present his case with the dignity that it deserved. Job even repeated his request for God to answer him directly and in person…in 31:35.
But before God responded, a younger man named Elihu invited himself into the conversation and went on a 6 chapter rant.
There is therefore good reason to think that God responded first to Elihu in 38:2 in a parenthetic aside – when he asked: “Who is this who darkens the divine plan by words without knowledge? Elihu had accused Job of doing just that in Job 34:35-37, when he declared:
“Job speaks without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom. Oh that Job were tested to the limit, Because he answers like sinners. For he adds rebellion to his sin; He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.’”
God appears to throw Elihu’s words back in his face. He does that while later revealing that he found no fault with Job. For In Job 42:7-8 the writer records what God said to Job’s other ‘friends’:
“It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is trustworthy, as My servant Job has”.
What Job had said was true and trustworthy. God approved of Job and instructed his friends to offer sacrifices officiated by Job on their behalf. Thus the rebuke in 38:2 does not appear to apply to Job and is the only response in the book to all that Elihu said.
Now when God responded (ch 38-40), He agreed to engage Job on matters of wisdom and judgment (fairness) for in all other ways there was ‘no contest’1.
Yet in a very significant way, His invitation was genuine. It was genuine because logic is the same for both God and Man and truth is antithetical. A thing and it’s opposite cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense. A person does not have to know everything in order to know something. Therefore, God’s exhaustive knowledge cannot set aside any particular that is true and for that reason, there was room for dialogue.
Having said that, we must concede that God does not submit to peer-review. Or to put it another way, we are not God’s peers. Only members of the godhead engage in conversation at that level – so God’s dialogue with Job takes place is a divine concession – or condescension. He is not obligated to answer nor are his decisions subject to our judgment.
It is also important to understand that the context for what follows is God’s divine plan. Particulars count, but take their meaning from a larger context. That is what God was driving at when He asked: ““Who is this who darkens the divine plan, by words without knowledge?” While a rebuke to Elihu…God meant for Job and the others to be aware, that ultimate answers can only be obtained and understood in the context of His eternal plan.
It is immediately clear that Job and his friends are in over their heads. They are the blind leading the blind – without security clearances into the mind of God. God alone knew why He created the world and made Man in His image. His eternal purposes were His alone. Only He knew the ends toward which history was moving and the part or place assigned to each individual. Not only does “The Father Know Best’, but there are so many many things, which only the Father knows. His eternal plan is not embedded in the ‘nature of things’, but in the mind of God.
So God’s Divine Plan is the backdrop for this discussion of God and of his ways.
The narrative explains why it is that Job and his friends are arguing in the first place. Job’s friends argue that bad things do not happen to good people’2, while Job insists that they do. The story begins this way:
“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil”.
As head of his family, Job also served as a priest, continually interceding on behalf of his family, consecrating them to the lord and offering burnt sacrifices on their behalf. God held him in high esteem and his reputation was known among ‘the sons of God’ and certainly by Satan3.
Job was doing what he knew to do. He shunned evil, repented when guilty, offering burnt sacrifices as God required. What he did not know – would not be revealed until the time of the apostles….that burnt offerings and sacrifices could never atone for sin (Heb 10:1-4).
Before God made the world, He planned to send his son as a sacrifice for sin (Eph 1). While Job was blameless before God, the price of his blamelessness would one day be borne by the Son of God. Job was not aware of the gaps in his knowledge nor just how crucial they were to finding the answers that he sought. And for His part, God was not ready to tell him. He reserved those answers for ‘the fullness of time’.
No surprise then that God’s response was not what Job had been hoping for. Job wanted to plead his case, hoping that God would exonerate him and then explain what was happening in his life.
But God had already knew what Job was thinking and had heard what he said to his companions. God was aware of the gaps in Job’s knowledge – that knew nothing about the role that Satan played in Job’s misery. Nor was Job aware that God had singled him out because he was exceptionally godly. He had been chosen to endure trials and suffering because of his goodness. The book of Job introduces or at least develops the concept of ‘worthiness to suffer’. That there is such a thing as suffering for righteousness. The bible returns to this principle as it applied ultimately to Jesus and then to his apostles (Acts 5:41)
But within Job’s worldview, that was not possible. God meant it as a test of faith while Satan meant for Job to abandon God and curse Him to his face. This hidden spiritual realm was out of sight and did not enter Job’s thinking or that of his friends.
Historically speaking, Job was not the only person singled out for temptation by Satan because of their righteousness. He tempted Abraham, Joseph and worked overtime in the life of Jesus who alone was sinless and the greatest threat to Satan’s power. Men and women in a right relationship with God have always been the counterpoint to Satan’s criticism. Satan claims that no person serves God because they know him and love Him. It is not even real thankfulness or respect. He argues that any time God rewards righteousness, he just guarantees that no one is good for the sake of goodness (or the one who is Good). No matter what God chooses to do, Satan finds fault.
Job also did not know enough to make a distinction between the active will and the permissive will of God. It was not God’s will for Job to suffer, yet he temporarily permitted Satan to do on earth – what he ordinarily could not.
The permissive will of God began with the creation of the heavenly realm and then the temporal one. It happened when He freely took the decision to create men and women in his image. He could not do so without also granting freedom of choice. So while God forbids sin He also permits it to occur. The price that God paid for granting the ability to honour and to serve him was the corresponding choice to reject and disobey. And having created the heavenly realm first, God had extended this right to spiritual beings like Satan. Job also did not know that. So when bad things happened and some of them appeared to come directly from the spiritual realm, Job held God responsible.
The Nature of God’s Response:
Read: 38:1-40:2
When God responded, he argued from the lesser to the greater. He asked a series of questions about ‘nature’ that seemed to have nothing to do with matters of righteousness or justice. His point was, that Job was ignorant. He was ignorant about his own world and even more so, the world above.
Here is a sample of the questions raised by God along with areas of study:
- Where were you when I made the world? (Origins – Etiology)
- Who established the dimensions of the cosmos? “Can you tie up the chains of the Pleiades, Or untie the cords of Orion? Can you bring out a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her satellites? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or do you establish their rule over the earth?
- What do you know about the expanding universe? About astronomy, and astrophysics?
- Can you order them about so that they obey you?
- How has the world been hung upon nothing?
- Explain gravitation and the laws of motion.
- How is it that water becomes a cloud? Do you know where snow and hail come from? Can you command them in battle? (What are the properties of water? Explain evaporation, condensation and sublimation. And do you have the power to use the weather in battle?)
- What separates light from darkness? And where does light come from? Have you ever followed it home?
- Tell me about light, about particles and wavelength, and radiation
- Have you ever commanded the morning or evening?
- Can you make the world turn or stop it? Do you even know that it orbits the sun?
- What is it that holds the sea back? Have you been to the bottom of the sea or seen it’s springs? Tell me all about plate tectonics, oceanography and seabed mapping.
- Can you command the gates of death? Do you know what comes next?
- Where did life come from? And what happens when you die? Can you choose not to die or open the gates of death to let dead people out?
God even asked about capacity of the human mind: “Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, or given understanding to the mind?” Tell me about mind and consciousness, about intellect and reasoning. How is it possible to rely on your mind and draw valid conclusions?
So it was that the things that Job did not know about in the world around him, went on and on.
The implication was…how much more then was Job also ignorant of the ‘things of God’ and of His divine?. God’s administration of the world and of the world beyond – was truly beyond Job, as was the way in which these worlds interacted with each other.
In Job’s day, death was the horizon, beyond which men could not see. It seemed to his companions that if justice was not served in this life, then it did not take place at all.
But Job had gone beyond their thinking – for in (Job 19:25-27a) he declared: “Yet as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last, He will take His stand on the earth (dust). Even after my skin is (dust) destroyed, Yet from my flesh I will see God, whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself, and whom my eyes will see, and not another”.
Like Abraham, Job concluded that physical life is not the end. At the end, his redeemer would take his stand upon the earth to deliver justice and Job would be there to see it.
What God said in chapters 38-39 was not actually off topic at all. He was not ignoring Job’s questions but was actually giving him time to discover just how much he did not know. God uses humility to open our minds. To the degree to which we think that we have the answers or are certain that there are none, our minds remain closed. In order to bless us, God allows life to humble us and for Satan play a role. Our Heavenly Father hopes that when our minds are open, we will actually listen to what He has said in his word.
This is not the method that we expect or prefer. Jesus pointed out how difficult it is for the rich, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 19:23-26). The apostle Paul observed that to those who are self-sufficient, to the wise and to those of noble birth, the gospel seems weak and foolish (1 Cor. 1:26-30).
So God allowed Job to lose his wealth along with his family and health. Job had been humbled in all areas except in his reasoning…which is what chapters 38-42 are all about.
Yet, while God’s questions were humbling, they did not convict Job of sin or to point out his guilt. So while his friends reasoned from the heights of Job’s suffering to the depths of his sin. God argued from the depths of faithful suffering to the heights of Job’s righteousness. He was God’s man, come what may. As Job put it ‘though he slay me, I will hope in Him” (13:15).
Divine silence in chapters 38-40 on the subject of sin implies that God was not punishing Job at all. That was not the explanation.
Not only that, suffering and misfortune in life sometimes come from non-personal sources. And when they do, they have no direct connection to sin. The forces of gravity are not subject to the laws of morality and the laws of motion are the same for saints and sinners. Life on God’s earth includes non-moral physical realities which simply exist. God has given us the capacity and responsibility to learn about them and to live responsibly. Jesus alluded to this when he referred to eighteen people who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them. He said that it did not happen to them because they were worse sinners than others. (Lk 13:4-5). They were simply there and in the way.
God’s questions in chapters 38-39 pointed to a world so beyond Job’s comprehension as to imply that an exhaustive answer from was not possible. The world is unfathomably complex as is God’s management of it. His management of the spiritual world and of moral judgment is even more so. Not only was Job is out of his depth, but he was also danger of leaving his place as the creature before the creator – by ‘calling God out’.
Therefore, chapter 40:1-5 begins with this brief interchange between God and Job after which God resumed speaking:
“Then the Lord said to Job, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who rebukes God give an answer.”
Then Job answered the Lord and said, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I say in response to You? I put my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not reply; Or twice, and I will add nothing more.”
God asked – in effect
- Job, who do you think you are?
- What qualifies you to ‘contend’ with me?
- Are you finished complaining or do you have more to say?
To which Job answered:
- It was not my place and I had no right to question you.
- I will say no more.
Verses 6-8
How often we feel the need to accuse others in order to establish our own innocence. Job had gone in that direction, but it was not necessary. God was innocent and so was Job. God was not punishing Job nor had he committed some ‘great sin’ to bring about his suffering.
Verses 9-14
God challenged Job to take his seat on high. To summon up all his authority and bring the world to justice. If he can do that, then he can also save himself. How ridiculous. Job had made it clear what he would do if he were God. But he is not – nor can he do what only God can.
So Job 40:15 – 41:34 is all about divine planning and power. God planned each and every creature that he created from behemoth and leviathan to millions of others. No created thing exists by accident. God conceived each one and created it, placing it within an ecosystem.
God also reminded Job that when push comes to shove, Job can’t do much pushing. He is weak before ‘behemoth’ and in danger from ‘leviathan’. There is no pushing back against creatures created by God. How much less can we resist the power of God?
When all is said and done, all power resides in God. It is not a matter of ‘might makes right’. It is instead the case, that the one who is right is also all-powerful4.
Confronted by all that he does not know and cannot do, Job spoke to God saying:
“I know that You can do all things, and that no plan is impossible for You. Who is this who conceals advice without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I do not know. ‘Please listen, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; Therefore I (abhor myself), and I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.”
Here is what Job has come to know and what he confesses:
- That God can do all that He sets out to accomplish. He can do all that can be done.
- I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. My advice was offered in ignorance.
- I am resolved from now on, to listen to You O Lord. You have opened my eyes.
- I had heard about you, but You have allowed me see You. And having seen you I see myself as I really am before you.
- So I take back what I said and repent, sitting in dust and covered in ashes.
Without final answers – Job is finally satisfied. He is satisfied to know that God is still in charge and managing well without his help. He commits himself to God’s care – to God’s benevolence and salvation, knowing that His creator is also his redeemer.
1 Even so, God’s knowledge is exhaustive in the sense that He knows all that can be known. He has followed every line of reasoning to it’s logical end and done so in keeping with His own righteousness and justice.
2Theodicy is the study of ‘innocent’ suffering in light of a good and benevolent God.
3This may be a reference to an angelic body. But in this context it more likely refers to other godly people gathered in God’s presence for worship. Having been cast out of heaven (Rev. 12:7-9), Satan cannot come and go there at will. Passages relating to the term ‘sons of God’ – Gen. 6:2, Luke 3:38, Rom 8:14, Heb 12:7-8 Satan arrives at this gathering having roved about on the earth.
4I am reminded of the way that this principle was expressed in the New Testament. God permitted the enemies of Jesus to put Him to death. But he did not permit anyone to keep his Son in the grave. When Ananias and Sapphira lied to God, God put them to death (Acts 5:1-11). When Herod accepted worship and did not honour God, God caused him to be ‘eaten by worms’ (Acts 12:23). When Elymas the magician contradicted the gospel, the apostle Paul struck him blind by the power of God (13:8-12). When false apostles at Corinth refused to repent, Paul threatened to use divine power to discipline them (2 Cor 13:1-4). And at the end of time, God will call all men and women into his presence to judge them. He will impose his will and those who have made the choice to disbelieve, disobey and to challenge His authority – these will have nothing more to say.