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The Lord Answers Job

Job 38:1-7

Good News Translation (GNT)

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  1  Then out of the storm the Lord spoke to Job.

   The Lord
  2  Who are you to question my wisdom with your
   ignorant, empty words?
  3  Now stand up straight and answer the
   questions I ask you.
  4  Were you there when I made the world?
   If you know so much, tell me about it.
  5  Who decided how large it would be?
   Who stretched the measuring line over it?
   Do you know all the answers?
  6  What holds up the pillars that support the
   earth? Who laid the cornerstone of the world?
  7  In the dawn of that day the stars sang
   together, and the heavenly beings shouted
   for joy.

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   Commentary taken from Our Daily Bread
   Ministries, a Christian organization founded
   by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938.

Beyond what we know

      Job 38:1-7

We can find nearly every argument in the book of Job about why there is pain in the world, but the arguing never seems to help Job much.

His is a crisis of relationship rather than a crisis of doubt. Can he trust God?
Job wants one thing above all else: an appearance by the one Person who can explain his miserable fate. He wants to meet God Himself, face to face.

Eventually Job gets his wish. God shows up in person.
He times His entrance with perfect irony, just as Job's friend Elihu is expounding on why Job has no right to expect a visit from God.

No one -
not Job, nor any of his friends - is prepared for what God has to say.

Job has saved up a long list of questions, but it is God, not Job, who asks the questions.

"Now stand up straight like a man," He begins;
"I will question you, and you shall answer me".

Brushing aside thirty-five chapters' worth of debates on the problem of pain, God plunges into a majestic poem on the wonders of the natural world.

God's speech defines the vast difference between the God of all creation and one puny man like Job.

His presence spectacularly answers Job's biggest question: Is anybody out there?

Job can only respond, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know" (Job 42:3 NCV)

Lord, we have so many questions about life and its unfairness.
You have shown Yourself good to us. Help us to trust You for what we cannot understand.

No calamity is beyond God's sovereignty.

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