The Lord’s answer to Job takes up four chapters and has two parts. In chapters 38:1–40:5 God speaks and Job responds (40:3–5), and in chapters 40:6–42:6 the Lord speaks again and again Job responds. Throughout both parts of the speech the Lord continues the theme begun by Elihu, especially in chapter 37:14–24. There Elihu asks Job questions that expose Job’s ignorance of the creation and his inability to govern it as God does. “Do you know what God knows?” and “Can you do what God does?” are the sharp point of his speech. God’s answer to Job follows the same line.
Introduction (38:1-3)
The first three verses of chapter 38 are the introduction to the speech. There are three things to notice in it. First, the name Yahweh appears again. Throughout the speeches of Job and his friends they used the names God and the Almighty. The name Yahweh appears only in chapters 1, 2 and 38–42. There is just one exception to this rule in 12:9.
Second, the Lord spoke to Job out of the whirlwind (tempest might be a better translation). The Lord often used a whirlwind to reveal his power. He sent a tempest to pursue Jonah when Jonah tried to flee from him, and he took Elijah to heaven by it.
He commands and raises the stormy wind, Which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, They go down to the depths; Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits’ end (Ps. 107:25–27)
He uses it for judgment; “You will be punished by the LORD of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire” (Isa. 29:6). “Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD has gone forth in fury—a violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked” (Jer. 23:19). It accompanies fire, clouds and very bright light in the revelation of his glory in Ezekiel 1. “Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire” (Ezek. 1:4).
We should not imagine a normal thunderstorm but something big and violent. God did not reveal his being directly; no man can see him and live. But he did show his power in this storm, and it must have been a frightening display to Job.
Third, the Lord challenged Job; “Who is this?” We can get a sense of the force of that question if we imagine some ordinary man without any standing and without any invitation thrusting himself into the throne room of the king and there, even before the king gives him permission to speak, bursting out with accusations of royal perversion of justice. The king’s response would naturally be, “Who is this? What kind of status does he have? Where are his credentials? What right does he have to be here? What does he know, and is he wise enough to shed light on any of the points he is raising? What is he able to do to help resolve the matter?” And the man has nothing, no status, no credentials, no right, no wisdom, no power to help. That is Job before God. He has thrust himself in where he should not be. The pruposeof all the speech of God that follows is to put Job back in his place.
The Lord also accused Job of darkening counsel by words without knowledge. He has said nothing that can guide his own or his friends’ understanding of the Lord’s ways but has only obscured the main point.
Finally, he invited Job to stand up like a man (the Hebrew word means warrior or man in his strength) and contend with him. This is what Job had asked for, but before he can begin God will speak. Job has had his say and, before he proceeds farther, must answer some questions from God. The questions follow in the rest of chapters 38 and 39, and the Lord has many questions, all about Job’s knowledge and control of the creation.
First Series of Questions (38:4–38)
Chapter 38:4–38 is about various aspects of the inanimate creation, and chapter 38:39–39:30 is about the animate creation, various animals.
In the first series of questions, the Lord uses many vivid metaphors to describe his works. He begins with the work of creation, and he uses metaphors from the construction industry. He laid the earth’s foundations, determined its measurements, stretched his line over it, fastened its foundations, and laid its cornerstone. Where was Job then, and what does he know about all this?
In verses 8–11 he directs Job’s attention to the sea, and here he uses two metaphors. The sea burst forth from the womb, and the Lord clothed it with clouds and wrapped it with the swaddling band of darkness. Then he built bars and doors to prevent it from overflowing the boundaries that he had set for it. Did Job have any hand in this?
Did Job command the morning? Is he the one who makes objects appear and take shape as the light begins to shine on them (vv. 12–15)?
Verses 16–17 picture the gates of death as lying at the bottom of the sea. Has Job explored those depths or entered those doors?
Has Job comprehended the breadth of the earth (v. 18)?
What can Job tell him about the places of light and darkness? Can he lead them to their homes at the end of their work shift? Was he born when they began (vv. 19–21)?
How about the weather (vv. 22–30)? Has Job entered the arsenal where God stores up snow and hail for the day of battle and war? How is light diffused, or the east wind scattered over the face of the earth? Did Job dig the channel or prepare the path by which the rain and thunderbolts come to the particular places on earth appointed for them? Does he know whether the rain has a father, and from whose womb come the ice and frost?
Can Job manage the chains that bind the constellations together (vv. 30–33)? Can he set their dominion over the earth? Some commentators have taken this as an allusion to pagan mythology and astrology, the idea that the stars influence men’s lives, but I think it is much more likely that it refers to Genesis 1:14–16. “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.”
Who can number the clouds by wisdom or open the skins of water in the heavens and make rain fall on the earth or send out lightnings (vv. 34–38)? Who, in fact, put wisdom in the mind of man?
In his commentary on Proverbs, Christopher Ash suggests that there is also a moral dimension to many of these questions. Verse 7 talks about the joy of the angels upon seeing the goodness of the original creation. Verses 13–15 mention the wicked, and the Lord uses another beautiful metaphor. The dawn as it rises takes holds of the edge of the earth, as a man might take hold of the edges of a rug, and shakes it out so that all the wicked fall off. The wicked love darkness and hate light; the light drives them into their hiding places. Verse 17 speaks of death which entered the creation only through the fall of man. Verse 23 shows us God exercising judgment on the nations. Verses 26–27 raise the question, “Why would God pour out his rain on desolate places where there are no animals or men that need it?” Man has failed in his responsibility to fill the earth and subdue it. But God governs also all the effects of the fall, death, the grave, trouble and war and everything else. Is Job qualified then to challenge God about the troubles he has experienced?
There is perhaps even an undercurrent here that points to other works of God. When God talks about the seas being confined, does he mean also to remind us that he governs the rebellious nations, which the Scriptures often describe as floods and seas? When the dawn shakes the wicked from the earth and breaks their arm, is he prophesying the coming of the dayspring from on high? Sheol exists because of his judgment. What will be the end of his work there? He uses the snow and hail as weapons against his enemies. How long will he permit them to continue in their ways?
So these questions to Job are not only about his knowledge of and control over the creation, but also about his knowledge of control over the evils that have afflicted the creation since man’s fall. What does Job know and what can he do about these things? Is he really qualified to judge about them even as they come into his own life?
Second Series of Questions (38:39–39:30)
The next series of questions all has to do with various animals. Can Job provide food for the lion and the raven (38:39–41)? Does he know when the mountain goats and the deer give birth (39:1–4)? Who set the wild donkey and the onager free, so that he scorns the tumult of the city (vv. 5–8)? Can Job make the wild ox serve him in his fields (vv. 9–12)?
God asks no question about the ostrich but points out two things about her. First, at the beginning and end of the passage, she has great speed. “When she lifts herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider.” But, secondly, she is stupid in her care for her young. “God deprived her of wisdom.” Why would he do that?
Does Job give the warhorse its strength, fierceness and eagerness for battle? “At th blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of captains and shouting.”
Do the hawk and eagle mount up in the sky by Job’s wisdom or command?
The Lord designed all of these questions to expose Job’s ignorance and inability to govern the creation. All of the animals are wild animals, except the war horse (which could almost be considered wild), God takes Job beyond the scope of his knowledge and control, the domestic animals about which he can claim some knowledge and in whose care he has some involvement. In that sphere he assists in the processes of birth and in the care of the young, but in the wild the animals bear their young and care for them without his help. He provides no food for the lions and ravens, knows nothing about the times when the mountain goats and deer give birth, and they deliver and raise their young without his help (39:3–4). The ostrich treats her young harshly (v. 16), but Job can do nothing about it. The eagles and hawks feed their young with carrion, and Job cannot even reach them in their high nests. There is trouble, violence and death in the creation, and Job can neither explain nor stop it. It is all in the mighty hands of God.
The Conclusion (40:1–5)
The Lord therefore concludes this part of his speech to Job with the words, “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it” (40:2). He has brought no charges of sin against Job which would explain his suffering (as understood by Job’s friends). He has not declared Job innocent (as Job contended). He does not judge the content of Job’s speeches or point out to him specific faults in them. He ignores the whole argument between them. Neither does God explain to Job the circumstances that began the story, the accusation of Satan and the Lord’s permission to Satan to trouble Job. He only makes the point that it is beyond the power and authority of man to correct or rebuke the Almighty.
Job’s response is, finally, the right one: “Behold, I am of small account” (ESV). This is not a confession of sin, though the NKJV translation of the Hebrew with “vile” tends that way. It is a confession of insignificance. It is the same confession we make when we say that we are dust. Job has nothing more to say. He has spoken once, even twice (in fact, many times), but now he will lay his hand on his mouth. He has learned the fear of the Lord which is wisdom.
This is the proper posture of man before God, and it is fundamental to godly living in God’s world and to exercising our reason about God’s ways with us. If we do not fear him, we cannot hope to understand anything correctly, nor come to any peace in the afflictions he sends us.