God Responds To Job

Job's Complaint: A Righteous Man Who Made Himself the Center 1:32

Now, what does any of that have to do with Job? Well, that's a good question. Well, Job, as we've talked about in the past few weeks, this was a good and a righteous man. In fact, God had looked down at Job and said, this is the most upstanding, righteous man on the face of the earth.

He was a good guy, a righteous guy, and if you were to look at everything that Job said across chapters 1 through 38, Job knew that he wasn't perfect, but he knew he was a guy doing his best for God. With that said, he belabors that point across the first 37 chapters. Job tended to put Job at the center of his discourse.

If you wonder why God comes off kind of strong in today's reading, which God does, it's because when you read Job's words, although Job was righteous and a good man and a holy man and devout man, he was also pretty self-interested with regards to what was going on. He spends 37 chapters really defending himself and his righteousness.

In the moments of pain and difficulty, Job was the center of Job's own universe. Now, Job loved God, but he had begun to think that God was in orbit somewhere distant of him and either was misinformed or not doing the things that God should be doing if He had maybe a greater handle on what was going on in Job's life.

And that's why back in chapter 13, Job says, I have a case. I have a case, and my greatest desire is to go before my God and say, God, I have a case that I would argue with You. I am righteous. I don't deserve everything that has befallen me.

Now, is arguing with God a good idea? Not so much. But just like the man who sees himself at the center of the universe, Job trusted his own evaluations over and against even God.

The Lord Answers Out of the Whirlwind 3:14

“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

— Job 38:2-3 (NKJV)

Well, in today's reading, chapter 38, God is going to say, no, no, no, no. God's going to say, I know you're hurting. I know you're confused. I know you're wracked with pain and the like, but I'm going to put an end to this. And He's going to express to Job the things that Job had been saying have been inappropriate, haven't fit the situation.

And in summary, the first few verses, God is going to ask Job, He's going to say, Who is this man? Who does he think he is? Who is this that dares to question me? Let's look at God's exact words as we return to verses one through three.

Okay, verses one through three. So then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and he said, Who is this, who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

The Advocate Who Seems to Oppose Us: An Illustration 4:09

I told you the other day, I don't do movie things very often, but I got one more for you. There's a scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings where you have little tiny Bilbo Baggins and he has begun to question his good friend Gandalf, the old wizardy guy, his motivations. Now for those of you who remember the movie, the scene in question occurs kind of early on when they're gathered in his little Shire hut.

You got little Bilbo and you got tall Gandalf and they're talking and Bilbo's upset. Bilbo doesn't understand what's going on. Bilbo's frustrated. At this point, Bilbo even clenches his tiny fists in rage, and he questions Gandalf's intentions.

He questions Gandalf's care and friendship for him. Bilbo was angry, he was bitter, and he unfairly accuses Gandalf in this scene. And although Gandalf loves Bilbo, Gandalf suddenly — he raises his stature, seems to grow ten times. The room is dark, and his voice is that much louder, and he says, Bilbo Baggins, I'm not trying to rob you.

I'm trying to help you. Gandalf in that moment wasn't trying to rob or hurt or mistreat Bilbo. In fact, he's on Bilbo's side. Gandalf isn't opposed to Bilbo.

He's actually Bilbo's greatest advocate, whether Bilbo understands that or not. And at that moment, at that moment in the movie, Bilbo realizes he's been wrong about Gandalf and he just runs to him and embraces him. Now, those who've seen the movie, do you know how Gandalf responds next? Well, he leans all the way down.

At one moment, he's been big and huge in the room and towering over Bilbo. But in this moment, holding him in his arms, he bends all the way down to look him in the eyes. And he says, Bilbo, all of the long years you and I have been friends. Trust me as you once did.

In a similar way, in the first 37 chapters of the book of Job, Job's difficulties have caused him to question his friend, to question his God, and his motivations, and what's going on. Repeatedly, Job has clenched his fists, so to speak, and he said, something's not right here. I have a case against my friend.

And as he has established this case, there's been accusations of the motivations, or intentions, or even the wisdom of what God is doing. Well, in verses 1 through three, again, God has had enough. He's raised up, so to speak. His voice has grown loud, and it's actually not coming out of a tiny room in the Shire — it's coming out of a whirlwind, out of a storm.

And verses one through three, the first thing He says is, He says, Who is this? Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now, I want to talk about what God's saying here, but let's talk about this whirlwind here for a moment.

The God of the Whirlwind: His Voice in the Storm 6:50

If you were to read the previous two chapters, chapters 36 and 37, you would see that there's references that Job's friends start to have about a storm that seems to be coming. Now, they use that in their discussion. They talk about God as the God of the thunder and the lightning and the like, but there's a storm evidently coming in chapters 36 and 37.

A real storm had been approaching during the course of their conversation. Well, by chapter 38, that storm is there. The storm has arrived in full, and amidst all of its ferocity comes the voice of God. Now, whirlwinds are not new to God.

He uses them frequently. He called up Elijah in the whirlwind. He spoke to Ezekiel from a whirlwind. In Psalms and elsewhere, he talks about God in the whirlwind, in the storm.

Well, powerful storms remind us that there is a powerful God, the God of the whirlwind. Whatever the case, before Job has a chance to duck or run for cover, God calls him out. He says, all right, all right, prepare yourself like a man because I have some questions for you. Now, that doesn't sound very promising.

That sounds kind of ominous. What does Job do next? Well, we don't know because God starts talking immediately.

Where Were You? God Questions Job About Creation 8:07

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?”

— Job 38:4-5 (NKJV)

Let's look at the next set of questions, or the first set of questions that God asks in verses 4 through 11 from chapter 38. So this is God talking to Job. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fashioned?

Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Who shut in the sea with doors and it burst forth and issued from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band. When I fixed my limit upon it, set bars and doors.

When I said, this far you may come, but no further. And here your proud waves stop.

The Folly of the Uninformed Critic 8:58

You know, if you were an expert in some particular field, if you're an expert in law, if you're an expert in engineering, medicine, or what have you, you probably don't like it when someone with a much lesser understanding or no understanding at all comes in and questions your conclusions and your decisions and your thought processes and the like.

If you're a subject matter expert, you don't want someone who comes in with no knowledge whatsoever questioning you. That's not the way this works. Does anyone have a relative who makes a great backseat driver? Most of us can relate to that.

Maybe we are the backseat driver. But if you're driving the car and you've been driving — in your minds, I've been driving for 50 years, I know how to drive this car — and someone to your right or behind you or three rows back says, hey, and gives you some feedback on your driving.

Is that something you want? Has anyone ever coached youth athletics? You know, one of the most challenging parts of coaching youth athletics is you're doing the best. You're sitting there in the dugout and like two rows behind you, you can hear some parents grumbling.

Yeah, they should put in Bobby. You know, Bobby's amazing. This kid can't play shortstop. You know, that sort of thing.

You hear that sort of comments and it's frustrating because you're the coach. Now, it's frustrating usually, whether you're a coach or you're in the front seat driving or you're a doctor, a lawyer, or engineer, it's frustrating to get input from uninformed sources precisely because they are uninformed sources. They're giving you input on how to do your job coming from insufficient information in which to offer their input.

If I was to show up at your house and say, I've got some thoughts on how to fix your garden or some landscaping input or what have you. If I do that, don't take my input. Do you know why? Because my wife will tell you I'm terrible at all of these things.

I've got no credibility. My input will lack experience and skills and therefore is not something that should be listened to in this arena. Does anyone remember who Julia Child was? If I was to go up to Julia Child and say, let me show you how to make a souffle, Julia Child's going to dismiss me.

Why? Again, I don't know what I'm doing. I barely have any business eating the souffle, let alone trying to cook it or explain it. Now, if that sort of disparity of knowledge and expertise can exist between one person and another person of flesh and blood and limited capacity, as we all have, if that kind of disparity of skill and knowledge and expertise can exist between one person and another, just imagine the gap that we all have between our knowledge and expertise and wisdom and that of God.

And so it is odd and even inappropriate when we decide to tell Him how to do His job. And that's what you see in verses one through three is God's reaction to that. Job, I know you're hurting. Job, I know you're suffering.

Job, I get all of that, but what you're doing is wrong. Who is this man who wants to say he's got a case against me, who's got more information than I have, who's capable of making more rational decisions than me? Who is this guy? Where were you, Job, when I set the foundation of the stars?

Where were you, Job, when I said the oceans can come to this point but not that point?

The Creature's Limitations and the Wisdom of Humility 12:09

Where were you when I did all this stuff huh that's right you weren't there job what does that imply it implies that there are things in your world that are above your pay grade. And the wise man understands his own limitations. This is the point, verses 4 through 11. Where were you when I fashioned the cosmos?

Where were you when I created the earth? Where were you when I determined the boundaries of the ocean? Job, what are your credentials? Job, let's lay it out here.

I'll show you my credentials and my resume and my LinkedIn profile. You give me yours and we'll compare the two and then we'll decide. And for multiple chapters, God's going to go on doing this. So much so that we don't even have the time to explain every verse for the next two chapters.

You see, again, God loves Job. Don't lose sight of that. The fact He's willing to talk sternly to Job doesn't mean He doesn't love him. You and I who are parents, we've talked sternly to our children.

Doesn't mean we don't love them. So, of course, God loves Job, but He's trying to say, Look, Job, you're made in my image, but that doesn't make you me. I've granted you a moral compass, but that doesn't make you the barometer of all that's right and wrong. This is what God's trying to explain to them.

All right, let's skip a little further into chapter 38.

The Heavens and the Paperclip: The Measure of Our Ignorance 13:22

I want to go forward to say verses 31 through 38. Verses 31 through 38. Job, can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose the belt of Orion? So he's talking about stars here.

Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Can you guide the great bear with its cubs? These are constellations. Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Can you set their dominion over the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go and say to you, Here we are? Who has put wisdom in the mind?

Who has given understanding to the heart? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Who can pour out the bottles of heaven, when the dust hardens and clumps and the clods cling together? The short answer is nobody apart from him, apart from the very one asking these questions.

You know, if we were to go into another room in the church — I don't know, you walk into any one of the kids' rooms or something — and on one of the tables there in one of the rooms, you see a single paper clip. Something small. You see a single paper clip sitting there.

You know, you walk in the room, you don't know how it got there. You didn't create it, you didn't form it, you didn't place it there. You don't know where it came from. You don't know what year it was made.

You don't know any of this. It's just sitting there in front of you. The tiniest and least consequential thing in this entire church is beyond your ability to know, understand. All of this eludes you.

And you can't, by force of your will, cause that paperclip to jump onto the floor or to cease from being or to turn into a banana. You can't do any of this. The limitations that we have compared to God are overwhelming. You take the smallest thing in this church, and you can't affect a single change out of it just through your own will.

If it's true of a paperclip sitting on a table, then just imagine if you start talking about big picture items like pain and heartache and hardship and providence and decrees. If we can't comprehensively know or affect change on a paperclip, if we're that limited, if our understanding of the past, present, and future of the paperclip is as limited as it is, then we should be really careful when we look at the galaxy and the stars and the constellations, which is what we see in verses 31 through 38, and even pretend for a moment that we can intellectually compete or even talk knowledgeably with the one who set all that in order, given our exceptionally significant limitations.

Job had asserted repeatedly that he had some knowledge or some wisdom or a perception, a point of view, that was accurate over and against God. You understand that? When you say to God, I would want to make my case before you, you're articulating that you have a case to make. So in these verses, again, we don't even have time to cover all of them because God just goes in on this.

He brings up every example under the sun and says, Job, where were you when I did this, this, this, and this? And you can see Job slinking lower and lower and lower. If Job can't explain one single star, one single cloud amongst the, you know, thousands that exist, then why does he think that he's become an expert on much harder topics such as God's providential leading and discipling and ordering of humanity?

If Job can't create one lightning bolt, if he can't form one paper clip, then why does he have the arrogance to think he knows better than God?

My Ways Are Not Your Ways: The Incomprehensibility of God 16:48

On a previous week we recall the famous statement in Isaiah 55, where God says this. He says this to Job, and he says it to you and I. He says, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. As far as the heavens are above the earth, which is a sign of infiniteness, so are my ways and my thoughts above your ways and your thoughts.

This is sort of what we're seeing in these chapters in Job. All right, let's move into the first portion of chapter 39. I'll look at verses 1 through 8. God's making the same case.

He's just going to use different examples. Verses 1 through 8. Job, do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Can you mark when the deer gives birth?

Can you number the months that they fulfill? Do you know the time when they bear young? They bow down, they bring forth their young, they deliver their offspring. Their young ones are healthy.

They grow strong with grain, they depart and do not return to them. Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bowels of the onager, whose home I've made in the wilderness, whose barren land is his dwelling? He scorns the tumult of the city, he does not heed the shouts of the driver.

There Is a God, and You Are Not Him 17:53

The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. I've shared this story before. The first day, the first class I ever attended in seminary, there was a professor, a very formidable professor. He was old and wise, had a beard that went out to here.

He's just entering the room. This guy just basically filled the room with his presence and his theological acumen and his authority. So all of us greenhorns filter in, and there's Dr. Powell, and he's teaching. And the first statement that he goes and writes on the board is this.

There is a God, and you are not him. There is a God. If you want to be on the road to a healthy orthodoxy, start there. Look around you, like Romans 1.

Look around and say, all right, I know the Ford Taurus didn't assemble itself from the molecular compositions of the deep. I know that the trees and everything else in the world around us stems from the hand of one who created everything. So if you start from the premise that there is a God, you're on your way.

There's a lot more to learn about this God, but that's a good place to start. But beyond that, it's helpful to remember that if there is a God, then he is external to you. There is a God, you're not him. And because you're not him, you have inherent limitations.

And because you're not him, you find your purpose for life, not in your own will or volition, but in his. If you think you're this moral free agent that goes out and does his thing while God does his far away, then you haven't read this. There is a God, you are not him.

This God has decreed every breath that you will ever undertake. And in verses 1 through 8, he says he hasn't just done it for you and me, but all of the animals, everything in the world around us, finds its purpose, finds its purpose through the hand of the one that has formed them.

And God's explaining this to Job to once again drive home the point, Job, Job, Job, Job, there is a God, you are not him. If you have a subtitle for the whole book of Job, that might be an option. There is a God and you are not him. So, verses 1 through 8 of chapter 39 there, God's making a case again of the gap between God's knowledge and expertise and Job's.

In the past, he started with the sky and the heavens and the stars, but he just works his way on down and says, all right, let's talk about the animals too. So, he's making the same point using everything in the world around Job as an example. In chapter 39, he talks about the animals at great length.

Now, speaking of animals, if I was to ask in this room, let's try to describe a fish — I say, all right, give me attributes of a fish — quickly we would come up with, well, you know, it's got the gills and the scales, and they swim around, they live in ocean and the waters and the like.

And if we did that, we would be accurate. Now, what if I said — what if I said, all right, let's try to name some species of different fish? In fact, try this right now. Someone give me a species of fish.

Trout. Bass. What was another one? All right, so I got like five of them so far.

If we were to play name that fish for like the next, I don't know, minute, we could get more names coming up, right? I could say, let's keep going, let's keep going. But you know what? We'd be like a minute deep, and then in this room, at least among us, we'd start to run out.

We'd be limited. We could name maybe in this room, I don't know, 30 fish, maybe, give or take. That said, in the world around us, you any idea how many species of fish exist? Well, again, Google can be your friend, and I discovered that there are 32,000 different species of fish.

Even the most knowledgeable marine biologist would be fortunate to be able to stand here and name one percent, which would be 320. 320 fish just off the top of their head. That's just one type of creature. I'm just talking about fish. We're not getting into everything else that exists in the world around us.

Now, comparatively, if our knowledge base and experience base is that limited to the point that you and I as laymen can name just a handful of different fish, maybe draw a few different fish, maybe can picture some different fish, the reality is there's 32,000. You can't even scratch the surface of what exists in the depths.

But God not only formed every last one of them, he named them. He knows them. He designed them. Whether it's fish or, if you looked in our text, mountain goats, deers, donkeys, whatever else God mentions here — He's saying, I'm the one who knows these things comprehensively.

I'm the one who ordered how they work. Job, you can't even name all of them. You haven't even encountered but the tiniest percentage of all the things that exist on this planet, let alone in the cosmos around us. And you, Job, you want to question me?

Again, he's drawing out the credentials here and discovering that there are not many when it comes to Job. And I think that's the point.

Job Humbles Himself: Laying His Hand on His Mouth 22:50

“Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

— Job 40:4-5 (NKJV)

But that said, looking at chapter 40, God is going to give Job a chance to respond. Now, later on in the chapter, God's going to continue. It's almost like He takes a breather and says, All right, Job, if you've been paying attention, I have another question for you, and then I'm going to give you a chance to speak.

Let's look at verses 1 through 5 of chapter 40. Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, the one who contends with the Almighty, correct him. He who rebukes God, let him answer. Then Job answered and said, behold, I am vile.

With what shall I answer you? I lay my hand across my mouth. Once I've spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.

Otherwise, Job is saying, God, I got nothing. God, I've got nothing. So again, after nearly two chapters of making the same point in different ways, God pauses here to see if Job has anything he'd like to say. God says, he who has rebuked God, let him answer.

Now, sometimes a parent will discipline a child. You'll be disciplining a child, and you'll stop. Maybe you just need a breath for a minute, but you'll stop and you'll ask the kid. You'll say, what were you thinking?

Speak up. Now, if you're a child, is this the right time to share all your perspective on life and the humanities? Is this a good time to take your parent up on it and say, yeah, let's talk for a bit? No, that's not what the parent wants.

This is sort of what's going on here. God's not done with Job. In the rest of chapter 40, he's going to continue to talk to Job, but he's giving Job an opportunity to demonstrate whether his response is going to be arrogance again or whether he's going to humble himself. Fortunately for Job, he humbles himself.

In verses 1 through 5, we see he recognizes he's stepped in it. He's messed things up. He tells God, I'm sorry. I've been foolish.

I will proceed no further. Now, remember, this is the guy who earlier in the book says, I am going to argue my case. I have a case to make, and I just wish for the opportunity to present itself where I could argue my case with him. However, the moment Job realizes really who he's about to argue with and the knowledge and expertise and the credentials of the one who he's about to contend with, the moment he understood God right is the moment he zipped his lip.

Sometimes when we think God's just like a bigger version of us or just a big brother in the clouds sort of thing, when we have a lower view of God and a higher view of ourselves, then we can approach Him in some really poor, even sinful ways. In this text, we see His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours.

And we need to be careful in casting His judgments under feet, as if He doesn't know what He's doing. Just because you don't like something that's going on in your life does not mean God doesn't know what He's doing when He appointed it, when He appointed that season.

The Perfection of Providence: What God Does Is Always Best 25:48

As we look to wrap up this morning, let me just consider that last point a little bit further. If you were given the power of God — it's not going to happen, but theoretically — if you were given the power of God, if you had His ability to effect change in the world around you, do you think that you'd use it to do things maybe differently than the way He's doing things?

Well, you might, because you tend to see things differently. But what if you also had His knowledge? What if you had all of His attributes in the exact same way that He does? What would you do?

If you possessed God's exact attributes of knowledge and holiness and justice and perfection, would you have ordered the universe around you any differently than He has? Well, the short answer is no. But why not? Well, here's the thing. If you shared His perfect nature, which you don't, but if you did, if you shared His perfect nature, you would come to the same perfect decisions that He has.

You'd see things through the lens you don't currently see through. If you shared His exact nature and if you were perfect as He is, then you would come to the same conclusions that He has. What God does is always what is best. God doesn't say, today I'm just batting 8 for 10.

Today is an off day for me. I made some subpar calls. I'm going to give it 50% with that family or that person or that church or what have you. No. Every single thing God has ever done has always been perfect.

If you and I had His degree of perfection and His powers, we would have done the exact same things that He has done. Why? Because there's no variation on that which is perfect. With that said, again, you and I, we don't recognize that here.

Job did not recognize it. Job didn't see what was going on. Job didn't know the prologue to his own story where Satan had argued with God. Job didn't know that his story was about to be recorded where for the next 4,000 years after it, we're still studying him and trying to understand a little bit more about the glory of God.

Job didn't know that all his sufferings would pay a dividend. Job didn't know exactly how God would restore everything unto him. Job didn't know that. And in the moment that he didn't know, he rendered decisions and he was wrong.

Living by Faith in a Darkened World 28:06

There's ways that you might be questioning God. I can assure you they are ill-informed. It is okay to share frustration with God. He welcomes it.

It is okay to take our hurts and our baggage and all the things going on in our lives and just cast it at His feet and say, God, I don't get this. I don't like it. I don't understand it. But that's wildly different from thinking that God has made a mistake or that you would do something better if given the option.

If you knew what He knew, you'd do the exact same thing that He does because what He does is always perfect. You don't have perfect vision. You don't have perfect desires. You don't have perfect knowledge.

You don't have perfect characteristics. And there's times when we don't want perfect things or even good things. You and I settle and even desire for stuff that's mediocre. You know, when I'm hungry, what I get out of the pantry to eat?

SpaghettiOs. I crave and desire stuff I know are subpar. I open the can, I pour it in, and I look at that, I say, am I going to eat this? And there's — part of this is, yes, I am.

It's the same mentality when you get a Twinkie. You know this is not good. You and I, even when given the ability to make decisions on our own, we routinely settle for that which is subpar. A meal out of SpaghettiOs and Twinkies and the like.

With that said, you and I, the Twinkie-eating, SpaghettiO-eating people who have sinned more times than we can count, we have no business criticizing God. Again, you might not understand what He's done. That's different. That's okay.

And you might not even like things that He has done. Because pain has the net effect of making us just hurt all over. However, it's altogether different from looking up to heaven and asserting our rightness over and against something that God has done that we view as not correct or not appropriate or not right.

This week, there's probably a lot going on in your life that you don't like, but know this much, and God's put it there for a reason. There's a lot going on in your life you don't like, but God has put it there for a reason. And that reason, in time, you will see, is worth your present discomfort, your present difficulties, your present pain, even if you can't see how.

And so I'll close the same way we've closed for the past couple of sermons. The right approach to living out days in a darkened world where there's hardship that befalls every man, woman, and child in this room, the right approach to living out our days in this fallen mortal coil — the right approach is this: we live by faith.

We lift up our hand to God and say, I live by faith, not by sight. We extend our prayer in the darkness to a Father who sees beyond the darkness, knowing that He will take our hands and He will lead us forth. You don't need to understand everything. You won't understand everything, especially on this side of the veil.

But He does. This week, throw your hand up. I say, God, lead me, knowing that He will, and the outcome will be good. Let's pray.