The Lord Answers Job P1 (38:1-40:2)
Do you understand creation and the universe?
In one of the most powerful images in scripture, YHWH appears to Job out of the tornado and storm that has been brewing for the past few chapters as Elihu spoke. Imagine the scene. Elihu is monologuing as the storm grows and intensifies all around the friends and Job. As Elihu ends his speech, a tornado forms and descends upon them. In absolute terror, the men must cower before the awesome danger—and then YHWH speaks!
The whole book up to this point (minus the prologue) has been a series of questions: “Why am I suffering?” “Why won’t you admit your guilt?” “Why won’t God justify His actions?” “What did you do to deserve this suffering?” When God shows up, He has a question of His own, “Who do you think you are?”
It is a rhetorical question to be sure. The men have all forgotten how small, insignificant, and ignorant they are in the grand scheme of things. And they have been engaged in a futile exercise we all practice: exchanging faith and trust for knowledge and our own sense of how we would do things if we were in charge.
God follows His initial question with a series of questions to prove his point. I love this portion of Job. It is as close as the bible gets to modern scientific thinking, by simply asking a series of questions. And even though it is meant to expose our ignorance, it is directed at its own time. We have found answers for a lot of what is raised in these chapters, but in doing so have discovered exponentially more questions. The point is that we are limited and always will be. Our best bet is to trust the Creator and Sustainer of the universe when He says He is in control and will work things out.
Chapter 38 (at least up through verse 38) is like the first lecture on physics, astronomy, earth sciences, geology, oceanography, and meteorology ever given. Following that, God delivers a biology lesson. “Look at all the things you are clueless about!” he says, “How can you possibly hope to grapple with the metaphysics of suffering and the intricacies of all the cause and effect of the universe?” Or, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” (40:2a) I particularly like the ASV approach to this verse: “Shall he that cavilleth contend with the Almighty?”
Cavil is an old word related to cavalier. It means “to raise frivolous objections, find fault without good reason; to be disdainful. That is what the Book of Job is saying about Job and his friends’ arguments and platitudes.
In one of the most powerful images in scripture, YHWH appears to Job out of the tornado and storm that has been brewing for the past few chapters as Elihu spoke. Imagine the scene. Elihu is monologuing as the storm grows and intensifies all around the friends and Job. As Elihu ends his speech, a tornado forms and descends upon them. In absolute terror, the men must cower before the awesome danger—and then YHWH speaks!
The whole book up to this point (minus the prologue) has been a series of questions: “Why am I suffering?” “Why won’t you admit your guilt?” “Why won’t God justify His actions?” “What did you do to deserve this suffering?” When God shows up, He has a question of His own, “Who do you think you are?”
It is a rhetorical question to be sure. The men have all forgotten how small, insignificant, and ignorant they are in the grand scheme of things. And they have been engaged in a futile exercise we all practice: exchanging faith and trust for knowledge and our own sense of how we would do things if we were in charge.
God follows His initial question with a series of questions to prove his point. I love this portion of Job. It is as close as the bible gets to modern scientific thinking, by simply asking a series of questions. And even though it is meant to expose our ignorance, it is directed at its own time. We have found answers for a lot of what is raised in these chapters, but in doing so have discovered exponentially more questions. The point is that we are limited and always will be. Our best bet is to trust the Creator and Sustainer of the universe when He says He is in control and will work things out.
Chapter 38 (at least up through verse 38) is like the first lecture on physics, astronomy, earth sciences, geology, oceanography, and meteorology ever given. Following that, God delivers a biology lesson. “Look at all the things you are clueless about!” he says, “How can you possibly hope to grapple with the metaphysics of suffering and the intricacies of all the cause and effect of the universe?” Or, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” (40:2a) I particularly like the ASV approach to this verse: “Shall he that cavilleth contend with the Almighty?”
Cavil is an old word related to cavalier. It means “to raise frivolous objections, find fault without good reason; to be disdainful. That is what the Book of Job is saying about Job and his friends’ arguments and platitudes.
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