Good evening, it is great to be worshipping with you tonight. We are in Job Chapter 38 and 39 tonight.
We have come to the final section in the Book of Job, and you all have been incredible through this Book, much of it being very difficult reading.
We began this Book by having insight into the backstory. The heavens came into the picture, as the events there would have huge earthly ramifications.
Job was the center of discussion in that realm, in particular, the righteousness of Job, and the fear that he honored God with.
Job’s righteous obedience was noticed by God, and not only God, but Satan had taken notice as well.
As Satan was before God giving an account of himself, God talked with Satan about His servant Job, which resulted in a Great Testing of Job’s faith.
Satan was given permission to strip Job of all that he had, his family, his possessions, and all of his wealth, which was immense.
And when this all took place, we saw Job’s response was not to curse God, but to worship even in the midst of tragedy.
Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord." 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
Satan was defeated but not done here, he once again came before God’s throne, and asked if he would be able to strike Job’s person, his health, and he told God, “Skin for skin,” and challenged God, claiming Job would curse Him to His face if his flesh was touched.
Satan was wrong again, but this left poor Job at the town dump, sitting pathetically and sorrowfully. That is where 3 of his supposed friends joined him, Job’s elders, and for 35 Chapters, these miserable counselors had a dialogue with Job.
The dialogue was careless and hopeless, and it was grueling to read, as they bloviated to Job their human reasoning for all that was happening to him. Back and forth they went, and Job stood his ground against their accusations.
They said that he had sin, hidden sin and that God was judging him.
Also, Job was honestly dealing with that all too familiar question that we all ask at times, “Why?”
And that is a hang-up for many people, as they wrestle with the “why” of their struggles.
It is a natural response to pain and suffering in this life, but we as believers should not get stuck on that question.
Instead of dwelling on the “why” of it all, there are better questions that lead us past our pain. Asking “What” and “Who.”
What is God teaching me through this pain and peril? And then focus on who God is even in the midst of pain and peril.
How He offers immense Grace and Mercy, He is Good, and Holy, Righteous and Loving, and He is never changing.
Someone once said, “Why is like quicksand. The more you struggle to know why the deeper you sink. Question God and disrespect, pride, and irreverence will grow.”
So the dialogue went on, and then when it was finished, Job’s words to his friends had ended.
It was at this time that we met a young man named Elihu who had waited anxiously for these Old Men to stop talking so he could pontificate his superior thinking.
We learned that he was only arrogant and foolish, and we spent two weeks looking at his long diatribe.
It ended with no response, in fact, God will address Job and his three friends, but He will not even respond to this haughty youngster.
But since we gave Elihu 2 weeks in our teaching, we are going to now break up this last section into two weeks.
Remember Elihu saw a storm blowing in, clouds, lightning, and rain were coming. And as we will see tonight, from the whirlwind, the Voice of Truth will come forth, and God will finally have His say…
And finally, we are in a portion of scripture where True Wisdom will be given, this is no longer man’s understanding, but God’s.
Look now at verse 1 of Chapter 38…
The Lord Reveals His Omnipotence to Job (Gen 1:1-10)
38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Let’s just stop here for a moment, as we consider that God spoke from the whirlwind.
This storm had been stirring in the backdrop for some time now as Elihu was speaking.
Perhaps it was for heightened illustration.
Jesus, while He ministered and taught here on earth used natural and familiar settings and objects to put forth His truths and wisdom about the Kingdom of God and truths about the Father.
Job has been in a spiritual and personal storm for quite some time now.
First losing his 10 children, then his servants and livestock were taken and killed, then his own health came under attack.
He was in the midst of a perilous storm, crying out to God, who seemed to be silent, and his friends tormenting him with terrible counsel.
Now, as this literal storm comes up, we will see God speaks from the midst of the storm.
And this is a powerful picture, it is often in the midst of a perilous storm in life that God’s voice is often heard with much more clarity than at other times.
I imagine for many of you here tonight that as you look back at your life at all the incredible and uncertain times, it was then that God really could be heard.
God appears to use this storm here in our text to speak to the life of Job.
From the whirlwind, God’s voice comes forth and He will not answer any of Job’s questions but will ask Job a few questions, He answers with His own life-defining questions.
These questions are not anything that Job or anyone would be able to answer.
As we read through them together in these next Chapters we will see that they were not spoken for Job to try to answer.
God, through these questions, is revealing the magnitude of who He is and what He is capable of.
God is revealing His greatness in a way to show that no one should ever question Him.
And you see this is the entire premise of this book, to show that human wisdom is way short and incomplete, we never have the full picture.
God does, and this is why it takes faith to please Him.
In this story we were blessed to read Chapters 1 and 2, Job did not have that understanding, not his friends, and they all came up way short in their words.
But even without the full picture, we saw Job’s faith began to break down and he could not understand why heaven was silent toward him.
And understand in your own life, no matter what you are facing tonight, understand the magnitude of your God versus the magnitude of your problem.
Now some of you are older than me, some of you are not, but as you go about life, there are things that it just seems God got wrong, but as more of the puzzle of your life came together, you found that piece actually fit perfectly.
The things you thought were surely missing you found to be there all along, the stuff you thought should not be there actually had its place.
God has the whole picture in His eyes, we only get pieces, and God just requires faith, that we trust Him through all the uncertainty there is a plan in it all, He is the great Puzzle Maker, and He knows the finished picture.
So as we continue on, understand the point of God’s questions is to get Job to this understanding.
Look now at verse 2…
2 "Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? 3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
God breaks into this conversation, and seemingly here He is speaking to Job, who is the only one out of all the characters so far that will speak back to God.
He had cried out so much with this question, “why?” not understanding why all this was happening, and his friends giving him foolish wisdom.
And Job spent much of his time questioning God on all that was happening to him, and God speaks, “Prepare yourself, I will now question you Job!”
That is a chilling response from the Almighty. He begins with His line of questioning now in verse 4…
4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
In essence, God is saying, “How dare you question Me” or “who are you to question Me?
“If you are able, answer My questions now.”
God starts here with Creation, “Where were you when I created the foundations of the earth?”
The intention here is to bring forth the reality that God is not bound to time, not limited to the laws of nature, not subject to the rules of this world, in fact, He was Creator of it all, long before Job came along.
Of course, Job was not there at the beginning and Job could never be on par with God.
God brings forth the incredible understanding that He is above it all, and the Maker of it all, and Job, or you and I should never question Him.
Job had no part in determining the measurements of this earth, the lines and foundations were all laid out by the Master Builder.
We learned earlier in this book that the earth was hanging on nothing.
This of course was not even known until modern science came along.
There are still those today who believe that the earth sits on the back of an elephant.
Not too long ago, many thought Atlas was holding it on his back.
But God’s Word spoke the truth long ago. Then the Lord makes this interesting statement here, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
This makes an interesting reference to the angels being there at creation, making it clear that they were of an earlier order and creation, before earth and man.
And we know that Satan was there in the Garden of Eden, so we know that the angels that rebelled were already fallen too.
But the angels or sons of God sang and shouted for joy as they watched God Create and build this world as we know it today.
We do not know how long the angels were in existence prior to this, we just know that they were there when it all happened.
So God continues with His questions now in verse 8…
8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; 9 When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; 10 When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; 11 When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'
God reveals His power in the creation of the seas and being able to control the mighty oceans.
This perhaps is a reference to God’s work on the second day of creation when He divided the waters and separated the land from the sea.
The job of course was not there when this took place and had no idea how it was done.
It all reveals the power of God to hold back the waters and He even commands how far it can go.
Next time you are at the edge of the ocean try to stop those mighty waves, try to get your kids together and build up a dam, and watch those mighty waves destroy them, heck get an earthmover, a skip loader a bulldozer, and try to build up the dirt to try to stop those waves. You might be successful for a time, but eventually, that unpredictable ocean will be awakened and it will overcome your feeble attempts.
God draws the lines of that massive body of water, and He alone tells the water stop here!
And it stops like a frightened puppy.
God also alludes to the water canopy that surrounded the planet before the flood.
It seems that there was a water vapor canopy at one point above the earth’s atmosphere that even protected humanity from the harsh rays from the sun, perhaps contributing to the long life before the flood.
Verse 12…
12 "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, And caused the dawn to know its place, 13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And the wicked be shaken out of it? 14 It takes on form like clay under a seal And stands out like a garment. 15 From the wicked their light is withheld, And the upraised arm is broken. 16 "Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? 18 Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
He asks Job, “Have you ever told the day when to begin?
Can you make the sunrise when you want it to rise?
“Have you entered the springs of the sea?”
Job probably did not even have the understanding that there were springs of the sea, and of course, he never entered them.
He did not know many other hidden things as well, such as the gates of death or the span of the earth.
Verse 19 now…
19 "Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, 20 That you may take it to its territory, That you may know the paths to its home? 21 Do you know it, because you were born then, Or because the number of your days is great?
And we see here God is testing the limits of Job’s understanding and Creation is still the theme of this test.
He asks if Job knew where light and darkness come from, and where darkness hides when light enters into a place. Job still could not answer.
Church, I don’t know if you ever do this, but when life has you overwhelmed, consider the vastness of creation and how incredible our God is.
How can anyone not look up into the night sky and not be in awe of our God?
When you can understand your smallness in the light of our God’s hugeness it really brings a measure of clarity into our lives.
Look now at verse 22…
22 "Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, 23 Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war? 24 By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?
God states that He has a treasury of snow and hail reserved for times of trouble and even battle.
Considering that Napoleon was defeated by snow in 1812 as he invaded Russia in a historic military blunder and Hitler’s invasion of Russia was lost due to the winter snow, we can see how God uses these things on the day of battle.
We saw hail used by God against Egypt, also in the conquest of Canaan, and in the future war of Gog and Magog, as Ezekiel 38 reveals, hail will be used.
It is even mentioned in the Tribulation, in Revelation 16. And God wonders of Job has ever seen this treasury or has knowledge of it.
Then in verse 25…
25 "Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, Or a path for the thunderbolt, 26 To cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, A wilderness in which there is no man; 27 To satisfy the desolate waste, And cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? 28 Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? 29 From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? 30 The waters harden like stone, And the surface of the deep is frozen.
You see it is only God who can cut that imaginary path in the sky through which rain and thunderstorm can travel.
Man cannot even see all the places that God makes the rainfall, in the middle of the desert and wastelands.
God designed it all and He even sustains it, maintains it all, and He challenges Job if he had the same knowledge.
Now God will move to the heavens to present even more daunting questions…
31 "Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or lose the belt of Orion? 32 Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? 33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
Job, of course, knew that God had created these ominous star constellations.
And we are blessed here in the desert to see them well.
God makes it clear that Job had nothing to do with holding them together, this cluster of stars is called the Pleiades.
I learned in my study for this that I have been told, and I told my children wrongly that the Pleiades is the little dipper.
We can look up tonight, and I believe it would be right on top of us here. The Great Bear mentioned here contains the Big Dipper.
There are some really awesome stargazing apps that you can get on your phone that map out the night sky for you.
Job at that time knew nothing of the Laws of the Universe, and the principles that God had in place to regulate the stars and planets.
How could he ever think to criticize God’s methods in dealing with mankind?
God has dominion over not only the earth but all the expanse of the universe.
Verse 34 now…
34 "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That an abundance of water may cover you? 35 Can you send out lightning, that they may go, And say to you, 'Here we are!'? 36 Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart? 37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven, 38 When the dust hardens in clumps, And the clods cling together?
Job had no control of the movements of the Universe, he was incapable of placing one cloud or getting the rain to fall.
And here God makes a rhetorical question, “Who puts wisdom into the mind?”
God controls even the wisdom we possess.
No man will ever know all the answers surrounding nature and the Universe, even with all the modern advancements.
Now God will turn His questioning toward the animal world to finish out this Chapter here, going into the next…
Verse 39…
39 "Can you hunt the prey for the lion, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 40 When they crouch in their dens Or lurk in their lairs to lie in wait? 41 Who provides food for the raven When its young ones cry to God And wander about for lack of food?
Of course, Job stayed away from the lion, for his own safety, they did not need Job to feed them.
Job could not even provide food for the black ravens, whose young are often forgotten by their parents.
Job was not the nourisher or sustainer of the earth’s animal kingdom.
Jesus said in
Luke 12:22-24 Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
Therefore, these animals are of less value than humans and God is the one that cares for them.
That is comforting really for the animal lover, God will care for them, and that means too that He is mindful of our needs, how much more will He care for us?
God Continues to Challenge Job
39:1 "Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth? 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young? 3 They bow down, They bring forth their young, They deliver their offspring. 4 Their young ones are healthy, They grow strong with grain; They depart and do not return to them.
Now, it is important to note here in God’s questioning that He keeps bringing things to a lower level for Job to understand, and Job still has no answer.
The mountain goats mentioned here, most likely the Ibex Goat, are still in Israel to this day.
You see them if you are lucky around the caves in En Gedi.
They climb trees, they are very interesting indeed.
Job did not know when these animals gave birth or even their gestation periods. Job had experience with farm animals, domesticated animals, but the animals in the wild handle these things themselves.
God is their only supervisor, and they leave the supervision of their parents very early on.
Unlike their human counterparts, who seem to stay with their parents 20, 30, some 40 years now, yikes, the wild goats are doing better than some human parents.
Verse 5 now…
5 "Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager, 6 Whose home I have made the wilderness, And the barren land his dwelling? 7 He scorns the tumult of the city; He does not heed the shouts of the driver. 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, And he searches after every green thing.
Job had no answer for the wild donkey as well, whom God has made its home in the wilderness. You catch them on the 40 on the way to Arizona sometimes, just walking in that barren unforgiving desert, yet they survive and even thrive.
The onager was this wild donkey, and it could not be tamed or controlled by man.
Yet God cares for them, not Job.
Verse 9 now…
9 "Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger? 10 Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you? 11 Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him? 12 Will you trust him to bring home your grain, And gather it to your threshing floor?
Now, it is interesting that if you have an old King James version, here, it is not translated as an ox, but a unicorn, and that is a terrible translation.
Some think that this is a Hebrew translation to an animal that is extinct called the Aurochs which was a huge ox-like beast.
Picture of Aurochs
The last living one was recorded in Poland in 1627, it was a female, and they were huge, fearsome, looking like a cross between an ox and a buffalo, only an elephant or hippo was bigger as hooved creatures.
So Verse 13 now…
13 "The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork's? 14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust; 15 She forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may break them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; Her labor is in vain, without concern, 17 Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding. 18 When she lifts herself on high, She scorns the horse and its rider.
The ostrich is a strange creature that is for sure.
They can weigh up to 300 pounds and can reach heights of 7 or 8 feet tall.
It cannot fly, although it flaps its wings, and it lays eggs in a nest in the ground.
And often they share the nest with other females, and many times in the confusion of getting in and out of the nest they crush the eggs.
They seem to lack any kind of nurturing instinct and can be cruel to their young.
For some reason, God did not give them a lot of wisdom or good sense.
Sometimes they even forget their own nest and lay on another hen's nest, and they are just dumb creatures.
Yet, God made them swifter than horses in speed.
Then God speaks of the horse next…
19 "Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? 20 Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror. 21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms. 22 He mocks at fear, and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword. 23 The quiver rattles against him, The glittering spear and javelin. 24 He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded. 25 At the blast of the trumpet he says, 'Aha!' He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.
Job also had nothing to do with creating the warhorse, the noble steed, with its strength and its incredible ability to strike fear with its snort, and its fearless gallop into the battle.
His rider holding his weapon on his side, the warhorse digging into the ground, eating it up while waiting for the trumpet blast.
The blast signaling the charge, and we can all see this imagery from the movies we watch, these mighty warhorses charging unafraid into the fierce fight that awaits.
And the Chapter ends with this
starting in verse 26…
26 "Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, And spread its wings toward the south? 27 Does the eagle mount up at your command, And make its nest on high? 28 On the rock it dwells and resides, On the crag of the rock and the stronghold. 29 From there it spies out the prey; Its eyes observe from afar. 30 Its young ones suck up blood; And where the slain are, there it is."
God then takes His questioning here to the mighty birds of the air. He points out that the hawk instinctively migrates south annually without Job’s wisdom or direction.
I enjoy watching our hawks here in Southern California, they are majestic creatures.
They dwell in high places, seemingly oblivious to the world around them, but in reality, their eyes are able to see incredible distances.
The Red-tail hawk that is so prevalent up here can see a mouse at 100 feet up, and at speeds of upwards of 120 miles an hour, it can swoop down and eat its lunch.
God’s created them this way, apart from man’s wisdom. God continually pointed to these lessons in His Creation and in Nature.
He pointed Job just to a few marvels of our world really, there being countless more illustrations.
Job is left speechless, unable to contend with this reality presented to him.
This is proving the futility of trying to question God.
God keeps our universe intact, He provides for it, and maintains it all.
Yet Job was questioning God’s motives, Job thought God’s overall plan was subjective and that He had made a mistake with him.
And this was just brilliant on God’s part here. He is not surprised about anything in our lives.
He is God and in full control.
Next time we are together we are going to see the impact of this line of questioning here.
Job is going to be recalibrated, and reset in his thinking. He will see the majesty of our God, and realize the smallness of himself.
We will finish the book of Job next week in the climactic final 3 Chapters. It is a great ending, and we just love happy endings don’t we.
I would like to say this, your story is not over yet, your puzzle pieces are not all put together quite yet.
There is more that God wants to do in your life.
When you lose focus, you lose your way, when you feel like God is absent and things are out of control.
Consider the sermon that His Creation preaches and testifies to.
God is in full control, He is fully capable, and He is not done yet with your life. I imagine some of you here tonight are going through some deep things, terrible things, you feel the weight of these trials, like they are pressing and squeezing your soul.
I want to remind you of the purpose of your trial as we end tonight and enter into a time of prayer.
The Apostle Paul says in
Rom 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Listen, our salvation, our faith in Jesus means simply that we are justified before God eternally secure, we have peace with God through Jesus.
We have unhindered access to God through Grace offered through Jesus. We stand in faith with this understanding, and this fills our lives with eternal hope, a hope that Paul says does not disappoint.
Paul tells us that we can glory in our tribulations, knowing that these pressing trials are working something out in our lives.
It is producing perseverance, which in turn is building our character, and further instilling that hope.
Notice what Paul says there in verse 5…. “Now Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Church, you are loved by God tonight, nothing that is happening to you is happening out of any other motivation on His part, than His love being poured out on your life.
Maybe you have lost that focus tonight, if you have, come up and get prayer tonight, to recalibrate your thinking, your heart, and mind. God loves you so deeply and wonderfully, and purely.
Respond to that love tonight.
Let’s pray…
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