Given Job’s delicate state the Lord’s approach when first speaking to Job might shock us. Firstly, the Lord answers him from: ‘out of the whirlwind’ (v1).  As it was a strong wind that destroyed the house his children were feasting in (1:19) this might strike us as unsympathetic!  Secondly, the Lord’s opening words properly didn’t fill Job with encouragement.  Verse 2 is a challenge to Job.  Rather than give him any answers, the Lord intends to question him!  Furthermore this is not going to be a gentle discussion.  The phrase in verse 3 comes from the ancient sport of ‘Belt Wrestling’ where the idea was to grab the opponent’s belt and try to throw him![1]  This might cause us to question the Lord’s pastoral manner, but there are a couple of things worth noting here.  Firstly, it’s the first time since the opening chapters where God’s covenant name ‘Yahweh’ is used.  In chapters 3-37 the name ‘El Shaddai’ has been used by Job and his friends.  David Atkinson notes: ‘In the book of Job this has become a way of speaking of God as detached and distant.’[2] Some good and wise things are said by Job and his friends, but it is the wisdom of man.  But now God is speaking: ‘the covenant Redeemer the I AM WHO I AM’ (Exodus 3:14).[3]  Secondly: ‘God does not come forward (as his friends did) with a list of Job sins’.[4]  So, in a strange way these opening verses could be taken as either encouraging or discouraging (depending on your point of view) in ascertaining the Lord’s approach as he now holds the centre stage in the text.

In verses 4-38 God takes Job on a tour of creation, a realm that is far beyond his imagining. Verses 4-11 highlight the Lord’s creative power in making of the cosmos.  Scientists’ often talk as if they have supreme knowledge of how the world came into being.  But, when pressed, they would have to admit all they have are theories.  The difference is the Lord is the Creator, so it is he that: ‘laid the foundation of the earth’ (v4) and, as John Hartley notes: ‘Since no human being was present at this occasion, the inner structure of the universe remains a secret hidden from mankind.’[5]  The examples he gives Job in these verses come from his intimate knowledge as the world had come into being by his creative power!  And that highlights the big difference between him and Job!  All Job can do is observe the results of the Lord’s handy work.  But that is where his knowledge stops as he has no idea what it took to create such a world or even how to sustain it, which is the focus of verses 12-38.  Quite what Job’s view of the stars was would be hard to say.  He probably had a good idea that they were very far away, but he would have had no idea of the concept of ‘Light-Years’.[6]  Yet with our modern knowledge we experience even more wonder than Job when he is asked: ‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion’ (v31).  Undoubtedly this was impressive to Job (he’d mentioned the same constellations in 9:9), but with our knowledge it is doubly so!

In verses 39-41 the Lord gives Job examples of creatures that he would have been reasonably familiar with. This again points out Job’s knowledge of them only goes so far.  The Lord now draws Job’s attention to what is a new theme, one that will continue through chapter 39, his care for the created.  He does this through: ‘the mystery of instinct (the Bible would more truthfully call this a wisdom of divine origin implanted in animals).’[7]  Job has knowledge of these animals, but they have a hidden life by which God has given them the instinct with which to survive!  The Lord’s approach to Job at this point is interesting: ‘Most readers and commentators think Yahweh is severe, and some would say condescending, sarcastic and bullying.’[8]  But as John Hartley points out: ‘he does not reprove Job for some wrong doing. Rather he addresses Job like a teacher instructing a student who fails to understand an important matter, for he wishes to open up for him new ways of understanding the created order and his wise care of that order.’[9]

Two examples are of particular interest. Firstly, in chapter 39:9-12 we encounter the wild ox or Auroch.  To understand these verses we need to realize that this was a huge ferocious beast belonging to the Bison family which is now extinct.  It was said to have been over six foot wide at the shoulders with long forward pointed horns and was an untameable beast!  The Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose reportedly once killed seventy five of these creatures during a hunt which no doubt gave him a really good after dinner story![10]  But this illustrates this is a creature Job has no control over as he cannot use it in any constructive way!  The second example is the Ostrich, nature’s joke!  The Lord’s description of its characteristics doesn’t shy away from that!  After all: ‘God has made her forget wisdom and has given her no share in understanding’ (v17).  Francis Andersen suggests that: ‘it is a silly bird, because God made it so’ he concludes: that amid the profusion of creatures some were made to be useful to men, but some are there just for God’s entertainment and ours.’[11]  But it is amazing in its own right as: ‘When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider’ (v18).  However bizarre the Ostrich is one cannot question its amazing speed.  The other examples pertain to the same purpose where Job is concerned.  He has knowledge of these animals, but he doesn’t see their daily life by which God has given them the instinct to survive by knowing how to hunt, find food and rear their young.  This is their hidden ‘secret’ life and it remains a mystery to Job, but it isn’t to God!

The Lord is not trying to humiliate Job, but is pointing out there are many questions which he doesn’t have answers to. That doesn’t mean these questions are unanswerable, but rather the Lord has knowledge of these things whereas mankind struggles to fully understand them or even understand them at all!  For example, the Lord can: ‘send forth lightening’s’ (38:35), but Job can’t and it’s not God’s purpose here to reveal how he does it!  Rather it is that there is nothing outside God’s control, even the wind that took the lives of Job’s children, which is maybe the point of the Lord speaking: ‘out of the whirlwind’ (38:1).  This is an important lesson that we need to understand when we go through tough times.  Robert Fyall points out that: ‘Our theology often is made up of what will make us feel good. That tends to be where we begin and we are inclined to fashion our idea of God very subjectively.  God is turning Job and turning us away from ourselves.’[12] There is more to the world than what affects us!  But these chapters highlight God’s sovereignty and that provides a comfort in a sinful damaged and messed up world.

To be continued…….!

Would you like to hear a sermon on this passage?  The Lord Speaks: a Magnificent Irrelevance or Totally Transcendent?

[1] Meredith Kline, Trial by Ordeal, from Through Christ’s Word: A Festschrift for Dr Philip E Hughes, edited by W. R. Godfrey and Jesse L. Boyd III, (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1985), 88.

[2] David Atkinson, The Message of Job, Suffering and Grace, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 139.

[3] Hywel R. Jones, Job, An EP Study Commentary (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 2007), 262.

[4] Francis I. Andersen, Job, An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1976), 269.

[5] John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 495.

[6] Light Years is a term used for distance light takes to travel in one year and is used to express astronomical distances. It is about 5.9 trillion miles.

[7] Andersen, Job, 280.

[8] David J. A. Clines, Job 38-42, Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, Thomas Nelson,2011), 1088.

[9] Hartley, Job, 487.

[10] Derek Thomas, The Storm Breaks, Job simply explained (Darlington, Evangelical Press 1995) 293.

[11] Andersen, Job, 281.

[12] Robert Fyall, How does God Treat His Friends (Fearn, Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 1995) 108.