The Glorious God Speaks Out of a Whirlwind (Job Sermon 24)

Well, if you could, and you can’t, but if you could be transported back in time by the Spirit of God to any moment in redemptive history, what would you like to go back and see? Where would you like to go? So many options. Love to be there when God created the universe and see it all unfolding step by step. To see the beautiful garden of Eden, to see the beauty of that pristine and perfect world. What would it be like just to be there? Or when Noah got off the arc after the flood, and he offered up the sacrifice, that pleasing aroma to God, and then that rainbow came in the skies and that sense of the beauty, the freshness of a world cleansed from wickedness and sin, a fresh start. Maybe when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and the Angel of the Lord stopped him and a voice from heaven, from the Angel of the Lord said, “Now I know that you fear God.” There’s so many options, but for me this morning, at least, I would love to be there when God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. To just stand there and hear the voice of God. Because I have a feeling that in the end, that’s the message of the book of Job. That if God would be with us in our suffering, if he would talk to us, if he would speak to us, if he would walk with us through the water and through the fire, we could make it through anything. If God would be with us and would be for us, we could endure any of the afflictions he would choose to bring into our lives. I know that this is the lesson. And so I want to hear from God this morning, we’ve come in Job 38 to the climax of the book of Job, four chapter climax. We’re not going to get through all of the dimensions, the beauty of God speaking to Job, but we’re going to begin. Job 38 begins one of the most dramatic conversations there’s ever been in human history. Job, one of the godliest men in history has been yearning for a face to face with God.

This is as close as any man could come, for almighty God descends to earth and speaks to Job with awesome power. The glorious God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind. At last, the seemingly silent God, the invisible God, the omnipotent God speaks, at last. Job assaulted by his sufferings which came upon him wave upon wave has been yearning for the chance to confront God and to interrogate him. Job seems convinced that God has made the same mistake in some ways that his friends did. Essentially Job seems to be operating at least from time to time out of the same faulty theology that they had. The only explanation for human suffering is punishment by a wise God for specific sins that that person has committed, the law of retribution. And he knows that he hasn’t committed any great sins. So it must mean that God has, in some sense, made a big mistake.

And all that needs to happen, Job thinks, is to have somewhat of a court trial in which he gets a face to face with God. And the evidence can be presented at last of his basic righteousness, his blamelessness, and God would agree, consent to it. And Job would emerge triumphant in some sense against God, himself, as his unjust adversary. He expected to grill God like a prosecuting attorney and have God answer all of his questions. But this conversation doesn’t go anything like Job expected that it would, not at all. Because God being God seizes the initiative here, right from the start. And he asks Job all the questions and demands that he answer God. And as he does all of this, he brings deep repentance to Job and he brings final spiritual healing to Job. And through Job, as we read, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us, to us. So that’s what we’re getting as we look at Job 38.

 I. God’s Voice in the Whirlwind Humbles Us

This is God’s voice; God’s voice in the whirlwind and it humbles us. Look at verses 1-2, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?’” the overwhelming majesty of God. Now earlier in the book of Job we saw in Job 13:11 this statement, “Would not his splendor terrify you? Would not the dread of him fall upon you?” Yes, it would. It’s always the case with these theophanies, these appearances of God in the Bible, whenever it happens, human beings are on their face before him; they’re leveled by him. So God determines to appear in majesty with the trappings of power and glory, and to overwhelm Job with his infinite greatness as he did with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. When God spoke to Israel that day, he descended from heaven to earth in clouds and fire, and he made the ground shake under their feet. And his voice was so terrifying that the people begged Moses that God not speak to them anymore less they should die. And God did all this to fill the people with fear. That was his motive, clearly. There’s no doubt that God has this capability. He can show up with this level of power. He can cause his glory to shine brilliantly. He can cause the ground beneath our feet to shake and he can speak to us with a voice that sounds like thunder and that fills the whole world with terror. God can do that. He has a dimmer switch on this. He can ramp it up, the display of his glory and his omnipotence, and his majesty to such levels we can scarcely begin to imagine. If he dial it up to 1% maybe, I feel that we would immediately die. “No one can see me and live,” God said to Moses. He has that power and God can choose any level of display he wants with any person at any time.

Then why does he use a whirlwind to speak to Job? He didn’t have to use a whirlwind. Why did he do it? He uses the wind, but in overpowering magnitude. I mean, wind can be gentle, like a zephyr, like a fragrant spring breeze, barely causing leaves to flutter. Making a few strands of your hair to dance around your face, making the tall grass sway just a little bit here and there. That’s all. That’s what the wind can do at that level. That was the choice it seems that God made when he spoke to Elijah on Mount Horeb. God said, “Go out and stand in the presence of the Lord.” So Elijah went out and the Lord passed by Elijah and an overpowering wind at that time, tore the mountains apart. But God was not in that hurricane. And after that mighty wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And then after that came the sound of a gentle blowing, like a gentle breeze, like a faint whisper, but the KJV calls it a still small voice. And when Elijah heard that still small voice, that gentle whisper, he covered his face and went out into the presence of the Lord and God spoke to him.

So why did God use the gentle whisper with Elijah and this terrifying whirlwind with Job? God seeks to humble Job in order to heal him I believe. God is the perfect counselor and he is also Job’s greatest friend. He’s the lover of Job’s soul. These three counselors failed in their ministry to Job. Their motive initially may have been to help their friend in his suffering, but their theology, their theology was flawed. Theology is the ground beneath your feet as you reach out to help a falling friend. But if your theology is flawed, you’re standing on wet rotten wood in a collapsing derelict house. So you cannot catch a falling friend with faulty theology. You cannot lift a falling friend with faulty theology. You have no ground under your feet. You really are falling yourself. So it was with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. In the end their truth system was flawed and their pride kicked in and they doubled down, and they doubled down again on their flawed theology, and they became destructive to their supposed friend. But, this is by the way the greatest understatement of my entire sermon, you ready? God’s theology is good. God’s theology is actually perfect. God knows what he’s talking about. Everything God says is true, and along with that, God is perfectly wise. He is the wonderful counselor and he knows precisely what approach to take to heal Job. He knows what truths to speak to transform Job’s anguished heart, and to restore his soul to health. Now, admittedly, I would have to say, it’s not what we would’ve thought a man in Job’s situation would’ve needed. Isn’t that true? We would’ve thought, “God, if you’re going to show up in a wind, why don’t you choose that little still small voice thing again, that gentle whisper. I mean, don’t you think this man’s been through enough?” I mean, I would’ve thought a gentle whisper would’ve been just a thing for a man like Job in that circumstance. But Isaiah 55 makes it plain. God says this, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” It seems like one of the basic lessons of the book of Job is don’t question anything God does ever. So that includes this whirlwind strategy. Don’t question it, it was the right thing for the moment. He knew what to do. God knew exactly what Job needed here. And none of the things that God said to job were for God’s own benefit, but always for Job’s spiritual healing and through Job, all of us. Apparently that’s what Job needed the most.

“Everything God says is true, and along with that, God is perfectly wise. He is the wonderful counselor and he knows precisely what approach to take to heal Job.”

He needed to be humbled and put in his place. He needed to be brought to repentance for the hard things he was thinking, the hard things he had said about almighty God. He needed to be brought down a number of pegs to be made to realize that he cannot possibly think to stand toe to toe with God as an equal and debate with him. None of us can. And more than that, Job needs to be brought to a point of absolute trust in almighty God. So what is God’s approach going to be? What are we going to talk about over these four climactic chapters? Well, he’s going to use something that we have learned to call natural theology, natural theology, to prove his wisdom and power. God’s going to speak natural theology. He’s going to engage Job in the process so Job is deeply thoroughly humbled. So it’s going to be a bit of a conversation, but not really. He’s going to bring Job in at some key moments, but just to humble him and he’s going to use natural theology. What is that? Natural theology is what nature teaches us about God. What you can learn about God by looking at nature, at creation, that’s natural theology. So God builds on Job’s experience in the world and stands as the creator, the sustainer, the ruler of everything in the universe. God made it without man’s aid. He sustains it every moment without man’s aid. And he rules over every moment without man’s aid. Excuse me. God will effectively be saying, “Since I have done and am doing all of these things and you have done none of them, you should trust how I’m dealing specifically with your life right now. You should trust me. You are absolutely in no position whatsoever to question me. Just trust me, I know what I’m doing.” That seems to be the lesson.

So that’s what we’re going to get in these four chapters and more, a lot of details. So he is directly humbling Job and through Job he’s humbling all of us. So God sees his control as I said of this encounter. Remember that Job wanted to ask him questions, but it’s not going to go that way. It’s God who’s going to ask him, look at verse three, “Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me.” “Brace yourself like a man.” What an expression. “Get yourself ready Job. Get dressed for battle. Okay, are you ready? Let’s go.” There’s that sense, “Let’s go. You wanted to talk to me, here I am.” And then fundamentally it’s, “Who are you to question me?” That’s the tone here. Do you see that? Almost all of the roads lead to that. “Who are you to question me?” Verse two, “Who is this?” Who are you? “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” Remember the two basic issues always in life are the same, fundamental aspects of our wisdom. Number one, the knowledge of God and number two, knowledge of ourselves. That’s what we’re learning. And so God wants Job to see himself properly in light of the infinite majesty of God. That’s how that works. “So who are you to question me?”

And so he is going to expose three basic limitations of Job and through Job, all of us, we have the same limitations. First of all, knowledge: “Job you know almost nothing. I am omniscient.” Secondly, time: “Job, your lifespan is very brief. You haven’t been around very long. I am eternal.” And then thirdly, power: “Job, you have very little power. Actually, you’re very weak. I am omnipotent.” So these basic limitations he’s going to expose and then through Job, us. Also along the way God is going to use irony and perhaps some sarcasm. And people don’t like that word sarcasm, but I don’t know what else to do with some of the statements. We’ll see it very plainly at one point. But he says, “Tell me, since you know. You were there, weren’t you? At that point, remember when I made everything. Teach me Job, I’d really like to know. Have you done this? Have you done that? Can you do the other?” That’s just sarcastic or ironic to some degree. God is using this as a technique.

All right. So let’s look at those limitations. We need to be humbled in this way. Fundamental aspect of our salvation is our humbling. When we get to heaven, we will be leveled when it comes to pride, leveled. We will be so perfectly humble in heaven. The more humble we can be now on earth, the better. So let’s look at these limitations. First of all, knowledge, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” So when a wise man speaks, his words bring light, right? They bring enlightenment that represents insight, wisdom. “But Job when you speak, it just gets darker. It’s like what comes out of your mouth are thick, dark clouds of ignorance that cover over light. You’re darkening my counsel and you’re speaking words without knowledge. That’s ignorant words. Job, you are actually shockingly ignorant. There is so much you don’t know.”

Now, the human mouth displays the arrogance of the human heart. Jesus said, “Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” So what’s in your heart out it comes out the mouth. And it says in James 3, “The tongue makes great boasts.” That’s who we are. We’re very arrogant. We need to be humbled. Secondly, the issue of time, “You haven’t been around very long, Job.” Look at verse four, “Where were you when I laid the Earth’s foundation?” And then later in verse 21, “Surely you know, since you were already born! You have lived so many years!” That’s an example of that sarcasm that I was talking about, verse 21. So, “You’re limited in time. You haven’t been around very long.”

Thirdly, power. You’re limited in power. You are very weak. Verse 12, “Have you given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place?” So it’s not just power, you’re limited in authority, “Go ahead, speak to the dawn and let it obey you.” Or again, verse 34-35, “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do the lightning bolts report to you and say, here we are, what do you want us to do?” So anyway, this is the counseling strategy that God takes with Job and through Job to every generation of his suffering people since then. God vigorously puts us in our place so that we will suffer well and we will not question his wisdom, his power or his love. 

II. God’s Power in Creation Educates Us

Secondly, God’s power in creation educates us. So let’s just drink in this natural theology. Let’s just learn what God talks about. God’s three great works when it comes to the physical creation, the physical universe. First of all, God originally created it out of nothing by the word of his power. Secondly, God sustains it every moment by the word of his power. Thirdly, God rules over it actively, every moment, by the word of his power. These are the displays of God’s power in the physical universe, his great works. Creation, sustaining, and governance.

And he begins with the earth’s foundations. Look at verses 4-7, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footing set or who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” So he begins with the planet, the earth, the ground under our feet. The earth is solidly set. It cannot be moved, another scripture said. God laid the foundations of the earth permanently. This is the stage, the physical stage on which the drama of human history and redemptive history has been unfolding. He marked off the dimensions of the earth, knowing how large to make it. He laid the foundations of the earth, and he says, verse 7, “While the angels watched him in sang for joy.” Most of your translations say, sons of God, one translation just tells us what that is, angels. We know that there’s no humans at that point. There’s no physical earth out of which they were made yet. So the angels are the audience and they’re enjoying it. God does these things for an audience. Everything’s a theater. We are the knowledgeable beings, angels and humans, who watch what God does and praise him for it. Animals don’t do that. Rocks and rivers, and trees don’t do that, we do.

And so before, in verse 7, before this adoring audience of angels, he laid the foundations of the earth. They were his first audience and they applauded him. Then he discusses ocean’s boundaries, verses 8-11, “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds, its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt?’” Well, that’s awesome. I mentioned last week in Japan, seeing the after effects of a tsunami, a hurricane, and just the thrashing of the ocean, the raging power of the ocean is terrifying. Think of the might of the billowing waves. Think how destructive they are on cities who are built on the coast, when the tsunami hits and tidal waves come crashing down. Nothing created by man can restrain the oceans. And there’s certainly more than enough water to 100% inundate planet earth, Noah’s flood proved that. But God restrains the oceans. He sets boundaries for the oceans, limits. And they are, apparently very fragile. The sand dunes with the little wispy grass and you’re not allowed to walk on them. Have you ever been there with all those warning signs about walking on the fragile dunes? They’re very fragile. It’s like, “That’s it God? That’s the limit? That’s the boundary?” Yep. It’s enough. It’ll stop. The proud waves halting right here. This is the limit. Here your proud waves must halt. The limits of God. God limits all of his creation. Every created thing has boundaries and borders, and limits, and he upholds them. God says to Job, “I’m the one who did this.” He openly tells him.

And then he gets to day and night, verses 12-15, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, [Job], have you ever shown the dawn its place that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal, its features stand out like those of a garment, the wicked are denied their light and their upraised arm is broken.” So God set up from the beginning, the rhythms of evening and morning. As you read in Genesis, there was evening and there was morning, the first day. There was evening and there was morning, the second day. There’s this rhythm of days, of sunrise and sunset. On the fourth day of creation, God created the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night. He also created the stars. And God gave orders to the sun and the moon in terms of their boundaries, in terms of what their task would be. He controlled the rotation of the earth as we understand it, to make each day as long as it should be. God figured all that out, and in the language here, God claims to give orders to the morning, to command when it should be morning.

This is not the machine, the mindless machine of the Deists. You know how they said, it’s like a clock that God made all the gears and the springs and wound it up and just lets it run. The mindless creation, the machine of the Deists, that’s not it. God gives orders to the dawn when it’s time for the dawn to come. He’s in charge of it. And as the sun rises, the contours of the earth become increasingly visible to the naked eye. As the light kind of shines more and more over the terrain, you can see the high places and the low places, it takes shape like a seal. So this could go back to the original creation, but it seems to be more what it looks like when the sun rises. “Did you, Job, command this, the morning, would it obey your voice?” And he notes with the rising of the sun, the wicked crawl back into their dark caves, no longer able to do their deeds of darkness. This is a picture of God’s sovereign control even over the rebellious of the earth. So God is ruling over even the wicked of the earth. He doesn’t talk about it much, but he does that.

Then in verse 16 he talks about the sources of the sea. Verse 16, “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?” He speaks, it seems, of the sources of ocean water from the bottom of the ocean floor. He uses language asking if Job has ever walked there or walked on the ocean itself. When Noah’s flood broke on the earth, it wasn’t just 40 days of rain, but in Genesis 7:11 it says, “all the springs of the great deep broke forth.” So from down below, there was this pressured water and it just roared up. God’s in charge of all that, as though there’s hidden sources of ocean water deep within the earth’s crust that God unleashed; God’s in control of that.

And then verse 17-18, the vast dimensions of the earth: “Have the gates of death been shown to you, [Job]? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?” The vast expanses, the dimensions of the earth, “Tell me if you know all this.” This speaks of the dimensions in details of planet earth, including the subterranean regions, the deep regions of the earth, where the dead are buried. The actual dimensions of caves and deep crevices and sinkholes, even down to the core of the earth itself. “Job, have you ever seen these? Do you have any sense of the vastness of the earth’s size and dimensions?”

And then again, light and darkness, verse 19-20: “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?” So he goes back to the sun and moon perhaps, but even more to light and darkness itself. The nature of light, how it works, what it is physically, and then darkness as well. God’s in charge of all of this, the light of the world, how it shines and where. I wonder if at this point Job doesn’t have any idea what God is talking about. I mean, that’s the point, isn’t it? You don’t know how to do all this. Like Jesus said to Nicodemus about being born again, “I’ve spoken to you in earthly language and you don’t understand what then if I speak in heavenly language? There’s whole levels of communication I could be using here and you wouldn’t have any idea what I’m talking about.” And so he takes a little bit of a break for sarcastic mockery, as I mentioned, verse 21, “Surely you know, [Job], for you were already born! You have lived so many years!” I just find that interesting. People say often God has a sense of humor. There’s not a lot of evidence that he does, but we have a sense of humor and we have a sense of that. It’s like, “All right Job, I’m ready, ready to listen since you’re so old and you’ve learned so many things.” So again, he is humbling him. And then he deals in verses 22-30 with weather patterns of every kind, snow, hail, lightning, wind rain, thunderstorm, dew, ice, frost, freezing water, and the effects of the rain watering the earth.

Look at these verses. Verse 22, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens, when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?” Honestly weather patterns are beyond most ability of human beings to comprehend. Certainly beyond anyone to control. We can barely comprehend what has happened. The rhythms of meteorology and some of the best among us who have spent a life studying this can give us a five day forecast. And sometimes four out of those five days are right. Maybe even all five. Those are good days. I wouldn’t want to be a meteorologist. I don’t know how they do what they do, but God’s going beyond this. God actually controls staggeringly huge movements of air, massively huge. And he controls temperatures, cold fronts, warm fronts, thermals rising, does all of this. And he knows how much rain to give each region of the earth to produce the exact outcome he desires. He waters, the text says, the desert regions with just the right amount, as well as the grasslands, the tropical rain forest, the wheat fields for us in Kansas, the corn fields in Iowa. He’s controlling all of that.

And his power is beyond comprehension. God doesn’t just know the weather patterns or predict them. He’s controlling them. He’s controlling the movements of air. And then he goes to the stars in verses 31-33, the constellations and the laws of physics, “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the chords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominions over the earth?” So at this point, God raises Job’s eyes up to the heavens like he did with Abraham. Look up at the stars, look at the staggering dimensions of outer space, clearly beyond man’s control. No doubt about that. We have no control over that. Most of it is beyond man’s even observations. We don’t even know how big it is, how many stars there are. We’re never going to reach even the closest stars. Stars are given to give light to the earth, but also to humble us, because the nearest star Proxima Centauri is 4.25 light years away. So you’re not going to get in your vehicle and dial up the cruise control to one light year, and then in four of those, you’ll be there. You’ll never make it. The only thing we ever made that has left the solar system, Voyager, at its rate it would take 73,000 years to get there. Like, “Oh, we got much better technology than Voyager now, we can go twice as fast.” Okay. Then that’s 37,000 years maybe. One of you will do the math and come back at me. I know that.

But then that’s the nearest star. The Pleiades that he mentions, the stars that make up that constellation group, is 100 times further away than that. We’ll never make it. We just look at it. Job has absolutely no control over the stars. He cannot bind their chords or loosen them, whatever that means. He cannot bring any star forth, but God actually controls each star, because of his mighty power not one of them is missing and he knows each of them by name, Isaiah 40:26. It’s interesting, he talks about the laws of the heavens. Like long before there was Newton figuring out the laws of gravitation or Einstein, figuring out the laws of light and of relativity, God knows, verse 33, the laws of the heavens, all of it. And then whether, again, verse 34-35, “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you and say, ‘here we are?’” “Are you in charge of the wind and the rain, and the clouds? Can you control all that?” Now, interestingly, in verse 36, for the only time in these four chapters, the only time, God addresses human capacity. He doesn’t talk about man pretty much at all in these four chapters. I find that interesting, but here he mentions it briefly. Verse 36, “Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?” So he’s saying, “I created you in my image, and I gave you a brain.” The human brain is the most complex physical thing God ever made. The number of neural interconnections in the human brain are equal to, they tell us, the number of leaves in the Amazonian rainforest. God made that. He made your brain to do what it does. It is made in the image of God. And so your reasoning powers, your thinking, your analytical powers, your understanding, God did that. And he’s greater than all of it for he made it. Man’s understanding is like a flickering candle compared to God’s omniscience. But this capability is still an astonishing display of God’s creative power. And then he goes one more time to human limits and to weather again. Verse 37-38, “Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?”

All right. So God’s basic natural theology approach, I think comes in two main parts, not counting Behemoth and Leviathan, we’ll get to in due time. Basically you’ve got inanimate objects and then animals. Those are the two basic approaches. So we’ve done all this inanimate stuff. The foundations of the earth, the oceans, the weather, the wind, the clouds, the stars, all this inanimate creation and how God runs it. Then he starts getting into animals. Now I know this is still chapter 38, but if I can tell you, the chapter divisions are not inspired by God. They were done by monks, I guess at some point, or somebody did them. I don’t know who divided up the chapters. Some of the divisions are excellent and wonderful, and shouldn’t be changed others are a bit confusing. So this one, I’m just going to put a line across here and say the two animals he discusses here we’ll talk about next time with all the other animals. And there are 10 of them, one after the other, each of them with their capabilities, each one with their domains and God feeding them and caring for them and all that. We’ll get to that God willing next week.

III. God’s Truth in Scripture Prepares Us

So that’s natural theology. That’s what God’s saying. Now, God’s truth as revealed in scripture is higher and clearer. The book of Job is clearer than looking at creation itself. We learn more from scripture. So again, keep in mind the whole book of Job and the context, Job’s sufferings, the problem of human pain. That’s what we’re addressing here. God is addressing the problem of human suffering. The problem of pain that comes in our lives, the afflictions that come and hurt us deeply, and he wants to help us. And this is how he’s helping us. This is how he wants to help us. This is God’s answer. What is it? The God who made all these things and wisely sustains them, and powerfully sustains them, knows also how to run your life. “Trust me, trust me, I have earned, I should have earned your trust.” That’s the argument that’s going on here. We know there’s stronger arguments. I know in the New Testament, the giving of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection. We’ll get to that in a moment, but this is what’s happening in this chapter. “Know me. Look at creation.” The astounding evidence of God in creation. The clearest description in scripture of natural theology is in Romans 1:20 and following, “Since the creation of the world,” that text says, “God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” So let’s not be fools. Let’s look at nature. Let’s look at creation and say, “The God whom I love made all these things. When I look at this creation, I see how powerful he is, how wise he is, how loving he is.” And if we don’t, then our foolish hearts are darkened. We’re not glorifying God as God and giving thanks to him.

“The God who made all these things and wisely sustains them, and powerfully sustains them, knows also how to run your life.”

So do that, and as you’re doing that, know yourself. What do you think you should know about yourself? You should be humble. You should be humble in reference to God. You should know yourself. You’re a creature, you’re created in the image of God. That’s true. That’s your exaltation. But you are not God, that’s your humbling. So fall down before God in humble worship, renounce all arrogant claims and charges against him. And in suffering, especially, trust God that he is wise. He knows what he’s doing. The same God who orchestrates the weather patterns, who moves masses of warm air in one direction and cool air in another to produce exactly the right amount of rain and sunshine for the crops, God knows how to orchestrate your life. And not only that, he knows how much you can handle.

We would’ve been, admit it, extremely gentle with Job. We would’ve had God be gentle with Job. In terms of the trials that he brought, we would’ve had fewer, less. We feel that God maybe wasn’t gentle. But I’ll tell you this, God was effective. The level of trial he brought in Job’s life was the right amount to achieve what he wanted. And the counsel, the approach to counseling was just right. So therefore, suffer well, suffer well. Look at creation and realize that God is in control and knows exactly what he’s doing in your life. Trust him; speak words of confident faith to him when you’re hurting. When you’re hurting, speak words of confident faith, “God, I trust you. I know you love me. I know this is working in good purpose in my life.” Say those things to him. Pray your pain back to him. Be patient in affliction.

And as you study creation, learn the attributes you can learn from creation. You can’t learn all of them. There are some attributes you can’t learn from creation. I mentioned that last week. I don’t think you can learn God’s justice in creation. You have to look at what he does with people. And in the end, his justice will be vindicated. We’ll talk about that. But what can you learn? Well, Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field,” right? Consider them. David said in Psalm 8, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers.” So you got this considering thing going on. So consider the lilies of the field. And what do you get, according to Jesus, when you do? You realize you shouldn’t be anxious about your life, what you’ll eat or drink or about your body, what you’ll wear. Look at the lilies of the field. If God clothes them better than Solomon, he knows how to take care of you. So what you get from looking at that creation, you get a sense of God’s love, his love. And when you look up to the stars in the night sky with Psalm 8 in your mind, and you say, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have made,” you know what I think, I think, “what is man?” So you get humbled by that. And you also have a sense of God’s infinite power and your lowness. So you get humility from that.

And what do you get when you consider the complex ecosystems, about the animals and how they relate to their terrain and all that? We’ll get more of that, God willing, next week. But the Psalmist does that in Psalm 104. You realize that God has a place for every creature and every creature is in its place. And it lives as long as it’s supposed to and it eats what it’s supposed to, and it functions like it’s supposed to, and all of it interacts in amazing ways. So what do you get when you meditate on that? A display of God’s wisdom, wisdom. Psalm 104:24, “How many are your work O Lord. In wisdom, you made them all, the earth is full of your creatures.” Now, look at the three attributes we’ve just seen. God’s love when you consider the lilies. God’s power, when you consider the heavens and God’s wisdom, when you consider the animals and the ecosystems, and their relationships to each other. Those are the three attributes people always question when it comes to human suffering, always. Either God’s not loving or he is not wise, or he is not powerful or none of the above. But when we look at creation as Christians, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we see differently, we see differently.

Now, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Job’s real problem was not his sufferings. The loss of his possessions, his children’s health, that wasn’t his real problem. His real problem was his own deeply embedded sin. Deep inside his heart there were sinful attitudes toward God, and it took this level of pressure, pressure, to bring them bubbling up to the surface. And they came, didn’t they? God knew they were there. And so he puts pressure on Job to bring him to humbling so that he can have mercy on him, that he can heal him from those things. And he’s going to be humbled. The fear of the Lord in all of this brings it to the surface and saves him. In Job 42:5-6, this is where we’re heading, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. And I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” So humble yourself.

Let’s do a little logic problem. Job is the godliest man alive. One that God boasted about as blameless and upright, a man who it says feared God and shunned evil. That’s who Job was. If I can just be general with you folks and with myself, that’s not who we are. We’re not blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil like Job, not to his level. So here’s my logic problem: If a man like Job as good as he was needed this level of humbling, how much do you think we need? Certainly not less. And this humbling is designed to get us ready for suffering. So either you’re going through suffering right now, or you will someday. The best thing you can do in either case is to fall down before almighty God and humble yourself. Tell him that he is your everything and that he is everything, and that you are nothing. Scuttle your pride. Tell him that you trust him and whatever he chooses to do with your possessions or with your loved ones, or with your help, he has the right to do.

IV. Christ’s Perfect Fulfillment Saves Us

Now, as I finish this morning, I want to bring to you the sweetest meditation that I had on this chapter. It’s not in the chapter at all, but I’m just moving out further to the whole scope of 66 books of the Bible and all of what God is saying to us. I want to bring your mind to Christ. I want you to think with me together about Jesus Christ. We need to see the infinite majesty of Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the exalted perfect God man. And unlike Job, this is beautiful, he actually can answer each of God’s questions to Job, all of them. Christ is actually perfect in wisdom. Christ is actually eternal in his person and Christ is actually infinite in his power. So look at the questions that God asked Job, and imagine him asking them of Jesus. Look at verse 4, “Where were you, [Jesus], when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Well, according to John 1:3, “Through Christ, all things were made and without him, nothing was made that has been made.” Or even better, this will blow you away.

Hebrews 1, in which we have an intra-Trinitarian conversation going on, in which the Father is exalting the Son, “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I’ve become your Father?’” He’s talking, the Father’s talking to the Son. Keep that in mind. Then you get to Hebrews 1:10-12, God the father says to Jesus the Son, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Wow. That’s Jesus. That’s our Savior that God is talking to, “They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe they will be changed. But you remain the same and your years will never end.” He is eternal. That’s Jesus. What about walking on the sea? Look at verse 16 again, “[Job], Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?” Imagine him saying that to Jesus, “Actually, father, I have. I have walked on the billowing waves of the sea of Galilee.” Mark 6:48-51, “About the fourth watch of the night. Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. And immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down and they were completely amazed.”

What about the storm? Verse 34-35 of Job 38, “[Hey Job], can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you and say, ‘here we are?’” In other words, “Job, do you control the weather?” What about Jesus? Oh, you know he does. In Mark 4:37-41, “A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples went and woke him saying to him, ‘Teacher don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Peace, be still.’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.’” And at the second coming, Jesus is going to come riding on the clouds. Matthew 26:64, “In the future you’ll see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” He’s going to be riding on the clouds. And best of all, what about the gates of death? Look at verse 17, Job 38:17, “Have the gates of death been shown to you, [Job]? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?” Well, Jesus has not only seen them, he’s blown them apart, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

“By his mighty death and resurrection Jesus has destroyed the power of the grave; death could not hold him. And if we trust in Christ, if you trust in Christ as your Savior, death won’t hold you either.”

By his mighty death and resurrection Jesus has destroyed the power of the grave; death could not hold him. And if we trust in Christ, if you trust in Christ as your Savior, death won’t hold you either. He’s going to bring you through the gates of death into everlasting life. For he says, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” So God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and restored his soul. But now, right now, God is speaking more clearly through his Son. Trust in him, put your faith in him. He is the perfect Son of Man who can answer all of these questions on our behalf and will be eternally worshiped at the right hand of God, forever.

Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the things that we’ve learned already in Job 38. There’s a lot to cover. Thank you for speaking the truth to us. Thank you for Christ who died and who rose again that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

At last! The silent God, the invisible God, the omnipotent God… the creator God SPEAKS!

Job 38 begins one of the most dramatic conversations in the history of the human race… Job, one of the godliest men in history, has been yearning for a face to face with God. This is as close as any man could come—for Almighty God descends to earth and speaks to Job with awesome power… the glorious God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind

Job, assaulted by his sufferings which came upon him wave upon wave has been yearning for a chance to confront God and interrogate him. Job seems convinced that God has made the same mistake his friends did… essentially Job acts like he has the same theology as them—such overwhelming suffering must be the result of human sin, and that God has made a mistake concerning him. All Job needs to do, so he thinks, is have a court trial in which the evidence could be presented, and Job would emerge triumphant against God his unjust adversary. He expected to GRILL GOD as a prosecuting attorney, and have God answer all of HIS questions!

But it doesn’t go anything like Job expected! God, being God, seizes control of the conversation, and asks JOB all the questions, and demands that he answer God!

I. God’s Voice in the Whirlwind Humbles Us

Job 38:1-2 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?”

A. The Overwhelming Majesty of God

1. Job already spoke these words earlier:

Job 13:11 Would not his splendor terrify you? Would not the dread of him fall on you?

2. So God determines to appear in majesty, with the trappings of power and glory, and to overwhelm Job with his infinite greatness, as he did with the Israelites at Mount Sinai

When God spoke to Israel that day, he descended from heaven to earth in clouds and fire; he made the ground shake under their feet; his voice was so terrifying that the people begged Moses that God not speak to them anymore, lest they die

God did this to fill all the people with fear!

There is no doubt whatsoever that God can show up with this level of power, and cause his glory to shine brilliantly and cause the ground beneath our feet to shake and speak to us with a voice that sounds like thunder and that fills the whole world with terror… God can do that… like a dimmer switch, God can ramp up the display of his glory and omnipotence to levels we can scarcely imagine; if he dialed it up to 10%, we would immediately die

God can choose any level of display he wants with any person at any time… why does he use the whirlwind with Job?

3. God uses the wind, but in overpowering magnitude

a. Wind can be gentle, like a zephyr… like a fragrant spring breeze, barely causing the leaves to flutter, making a few strands of hair around your face to dance, making the tall grass to sway a bit here and there, and that is all…

b. That was the choice God made when he spoke to Elijah on Mt. Horeb; God said “Go out and stand in the presence of the Lord”, and the Lord passed by Elijah. And an overpowering wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rock, but the Lord was not in that hurricane; and after the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake… and after the earthquake, there came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Then, after the fire came the sound of a gentle blowing, like a faint whisper, like a “still small voice”… and when Elijah heard it, he covered his face and went out into the presence of the Lord… and God spoke to him

c. Why did God choose the gentle whisper with Elijah but the whirlwind with Job?

B. God Seeks to Humble Job in Order to Heal Him

1. God is the perfect counsellor… and Job’s greatest friend

2. These three counsellors failed in their ministry to Job; their motive initially may have been to help their friend in his suffering, but their theology was flawed… theology is the ground under your feet as you reach out to help a falling friend; but if your theology is flawed, you are standing on wet, rotten wood in a collapsing derelict house… you cannot catch a falling friend, you cannot lift a fallen friend, you have no ground under your feet, and you really are falling yourself. So it was with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar… in the end, their truth system was flawed and their pride kicked in and they became destructive to their supposed friend

3. BUT GOD’S theology is perfect, of course, and everything he says is true… along with that, God is perfectly WISE… he is the “Wonderful Counsellor”, and he knows precisely which approach to take to heal Job… he knows what truths to speak to transform Job’s anguished heart and restore his soul to health

4. Now admittedly, it is not what we would have thought a man in Job’s condition needed at that moment… we would have thought,

“God, if you’re going to show up in a wind, why don’t you choose that ‘still small voice’ that you did with Elijah? Why not the soothing gentle breeze, Lord?” But…

Isaiah 55:8-9 my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

5. God knew exactly what Job needed here… none of the things God said to Job were for God’s own benefit, but always for Job’s spiritual healing

6. And apparently what Job needed the most was to be humbled and put in his place… to be brought to repentance for the hard things he was thinking and that he said about Almighty God

7. Job needed to be brought down many, many pegs… to be made to realize that he cannot possibly think to stand toe to toe with God as an equal and debate with him

8. More than that, Job needs to be brought to a point of absolute trust in God

C. God’s Approach:

1. Using natural theology to prove his wisdom and power… and to engage Job in the process so Job is deeply, thoroughly humbled…

2. Natural theology = what nature teaches us about God… God builds on Job’s experience in the world and stands as the Creator and Sustainer and Ruler of everything in the universe… God made it without man’s aid, he sustains it every moment without man’s aid, and he rules over it every moment without man’s aid

3. God will effectively be saying, “Since I did all these things and you didn’t, you should trust how I am dealing with your life. You are absolutely in no position to question me… JUST TRUST ME! I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!”

D. Directly Humbling Job… and through him, all mankind

1. God seizes control of the encounter… Job wanted to ask him questions, but it is God who will ask him

Job 38:3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

“Brace yourself like a man!” or “Get yourself ready, get dressed for battle. Okay, are you ready… LET’S GO!!”

2. “Who are you, to question me??”

Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?

The two basic issues are always the same: knowledge of God and of ourselves—and so God wants Job to see himself properly in light of the infinite majesty of God…

WHO ARE YOU TO QUESTION ME???

3. Three limitations exposed

Knowledge: You know almost nothing—I am omniscient! Power: You have very little power—I am omnipotent!

Time: Your lifespan is very brief—I am eternal!

4. God’s use of irony and sarcasm… “Tell me, since you know! You were there, weren’t you, when I made everything! Teach me, Job… I’d really like to know! Have you done this? Have you done that? Can you do what I can do??”

5. Exposing man’s limitations a.Knowledge:

Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?

i) When a wise man speaks, his words bring LIGHT (insight)

ii) BUT when you speak, Job, your words bring darkness… you darken my counsel because you don’t know what you’re talking about… compared to me, you are SHOCKINGLY IGNORANT!

iii)  The human mouth displays the arrogance of the human heart, for out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks… and our mouths MAKE GREAT BOASTS (James 3)

b.Time:

Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Job 38:21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

c.Power:

Job 38:12 Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place

Job 38:34-35 Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? 35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

This is the counseling strategy of God to Job and to every generation of his suffering people since then… God vigorously puts us in our place so that we suffer well and do not question his wisdom, power, or love.

II. God’s Power in Creation Educates Us

A. Three Great Works in the Physical Universe

1. God created it out of nothing by the word of his power

2. God sustains it every moment by the word of his power

3. God rules over it every moment by the word of his power B.Earth’s Foundations (38:4-7)

Job 38:4-7 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone– 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

The earth is solidly set… it cannot be moved… God laid the foundations of the earth permanently, the stage on which the drama of human history and redemptive history has unfolded; he marked out the dimensions of earth, knowing how large to make it; the laid the foundations WHILE THE ANGELS WATCHED HIM AND SANG FOR JOY!! [So apparently, he created the spiritual realms first, as the place where angels exist, and they were his first audience, applauding his works of creation]

C.  Ocean’s Boundaries (38:8-11)

Job 38:8-11 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?

The raging power of the ocean is terrifying! Think of the might of the billowing waves, and how destructive they are on cities who are built on the coast when a tsunami strikes and a tidal wave comes crashing down. Nothing created by man could restrain the oceans, and there is certainly more than enough water to cover the entire surface of the earth, as Noah’s Flood proved.

But God restrains the oceans… sets the boundary lines, the limits… the thin band of sand dunes, so fragile looking… yet that is the limit: HERE YOUR PROUD WAVES HALT! God sets limits for every created thing, and they stay within those limits.

God says to Job “I am the one who did this!” He openly tells him!

D.  Day and Night… the Rhythms of Sunrise and Sunset (38:12-15)

Job 38:12-15 “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, 13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? 14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. 15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

God set up the rhythms of evening and morning from the beginning of creation… “There was evening and there was morning, the first day”; on the fourth day, God created the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night; God GAVE ORDERS to the sun and the moon, and controlled the rotation of the earth to make each day just as long as it should be.

In the language here, God claims to give ORDERS to morning… to command it when it should come; this is not the machine of the deist, a clock that God wound up and allows to run; but it is the orderly universe that runs at his command. And the rising of dawn causes the surface of the earth to become gradually apparent to the observing eye… so it looks like its contours take shape like clay under a seal—the low places and high places, the mountains and the valleys, as the first fingers of light trace across their features every day

Job… DID YOU COMMAND THE MORNING? Would it obey your voice?

And he notes… with the rising of the sun, the wicked crawl back into their dark caves, no longer able to do their deeds of darkness; this is a picture of God’s sovereign control even over the rebellious of the earth

E.  The Sources of the Sea (38:16)

Job 38:16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

This speaks of the sources of ocean water, as from the bottom of the ocean floor… and uses language asking if Job has ever walked there or on the ocean itself

When Noah’s flood broke on the earth, the water didn’t just come from the rain, but

Genesis 7:11 all the springs of the great deep burst forth

As though there were hidden sources of ocean water deep within the earth’s crust that God unleashed. God is in control of those springs… Job didn’t even know they existed.

F. The Vast Dimensions of the Earth (38:17-18)

Job 38:17-18 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

This speaks of the dimensions and details of planet earth… including the deep regions, the subterranean regions, where the dead are buried. The actual dimensions of the caves and deep crevices and sinkholes… even down to the core of the earth itself…

Job, have you ever seen these? Do you have any sense of the vastness of the earth’s size and dimensions?

G.  Light and Darkness (38:19-20)

Job 38:19-20 “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? 20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

This goes back to the sun and moon, perhaps… but even more, to light and darkness itself

God is in charge of all the light of the world, how much shines and where.

Job doesn’t have any idea what these even are referring to!

H.  A Break for Sarcastic Mockery (38:21)

Job 38:21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

I.  Weather Patterns of Every Kind (38:22-30)… snow, hail, lightning, wind, rain, thunderstorm, dew, ice, frost, freezing water… and the effects of the rain watering the earth

Job 38:22-30 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, 23 which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? 24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? 25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, 26 to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, 27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? 28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? 29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens 30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

The weather patterns are absolutely beyond man’s power to control We can barely comprehend what has happened or make rudimentary predictions called the “Five-Day Forecast”

God personally controls staggeringly huge movements of air, controlling temperatures, causing thermals to rise and precipitation to fall

God knows how much rain to give to each region of the earth to produce the exact outcome he desires; he waters the desert regions just the right amount, as well as the grasslands, the tropical rainforests, the wheatfields of Kansas, the cornfields of Iowa

The power involved in controlling the weather is beyond calculation Sebastian Junger, A Perfect Storm:

“A mature hurricane is by far the most powerful event on earth; the combined nuclear arsenals of the United States and the former Soviet Union don’t contain enough energy to keep a hurricane going for one day. A typical hurricane encompasses a million cubic miles of atmosphere and could provide all the electric power needed by the United States for three or four years. During the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, winds surpassed 200 miles an hour and people caught outside were sandblasted to death. Rescue workers found nothing but their shoes and belt buckles. So much rain can fall during a hurricane—up to five inches an hour—that the soil liquefies. Hillsides slump into valleys and birds drown in flight, unable to shield their upward-facing nostrils………………… In 1938, a hurricane put downtown

Providence, Rhode Island, under ten feet of ocean. The waves generated by that storm were so huge that they literally shook the earth; seismographs in Alaska picked up their impact five thousand miles away.”

God controls every cloud, every motion of air, every form of precipitation

J.  Stars (the constellations) and the Laws of Physics (38:31-33)

Job 38:31-33 “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

Now God raises Job’s gaze up to the cosmos… the staggering dimensions of outer space; clearly beyond man’s control, most of it beyond even man’s observations. We will never reach even the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, for it is 4.25 light years away—that’s about 25 trillion miles. It would take the space probe Voyager over 73,000 years to get there. And the Pleiades is 100 times further away than that!

Job has absolutely no control over the stars… he cannot bind their cords or loosen them, he cannot bring any star forth.

But God actually controls each star by his power and his word, and even NAMES each one, as Isaiah 40:26 teaches

K.  Weather (again)… clouds and lightning (38:34-35)

Job 38:34-35 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? 35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

L.  Human Wisdom (38:36)

Job 38:36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?

God says very little in these chapters about human capability… I think that is intentional, for he is trying to humble Job.

However, the most amazing physical thing God ever created is the mind of man… the human brain is a staggering complex of interconnected neural cells, enabling man to think, to reason, to enquire, to evaluate, to research, to study, to synthesize, to understand. There are as many neural interconnections in the human brain as there are leaves in the Amazonian rainforest

Man’s understanding is like a flickering candle compared to God’s omniscience, but this capability is still an astonishing display of God’s creative power

M.  Human Limits (weather again!) (38:37-38)

Job 38:37-38 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens 38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?

N.  Animals (vss. 39-41=chapter division problem… should have been in chapter 39, which addresses animals in great detail: lion/lioness, ravens, mountain goats, deer, wild donkey, wild ox, ostrich, horse, hawk, eagle)

1. The animals will be discussed in detail next week… so, first, God covers INANIMATE creation—earth, mountains, seas, clouds, stars… next the ANIMAL world

III.  God’s Truth in Scripture Prepares Us

A. Central Context: Job’s Sufferings… the Problem of Human Pain

1. Job’s suffering… this is God’s answer

2. God is saying: “Know me… and know yourself”

3. “Know me”: look at creation, at the astounding evidence of God in creation, and learn who I am

Romans 1:20-22 since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities– his eternal power and divine nature– have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

Let’s not be fools! Let’s look at the staggering array of creation and realize there is a wise, powerful, loving Creator behind it all

We should look at creation, understand God’s attributes, and GLORIFY HIM for who he is! And GIVE THANKS TO HIM!

If we don’t, then our foolish hearts are darkened… we will darken God’s counsel by speaking words without knowledge

4. “Know yourself” = you are created in the image of God, and that is your exaltation; but you are not God, and that is your humbling

a. So, fall down before God in humble worship and renounce all arrogant claims and charges against him

5. In suffering especially, TRUST GOD that HE IS WISE… he knows exactly what he is doing; the same God who orchestrates the weather patterns, who moves masses of warm air in one direction and cool air in another to produce exactly the right amount of rain and sunshine for the crops… that God knows how to orchestrate your life

6. God knows how much you can handle! We would have been extremely gentle with Job; God was not gentle, neither in the level of suffering or in his counseling approach; yet God never pushes us beyond the breaking point

7. SUFFER WELL!!! Look at creation and realize God is in control and knows exactly what he is doing in your life; trust him, speak words of confident faith to him, pray your pain back to him, be patient in affliction

B. Study Creation to Learn God’s Invisible and Immeasurable Greatness

1. Jesus said “Consider the lilies of the field…”; David wrote, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have made…” CONSIDER!

2. What do you get when you consider the lilies? Freedom from anxiety!! Because the same God who clothed them so beautifully will also clothe you! There you see the LOVE of God

3. What do you get when you consider the heavens, the moon and the stars? Humility! Because the God who made them is infinitely greater than any man. There you see the POWER of God

4. What do you get when you consider the complex ecosystems of all living creatures, as the Psalmist does in Psalm 104? You realize God has a place for every creature and puts every creature in its place. There you see the WISDOM of God, for the Psalmist says,

Psalm 104:24 How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

5. Aren’t these three attributes—God’s love, God’s power, God’s wisdom—the same three we question whenever we see human suffering? Either God is not loving, or he is not powerful, or he is not wise. But a careful consideration of creation destroys such thoughts forever.

C. The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom

1. Job’s real problems were not his sufferings… the loss of his possessions, his children, his health… no, his real problem was he didn’t trust God, and so became arrogant against God and severely questioned him in overtly disrespectful ways

2. God in his wisdom and kindness healed him by renewing the FEAR OF THE LORD in his heart! God showed up in majestic power and spoke mighty words out of a whirlwind

3. Job was deeply humbled and repented out of the fear of the Lord

Job 42:5-6 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

4. God will not likely do this for any of us; we are to read about it in this book and FEAR THE LORD as much as Job did at the end

D. So… Humble Yourself

1. Let’s do a logic problem… Job was the godliest man alive, one that God boasted about as blameless and upright… a man who FEARED GOD AND SHUNNED EVIL…

2. If Job needed humbling to this level, do you think you would likely need to be humbled MORE than Job or less? In other words, between you and Job, who probably needed more humbling?

3. And this humbling is designed to get us ready for suffering!

4. Either you are going through suffering right now, or you will someday

5. The best thing you can do in either case is to fall down before almighty God and humble yourself

6. Tell him that he is everything and that you are nothing; scuttle your pride; tell him you trust him, whatever he chooses to do with your possessions, your loved ones, or your health

7. Whatever he does to me, though he slays me, yet will I trust in him!! IV.Christ’s Perfect Fulfillment Saves Us

A. Finally, We Need to See the Infinite Majesty of Christ, the Son of Man

1. Jesus Christ is the exalted, perfect God-Man

2. Unlike Job, he can answer God’s questions… all of them

3. Christ is perfect in wisdom

4. Christ is infinite in power

5. Christ is eternal in his person

B. So… Look at the Questions God Asked Job, and Imagine Him Asking them of Christ

Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Christ’s answer: I was right with you, working side by side, and through me, you made the earth:

John 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Hebrews 1:10-12 He also says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

ASTONISHING!! He chides Job for NOT being there when the earth’s foundations were laid… But in Hebrews 1, God the Father praises Jesus for actually doing the foundation work!

How about walking on the sea:

Job 38:16 Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Jesus could answer his Father, yes, I walked on the water of the deep:

Mark 6:48-51 About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed

And then, the storm:

Job 38:34-35 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? 35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
In other words, do the winds and the waves listen to your voice? In Christ’s case… THEY DO!!

Mark 4:37-41 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

And at the Second Coming, Jesus will ride on the clouds:

Matthew 26:64 In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

And best of all, the Gates of Death:

Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Jesus has not only seen the gates of death, but has destroyed them for us:

Matt. 16:18 …upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

By his mighty death and resurrection, Jesus has destroyed the power of the grave; death could not hold him…AND, if we trust in Christ as our Savior, death cannot hold us either!

John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind… and restored his soul.

But God speaks even more clearly through Jesus Christ, through whom he made the universe, by whom he conquered sin and death. HEAR HIM!