The book of Job has now come to its conclusion where the Lord is now giving the final word about how he runs the world and the reason for Job’s suffering. The Lord has appeared in a whirlwind and is speaking to Job from that whirlwind. In Job 38-39 the Lord has challenged Job to answer the questions he has for him. Job has challenged God. But rather than providing answers to Job, God is telling Job to answer him. The nature of God’s questions to Job intend to make Job make sense of the creation. God runs the world in a way to save every person. God also runs the world in a way so that no person will boast in themselves but in him alone. At the beginning of Job 40 you will see that God’s questions have brought Job to confession. Job confesses that he is of small account and that he spoke too much (cf. Job 40:3-5). God’s questions have moved Job to humility. God’s questions have moved Job to make important statements of confession about his own smallness. God’s questions have moved Job to realize that at some point his questioning of God should have stopped. But I would like for you to look at Job 40:6. You will notice that this is not the end of the book. Job 40:6 is not the end of God’s words. God is not done with Job. Here is what I want us to think about as we begin this next wave of questions from God. Job’s humility and silence are not enough. Humility and confession are not enough. God was needing to move Job further. So this is what we are going to look at in this lesson. What is God teaching Job and what is the right response to what God is declaring?
Challenging God’s Unmatched Power (Job 40:6-14)
The Lord again speaks to Job from the whirlwind and tells him that he is not done. Prepare yourself. Get ready. Tighten your belt, Job. God is going to question Job and Job must provide the answers (Job 40:7). Notice what the Lord wants to address in verse 8. “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” (Job 40:8 ESV). Before we go on, we need to stop and think about this charge. What you have done is that you have justified yourself and put God in the wrong. You are unwilling to see that you are wrong. It must be that God is wrong. Friends, we live in that culture right now. If the scriptures say something that we think is wrong, then God must be wrong. God must not exist. God must not be right and cannot be true. We will not consider the possibility that we are wrong and that God is right. But we are tempted to do this. We want to make God wrong rather than accept that we are wrong and that we do wrong. We want to justify our behavior rather than condemning our own behavior. This is what God must deal with regarding Job and regarding all of us. Will we condemn God so that we can be in the right? Are we going to say that God is not doing the right things in my life? Are we going to say that God is not doing the right things in the world? Now look at God’s first question in verse 9.
“Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” (Job 40:9 ESV). Do you have power like God does? Then look at what God says to do in Job 40:10-14. Then adorn yourself with glory, majesty, and splendor. Pour out your anger on the proud and arrogant and bring them low. Tread down the wicked where they stand. Bury them in the dust of the earth. Bring the wicked to the grave. Do these things and then God will acknowledge that your own right hand can save you. In Job 38-39 we see God challenging Job’s wisdom. Explain the creation. Explain what is happening since you think you are so wise about how your life should go. Now, in Job 40-41 you see God has shifted from wisdom to power. Since you are so strong and possess so much control, then you humble the proud. Then you bring the wicked to the grave. Then you go ahead and judge the world. Show your power so that you can deliver yourself. Show your sovereignty over your life and over the world. Go ahead! Show your strength.
Seeing God’s Unmatched Power (Job 40:15-41:34)
But now God is going to make sure that Job (and us) understand that our power is nothing like God’s power. In verse 15 God tells Job to pay attention to something called Behemoth. We are not sure exactly what animal God is pointing to. But I want us to see that this animal is massive. It eats grass like an ox but it has great strength in its loins and belly. Its tail is like a cedar tree. Its bones are like tubes of bronze and its limbs are like bars of iron. It is so strong that only God himself can approach it with a sword (cf. Job 40:19). It lies in the reeds and marshes. It is not afraid if the rivers rages. No one can capture it or trap it (cf. Job 40:22-24).
Then God draws Job’s attention to another massive animal in Job 41 called Leviathan. Can you pull it out with a fishhook or tie its tongue with a rope? Can you put a rope through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Is it going to beg you for mercy or speak softly to you? Can you tame it or play with it or put it on a leash for your girls to play with (cf. Job 41:4-5)? If you try to lay your hand on it, you will remember the battle and never do it again. Hope of capturing it and subduing is a false hope (cf. Job 41:8-9).
Now God takes an important pause in Job 41:10. No one is fierce enough to stir up Leviathan. Then who can stand before the Lord? Who can stand up to the Lord? Who can oppose the Lord? You cannot even oppose certain animals in the creation. Why would you ever think that you are strong enough to stand against the Lord? If you cannot overpower the creation, how would you ever think that you can overpower the Lord? Go to verse 11. Who has paid God first so that he owes you? What does God need to repay to you or to me? Everything belongs to God. Nothing belongs to us. What does God need to pay you?
Then God returns to his description of Leviathan in Job 41:12-34. It is powerful. No one can open its jaws. Terror surrounds its teeth. Its back is made of shields. It sneezes light and fire from its mouth. Smoke comes from its nose. Its neck is strong and its chest is hard as a rock. When it raises up, the might are terrified, running away from its thrashing (cf. Job 41:25). A sword does nothing to it. Arrows do not make it run. Stones and clubs are like stubble to it (cf. Job 41:26-28). Nothing on earth is its equal. It looks down over everything. It is the king of the proud beasts (cf. Job 41:33-34). Now why did God go through this exercise? Let’s see Job’s response this time and we will see what God was trying to accomplish in Job’s heart and hopefully in our hearts as well.
Job’s Response (Job 42:1-6)
Job has four responses to the Lord’s teaching. First, Job proclaims God’s sovereignty. Look at Job 42:2. “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” I want us to see two things embedded in this confession. Job understands that withstanding God is utter foolishness. This is clearly a key point that God is driving at as he describes these two beasts on earth. Arguing with God is fruitless. Contending with God is emptiness. Challenging God is foolishness. Resisting God is futility. God can do all things and no purpose of his can be thwarted. But in this confession is embedded a second key understanding. Job understands that God had a purpose. Do you see this? Job confesses that God had a purpose and that purpose was not going to be undone. There is no plan of God that is impossible. There is no purpose of God that is stoppable. God has a purpose.
Second, Job proclaims his own ignorance. Look at Job 42:3. Job returns to the original question that God asked him. God asked who this person was who darkened his counsel with ignorant words (cf. Job 38:2). Job now confesses he spoke about things that he did not understand. This is another important part of our confession. We do not know what God is doing. We do not know what his purpose was in a particular event. We do not know why God says yes and why God says no. But we do know that God’s purpose will not be thwarted. But here is another important part of this. We do not have to try to conjure up reasons for what God is doing. We do not have to make up cliches or empty words to try to make meaning out of something we do not understand. God has a purpose and we do not know that plan.
Third, Job proclaims a deeper knowledge of the Lord. Look at Job 42:4-5. Job notes how God has appeared in the whirlwind and has challenged him to answer his questions. Now Job says that he had heard about God but now I see God. Job does not mean this in a physical way. Job does not say in verse 4 that he heard stories about God but now saw the whirlwind. Please notice that the way Job has come to see God in a new and deeper way was by God challenging him. This suffering experience has brought Job to see God in a way that he had never seen God before. This is such a true statement if you have allowed God to open your eyes through your time of trials and suffering. How God questions us through our trials is to bring us to see our God in a whole new light, moving us to have a deeper relationship with God and a deeper trust in him. This is what we see Martha saying in John 11:21-22.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” (John 11:21-22 ESV)
This is what Paul was saying in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:8-10 ESV)
Their pain and their trials have moved them to a deeper level of faith and trust in the Lord. Paul says that he is strong when he is weak. Paul says that his power is made perfect in these times of weakness. Trials are to bring us to a deeper level of faith in the Lord.
Finally, Job proclaims repentance. Look at Job 42:6. Job ends his confession by deeply repenting of what he has said against the Lord. Job takes back everything that he said and now shows his repentance as he sits in dust and ashes. One of God’s purposes in our suffering is to move us to repentance. We noticed in last week’s lessons that God is moving us to humility. But God is also moving us to a heart of repentance and an expression of our repentance. Now I want to bring us back to the beginning of our study in the book of Job. Job was proclaimed to be blameless and upright, fearing God and turning from evil. Satan challenged the faith of Job. Satan declared that Job only served God because he was so good to him. But take away his blessings and remove the hedge of protection and Job will certainly curse God. I have asked this question before but it is important to ask the question again right here. Why did God allow the trial? We made the point that Satan is saying that you will crumble under the trials but God is believing you will hold fast to God in the trial.
So why did God say yes to the trial? Why did God allow the trial of Job? Why did Job go through the trial even though he was a faithful servant of the Lord? I hope you see the answer as we come around to the end of the book. God wanted to move Job to a deeper relationship with him and move him to a greater heart of repentance. God sees the blind spots in our lives that we do not see. That is why we call them blind spots. But God sees our weaknesses and needs us to address those areas in our lives. It was not enough for Job to humble himself. Job also needed a sustained heart of repentance. There are areas in our lives that we need to repent that God must expose. We must let trials expose our sins, our failures, and our mistakes and then repent of those errors. We also need to stay consistent with the book of Job. Job was blameless. Sin was not the reason for his suffering. But Job still had weaknesses is his life that needed to be exposed and transformed. Even Job needed to grow into a deeper relationship with the Lord, which could only happen through this trial. God’s unmatched power and purpose is to move us to repent so that we can be saved and endure with the hope of eternal life with our Father.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)