Job chapter 38 begins God’s reaction to Job and every scientist, explorer, environmentalist, philosopher and historian. Ultimately there are questions that we cannot answer. With each unanswered question, God becomes greater and we become smaller. Virtually every new discovery of man reveals new intricacies of God’s design. Everyone in the Book of Job misrepresented God, including Job himself. Now God will speak, not as a man on trial but as God of all things. With each question God poses, He reveals the arrogance of man. The chapter begins, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm“. There are many places where we are humbled by our smallness and in the midst of storms is one of them. God asks, “Who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge?“. I find it humorous how often people hide their lack of understanding behind jargon. Someone once told me, if you can’t explain something in simple terminology, you don’t understand it. In a previous chapter, Job had said, “let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put His indictment in writing“. Now God tells Job to get ready, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me“. I cannot think of a more freighting idea than standing before God to answer Him. One of the greatest verses in all of scripture explains that the only way to avoid this situation is to allow Jesus Christ to pay the debt of all your sins, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies… Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34-35). I desire Jesus to be my Lord and my Defender.
God asked Job the first question and He could have stopped there. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” I laugh at the philosophies that pass for science today. Science requires something to be “observable, repeatable, and predictable”. Outside of that, it is simply a theory, or in many cases a belief system. I readily admit that my life is ruled by a belief system with God at the center. Every design must have a designer. Chaos never produces perfect order. God continues His questioning, “Who marked off its dimensions?“. And to emphasize the point, God notes a few of Job’s limitations, “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?” Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain? Does the rain have a father?“Even with Satellites, sonar and remote cameras much of our own planet is still uncharted. Isaiah 40:12 says that God “has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and the universe with the span” of His hand. We cannot comprehend God’s Greatness. And yet He has intimacy with every bit of His creation. According to Psalm 147:5, “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them“.
God then asks Job about the universe.”Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons? Do you know the laws of the heavens?” We “city” people that see the night sky through the haze of our own lights can hardly appreciate the number and brightness of the cosmos. We have the illusion of our own brightness, but even that can’t completely hide the heavens. God asks Job about the weather and again I think of modern man’s audacity. We cannot even get the weekend forecast right and we believe we can predict the global climate for the next century? “Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?” We want to believe we have much more control that we actually do! Finally God asks Job about the other living creatures. “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness?” “Who provides food for the raven?”Think of all the creatures that we do not domesticate, or tend. From the microscopic to the mammoth, God provides for all. I am reminded of Matthew 10:30-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows“. The same God that spun the universe into place cares for you as His only child. God does not have any limits. Nothing is too grand and nothing is too insignificant. That is the universal truth!