Job 38–39 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
The last lesson read a poem about wisdom that ends, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28).
After that, Job made his final appeal, ending, “oh that I had one to hear me! … Let the Almighty answer me!” (Job 31:35). Then a young man named Elihu spoke up. “His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God” (Job 32:2), and he went on for several chapters (Job 32–37).
In this lesson, the one Job has waited for so long finally speaks.
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,
2“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!
4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?
6What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone,
7when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
9when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
11and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?
God goes on to ask Job whether he has ever commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to take hold of the ends of the earth. (vv. 12–15)
16“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.
God then asks about the dwelling of light and of darkness, the storehouses of the snow and the hail, and where rain, dew, ice, and frost come from. (vv. 19–30)
31“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
32Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
33Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
God asks further about the clouds, the lightning, and food for the lioness. (vv. 34–40)
41Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?
Read the whole passage: Job 38–41. God speaks from chapter 38 through chapter 41; in between, Job answers once (Job 40:3-5).
The moment he waited for. At the end of his appeal Job said, “oh that I had one to hear me! … Let the Almighty answer me!” (Job 31:35). The first line of this chapter is: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind” (v. 1). Job had asked for a long time, and God answered.
The question God did not answer. God speaks for four chapters, yet not once does he mention the heavenly scene, and not once does he say why Job suffered. What we readers learned in Lesson 1, Job still does not know here, and God does not tell him. The passage gives no answer, and this lesson does not give one on God’s behalf.
Turning the questions around. God’s first words are, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (v. 2). But then he says, “Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!” (v. 3). God does not send Job away; he treats him as someone who can answer. Then God asks, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (v. 4). One question follows another: the measures of the earth, the bounds of the sea, the gates of death, the stars in the sky.
The sea has a limit. God says that when the sea broke out, it was he who “marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors” (v. 10), and said to it, “You may come here, but no further” (v. 11). In Job’s world, the sea was the hardest thing of all to tame. God says that even it has an edge.
Places no one sees. God says he causes it “to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man” (v. 26). He asks, “Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?” (v. 41). In chapter 39, God speaks of the wild donkey — “Who has set the wild donkey free?” (Job 39:5) — and of the eagle: “Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?” (Job 39:27). These are places people cannot see and cannot manage; God says he knows them all.
Job’s answer. When God finishes one part, Job answers: “Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth” (Job 40:4). “I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further” (Job 40:5). What the passage records is that Job stops arguing; it does not say that God blamed him for talking too much.
No answer, but presence. What Job wanted was an answer; what God gave was himself — coming in the whirlwind, speaking in person. This lesson is not saying, ‘Look how vast heaven and earth are, and human suffering counts for nothing.’ Job’s suffering was real, and the passage never makes light of it. This lesson only lets us see that God came. How God later speaks to Job and to his friends, we read in the next lesson.
From chapter 4 to chapter 37, Job and his friends said a great deal about God, and each had his own explanation.
When God speaks, he asks questions none of them can answer: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (v. 4). At that moment, Job was not there, and neither were his friends.
Perhaps you, too, have a ‘why’ that you have been asking for a long time. This lesson does not give you an answer, because here the passage does not give Job one either.
It only lets you see this: Job kept asking God to speak, and God spoke; God did not explain, yet he came himself.
This week: Find a place where you can see the sky, and be quiet for ten minutes. Read 38:4–7 once, then tell God your ‘why’ just as it is. You don’t need to look for an answer; just tell him.
Scripture: World English Bible.