Job 38:2

"My desire is that the Almighty would answer me," was Job's closing word (Job 31:35). He is now to have his wish granted; but how different the effect! "As a prince would I go near to Him" (v. 37), he had declared. "I am vile" is what he has to say when he hears His voice. Jehovah asks, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" To darken counsel is to hide the purposes of God and the truth. Job had poured out a flood of words — laments, protests, accusations. Much of it was true and excellent. But as far as God's purposes went, he spoiled it all by exalting his own righteousness at the expense of Jehovah's. Instead of light, the clear flame of divine truth, it was all a smoke-cloud of unbelief that blotted out the sun in the sky. Who is this? Is it some divine being, Jehovah's equal, calling the other's acts into question? Was it some mighty angel, gifted with heavenly wisdom, that dared lay a charge against his Maker? No, it was a man, frail, ignorant, sinful.

It should be very clear to everyone that God is not speaking to Elihu. He confirms what Elihu had said, and He answers Job directly (v. 1). Most of what God says is in the form of questions. His first question is, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (v. 2). In other words: "Who do you think you are, Job?" Job's words lacked the knowledge he ought to have had, and God will drive that home to him.

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" He does not mean that Job did not know Him at all. He did mean that Job's knowledge was limited, and that he knew nothing like enough about God's dealings… God is going to ask him many questions. Job had been questioning the dealings of God. Now God turns it back on him; now He says, I am going to ask you, and answer Me like a man if you can.

It was meant to be a rebuke and that Job should really feel it and profit by it. And it is a terrible thing where God does not rebuke a soul upon the earth. What does it mean? It means judgment by and by for ever. God steps into the lives of those He has brought into living relationship with Himself. That is not just the fact that they are in relationship — it is the proof of it.

And yet Jehovah is not seeking to crush Job, but rather to bring him to a true knowledge of himself and of God. God will not ask questions which a man cannot understand… When Jehovah speaks to Job like this, it shows His purposes of mercy for him. His appeal is to reason, and so to conscience.

The other very striking thing comes at the end. All the cloud of words had died away, and Jehovah answers Job out of the whirlwind. What will He say? How will He explain what Job's friends failed to explain? How will He finish the explanations Elihu began? He didn't do it! Not one word of explanation of Himself did God utter. Not one word to answer the questions that Job had asked. He spoke only about the things of this earth and nature.

This is God's question to all the vain words of men. They may be the cries of imagined wrong. They may be the empty efforts of human reason to explain the state of the world around us, and of the human family in particular. Whatever form they take, they only darken true wisdom. Write this divine question over the doorway of every library. Its volumes of human science, history and philosophy shut out the revelation of God, whether on purpose or in ignorance.