Job 40:1

The words of Jehovah fill four chapters, with a brief interlude at the opening of Job 40. He puts question after question to Job for him to consider and answer, if he could. All of them concern the mighty power that had acted in creation.

Just notice how directly He puts the question in Job 40 to Job in person. "Moreover Jehovah answered Job, and said, Shall the one who contends with the Almighty instruct Him?" He ought to be able, if he judges God. This is what fills Job with shame... Job had contended with the Almighty.

And Jehovah answered Job, and said, Is the censurer to correct with the Almighty? The reprover of God, let him answer it.

It is Jehovah-God then, who alone orders and alone knows. His kind wisdom takes in every creature, including those clearly outside all the care or even the knowledge of man. Is he then to contend with God, or, if he is so presumptuous, can he pretend to instruct God?

Here lies the root of Job's trouble: he had sat in judgment on God — he had accused the Almighty of evil.

Job had said that if God would only listen to him, he would present his whole case showing how God was unfair in His dealings. So now God gives Job the opportunity to do this. He asks Job, "Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?" Where were Job's arguments then? How crushing God's words were to the misplaced pride of Job!

It was not the lesson of a sinner that Job had to learn. He already knew the grace of God. It was the lesson of a saint he needed to be taught, or taught more fully. That is why the Lord seats Himself in the whirlwind. Suppose Job had needed to learn the lesson of a sinner for the first time. Then the Lord would rather have spoken to him in "the still small voice," the tone that suits grace... But Job was already a saved sinner. He knew the grace, but had still to be taught the rights, of God.

He says, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth..." Job goes deeper here than apologising for what he has said. He expresses his judgment of himself as a person... Then he judges also what he had spoken more than once, and says he lays his hand over his mouth. This is just what Romans 3:19 says of all mankind: "that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God."

Here the test of Job is all but over. Yet in faithfulness Jehovah will probe still further, into the deepest corners of his heart, to lay bare its potential evil. So we must listen further to what the Lord has to speak.