Job 40:7

The whirlwind had continued a long time, and is still blowing when the Lord speaks in these verses. The whirlwind itself was meant to press one truth on Job. Every swirling trouble and confusion stood under the controlling hand of the Creator. "His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3).

Look back at the beginning of Job 23. There Job confidently said he wished he could reach God. He felt sure he could lay out his case before Him, fill his mouth with arguments, and know the words God would use to answer him. Now the moment came for that wish to be granted. Jehovah tells him to gird up his loins like a man and be ready to answer the voice of God. The questions would now come from God.

God's word here is not "mortal man." Job had said, "What is man, that you are mindful of him?" He used the word "man" in the sense of mortality or weakness. But God employs a very different word: "Gird up now your loins like a hero"; for this is pretty much the force of the word. It means a strong man. He had challenged God to this judicial trial, and now he was heard.

God still speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, as He had already appeared to him. So His divine glory and majesty are still before Job. Yet in the call, "Gird up your loins now like a man," we have encouragement as well as rebuke. God is not crushing His poor foolish servant. He is appealing to his reason as well as his conscience... But this appeal is mainly to his conscience. Will he cancel and deny God's righteous judgment, and condemn God in order to set up a small human righteousness of his own?

If indeed he is thus qualified, Jehovah as it were invites him to take his seat upon the throne of divine judgment. Let him put on his robes of splendour and dignity. Let him dress himself in grandeur and majesty. Let his wrath pour out on everyone who is proud, and bring him low. What awful, holy irony! And yet how divinely just. If Job can sit in judgment on God, he must be qualified to run all His affairs better than He does! He can crush the proud rebellion of every evildoer and bring people into the dust before him. Has he done that with his own proud and rebellious heart? Has he humbled even his friends? How much less the whole world.

The Lord's questions here continue through chapter 41, so that Job's answer is found in chapter 42:1-6. But the Lord had deeper work to do in Job's soul. His questions probe Job's heart more deeply than Job ever expected.

Job had to learn that only the living God is the Saviour. He does not save those who deserve it. He saves those who are humbled to the dust and admit they deserve nothing but judgment. God saves by grace, through the great value of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. At that time Job knew nothing of that great sacrifice. But he could still know he was a sinner, depending only on the grace of God.