What did God say to Job?

Looking at His words as a whole, we might be surprised at their character. They are not in one sense profound, as unfolding depths of theological truth. They are scarcely didactic in a moral sense, impressing upon man his duty. They are not so much a revelation of truth as a question to Job if he knows the truths that lie all about him in the vast creation of God. It is this which makes these words of Jehovah so wonderful. He speaks, not "in a tongue no man can understand," but in the language of nature, about the earth, the sky, the clouds and rain, and beasts and birds.

The Lord begins to speak in Job 38 and we read that He spoke out of the whirlwind. I have already referred to the fact that there is nothing in what the Lord says there that is outside of the life of men and of animals and of the creation as we know it. Some see something typical in them but I do not believe there is the slightest justification for this. The Lord was taking up something that Elihu referred to. He was displaying the immense greatness of God. If Job could not ask one tenth of the ten thousand questions that arise about nature how could he possibly understand God? God speaks first about the inanimate things, the earth, sea, clouds, hail and rain. He shows three things about them. Firstly that He designed them; secondly that He created them; and thirdly that He controls them. Consider the whole range of inanimate things that make up the world and the whole range of living creatures, and God commands them all. It says “Doth the eagle mount up at Thy command, and make her nest on high?” (Job 39:27). All the eagles on the earth, all moving to execute the demands of God. We cannot understand those movements and we cannot conceive in our minds the Being that could embrace the whole of them. The lesson for Job was that it was altogether too great for him to try to get to the bottom of things and seek for explanations. God in His counsels and actions is altogether too big for us. Then when the Lord comes to the end He speaks about Leviathan. We may feel like asking “what has all this explanation got to do with Job?”, but the presence of God was in the Word. If one of God's creatures terrifies the man who sets his eyes upon him how wrong it was of Job to persist and persist in questioning God. Job did maintain his righteousness and we are told that Job was an upright man, but Job also charged God with injustice in what He had done. God didn't exactly reprove Job for this. Elihu did, but God did not. God was altogether in His Words out of the whirlwind, showing that it was quite impossible for Job to cope with questions that arise about God. God gives no account of Himself in these things, His counsels and His designs, that lie behind the things that are done. We cannot expect God to give account, and this is only in earthly things! The presence of God was mediated in the things that Job heard and saw. Job's patience was manifested when he didn't curse God when his wife said “curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). His patience was manifested when he said “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord ” (Job 1:21). That was Job's patience, but the end of the Lord was reached when Job said “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). After this he sailed into prosperity, though what is spoken about at the end was prosperity of an earthly kind.

This was much for the good of souls. But more was vouchsafed; for Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38, 39), not by argument nor even by instruction, but displaying the witness of His majesty and power, so that Job was constrained to say, "Behold, I am of small account: what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth: once have I spoken, and I will not answer; yea twice, but I will proceed no farther" (Job 40:3-5). Jehovah answers again out of the whirlwind, by presenting two creatures, behemoth and leviathan, to enforce Job's sense of powerlessness, and the folly of his presumptuous words, so that he again confesses (Job 42:2-6), "I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be hindered. Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore I uttered what I understood not, things too wonderful for me that I knew not. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak. I will demand of Thee, and inform Thou me. I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor [myself] and repent in dust and ashes."

Here, then, we have Jehovah — you observe this name has not appeared after Job 2 (except in Job 12:9) in the historical part. But now before the proper history is concluded (the last chapter is the concluding chapter of the history), before that it brings Him in again. We have Him speaking according to His authority, according to His relationship; and that is just exactly what "Jehovah" means. It is God not merely in the abstract, but God in relation to man upon the earth. And hence He answers Job. But He answers him here because it was a rebuke out of the whirlwind. "Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind." 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. Those that are brought into relationship livingly with God have His interference — not merely the fact that they are in relationship, but the proof of it. And He was giving this grand light upon how it acts and how Job ought to have been — if he did not enter into it — ought to have been on his guard against setting up his own judgment about God. This is what He is overthrowing, in these chapters.

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" He does not mean that Job did not know Him at all, but He did mean that his knowledge was limited, and that he had no adequate knowledge as to the dealings of God. "Gird up now thy loins like a man" — like a hero — "for I will demand of thee and answer thou me." That was a remarkable word. God is going to ask him a number of questions. Job had been questioning the dealings of God. Now God retorts upon him; now He says, I am going to ask you, and answer Me like a man if you can. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" What an overwhelming question! What did Job know about it? "Declare, if thou hast understanding." He had none. "Who has laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?" He did not know. "Or who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?" Because there are two things true of the earth. Stability for the time — that is what is referred to here, and why foundations are spoken of; and there is another view given in this very Book of Job, that it is suspended upon nothing. That never entered into the mind of anyone until comparatively late. Even the men of science have only just come to that. But there it was in Scripture before them. It is hung upon nothing. So that it has great stability and regularity in its course, so firmly are the foundations laid; but on the other hand the mighty power of God is shown, because, although it is hung upon nothing of the creature, it hangs entirely upon God's power.

Observe also, it is not an abstract revelation. It is a distinct dealing with the case before him. The godly man had been utterly crushed, and the presence of his misjudging friends had aggravated his anguish to the core. If he had indulged in wistful longing that he could find God, Jehovah does answer him: "Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins." He had asked God, challenging Him to such a meeting; and God replies: "Gird up now thy loins like a man." It is not now, "What is mortal man?" as Job had said, "What is man, that thou art 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 thy 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 he was now heard: "For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding." Nowhere. "Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof?" He is silent again. Not a word did he know; and what is more, here are these words at the beginning of the world's history — not so very long after the flood, and after man began to spread himself a second time over the earth. If man boasts abundantly of his acquisitions and his skill of knowledge, science, and civilization since, why not he answer the challenge of God now?

The words of Jehovah fill four chapters, with a brief interlude at the opening of Job 40. Question after question is propounded for Job to consider and answer, if he could; and all are concerned with the mighty power that had acted in creation. Once more we see that only the primeval revelation of God is assumed. If, as some think, Moses wrote this book, he wrote of things that happened before the law was given, or, at least, of circles where the law was not known. We are reminded of what we read in Romans 2:12-15, as we notice that "the work of the law" was written in the heart of Job. Jehovah judged him in the light of what he knew, and as He did so, we shall discover how Job's conscience bore witness and his thoughts which had been excusing him began to accuse him. The law did not make men responsible, it only heightened their responsibility.

In verses 4-38 of Job 38, the Lord asserts His own greatness and Job's insignificance in the light of His mighty creatorial acts. He started with His founding of the earth, which occasioned jubilation among angelic beings, who witnessed it; and then He proceeded to speak of the seas breaking forth, though in darkness, and then light appearing so that there was a dayspring as well as darkness. After that came mention of the wonders of snow and hail and rain, as well as the wonders displayed in the stars, the constellations and the ordinances of heaven. We cannot but be reminded of the early part of Genesis 1, down to the point where we read, "He made the stars also." What did Job know of these things? Had he entered into the springs of the sea? Or had the gates of death opened to him?

From verse 38 and through Job 39 the questions refer to animals and birds, the creation of which is related in the latter part of Genesis 1. Here again, if carefully considered, wonders innumerable confront us, and questions were raised that Job could not answer.

Jehovah then answers Job out of the whirlwind, asserting the majesty of His power, laying bare Job's ignorance to himself, and pointedly demanding, Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct Him? he that reproves God, let him answer it. This brings out from Job the confession of his vileness, which is carried on still farther, we may say fully, by a fresh appeal of Jehovah mainly grounded on but two of His earthly creatures (Job 38 - 42:6). There could be no more till Christ came not only bringing life and incorruption to light, but clearing up what must then have been left to God as insoluble by man.

Out of that whirlwind, or golden storm-cloud (Job 37:22), Jehovah replies to the vain questionings and lamentations of Job. It is sufficient to notice that it is not a reply to Elihu, which effectually disposes of the thought that the darkening of counsel was by him. Elihu had been God's spokesman, leading up to the divine manifestation which is now upon us. As Elihu had addressed Job throughout, so Jehovah follows up the words of His servant. "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 unto Him" (ver. 37), he had declared. "I am vile" is what he has to say when he hears His voice. Jehovah asks, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel," that hides the purposes of God and the truth, "by words without knowledge?" Job had poured out a flood of words lamentations, protestations, accusations. There was much that was true and excellent, but all was vitiated, so far as God's purposes were concerned, by the exaltation of his own righteousness at the expense of Jehovah's. Instead of light, the clear flame of divine truth, all was a lurid smoke-cloud of unbelief which darkened the sun in the heavens. Who is this? Is it some divine being, Jehovah's equal, who was calling in question the other's acts? 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. The Lord's question turns Job's thought from all his fancied wrongs to himself. The psalmist, as he beholds the heavenly creation (Ps. 8), asks, "What is man?" Abraham, in God's presence, had declared he was but "dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27). Paul closes the opposer's mouth by asking, "Nay but, O man, who art thou, that repliest against God?" (Rom. 9:20). Man — the finite, fallible, fallen creature — shall he be more just than his Maker?

It should be very clear to everyone that God is not speaking to Elihu, but that He confirms what Elihu had said as He answers Job directly (v.1). Most of what God says is in the form of questions. His first question is, "Who is this who 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 deeply impress this upon him.

And then the rain clouds, the lightnings and their control. What questions these are. They cover every department of what man terms "natural sciences"--geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography, astronomy, etc. Job had not a single answer to these questions and if he had spoken his words would have been folly. And we, 3000 years or more after, with all our boasted progress, scientific discoveries of the great laws of nature, are still unable to answer these questions in a satisfactory way. All the boastings of science of getting at the secrets of creation are nothing but foam. One breath of the Almighty and man's speculations, apart from Him and His Word, are scattered to the winds. But what is the aim of the Lord in putting these questions? To show that God is greater than man and to humble man, to bring Job to the needed true knowledge of himself and to deliver him from the pride of his heart.