Seeing Beyond the Question Marks (Job 40:1-14)

In his book “How To Have A Creative Crisis, H. Norman Wright, states, “The three questions most often asked in crisis are: ‘Why God, why?’, ‘When God, when?’ and, ‘Will I survive God?’ And of those three, the most common question of all is, ‘Why God, why?’” 

There are 3,157 question marks in the King James Version of the Bible.  And the book that contains the most?  You guessed it…it’s this story of Job. There are 325 question marks in these chapters – far more than any other book (Jeremiah is second with 195).

Just a handful of those questions:

3:11 Why did I not die at birth?  

3:20 Why is light given to him who suffers?

7:20 Why hast thou set me as Thy target?

7:21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?

13:24 Why dost Thou hide Thy face and consider me Thine enemy?

19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God does?

21:7 Why do the wicked still live?

Robert L. Wise, in his book “When There Is No Miracle,” states, “…the dilemmas loom so large that we find it difficult to see beyond the question marks…”

40:1-2 “Then the LORD said to Job, 2 ‘Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.’”

Even though God was much more proficient at verbal combat than Job, God was in no way trying to brow beat Job into submission.  Job had finally come to the realization that, in the presence of the Divine Storm, all of his arguments evaporated as the morning mist.    

It’s interesting to me that God’s first words to Job in chapter 38 are, “Who is he that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”  And here He asks, “Will the faultfinder contend…?  Throughout these last few chapters there is not the slightest acknowledgment by God of Job’s sufferings (In fact God almost seems to be overly stern and gruff with Job).  And yet we know that God loved Job passionately and zealously defended him in the presence of Satan in the heavenly courtroom.

Are you a faultfinder?  Do you continually grouse about the treatment you have been receiving from God (thinking it’s either inhumane or at the very least unfair)?  Determine to thank God for the little (and big) irritations that come your way.  Nothing happens by happenstance in the life of a Christian.   

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40:3-5 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, 4 ‘Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to you? I lay my hand on my mouth.  5 Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; even twice, and I will add nothing more.’"

The famous Sheik of Uz is now “Mr. Insignificant.”  In His severe love God continued to deal with Job, and Job's response seems to be humble and subdued (“I will add nothing more”).  And yet he still does not retract any of his statements (which he finally does in chapter 42) and there still doesn't seem to be a sense of complete surrender on the part of Job. (Although, on the other hand, neither does there seem to be a sense of defiance.) Matthew Henry writes, “Job was greatly humbled by what God had already said, but not sufficiently; he was brought low, but not low enough.” 

Matthew Henry goes on to say, “Those who are truly convinced of sin and penitent for it, yet have need to be more thoroughly convinced and to be made more deeply penitent. Those who are under convictions, who have their sins set in order before their eyes and their hearts broken for them, must learn from this instance not to catch at comfort too soon; it will be everlasting when it comes, and therefore it is necessary that we be prepared for it by deep humiliation, that the wound be searched to the bottom…”

One of the greatest gifts we can receive (and one which we should continually strive for) is that of a broken and contrite heart.  That alone far outweighs any treasures we can gain from this world.

40:6-7 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said, 7 ‘Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct me. 

Verse 7 is identical to verse 3 in chapter 38, “Now gird up your loins like a man…”  God never lets us sit around and feel sorry for ourselves – no matter how dire the circumstances.  He has GREAT compassion for us, but He will not allow for even the smallest pity party.  In our trials we may just need to determine to “put our pants on” and get on with life.

Note the words, “…out of the storm…” In chapter one a storm destroyed; at the end of the book it’s a storm that brings healing. The full weight of the test (“Can a person love and trust a God that seems to have abandoned them?”) crushed Job for 37 chapters.  But now “out of the storm…” God speaks.   

40:8 Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?

Prior to chapter 32 Job had been the questioner, but now God is the One Who is giving the final exam.

Concerning verse 8 of this chapter Poole writes, “Every word in verse 8 is emphatic.”  Note how the version called The Message puts this verse, “Do you presume to tell me what I’m doing wrong? Are you calling me a sinner so you can be a saint?”  In his commentary Trapp paraphrases, “Are you going to ruin My justice to establish your innocence?” 

There seems to be a little Job in most of us.  We complain to God about our circumstances (“I hate my house, I hate my spouse…), but in so doing we set ourselves up as wiser and more omniscient than God. We murmur, “Jeepers God, if I were you, I certainly wouldn’t treat me like that!”  And in our minds we downsize the Creator to a God of manageable size.  We may not have a silver idol sitting in a prominent place in our home, yet the God that occupies our thinking may not be much bigger than a loaf of bread.

Our grumblings could also be an indication that we have concluded that God is inept!  One commentator has written, “Some of His providences are not so easily reconciled to His promises.”  And David Guzik writes, “We might say that Job fell into the trap of thinking that, because he couldn’t figure God out, perhaps God wasn’t fair.”  Even the slightest doubt in the absolute goodness of God can grow and fester into a joy destroying cancer. 

What should be written in bold font over every page of this story is this, “His ways are not our ways!  His thoughts are not our thoughts!”  A couple of lines in a song that Jason Upton sings go like this,

“No mind can comprehend

The love that has no end.”

God’s dealings with us are framed out of the His highest wisdom for our highest good.  Robert l. Wise writes, “My personal experiences have not led me to understand every mystery in God’s hidden strategy.  But I have learned a very important truth:  the empty times can bring a profound depth of insight and understanding that can be found nowhere else.”

40:9 Or do you have an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like His?’”

Perhaps Job thought at one time (in the same vein as Marlon Brando), “I could have been a contender!”  But his arms were simply too short to box with God.

And maybe Job thought he had a voice like that of E.F. Hutton.  Do you remember those commercials?  Someone in the multitude of people gathered would say, “My financial advisor is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says….”  And then the crowd would become totally silent and bend their ears to hear what E.F. Hutton had to say. 

But compared to God’s voice, Job’s sounded like the teeny tiny shriek from a teeny tiny mouse.

40:10  "Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity, and clothe yourself with honor and majesty.  11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.  12 Look on everyone who is proud, {and} humble him, and tread down the wicked where they stand.  13 Hide them in the dust together; bind them in the hidden {place.}  14 Then I will also confess to you, that your own right hand can save you.”

Listen to how the Amplified version renders verse 10, “Since you question the manner of the Almighty’s rule, deck yourself now with the excellency and dignity of the Supreme Ruler, and yourself undertake the government of the world if you are so wise, and array yourself with honor and majesty.”

A glimpse of the awful majesty of God will help us “see beyond the question marks.”

In the closing chapters it’s a portrait of two “Monsters” that will bring Job to a sense of absolute repentance  and restoration.