11-27-14. Job 38:1-30. In The Lord Are The Answers To Our Questions –my devotional

Job 38:1-30                                                                              Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 38:2,3                                                                    11-27-14

“Who is this that obscures my plans  with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

Lord, Jesus Christ, I come to you and your word. Teach me something new and fresh and life changing. Transform my heart. I thank you and pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Part 1: Brace Yourself To Hear From God (1-3)

“Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: 2 “Who is this that obscures my plans    with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

God speaks to us out of the storms of life that we are going through. Job was going through such a storm in life. Job had lost his family, possessions, health, position, and even his good name, for he has been accused over and over again that he was suffering as he was, because of his own sins. To suffer extreme loss, as Job did, was humiliating, but to face criticism at the hands of these spiritually younger was humiliating. Job was not even respected for suffering bravely through his storm. How hard it was for Job to endure all of this.

And yet, in the midst of this horrendous storm of life, God spoke to Job out of the storm.  Job 38:1-3 reads, “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: 2 “Who is this that obscures my plans    with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” The Lord appears and suddenly and without warning. He did so out of a disturbance in the atmosphere. It was startling, and overwhelming. We have read 37 chapters of Job and listened to the theological discussions of several men. But now, out of the storm comes the defining voice of God himself. It came out of the startling storm.

God does speak to us in the good times. But there are many times that he God speaks to us in the midst of storms of life in such profound and lasting ways. God spoke to Elijah out of a storm. Elijah was going through a storm in life. He was running from enemies. He was in the desert in a cave and it was there that God spoke to him. Look at 1 Kings 19:9-13, “9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (NIV)

I just came through a storm of life that involved my emotions, my family and my ministry. It was a storm that lasted for over a decade. I would not wish this storm on anybody. But out of the storm, God spoke to me in such a profound and life changing way. I learned the truth about being missional and finding one’s calling in life. I learn what it means that there is a time to plant and a time to uproot. I am learning the importance of God’s leading and the presence of the Holy Spirit. I am learning about convergence in life. I learned about my deep need for a Savior and his word. I am learning the truth about a kernel of wheat and accepting the fact that God can take the seed of my body and plant it in the ground any time he likes and sees fit. My storm of life was such a great classroom for it is the time that I could meet Jesus and hear his quiet whisperings in my heart. I pray that the storms of your life may be a classroom in which you can be taught by Christ in profound, life changing ways.

Our self righteousness can obscure the plans of God that the people so desperately need to see. God is challenging someone in Job 38:2-3. He speaks out of a storm at some very startled people, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Job probably forgot all about his pain for a moment. The question is, who is God talking to, Job or Job’s friend?

First, let’s think about Job. In Job 31:35-37, Job said, “Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. 36 Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. 37 I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler.— “ Job really wanted to plead his case before God. Job didn’t have all the answers, but God saw his heart and actually thought that Job was right and spoke the truth about him. Look at verse 42:7, “After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” Based on this verse, I feel that Job’s friends were the target of God’s words.

God felt that Job’s friends were obscuring God’s plans without knowledge. These friends thought they were so “right”. They were almost the epitome of self righteousness. They talked and talked, thoroughly convinced that their conclusions about God and Job was correct. But God said they were wrong. He told them that they were obscuring his plans without knowledge.

We need to be very careful. We tend to think that we are always right. We have a propensity to self righteousness. It is our natural tendency in this fallen world. It is like Adam and Eve making leaves to cover themselves. (Gen 3:7) Our self righteousness is linked to not being able to see Jesus in his holiness and being blind to our own sinfulness. It is like having a plank in our eye. (Matt 7:4) Self righteousness convinces us to think that our world view is correct. I have heard that it takes the listening of 40 to 60 stories before we start to change our world view. But it actually requires a miracle of God to change our world view, and embrace Jesus’ world view. It is called being, “born again”. John 3:3 reads, “Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’”

There are many dangers of holding onto our self righteousness. Whole books are written on the subject, but from this passage, God says that the self righteousness of the three friends obscured God’s plans. How they represented God and explained the reason of Job’s suffering, obscured the plans of God. The definition of obscure is “To make dim, indistinct, or impossible to see.” (https://dictionary.search.yahoo.com/search) God’s plans are redemptive. He does not want one person to perish but all to be saved. The reason for Job’s suffering was redemptive. But the three friends were making God’s plans impossible for others to see. They were hindering the plans of God.

How is it possible to teach others the knowledge of God and not obscure his plans with our own self righteous tendencies? First, we need to confess that there is no one who is good but God alone. (Mark 10:18) Be humble to acknowledge that our own view point is wrong and Jesus’ view point is right. We need to stick to the Bible and not just teach our own ideas. What is truth? God’s word is truth. (John 17:17) Stick to the Bible. We need to humble ourselves and let God be God. Get out of the way so that God’s plans are not obscured.  Depend on the Holy Spirit to impress his truth on other peoples’ hearts. (Jer 31:31-34) It is possible that God will help some of our hearers to be born again and see the kingdom of God. Maybe some of our listeners will come to understand God’s plans and come to Jesus and be saved.

Part 2: Can You Understand The Awesomeness of God? (4-30)

Look at verses 4-30, “4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? 12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, 13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? 14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. 15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. 16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. 19 “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? 20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? 21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years! 22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, 23 which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? 24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? 25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, 26 to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert, 27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? 28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? 29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens 30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?”

God is the great and awesome Creator and in him lay all of our answers and solutions. In light of the God’s greatness, they should be humble and trust God and come to him for answers. In Job 38:4-30, God set out to let Job and his friends know about his greatness reveal in acts of Creation. No human being was there when God created the heavens and the earth. At the completion of the heavens and the earth a huge celebration took place by the angels of heaven. The morning stars sang, and the angels shouted for joy. God had planned and created the universe right down to the finest detail.

These verses also proclaim God’s sovereignty over the earth and sea, light and darkness, over snow and rain, over the constellations and clouds and lightning. The Lord put boundaries on the mighty waters. All the days and nights are fixed by the Lord, and are proclaimed by the sun, moon and stars. The Lord only allows the wicked to go only so far, before he steps in and stops them in their pride. (15) The Lord knows where the doors to Hell and death are (17) God actually holds the keys to death and Hades (Rev 1:18). Like all of creation, our purpose is to humbly proclaim the greatness and majesty of God.

And so what is God is saying here? And how does is relate to Job’s condition? Essentially the Lord is saying, “If I can do all of this, with my creation, please realize how easy it is for me to change your situation?”

God wanted Job and his friends to examine their way of thinking. Look at verse 38:4, ““Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.”  And now verse 38:18, “Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.”  The people in the chapter were spending a lot of time trying to figure God out and the reason for suffering. At times they were so confident of their answers. In some things they were right, but in other ways they were not. They were not able to understand, because the things that they were trying to grasp were too huge for mere mortals to comprehend. Finding the “meaning of human suffering” has been the quest of thoughtful souls since the dawn of humanity.

Dr John Armstrong once wrote, “God never gives Job a simple answer to his question. God says to Job, in effect, “I run a vast and complicated world and you cannot possibly grasp the multitude of reasons I have for what I do and why I do it.” God always does the right and he always acts consistently with his divine nature of love, thus he is always and only good. But the holy one will do the right thing and answers to no one as to why.”  (written 8/17/09)

Dr Armstrong refers to Rabbi Benjamin Blech, who concludes: “That’s why the book of Job is not really the story of a tragic figure of old. The book of Job is about twenty-first century men and women who try to make sense out of the unfair circumstances of their lives even as they struggle to hold onto their beliefs. Most of all, the book of Job is about a dilemma which, sooner or later, every one of us must resolve in our lives” (If God Is Good Why Is the World So Bad? Simcha Press: Deerfield Beach, Florida, 2003, 5).

But just because we are so limited in our understanding It doesn’t mean that there are not any answers. God was reminding Job and his friends of their human limitations. If they want to understand the deeper and most profound questions of life, they needed to humble themselves, revere God and come to the Lord for answers and solutions. God is our Father and our Shepherd and our Friend. He cares about our plight. He understands our situations. He knows our struggles. He cares about it and he wants to do something about it. We need to trust God and have faith in him, for he is the sovereign Creator of the heavens and the earth. He is the Great Physician who can heal the sick. He is the Good Shepherd who can lead the flock to green pastures and quiet waters. We can even trust Jesus when we are dying. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He can raise the dead. He can save us so that we can enter the Kingdom of God by his grace. He can whisper his wisdom into our hearts. We want answers, satisfying and complete answers. These answers are to be found, but not within ourselves. They are found in Christ alone. And so the next time the question, “Why” is echoing in your heart, turn to the one with all the answers, to Jesus Christ. He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Today, let us trust the Lord with everything. Praise God!

Prayer: “Lord, I confess that I don’t know much. I don’t understand about human suffering. But I know there are answers in you and I come to you for you truth and to learn your ways. Shed light in my heart and mind.”

One word: In Jesus are the answers we seek.