Job 38

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There are no words that could adequately express the terror of man in the presence of God after sin enters the world through Adam. The level of anyone's reasonable fear at such an encounter with a holy God is only increased by various complicating factors. For example, Job knows so much about God, but the one to whom much is given, from him much is required. Furthermore, at various moments in this great ordeal, God's friend Job has seemed to taunt the Almighty. That can't be safe. Finally, Job's heart has been prepared to greatly fear the Lord through the Word of the prophetic young ambassador, Elihu. To receive such a message awakens conviction of sin. Beyond any of these reasons there is the overwhelming fact that Elihu has been describing an approaching storm as an example of God's great power, but now the Lord Himself has come to Job out of the whirlwind, and He has some questions for His suffering servant.

Even though this passage begins with the words, “Then the Lord answered Job,” what follows in chapters 38-41 is an astounding list of questions. If this is an answer to any of Job's inquiries, it is not immediately apparent. In fact, the only answer that Job seems to get from God is the very best answer for any man of faith who suffers an affliction that he cannot possibly understand. God. God is the only answer.

The way for Job to see that God is the answer is through God questioning Job. Job had wanted to question God, but it is God who will ask the questions. The first one is this: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Job, the most righteous man of his day, a man of great wisdom, a man who has uttered prophetic revelation about the resurrection age to come, has spoken words that are beyond what he could know.

Job was not there when the earth was made. Jesus was there, but Job was not. Jesus was the One through whom all things were made. He is God's Workman. Job did not take a tape measure to the sphere on which we live and determine that all was according to specifications. Jesus knows the underpinnings of creation, and He is Himself the Cornerstone of the coming resurrection world. He came from heaven. Angels serve Him. They sing His praise, as they have since that first moment when those powerful sons of God shouted for joy. They took up their songs of praise again when Christ was born in Bethlehem. The ultimate Son of God was the One they worshiped.

Job was not there when the limits of the seas were determined and the dry land appeared. He could only hear about the world of waters above and waters below. He could be given a report from God about the days of Noah and that new beginning when life came forth from the ark. Jesus knows all of this as the eternal Son of God. He demonstrated His authority over the waters in the sight of His apostles. Job cannot still the waves or walk on water.

Job cannot make the sun rise in the east and set in the west, but Jesus is the meaning behind the sunrise. One day Job's Redeemer will come as the ultimate resurrection Daystar. Even now He has made the light of God to shine in our hearts, signaling the coming of that final great age of light for which we have already received the down-payment of the Holy Spirit. Job could not take a dead soul and make it alive. Job has no sovereignty over the living and the dead, but Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Can Job bring forth lightning and thunder, rain and snow? He would not know where to start if God gave him the assignment of bringing about the whirlwind from which the Almighty has emerged in order to speak to His beloved suffering child. Do we see the mercy in all these questions that Job could not possibly answer? The redirection of Job toward God through the message of Elihu is now being completed by the great I AM. When everything seems to be spinning out of control, we need to set our hearts on the only Being who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We might expect these words to refer to a God that we cannot see. But now God has come to us as one who took on human flesh forever in order to redeem humanity, and it is this Jesus who we are told is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is God, and He calls us His friends.

Let us redirect our hearts to the friend who reigns in the heavens, far above every other power. He knows the constellations in the skies, not as a student of astronomy, but as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Consider what it means that the One who died for our sins is holding all things together by the Word of His power. Do we want to have well-being in tragedy? We will not find it in our own righteousness, even if we are as righteous as Job. We will not find it in our own knowledge and wisdom, even if we are as wise as Solomon. We will find a Rock to rest upon only in Jesus, the Wisdom and Power of God. The answer to everything is God in Jesus Christ. Trust Him.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Father God, You speak. We must listen. There is no one like You. You have created all things out of nothing. The sun rises and sets. The seas have come over the land and they have been pushed back to their appointed limits. You know the wonders of snow, hail, ice, rain, heat, light, stars, and every living thing under the heavens. O God of glory, if we have any wisdom, it is a gift from You, for You are the source of all wisdom.

Job 37

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When we gather together to worship God our hearts are directed toward Him and away from ourselves. While we come there to find peace, not every moment in His presence is equally peaceful. Some of the things that we hear from His Word are supposed to make us tremble. This is also true of life. There is a difference between our experience of a broad meadow on a day of gentle sunshine and the feelings we have in that same place when the thunder and lightning of God are all around us.

Job has heard the thunder of God. Destruction came down from heaven upon his household. When lightning strikes so close it may take some time to recover from the shock. We then look around to see if anyone was hurt. When we are able to feel the magnitude of the loss, that is our focus for some time. Eventually we may be capable of thinking about the Power who gives life and who takes it away. Our eyes one day focus less on ourselves, and we find a more glorious sight to behold as we tremble before God.

This trembling before the Lord's majesty in worship and in life can be accompanied by a simultaneous awareness of the goodness of God and of His amazing ability to work out His purposes through things that are very evil. Wickedness and trouble are everywhere. We can look at the distressing actions of people in bringing harm to others, or we can consider the forces of nature at work in a powerful storm, and we must insist that oppression and overwhelming winds of death are not good in their essential nature. Yet we know that God is sovereign over everything and He is good. He thunders wondrously with His voice. He does great things that we cannot comprehend. To embrace this truth is to move toward health. When we allow ourselves to think about something beyond the damage brought about by the storm, we can consider the One who has the power behind even the worst tragedy.

Lightning can seem to fill the entire sky. The thunder that swiftly follows may be too much for our ears to take. We run for shelter along with every wild beast. God can bring a whirlwind or a river of ice from the sky that brings down the trees of the field. Do we imagine that these events have nothing to do with the Almighty, that they are simply the result of natural forces without any divine purpose? How then will we ever find peace when we see that our loved ones have lost their lives in that storm? Was God unaware? If the Lord is the Almighty God of heaven and earth, He must be the One in charge of life and death. The storm is not God. The Lord is God over the storm. Look at Him. Consider His power and His greatness. Tremble before Him, and eventually find peace in Him. We do not know all that He is doing in the storm. We cannot understand whether He is correcting His people, or whether the worst loss we experience is a secret design for the securing of some everlasting mercy. But we know Him, and we know that He commands the storm. Otherwise the storm is more of a God than the Lord, and all is lost.

God has come to us from on high in Jesus Christ. He knew that the most significant problem in this world was in us, and so He became Man to save humanity. The solution was not a secret fix to some technical glitch. It came in the Lord's perfect provision of all the holy righteousness required by His Father. There was one other requirement for the full realization of the repair to heaven and earth: The perfect Son of God needed to die in our place. This was the only way to quiet the mighty thunder of God that was against us for our sin. This was the only solution that would allow us to find life beyond the folly that has been bound up within the troubled hearts of all of Adam's descendants. God's answer for this troubled world is very different than the repairs that even the wisest and holiest people imagine in their own conceit. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that the solution of the cross of Christ truly worked. Let us gather together then with both trembling and joy, and let us worship God through Jesus Christ together with heaven's glorious host.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Sovereign Lord, You thunder wondrously with Your voice. You do great things that we cannot comprehend. We see Your grandeur in the heavens over many days as the seasons change. We know Your majesty in a different way when You roar from above with a sudden storm. You rule over the changing landscape of the hearts and minds of men. We have seasons of life that come upon us slowly. We also face unexpected troubles that seize us in a moment. There is nothing in all of the events of men and angels that is beyond Your authority. We bow before You in the day of gentle showers. We must think of You as well when the skies suddenly burst forth with violent thunder. You reign over us. You call Your weary children home at a time that is in accord with Your holy decree. You give and You take away. We live and we die. Blessed be Your Name.

Job 36

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The grieving soul needs to find God. This is not an easy thing to do, even for people who have believed in and known the Lord for as long as they can remember. It does not normally help for someone to come to mourners in that condition of permanent life-altering loss and to begin talking to them about God or instructing them that they need to find God and lean upon Him, even though that is a fact. There is one person we listen to more than anyone else on the planet: our own. It is best to hear instruction directly from our hearts. We need to say something like this when the time is right: “Why so downcast O my soul? Put your hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5)

There is one voice that is even more powerful than the voice of a person's own soul: the voice of God. At times throughout the history of God's speaking to His people, He spoke through prophets, as here with Elihu speaking to Job. Job does not interrupt Elihu. He listens. How do we distinguish this speech from that of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar? That is a very mysterious question. Even if the content were entirely the same, which it is not, there is something different with Elihu. He really is a messenger from God. The other men were not speaking for God. God promises that His own Word will not return empty to Him. There is no such promise for the vast crowd of overly spiritual advisors to the grieving, who talk too much when they should just admit that they do not understand what God is doing.

The voice of God through Elihu powerfully reorients the soul of this great man, Job, to the God that he has never stopped believing in and never stopped loving. Bear with Elihu now, for he really is God's messenger until the Lord Himself will speak. Job was the best messenger of God earlier in the book, and now Elihu speaks with a great prophetic spirit and Job listens. Soon God Himself will speak without any prophet, and everyone else will have to fear, listen, and obey. Inasmuch as Job and Elihu have accurately spoken the Lord's Word, God has truly spoken through them. Yet who can help but be taken aback when the Almighty One comes directly from heaven to talk to His beloved servant Job? But for now, Elihu redirects well the heart of this grieving lover of God.

His message? What a mighty God is the Lord! His glory is not only in physical force. He has the power of perfect understanding and faultless accomplishment. His purpose will stand and His timing is unquestionably right. He sees His afflicted one. He even knows who will be His eternal King, and He will exalt that One above all the nations forever. For those to whom He grants some measure of authority on earth, He watches their works and disciplines their arrogance in His own perfect way. He can make anyone willingly hear, believe, and obey. Some respond to His outward entreaty according to an inward effectual call that men cannot see. Others harden themselves to His instruction and are left in the disastrous pride that will lay them low and hurt those around them.

Here is something amazing to consider: God is free to draw the righteous near to Him through affliction that me might normally presume to be only the fate of the ungodly. This treatment that seems so unjust to us is not a good excuse to heap ignorant accusations upon the Lord or to scoff at Him as if we knew anything. The misery that we feel is part of the pathway of a powerful ransom for the elect of God, an expression of His love for us, and not necessarily a sign of our special sinfulness or of His unusual displeasure. Do not mock at powerful mysteries, but receive what you cannot possibly understand. There is no way to avoid His providence anyway, and through the worst of times God is still unchanging in His goodness.

Embrace the affliction somehow and embrace God. How can anyone do that? Can a person like Job be expected to be happy about what has happened to his children, all of them gone in a moment? Let's not say too much, just receive what we can never change and marvel at God. Let the Lord be exalted and let Him teach us as He sees fit according to His own eternal counsel.

This was the pathway of Jesus, the sinless Servant of the Lord. Of course He despised the cross for the evil thing that it was, yet He embraced it for the glorious redemption that it would become. He extolled His Father and gave Himself entirely into His hand. The church still sings about this centuries after it was accomplished: One Man suffered well, and He emerged perfectly victorious for our sake. Therefore, we agree with the Son of God that God is great. We do not understand His eternal nature and His infinite and unchangeable wisdom as He touches our own lives with present sorrow. We see the lightning and we hear the thunder. It seems too close. We know that the Lord has brought water up into the clouds, and that He is pouring forth His gift of rain upon the earth. And we know that the seed that has been planted in death will yet be harvested in the fruitfulness of life, and that requires not only sunshine, but also rain. Not all rain is gentle. To feel affliction rightly is to find the greatness of God in the storm, and to trust Him in the eternal quietness of His own divine love, appreciating and putting to good use whatever He ordains for us in this place of tears and hope.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

God of Wisdom and Glory, You are both righteous and mighty. The most powerful men of the earth must answer to You. Their days come and go. The arrogant man thinks great thoughts about himself but he cannot add one day to his life. If You speak he must listen. You will surely remove him from his place of authority whenever You please. You are exalted in Your power. Your works of creation are all around us. You rule over all Your creatures and all their actions in a way that should inspire the greatest fear among men. We should worship You. We certainly cannot charge You with evil.

Job 35

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It is often rightly advised that whoever seeks to comfort those who have suffered greatly should speak less and listen more. What may not be as readily appreciated is that this is also sound advice for the one who is grieving, though not right away. It is true that people need some time to tell their story and to cry out to God. In the first few weeks after loss some people imagine that they are doing very well, and can give great testimony to God in those opening days of grief, but they have probably not even begun to feel the heavy burden of what has happened to them. After the spiritual anesthesia wears off they may be shocked by the physical heartache and the overwhelming emotional distress and confusion that attack them. Of course they may say all kinds of things at that time, and that is much better than trying to continue to pretend that they are doing well. But eventually the time may come when even they are tired of their own story. They may then come to see that not all of their words to God and to others were true, right, and good.

God can certainly take any abuse we may give Him. He can suffer our statements that go over the edge, but we need to come to our own conclusion that error and excess do not do us any good. They cannot restore what we have lost. They do not help us to embrace the new life that is ahead of us. They will not heal the wounds of our souls. Job has said some things that might have gone too far. The Lord is using His servant Elihu to redirect Job away from his loss and toward the greatness of God. Does Job really believe that he is no better off than if he had sinned? I doubt it. But I do not doubt that the thought that his righteous life was useless may have occurred to him.

Of course it is never wise to pursue sin. But Elihu answers these errors of the heart, not by pointing to their obvious folly directly, but by telling Job and the rest of us who would read these words to look at the heavens and to consider the glory of God. We cannot win a fight against the One who loves His beloved people. We will never stain the righteousness of God. This is good to consider. Are we angry with the events that have transpired in our lives? Are we perplexed by the actions of the Almighty? Yes, but do we understand that we will never take anything away from the One who created the heavens and the earth? His greatness is beyond our reach. His love is beyond our foolish thoughts. We only hurt ourselves by dwelling on things that are not true. Praise God, we cannot hurt Him. It is probably time to say less.

Have we ever considered the idea that if God has turned His face away from our cries for a season, that may have been more for our own good than because of God's anger against us? Could it be that God does not want to pay attention to our foolishness, like a father who will not listen to the angry, silly insults that his young son hurls at him?

Now it is time for holy redirection toward God, His attributes, His ways, and His many gifts. It is a great mystery how the Holy Spirit will finally enable a person to willingly hear counsel that otherwise might have been rejected earlier as insensitive and offensive. Now the heart that was so bruised remembers that God does give songs in the night, and a hurting soul is helped.

The time has come for Job to say less. He will not even open his mouth until the prophetic figure Elihu somehow gives way to the immediate presence of God. Even then Job will only speak when God insists that he respond. When he does finally talk, his heart will be humble.

Jesus taught for three years. He said of His ministry, “I was sent for this purpose.” Not only did He teach publicly and send out His disciples to do the same, He especially revealed the secrets of the kingdom in His private teaching of His disciples. He had much to say, and all of it was without sin. If we were able to examine His innermost thoughts during His times of deepest trouble and distress, we could still never accuse Him of any sin. Yet even for our Lord, the time for talking eventually came to an end. There was no need to respond to the charges of enemies who hated Him. He spoke the loudest simply through His willing death for us. We must eventually stop speaking about our sorrows and start looking to the Man of Sorrows as the Source of all the healing we could ever ask for.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Almighty God, we look up to the heavens. Though we would rail against You in our discontent, we cannot actually force You to give us an answer for what we deem to be unfair behavior on Your part. We have been so wrong in our thoughts and in our unrighteous anger. You are the Provider of every blessing. You give us songs in the night. Have mercy on us now. Forgive us, for we have multiplied words without knowledge.

Job 34

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When a prophetic ambassador speaks he does not demand that men be machines, accepting what is said without carefully weighing the message against the Scriptures. God wants us to hear and even to test the words of those who say they speak for Him, and then to choose what is right. Job's problem was not in critiquing the advice of his friends. He was right to reject their messages. Where Job seems to have erred was in suggesting that he could actually judge God's righteousness. It is one thing to weigh the words of a prophet. It is another to think that we could ever have the capacity to judge God Himself, and to find Him lacking in righteousness. The first is commendable. The second is sin.

When Job says that he is in the right, there is something true about what he is asserting. Particularly when compared with the righteousness of his friends, Job is good. Where he veers away from propriety is when he says, “God has taken away my right,” as if to bring an accusation against the Almighty. Is Job claiming to be superior in righteousness to the Being who is the source and definition of unchanging justice? If not, how can Job seem to judge God?

Elihu's goal is not merely to accuse Job, but to help him by redirecting him to thoughts of the greatness of God. This is what we really need to do, though we may not always be ready (or perhaps even able) to take in this good medicine. Our experience of the Almighty will not consistently lift us up. Feelings change. It is God Himself who never changes. The contemplation of God is very different than the contemplation of our experience of God. Let us hear about God. Let us sing about God. Let us think about God. This is the redirection we need, away from our pain, away from injustice, away from what others have accused us of, and toward only God.

If Job is tempted to judge the righteousness of God, it would be far better for him to consider the unchanging justice of the Lord which belongs to God forever, a justice that is beyond our judging, but not entirely beyond our meditation. This is what the Lord's prophet Elihu brings before Job, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We should not try this on our own as if a theology lecture to suffering friends is always the right thing to do. God is speaking through His instrument Elihu. We can take this good Word into our hearts through the Scriptures, asking that God would fill us with His Spirit and help us in our distress.

Can we listen to words of God's justice? God never does anything wicked. He knows every man, He sees the way a man gives to the poor, and He will repay him. There is no one above God who gave God control of the world. He has the capability to end everything in a moment. What would be left of us if God did that right now?

God is not only righteous, but also mighty. Who will challenge Him? No man could ever stand up to the Lord. We die, and He is eternal. He made us. We did not make Him. There are many powerful men on the earth, but let's not look at them. We should gaze at the One who cannot be seen. He can see us. He sees our steps, and He judges rightly. There is no hiding from God. Imagine that: God never needs to conduct an investigation in order to know the facts about a person. We are immediately before Him. He uses this knowledge to take action, taking down the arrogant whenever He wills. If God is quiet, it is not that His eye has been distracted by a subtle enemy. If a godless man reigns, if an enemy should bring trouble upon His people, no one crying out to God brings Him news of which He is unaware. Does it seem that He is not moving fast enough to save? How should we evaluate this disappointment? Which is more likely? That God has made a mistake in His timing, or that something is indeed happening that we do not understand?

Is God going to apologize to Job for what has taken place in this good man's life? Does that seem like the best thing for God to do? Does God have to give us what we want once we are finished with what we think His discipline should be in any situation? Who can say to God, “I think I have had enough now. This would be a good time to restore to me what affliction has taken away.” Who can teach God what measure of comfort would be right for us, or when precisely one of His beloved saints needs to face more of the troubles of this world?

People are saying that Job speaks without insight. Maybe they know something, or maybe they don't. But God does know. It is this God who is working out His eternal purpose in Christ. This God sees the events that cut like jagged edges in our hearts, those things that even a man must point to as “wrong.” Yet it is God alone who knows what is necessary for sin to be put away through the suffering of His Son. No one else can turn away from the horror of seeing the cross, and say to God, “Enough already!” God must tear the curtain in the Holy of Holies from top to bottom, and Christ alone is able to say, “It is finished.” God knows when our present affliction will be over, and He has promised us that though “weeping may tarry for the night, joy comes with the morning.”

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Father, there is so much about You that is so very right and very good. What a joy it is to contemplate Your greatness. There is no wickedness in You. You will repay man according to his ways at just the right time. You love justice. You are righteous in everything that You think and do. Your knowledge is perfect, and Your ways are always right. You do not need to hear the testimony of any man, for You already know all things, and all of Your judgments are perfect. You do not need to repay anything to man as if You owed anything to anyone. We humble ourselves before You. We hate every rebellious thought that we once cherished. You alone are God and we worship You.

Job 33

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Elihu speaks to Job as one who is an ambassador of the Almighty. He is not God Himself. He is from the dust of the earth, just as Job is. He is not necessarily a man of great physical power who would force Job to admit anything or to say a word against his own will. Elihu is just a man, and he promises Job that his message will not be too heavy upon the Lord's servant.

Elihu has been listening to Job's words. Does Job really want to press a case against God based on his own purity? Yes, Job is pure in the company of men, but will he contend for his own blamelessness in the presence of the only wise God? Does Job actually want to go on to point out God's faults, contending that God is his enemy? Will this line of defense help Job in some way?

God is greater than man. He does not ever need to give an answer to even the most righteous man on the earth. There is no good reason to contend against Him. Does anyone expect that God will lower Himself to answer Job's charges? It is the glory of a king to conceal a matter. How much more with God? God can reveal as well as conceal as He chooses. He shows forth the truth in all kinds of ways among the sons of men. We are not without His excellent testimony in nature. Does the God who created the brain cells of a man need to answer the charge that was formed within the brain of a man?

God reveals Himself in many ways. What He chooses to say, He can hint at in a dream, bringing some measure of peace to a man according to His own mercy. He can also give that same man a warning in a nightmare, producing a fright that turns him from a pathway of transgression that would have only led to trouble and pain. The way of pride may be hidden from him at a critical moment, averting an untimely death.

God's arm is not so short that He cannot rescue a man in as much misery even as Job. A man may be brought low on his bed, wasting away with no hope of which he is aware. He may stop eating because he has no appetite either for food or for life. Yet God may find a mediator for him at the last moment, according to His mysterious plan. There may be one who somehow intercedes with power, who brings just the right word, or who even takes a man's place as his substitute in some discipline, and the man who had been given up for dead will live again.

This is not a message accusing Job. It is a word about God. These prophetic words redirect our attention away from trouble to some new hope from the Lord through His storehouse of power and mercy. God has not forgotten how to rescue. God knows how to make a man sing again, even in the presence of angels. That is how great God is. Think of Him for a moment, and then say with all His saints, “God has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.”

The Lord can do this even for a bad man. He can do it more than once for a man of very little merit. He has His reasons, and He is not required to explain Himself to anyone. When all hope seems lost as a man slips away into the darkness of the grave, the Lord brings the man's soul back from the pit, and the light of heaven returns to the eyes of a mortal man.

This is a good thing for Job to listen to. The Lord's prophet, Elihu, is preparing this man, Job, deeply loved by God, to hear from His Maker who is able to restore him and to bless him more than He ever had in the past. His new life does not need to be less than His old life. Call off the doctors! Send home the undertakers and the mourners. Job may yet have a life left on this earth since there is a God in heaven who still does wonders. Elihu does not want to condemn Job, but to justify him, and he speaks words of wisdom before the suffering man, words from on high, words of life.

If someone is to speak this way to the Lord's suffering servant, he must do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. The message is a good one. It is a message of a Redeemer, a Mediator with God, a Ransom that is found for us, a Jesus pleading before the throne of God above for the Lord's beloved Job. It is a message of the mercy and power of God through His own appointed methods, and not through man making God look bad. That message cannot come by human wisdom or power. It must come from on high, from the place where Jesus lived before He came to save us. We cannot muster it up. It is a prophetic message. It is a gift of God's grace by the Holy Spirit. Let us receive it eagerly and look up to God. Let us find a breath of life in a difficult world of death.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Lord God, may the servants who bring Your Word to Your people do so with boldness. May they rightly listen to Your suffering servants and may they be made to know our needs. Above all we need You. You are greater than our problems and greater than us. May Your servants continually point to You. Even in the worst pain or trouble, we need to think about Your character and Your works. May our Mediator plead for us, and may He be our eternal Ransom before You. Use Your teachers to show us the wonders of Jesus Christ. Help us to hear true wisdom by the power of One who is the very Spirit of Truth.

Job 32

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Job's words have ended. Suddenly there is another voice to listen to, the young man Elihu, and we are told that he burned with anger against Job. We have been defending Job up to this point in the book because we know that God speaks so highly of him both at the beginning and the end of this great work. We have also critiqued Job's friends, because God Himself says that they did not speak rightly of Him. Yet God has nothing to say about this man Elihu. We hear his words for several chapters, and then suddenly God speaks to Job directly. Is Elihu speaking for God in his critique of both Job and his three friends, or is he a brash young man who should have kept his thoughts to himself? We are not given a direct answer. Yet we do see that Elihu picks up on themes that Job himself has developed, and that the Lord will continue these same themes when He speaks at the end of the book.

The question remains: Is Elihu righteous in his anger toward Job? We are told that this prophetic figure was angry with righteous Job because Job justified himself rather than God. There is something important here that is worthy of our consideration. Job knows that God is more righteous than he is, and yet at times in his speeches the great man has wanted to enter into judgment against the Almighty and to presume to correct the Fountain of all righteousness. This fault is not the secret sin that Job's friends presumed to invent. It became known in the course of a public discourse. It was a real fact, not a supposition. Job presumed to enter into judgment against one more righteous than he: God. This was ironically displayed in less righteous men presuming to be judges of Job. Job felt the insult of that. It was a lesson that he needed to learn himself.

Elihu also rebukes Job's three friends. They had found no honest answer to the dilemma of Job's great suffering, but instead of being silent in their ignorance, or simply admitting that they did not understand, they declared Job to be in the wrong, though they had no evidence. They needed to be corrected, but Elihu did not want to do the job. He waited for someone else to speak, but no one older or more respected came forward. Burning with anger, he finally felt compelled to talk.

At various points earlier in the book the friends of Job presented their conclusions as if they were the teaching of God. Remember that Eliphaz spoke of a spiritual experience he had one night and assumed that he must be giving a secret word from heaven that should be received as true. All three men were greatly insulted by Job's complete rejection of their advice, as if they had spoken the Word of God. Now a younger man speaks, and he claims that he really does speak for God, not merely as one who finds out what God has said and teaches about it, but as a prophetic mouthpiece of the Almighty.

Can Elihu avoid hypocrisy in his critique of Job? Job has judged the most righteous being, God, in order to declare himself righteous. Job's friends have entered into judgment against Job, a godlier man by far than any of them. How can this young man Elihu speak against both Job and Job's friends without committing the same offenses? The only way around this trap is for Elihu to speak, not out of his own righteousness, but out of the Spirit of divine prophesy.

Elihu is aware that Almighty God is using him. Throughout the history of God's leading of men, He has chosen certain people to be His prophetic spokesmen. When they speak, God speaks. There have been many others who have presumed to represent God, and yet they have been judged to be false prophets. The only way to discern whether someone is a true prophet is to test what that person is saying according to the known speech of God.

Elihu will speak for the next few chapters. He is full of words that he feels constrained now to deliver. He cannot contain this message within himself. He must speak. He will not do so like a man who is trying to impress others, lest God take him away for presumptuously impersonating a prophet of the Lord. We will listen to his words and measure them, not by our own judgment, but by the established Word of the Lord. We will let Scripture interpret and validate Scripture.

In the fullness of time, a final Prophet of God came. At about thirty years of age, He suddenly stood up to speak about the kingdom of God. He called Israel to repentance, and He brought a Word of life to those who had ears to hear. Many wanted Him to stop speaking, but He was the Word of God made flesh. He would accomplish His purpose. Eventually He would say these words: “It is finished,” and He would take His place again in the highest heavens. Though many would presume to judge Him, there is no one who is righteous enough to do so. Despite all of the confusion and sin among His followers, all who are in this one final Word of God have been granted heavenly life. He has the words of life. He is the Word of life.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Father God, we must not justify ourselves and accuse You. Help us to humbly receive the true correction of one who rightly speaks in Your Name. Though Your servant be young, and though his credentials may not seem impressive to us, help us to discern rightly the truth of the Word preached and the power of the Spirit at work in the life and ministry of Your ambassador.

Job 31

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Throughout his speeches this great servant of the Lord has not specifically defended himself, except to say that his friends are wrong in suggesting that he has some secret sin that caused his fall. As they spoke against him they were increasingly specific in their suspicions, creating areas of sin for which they had no evidence. Job did not really need to refute their charges, since their inventions of his wrong-doing lacked all credibility. Their main point of evidence was Job's unusual suffering. This they thought to be enough proof all by itself that something was not right in Job's soul.

Now as Job concludes his remarks he gives us some insight into his true hatred of sin. He sets the record straight, in case there was any confusion on this matter, and he emphatically denies their insinuations. He is a man of God and no lesser man should accuse him of unrighteousness, suggesting that his sin is a sign of the Lord's disfavor.

This may sound like boasting, but Job will not let their false words go unanswered. Where should he start? Job does not go around looking at young women. He knows the dangers of that kind of loose imagination, and he has made an arrangement with his eyes that they are not allowed to wander where they should not gaze. Though no one else might see an improper glance, God would know, and Job has not been willing to bring calamity upon his house because of his undisciplined desires. Remember, this was a man who habitually offered sacrifices for his children just in case they sinned with some excess in their family celebrations. Those children are now gone, and Job knows that it is not somehow his fault.

Job lays out all that he is before the gaze of God, and urges the Lord to bring upon him the justice that he deserves if he really is a liar and a cheat. Has he been some adulterer or thief? If so, then may God take all of his crops and give them to someone else. Has he enticed a woman with improper affections and advances? Then may someone do the same to his wife. A person who lives that way is a fool. Job wants nothing of that kind of behavior. Has Job been unjust to those who worked for him like a stubborn man who will not even listen to the concerns of those who serve him? God knows that such a charge is a lie. If he had abused the poor, he would have offended the One who is the Creator of rich and poor alike.

What has Job's life been like? Is his righteousness only the avoidance of evil? No, Job has habitually given to the poor from his fields and his table. The fatherless and the widow have always found a friend in him. He was not a man of pious words devoid of action. He saw those who needed clothing and shelter, and found a way to help them out of his own storehouses. Has Job abused the poor? If so, then let the Almighty dislocate this godly man's shoulder and tear out his arm from its socket. How many of us would want to taunt God like this concerning how faithfully we have attended to those who needed our help?

How about the inner life of the soul where no man can see? Job was once a wealthy man. Did he trust in his gold rather than his God? That would have been easy to do. It is easy to have secret idolatry that perverts the hearts of even the best men. Was Job happy when his enemies faced suffering? Did he curse those who hated him? But this has not been the story of his life. He has been a righteous man, and yet all of this has happened to him. His goodness was not a matter of concealed transgressions discovered in due time by the Lord's discipline. His godliness was real.

What has Job done in order to bring about this horrible sorrow? Where is the indictment against him? He is begging to know his offense. But what can any man say? What would a great prophet of God say? What would God Himself say?

Doesn't anyone have the courage to say the obvious? Job is a righteous man. From everything that anyone could have known, he was least deserving of this kind of treatment of all those among whom he lived. If Job is not safe, how can any of us still live? Why are we allowed to live in peace when Job suffered so deeply? Can't we just admit that this makes no sense?

Job has finished his speech. We think now of the righteousness of Christ, all that he rejected that needed to be avoided, and all that he embraced that had to be accomplished. Here was the keeper of the Law, condemned by those who imagined themselves to be the Law's most loyal defenders. Yet they did not keep the Law they loved. There is only one vindication that would be a worthy end for such a man. If He must lay down His life for our sake, let Him have the honor of taking it back up again. If He must face the disrespect of fools, may one day every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Glorious Lord, we will not give in to sin. We will fight against the impulses of evil that may rise up within us. Despite every false accusation, and regardless of every pain and temptation that may fill our lives, we will believe You, we will love You, and we will serve You. Give us grace for the day of the most severe trial. Please cut short the day of testing, lest we be swept away by our own sin and our thoughts of revenge. Teach us the way of the cross. Forgive our enemies. Hear us, O God! Help us now!

Job 30

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Where do we find our satisfaction in a day when our best memories only bring deep sadness? Until someone has experienced this kind of loss he may imagine that good memories will always be good, and that only bad memories, shame, and regret will be troublesome. In the previous chapter we were able to see something different by connecting with the loss of this righteous man, Job. The happy past is gone, and those memories do not yet bring joy but pain. The reason for the pain is not the past itself, but the sadness of the present and the flaming sword of God prohibiting his return to a happier day.

Paradise is lost, yet there is still life. “But now,” Job begins in this chapter, “they laugh at me.” It is a common observation that we may not truly appreciate what we have until it is taken away. The respect that Job may have once taken for granted is gone. Job lived in a culture where older men who had proven themselves wise were respected by others, and where the children even of the foolish would learn to show deference to the most honored members of the community. But now Job has fallen at the intersection of various tragedies that could barely have been imagined before they came to pass. He has been brought low not only in terms of his emotional condition, but also in the esteem of others who have decided that these events must be a sign of the Lord's displeasure with a man they once counted great. Even the most wretched people now think themselves to be superior to Job.

They are not quiet or discreet in their disrespect of the Lord's suffering servant. They have songs about Job and have turned his story into a proverb of what happens to the man with secret sin. They consider him unclean and come near only to spit in his presence, to push him till he stumbles to the ground, and to prevent him from continuing on his way. They are a crowd of enemies who roll over him. His honor and prosperity are gone like a vapor that has passed away from sight and is forgotten.

Job's life, is being poured out like a man who is slowly dying from hidden wounds. Each day is an enemy that takes hold of him, shaking his weak frame and leaving him worse off than the day before. There is no relief in the night, for his pain admits no rest. In the awful present of Job's existence, the greatest trouble that he faces is not from the people around him, or the physical and emotional pain within him. His greatest distress is not even from unbelief, but from faith. He knows that God is, and he knows that God rules. God has cast him into the mire. Do not think that Satan is the one who has done all this. Satan is not the Almighty One. God is in charge. God decrees. God must permit. Job's faith troubles him now. He knows that God is God.

Job cries out to the Almighty One, but where is His help for His beloved servant in this time of distress? Job knows that God sees and that God alone knows the truth. He feels the severity of the Lord's sovereign power. He feels the unrelenting persecution of events that he knows to be in the Lord's ultimate control. All that seems left to him now is death. He is desperate, but what can he do?

It is our instinct to look for someone who is more powerful who can help us in a day of disaster. Job knows this from the giving end, but now he is in the receiving position. He used to hear the cries of the poor and the oppressed, and he would come to their aid. He was not emotionally detached from the troubles of others. He wept for them and he grieved at their losses. But now he cries out, and where will his help come from?

The past is the past. The former days of blessing are gone. What is left is the seemingly unending “now,” and God cannot be found. Will this ever end?

When Isaiah spoke of the sufferings of the coming Messiah, he prophesied that Jesus would be despised and rejected by men. Yet the deepest pain that our Redeemer faced was not the hatred of a mob, the denial of a disciple, or even the betrayal of a friend. He knew that He had come to earth to face the wrath of God for us. There was no other way to atone for our sin. So the prophet writes, “It was the will of the Lord to crush. He has put Him to grief.”

Jesus suffered this for us. When we suffer deeply as people of faith, we do not atone for anyone's sins. We could never do that. But we do face the problem of our faith. Where is our sovereign God who works all things together for our good and His glory? This is not the cry of unbelief, but the pain of belief. Perhaps it is of some comfort to those who face this kind of distress to remember that Job, and especially Jesus, faced the agonies of faith. The Son of God went through that trial for our salvation.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Lord, we thought that we had the insight that we needed to keep on going, and then in just a moment we were struck again by thoughts of trouble and accusation. We have been humbled again, and the wicked scoff. Your Son was mocked by rude soldiers who knew nothing of Your covenant. Why, O Lord? What was the purpose of the crown of thorns? Was that necessary for our salvation? Did every detail of His suffering for us have a purpose? Surely all of this was ordained. You love Your Son, and You love us. We have been united with Him in His sufferings. We will also be united with Him in His resurrection.

Job 29

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Is a memory of good times always pleasant? No, for a person adjusting to life after loss thoughts of former days of blessing can be bitter. We want to go back, but there is simply no way to return to the life that we once knew. Job was in his prime before disaster struck. Not long ago he had a vital sense of communion with God, but now where is the Lord? God was once a present reality, a great light of wisdom shining over him, directing Job in the way of thinking and living.

What was life like then? The Lord was in Job's home as a powerful Friend. Job's children were all around him. Was anything wrong back then? If so, Job cannot seem to remember it. All was shining with the light of heaven, and everything was plentiful in goodness and beauty, not only within his home, but as he moved out from that place of strength to be useful in the city square.

Job was not only a man of private peace, but also of public engagement. He used to take his place at the city gate in order to make wise judgments that would help those who were in need. Everyone knew this about Job. They used to see him coming and would make way. A hush would come over the crowd as other respected men stopped talking because Job was now there.

Then he would speak and everyone would remember again why they made their words few in his presence. Job had messages to give that fell well upon the ear, words that were heard and recognized as right and timely. Can we imagine what it would be like for a man like this to face scoffing rudeness now? And all of the disrespect that he faces has come to him not as a result of his transgressions, but because of his tragedies, and because of his unwillingness to own up to some secret unrighteousness that others presume to be hidden within him.

Now he faces disapproval in public; before he was approved. Job was once a benefactor and helper of people who needed to be rescued. People used to cry for help, and Job was there to hear and to provide assistance. Because of this, the poor and the lonely used to bless Job's name, and even sing for joy about the man's goodness.

Live for a moment with Job in the bitterness of good memories that are no more. Come mourn with him awhile, and with all the righteous who feel that even the blessings of the past have become a deep pain in the present. Feel the goodness of old days and know that the way back into the garden is blocked by an angel with a flaming sword, not because of Job's sin, but because of God's mysterious providence.

One day the memories will once again be sweeter treasures, but not today. Won't you sit by Job and enter into a blessed past that has become a present pain? Let him talk; he only has three little chapters left before he will listen and even learn. Hear his words and become a deeper person as you discover past victories that have turned into defeats.

Do you see the past? There Job is at the city gate a few months ago, clothed in an invisible righteousness that everyone acknowledges. He helps the man who cannot see, and the woman who cannot walk leans on his arm. Here is a young boy running up to him, an orphan who calls him “father.” Job is on his way to the house of someone he has never met before. He arrives at just the right moment, confronts some oppressor, snatching the weak out of the jaws of the wicked. Later that night, when evening comes, Job drifts off to sleep in peace, thinking about how everything will continue for him and for his family, and how he will die in grace. People will listen to his last words, and his children gathered around his bed will weep with many who have known him as their friend and protector, people who are better men and women now because they have known a man named Job.

But now move forward to another day, the day of the cross of Jesus, and mourn not only the blessings of the past but also a future that seems lost forever. Mourn for the Man who fed thousands with bread from heaven in the wilderness. He healed the blind with a word and restored a child to a grieving parent. When He taught, it was not like any other teacher; He spoke with divine authority. He stilled the seas and He walked on the water. And He never sinned. They wanted to make Him king. But now everyone is ashamed of Him, and even His disciples run away. Someone spits in His face, and another slaps Him. They pierce His hands and feet, and He dies on a cross. He does not die peacefully on His bed with those who love Him gathered all around. He is lifted up as an object of sin and shame. But listen to these words that He finally utters as He breathes His last: “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

Jesus was a great man who experienced a deep tragedy. Yet today, millions boast in His cross, believing that their hope has been secured by His death and resurrection. If we are companions to those who suffer deeply, let us listen to them speak about the past and mourn with them about the good times that once were and about dreams that cannot be. If we face loss ourselves, let us do the only thing that we can do: commit our lives into the hands of the One who gave His beloved Son that we might have a future and a hope, knowing that our present suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will one day be revealed.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Father, we do not know how to return to an earlier day of joy and honor. Now we have been brought to a time of such loss and disgrace, and we do not understand why. What can we do with our new life? The old life is forever gone, for we are different now because of the suffering that we have faced. Help us to receive trials as gifts from Your hand, and to move ahead to the day that You have prepared for us. Surely You are doing some good thing.

Job 28

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Man is an amazing and resourceful creature of God. He has discovered precious metals and gems in the depths of the earth. Getting at these wondrous and valuable objects is no easy matter. No other creature could accomplish it. Gold and sapphire do not grow on trees only to be plucked like low-lying fruit harvested by the casual traveler. Mining requires knowledge, planning, skill, determination, and hard work. Darkness gives way to light in hidden places inside the earth. Rivers are dammed up and as the waters drain away, dry land is rediscovered and once-hidden beauties are revealed as treasures made visible.

As impressive as mining is, Job urges any who will listen to him in his reduced state to consider the glory of mining for wisdom. Where shall we find wisdom? The first problem to which he draws our attention is that men do not know the worth of wisdom. Therefore, they seem unwilling to put in the effort necessary to observe life, to consider, evaluate, and to draw sound conclusions. But there is a bigger problem than our lack of interest. We cannot discover ultimate wisdom simply from observation and sound reflection. Job says that wisdom “is not found in the land of the living.” Apparently wisdom comes from another place, and we do not have free access to mine there no matter how much effort or intelligence we might apply to such a worthy enterprise.

If something is beyond a person's ability he may hire someone else to do the work for him. Since we know how to mine for precious metals and gems, perhaps we can finally dig up enough below the earth to buy anything we want. Can't anything be purchased for a price? No, there are many things that money cannot buy, and wisdom is one such thing. It is of surpassing worth.

So where does wisdom come from? The gold and sapphire of the earth are God's illustration for us of the answer. Just as the lion cannot see those glorious treasures as he walks the face of the land, man cannot see the glories of heavenly wisdom. There is a place of understanding, but it is hidden from the eyes of all living. The world of the dead has heard a rumor of it, but there is some other realm in which wisdom truly abides. God knows that place, and He knows the way to it.

It is one thing to know the place of wisdom, of life, and of love, to have heard of these things with your ears and to have longed for that place and all its treasures with your soul. It is another to know the way there. God knows this. To know the way to ultimate wisdom is to know the way to God. He dwells in a land of wisdom, and it is from that high place that He governs all things in heaven and on earth, doing all that pleases Him.

From that place He sees everything. More than that, He rules, and in His ruling He makes beautiful use of all the depths of His own wisdom and knowledge. In wisdom He made the earth, and in wisdom He sustains all that He has made, even the man He uses here to speak these words. Job's sufferings are not just a little rain shower. They are a torrent of trouble and sorrow from the Almighty. These trials include the gale of advisors who make up stories of Job's sin and then insist that they have understood the ways of God in the life of this afflicted man. Through all of this there is some comfort in knowing that not only is the hand of the Almighty powerful, but also that the heart of God who ordains all things is wise.

We should be able to endorse the words of Job that close this chapter, words that Solomon seemed to echo in the book of Proverbs: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” If Job's friends had the wisdom to hear this word from heaven through the lips of Job, they would do very well to consider and to repent of their own presumptuous advice. They do not know Job's sin. They do not understand why Job has lost so much and been afflicted suddenly with so much pain. They do not comprehend the ways of God. They should surely have placed their hands over their mouths. They should be the first ones who repent in dust and ashes.

Ultimate wisdom is real. It comes from the place where God dwells. The Wisdom of God came as a man to display the perfect reverence for God, obedience to all His precepts, and supreme love for us on the cross. We have not understood that cross, but we receive it, we embrace it, we boast in it, and we proclaim it. Jesus is Himself heaven's richest gem, the source of all life and the embodiment of the dwelling place of God. He is the temple in that place. Even now, we worship in Him. He is the only Way for those who are trying to discover where they might find the Wisdom that will stand the test of divine judgment.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Great God, reveal to us Your wisdom according to Your plan. You know how to do many great things that cannot be seen by men. Gems are formed in the secrets of the deep. You are doing wonderful things in the hidden place of our souls through the suffering that may be evident to all. Bless us with the great blessing of wisdom according to Your decree for us, for this great gift can only come from Your hand. You have established great wisdom that no one can know, and You have searched it out. You who control the wind and the waves have appointed that some would fear You and turn away from evil. For us, this is true wisdom and understanding, for we could never search out all the hidden resources of Your greatness.

Job 27

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God is in charge of all things, as the church has so often confessed in our creeds when we say, “We believe in God the Father Almighty.” Add to this fact the honest observation that the world that we live in is broken and that we who live in it are supposed to feel the disorder and mourn things that are wrong. For many, admitting these two propositions creates a tension that is so deep that they may be tempted to give up on something here. Some deny the power of God. Others would pretend that everything is good. Critics of the faith may just simply contend that the God that we imagine must not himself be a good God. Job chooses none of these faulty alternatives. Job never says that everything is fine. He never contends that God is not in charge of all things. Despite remarks that are critical of what God has done, Job never says that God lacks goodness. Instead, Job honestly says this bold statement, “The Almighty has made my soul bitter.”

Job is not the only person in the Bible to express these honest feelings. See Naomi in Ruth 1 and Jesus on the cross. There is one more important claim that Job makes: God has done what He has done, not because of evil in His beloved servant, but despite the fact that Job has actually been in the right. This contention is what sets Job apart from his comforters. They are convinced that Job must be in the wrong, but here Job emphatically insists on his own integrity.

Job will not lie about what he knows. If he pretends to agree with his friends in their understanding of the meaning of his suffering, then he would be engaging in deceit. They simply are wrong in their foremost assumption, that the intense suffering faced by Job is evidence enough of the Lord's displeasure with this great man. As Job has examined his own conscience concerning sin, he is able to say, “My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.” How few of us could say words like this without tremendous self-deception. We would be tempted to accuse Job of this as well if it were not for the fact that God so fully commended Job in His heavenly court at the beginning of this book.

Job believes in God's justice against the faithless and the wicked. He knows that God would be right to be angry with Job's enemies, and with those who are counted as the wicked and the unrighteous. In fact, our only hope with God is that we will somehow be counted as one of the righteous, which is precisely what has happened to us through Christ's representation of us and through faith in Him. Job does have faith in God, in God's promises, even in the resurrection of the dead. And this faith has been lived out in front of his neighbors, as Job has truly pursued daily repentance and a life of obedience to the precepts of the Almighty.

But is Job any different from the ungodly? The answer is an emphatic, “Yes!” Everyone is not the same. Though we all can be judged as guilty before God, everyone will not acknowledge this and seek to obey the Lord by His grace. It is simply not the case that everyone takes delight in the Almighty, especially in times of adversity. Not everyone will call upon God. It is noticeable in all of these interchanges between Job and his friends, that without being showy or sanctimonious, Job is the only one who actually cries out to God.

Job does not simply sing about the marvelous grace of the Lord, as great a theme as that is. He has an honest and substantial disagreement with his friends concerning who is the righteous party in this rhetorical conflict that we have been able to witness since the third chapter of this book. If Job were to pretend that his friends were more righteous than he was, he would be a liar. He will not do this. They are right that God will judge the wicked, but what they are doing to Job is wicked, and God will judge them.

Many worshipers of God do not have enough of an appreciation of some very basic facts about the Lord. God is good, all the time, and His wisdom is perfect. He is the only One who can definitively speak concerning the nature of ultimate righteousness. He is and always will be against wickedness. The wicked cannot dwell in His presence.

Christ's cross is not only a display of the mercy of God, it is also a public vindication of His justice. The One who died for us was far above all of His companions in the perfection of His righteousness. God was not simply making necessary allowances for Christ in His evaluation of His Son. He glorified the Name of Jesus because this one Servant was fully worthy of that glory. In the death of our righteous Substitute our sin was atoned for, and the wrath of God against evil was not ignored but fully satisfied. This is the only way that God shows mercy, not by ignoring the glory of His justice but by fulfilling that justice through the sentence of His wrath upon our Redeemer, who took the hell that we deserved. In this way our Almighty God brought the greatest bitterness upon the life of His own beloved Son, in order that we might not perish under the weight of all of His glorious justice.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Lord of Glory, we thank You for the perseverance of Your Son. He was continually being charged with impropriety when there was no sin in Him. He kept on walking toward His atoning death for us as lesser men accused Him in their arrogance and ignorance. His end came in His work on the cross. In the eyes of men this seemed to be the worst disgrace, but it was His greatest act of obedience. Now we have found our glory in that cross, for we have been reconciled to You through the suffering of our faithful Mediator.

Job 26

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Job has been reminded by one of his friends, Bildad, about the glory of God. Bildad said, “Dominion and fear are with God; He makes peace in His high heaven. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not arise?” God is great, and there is no man who is beyond hearing that Word. But then Job did not really need a reminder of that point, particularly at this time. Given all that has transpired, and given who Job is, he has a few of his own insights concerning the greatness and glory of the Lord.

The words of his friends—combined as they are with baseless accusations, a wrong understanding of humanity, and a deficient statement of our standing before God—are not helpful to a man who feels like he has nothing left. They only reinforce the fact that men less righteous than Job have presumed to counsel him as if he were a man who has no wisdom.

It is true that God is greater than our own ability to make some name for ourselves. Job knows this, though he will know it even more fully before his story is over. At the end of the book Job will be an even better teacher than he is here. Even before that day comes we can listen to Job's words in this chapter and take in much from this great man who speaks of the glory of God.

There is no place that anyone can go to hide from God. Even the dead tremble before Him. He is over the skies as the One who designed the system of planets in which the earth has been placed. He knows what transpires beyond the horizon, past where any man can see.

Not only is He the Creator of light and dark, the waters above and the waters below the firmament, the dry land and all of the vegetation that covers it, the sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, and all kinds of animals; He is also the Maker of mankind. He knows our triumphs and our failures. He has a plan for everything, and His purposes will surely be accomplished.

Beyond all that we can see, God knows even the history and destiny of heaven. Are there powers in realms above? They tremble before Almighty God. Would they defy Him forever? They will not be able to withstand Him for long. If they seem to win a battle, it is only because the Lord of eternal wisdom has determined that such an outcome fits best in His winning of a much larger war.

Is there some wicked creature of the sea that would taunt a man and crush him? Such a one is God's plaything. He can shatter any foe in a moment.

When you gaze into the night skies, you can see the work of His fingers. If the winds come in a moment and take away all that we have, He can still calm them with just a word. He can restore what a cloud of locusts has consumed.

Is there some serpent who is crafty in his ways, who comes to steal, to kill, to destroy? God can pierce him before he releases his deadly venom. God is powerful to save, even powerful enough to raise the dead.

All of this does not make God weary. He is able to do far more abundantly beyond anything that we could ask or think. We hear only His whispers. What if He were to speak to us in the full weight of His thundering voice? This He has done in Job's soul. Why has He brought grief to one of His greatest servants? Who can understand that?

If we have a hard time understanding the Lord's great works of natural power, if we cannot fathom the ways of God with a man like Job, can we understand the Lord's plan for His own Son, the righteous Jesus? If there ever was a shout of God that was beyond our comprehension, if there ever were an affliction that should take our breath away, it was that which our Lord faced for us. Who can understand what was necessary for the satisfaction of the transgressions of the Lord's chosen people? Yet Christ faced that thunder of God, and now He lives.

It was not necessary for Bildad to teach Job about God's glory. There is more than enough mystery to the greatness of God and His inscrutable ways for all of us to consider forever. But Christ has conquered sin and death for us on the cross. This is not so much to be exhaustively understood as it is to be humbly embraced. He has our future in His hands. He can be trusted with our afflictions and our grief. He has won for us our salvation.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Our God and King, we need the voice of truth. Please speak to us through the Scriptures today. You are the God of creation. What You accomplish in the skies and the seas are wonders to behold. Even these great things are but a whisper of Your greatness. If we were to see You in all of Your heavenly glory we could not survive for a moment. Help us to hear the Word of Your steadfast love and to worship You even when there is so much that we do not understand.