Bible in one year 8/5/2022 Job Chapter 38-42 God’s speech, Job’s repentance, deliverance
By Rev. Katherine
Liu Bruce
Christian Arts
Ministries : Biblical precepts & Gospel music; Pastoral ministry &
Counseling
Job Chapter 38 God confronts Job with mysteries of heavens, and earth
Finally God
breaks His silence and speaks to Job directly. And answered Job out of the
storm. How absurd to think that
a creature should become the critic of the Creator. God accepts Job’s
challenge, urged him brace himself like a man (v.3) Heb., geber, denoting man
in his strength as a combatant. God mentioned constellations in the heavens, a
large bright stars and angels joined in praise when the earth was
created.(v.7). Personified dawn is represented as taking the cover of darkness
off the earth and shaking the wicked out of it like dust.(v.13). When dawn
comes, the dark earth stands out in clear relief as shapeless clay does when
stamped with a seal.(v.14). God speaks here with great irony in verse 21. Job cannot understand even
such common things as snow, hail, wind, rain, lightning, frost, and
ice.(vv.22-30). Does
Job determine the movements of the constellations in the heaven? (v.31) and the Bear, a large
bright star or constellation? Can Job bring forth the constellations in their
seasons? Can Job set up God’s
dominion over the earth? Does Job send the
lightning bolts on their way ? God questions job in order to unveil God’s
sovereignty who created the mysteries of heaven and earth.
He said,
“ Who is this that darkens my counsel with
words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and
you shall answer me. “Where were you when I
laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its
dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what
were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang
together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (vv.1-7).
Who
shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the
clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkens, when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘ This far you may come and
no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? (vv.8-11).
Have you ever given orders
to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by
the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under
a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied
their light, and their upraised arm is broken.(vv.12-15).
Have you journeyed to the springs of
the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gate of death been
shown to you? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if
you know all this.(vv.16-18).
What is the way to the abode of
light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do
you know the paths to their dwellings? Surely you know, for you were already
born! You have lived so many years.(vv.19-21).
Have you entered the storehouses of
the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of
trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are
scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a
path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no
one init, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does
the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the
ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heaven? When the waters become hard
as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? (vv.22-30).
Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the
cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead
out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up
God’s dominion over the earth? Can you raise you r voice to the clouds and
cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their
way? Do they report to you, ‘ Here we are’? Who endowed the heart with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who
can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the
clods of earth stick together? (vv.31-38).
Do
you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions when they
crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? Who provides food for raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food? (vv.39-41).
Chapter
39 God confronts Job with mysteries of the animal kingdom
God now confronts Job
(through 39:30) with mysteries of the animal kingdom in order to make him more
aware of his ignorance and thus of his inability to be a competent judge of the
works of God.
The lion, raven, mountain goat, deer, wild donkey, wild ox, ostrich, horse,
hawk, and eagle are all paraded before Job’s mind. Unlike the domestic donkey,
it is fleet of foot and graceful.(v.5). In verses 13-17, it appears to man that the
ostrich is unconcerned about her young, leaving some of her eggs uncovered
(though only by day when the heat of the sand helps incubate them) and unhatched
(thereby serving as food for her young). Her seeming lack of wisdom is not apart from God’s
plan, just as behind the trials of the godly, which seem so unreasonable to
Job, lies the wise purpose of God.
God continued His
questions,
“
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears
her fawn? Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they
give birth? They crouch down and bring forth their young; their labor pains are
ended. Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds; they leave and do not
return. Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied his ropes? I gave him the
wasteland as his home, the salt flats as his habitat. He laughs at the
commotion in the town; he does not hear a driver’s shout. He ranges the hills
for his pasture and searches for any green thing.” (vv.1- 8).
Will
the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night? Can you
hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he till the valleys behind you?
Will you rely on him for his great strength? Will you leave your heavy work to
him? Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing
floor? (vv.9-12).
The wings of the ostrich
flap joyfully, but they cannot compare with the pinions and feathers of the
stork. She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand,
unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them.
She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her
labor was in vain, for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of
good sense. Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and
rider. (v.13-18).
Do you give the horse his
strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust,
striking terror with his proud snorting? He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his
strength, and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he
does not shy away from the sword. The
quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In
frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he cannot stand still when the
trumpet sounds. At the blast of the trumpet he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He catches the
scent of battle from afar, the shout of commanders and the battle cry.
(vv.19-25).
Does
the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread his wings toward the south? Does
the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high? He dwells on a cliff
and stays there at night; a rocky crag is his stronghold. From there he seeks
out his food; his eyes detect it from afar. His young ones feast on blood, and
where the slain are, there is he. (vv26-30).
Chapter
40 Job’s silence and God continued his second speech about His power
Though God challenges Job
to answer, Job wisely declines. When Job criticized God’s ways, he was in effect
trying to usurp God’s way as governor of
the world. In this paragraph full of irony, God asks if Job can really perform those things
that only God can do.(vv.6-14). Job is invited to consider the behemoth,
usually considered to be the hippopotamus. The Lord’s point is this : Since I
made both the behemoth and you, Job, and you cannot control even this fellow
creature, how dare you think of usurping My place! (v.15).
The Lord said to Job: “Will the one who commends with the Almighty
correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”(v.2) Then Job answered
the Lord:
“ I am unworthy how can I reply to you? I put
my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer twice, but I will say
no more.”(vv.3-5).
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:
Brace
yourself like a man: I will question you, and you shall answer me. “ Would you
discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an
arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like His? Then adorn yourself with
glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty. Unleash the fury
of your wrath, look at every proud man and bring him low, look at every proud
man and humble him crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust
together; shroud their faces in the grave. Then I myself will admit to you that
your own right hand can save you. (vv.7-14).
Look
at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an
ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly!
His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones
are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the
works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword. The hills bring
him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. Under the lotus plants
he lies, hidden among the reeds in the march. The lotuses conceal him in their shadow;
the poplars by the stream surround him.
When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should
surge against his mouth. Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and
pierce his nose? (vv.15-24).
Chapter
41 God used a second illustration, leviathan, (crocodile ) as symbolical
God used a second illustration, leviathan, usually identified as the crocodile (Though sometimes used symbolically, as in Isa.27:1), God makes the same point as in 40:15. Dismay goes before him(v.22) Better, fear dances before him. A graphic description of the terror that the presence of leviathan brings to other creatures, including man. The crocodile’s scales leave an impression on the mud as if a threshing board had passed over it.(v.30). When he swims he makes a commotion like boiling water or like the foaming from mixtures in a medicine bowl. (v.31)
God continued his second illustration,
“ Can you
pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can
you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he keep
begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? Will he make an agreement
with you for you to take him as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of him life a bird or put
him on a leash for your girls? Will traders barter for him? Will they divide
him up among the merchants? Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head
with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle
and never do it again! Any hope of subduing his is false; the mere sight of him
is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then
is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me. (vv.1-11).
I
will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form. Who
can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle? Who dares
open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth? His back has
rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no
air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together
and cannot be parted. His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are
like the rays of dawn. Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot
out. Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
His breath set coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth. Strength resides in
his neck; dismay goes before him. (vv.12-22).
The
folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. His chest
is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When he rises up, the mighty are terrifies; they retreat before his thrashing. The sword that reaches him has no
effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron he treats like
straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make him flee, sling stones are
like chaff to him. A club seems to him but a piece of straw; he laughs at the
rattling of the lance. His undersides are jagged
potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. He makes the
depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of
ointment. Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had
white hair. Nothing on earth is his equal a creature with out fear. He looks down on all that
are haughty; He is king over all that are proud. (vv.23-34).
Chapter
42 Job’s repentance and the deliverance
Job repents of his pride and rebellion and finds
contentment in the knowledge that he has God’s fellowship. This is the great
lesson of the book: If we know God, we do not need to know why He allows us to
experience what we do. He is not only in control of the universe and all its
facets but also of our lives; and He loves us. Though His ways are sometimes
beyond our comprehension, we should not criticize Him for His dealings with us
or with others. God is always in control of all things, even when He appears
not to be.
No form of
God appeared in the whirlwind, but what God revealed about Himself enable Job
to see Him. Four times in these verse God
refers to Job as my servant a vindication of God’s confidence in Job when
originally challenged by Satan (vv.7-8)(1:8). And God told Job’s three
friends “ I am angry with you and your
two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right.” (v.7). and
told them to take seven bulls and seven rams and sacrifice a burnt offering for
themselves. The Lord made Job prosperous again. Job’s family all conforted him,
such presents were customarily given when visiting an important person,
especially after a calamity (2Chron.32:23).
Finally, God was given twice as many animals as he
had originally owned (1:2-3) but only the same number of children, since the
ten who died(1:19) he fully expected to see in the resurrection (19:26). Job
gives his daughters a share in the inheritance was an unusual favor, grated
later under the law only if there were no sons (Num.27:8) In that Job live to
such a great age a hundred and forty years, he obviously fully recovered his
health.
Job
replied to the Lord as follows,
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The
deliverance of Job; God was angry with Eliphaz and his two friends
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 of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and
seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for
yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer for
you and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me
what is right, as my servant Job has.” (vv.7-8). So Eliphaz the
Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told
them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. (v.9).
After Job had prayed for
his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as
he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known
him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him
over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of
silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more
than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand
camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven
sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the
second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. No where is all the land were there
found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an
inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and
forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
And so he died, old and full of years. (vv.10-16).
Bibliography,
Ryrie, Charles C. The
Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody
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