May 8, 2023 - Job 38-42

So, everyone, including Job, has had his say. Now, it’s time for God to speak: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (38:1). Never thought about this before, but this is an apt scenario, i.e., God speaking out of a whirlwind. Not only is it a reminder that he is Lord over all, even the storm, but Job is about to experience a whirlwind (Yeah, that little bit of interpretation / extrapolation is a bit over the top.)

The foundations of the earth . . . the stars . . . the seas . . . the morning . . . death . . . light and darkness, etc. God is Lord over it all. Job, on the other hand, is . . . well, he’s just Job. He's a man. But he is a man who is upright and who fears God. And though he seems to get pummeled in this questioning, God knows what he is doing. And Job listens because, finally, he has his audience with God.

Thinking about Job’s experience here with God, I cannot help but wonder about our own. My suspicion? We will all be humiliated and humbled before him because of his great holiness and our sin, but that experience will be in the service of magnifying his great grace toward us and stirring up our gratefulness. To be reminded of all that we have been redeemed from! And to look into his face and know that he has loved us! Job’s end was greater than his beginning, and so will be ours. Job has laid his life in the Lord's hands, and he is not disappointed at the last. Like Job, we can put our cases before God and trust him in a way that we could never trust another human. William Cowper understood:

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

You fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head. -- William Cowper (1774)