My church is in the middle of a series right now called, Cover to Cover. It is going through the Bible little at a time. They have a corresponding devotional that goes with it each day. Last weeks was to read Job 38:1-18. Now if you don’t know anything about Job, here is a quick run down. Job was a man who lived righteously and lived for God. He was a very blessed man, actually the Bible says that ‘He was the greatest man among all the people of the East’ (Job 1: 4). Satan spoke with the Lord and suggested that maybe Job only serves the Lord because He protects him. Satan said that the Lord should strike everything Job has down and see if Job really praises Him. The Lord agreed to this with the only condition that Satan not lay a hand on Job himself. Job’s life began to fall apart. All of his animals were taken away, his servants were killed, his children died, and all at once everything was taken from Job. What did he do at that moment? He fell to the ground and worshiped the Lord.
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:20
It didn’t end there. Job was then inflicted with sores and even when his wife told him to curse God, he didn’t. Instead of cursing God, like Satan thought, Job cursed the day of his birth. He wasn’t happy and he did protest what he was going through but never once did he accuse God of injustice. The next verses are a conversation between Job and his friends regarding the why and how we just don’t know why some things happen the way they do. One of my favorite passages is
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.” (Job 11:7)
Always seems to put things in perspective, doesn’t it? This conversation goes on until verse 37 and then in verse 38, the Lord speaks to Job. This begins the climax of the book of Job as God Himself is speaking.
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans
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?
“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 darkness,
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’?
“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.
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
(Job 38:1-18)
What more could Job do but say, ““I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.” (Job 40:4). Pretty sure he isn’t the only one who has felt like that! In these short passages God (for lack of a better term) puts us in our place. He is essentially saying, I’ve got this under control. Look at everything else I have done. How often have we done the same thing? We are mad so we complain or we rebel and try to go against His will. We do not know the full plan that God has for our lives, no matter how hard we try to figure it out. Just look at Job 38:4- “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand.” Quick answer, we weren’t here. The verses go on and it is such beautiful poetry as you hear God speaking to Job, and to all of us. There are so many mysteries in the world, still, that we just don’t know. It shows me just how big God is and just how little I am.
There have been so many times where I looked back on a hard situation and once I was on the other side I saw God’s hand on all of it. I saw the way that God was working in me for something in the future that I had no idea of.
Looking at the end of Job, the Lord blessed him more than he had ever been blessed before. He had more animals and more servants, he had more sons and daughters. All of this because he was faithful to the Lord.