105. Where Wast Thou? (1)

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Hymns: RHC 21 O God, Our Help In Ages Past, 80 The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, 82 This Day at Thy Creating Word

Job 38:1-11

1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? 9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, 10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, 11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

Where Wast Thou? (1)

OUTLINE

  • Soberly Consider (v1-3)
  • God Created the Universe (v4-8)
  • God Created the Seas (v9-11)

INTRODUCTION

Matthew Henry said well, “In most disputes the strife is who shall have the last word. Job’s friends had, in this controversy, tamely yielded it to Job, and then he to Elihu. But, after all the wranglings of the counsel at bar, the judge upon the bench must have the last word; so God had here, and so he will have in every controversy, for every man’s judgment proceeds from him and by his definitive sentence every man must stand or fall and every cause be won or lost. Job had often appealed to God, and had talked boldly how he would order his cause before him, and as a prince would he go near unto him; but, when God took the throne, Job had nothing to say in his own defence, but was silent before him. It is not so easy a matter as some think it to contest with the Almighty. Job’s friends had sometimes appealed to God too: “O that God would speak!” (Job 11:7). 

And now, at length, God does speak, when Job, by Elihu’s clear and close arguings was mollified a little, and mortified, and so prepared to hear what God had to say. It is the office of ministers to prepare the way of the Lord. 

That which the great God designs in this discourse is to humble Job, and bring him to repent of, and to recant, his passionate indecent expressions concerning God’s providential dealings with him; and this he does by calling upon Job to compare God’s eternity with his own time, God’s omniscience with his own ignorance, and God’s omnipotence with his own impotency. 

He begins with an awakening challenge and demand in general (v2-3). 

He proceeds in divers particular instances and proofs of Job’s utter inability to contend with God, because of his ignorance and weakness. He knew nothing of the founding of the earth (v4-7). 

Nothing of the limiting of the sea (v8-11). Nothing of the morning light (v12-15). Nothing of the dark recesses of the sea and earth (v16-21). Nothing of the springs in the clouds (v22-27), nor the secret counsels by which they are directed. He could do nothing towards the production of the rain, or frost, or lightning (v28-30, 34-35,37-38), nothing towards the directing of the stars and their influences (v31-33), nothing towards the making of his own soul (v34-38). And lastly, he could not provide for the lions and the ravens (v39-41). If, in these ordinary works of nature, Job was puzzled, how does he pretend to dive into the counsels of God’s government and to judge of them? In this God takes up the argument begun by Elihu (who came nearest to the truth) and prosecutes it in inimitable words, excelling his, and all other men’s, in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper.” [Matthew Henry]

  • Soberly Consider (v1-3)

1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Here the LORD Himself speaks, the eternal Word, the second person of the Godhead, He whom the worlds were made, is no other than the Son of God.

Hebrews 1:1-3 (KJV) God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

The same speaks here that afterwards spoke from Mount Sinai. [Matthew Henry]

Here he begins with the creation of the world, there with the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, and from both is inferred the necessity of our subjection to him. Elihu had said, God speaks to men and they do not perceive it (Job 33:14); but this they could not but perceive, and yet we have a more sure word of prophecy.

2 Peter 1:19 (KJV) We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Job had silenced his three friends, and yet could not convince them of his integrity in the main. Elihu had silenced Job, and yet could not bring him to acknowledge his mismanagement of this dispute. 

But now God comes, and does both, convinces Job first of his unadvised speaking and makes him cry, I have done wrong; and, having humbled him, he puts honour upon him, by convincing his three friends that they had done him wrong. 

These two things God will, sooner or later, do for his people: he will show them their faults, that they may be themselves ashamed of them, and he will show others their righteousness, and bring it forth as the light, that they may be ashamed of their unjust censures of them.

How he spoke–Out of the whirlwind, the rolling and involving cloud, which Elihu took notice of (Job 37:1-2, 9). 

A whirlwind prefaced Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1:4), and Elijah’s (1 King 19:11).

Ezekiel 1:4 (KJV) And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

1 Kings 19:11 (KJV) And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

God is said to have his way in the whirlwind (Nahum 1:3), and, to show that even the stormy wind fulfils His word, here it was made the vehicle of it. 

Nahum 1:3 (KJV) The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hathhis way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

This shows what a mighty voice God’s is, that is was not lost, but perfectly audible, even in the noise of a whirlwind. Thus, God designed to startled Job, and to command his attention. Sometimes God answers his own people in terrible corrections, as out of the whirlwind, but always in righteousness. [Matthew Henry]

To whom he spoke: He answered Job, directed His speech to him, to convince him of what was amiss, before he cleared him from the unjust aspersions cast upon him. It is God only that can effectually convince of sin, and those shall so be humbled whom he designs to exalt. Those that desire to hear from God, as Job did, shall certainly hear from him at length. 

God charges him with ignorance and presumption in what he had said (v2): “Who is this that talks at this rate? Is it Job? What! a man? That weak, foolish, despicable, creature–shall he pretend to prescribe to me what I must do or to quarrel with me for what I have done? Is it Job? What! my servant Job, a perfect and an upright man? Can he so far forget himself, and act unlike himself? Who, where, is he that darkens counsel thus by words without knowledge? Let him show his face if he dare, and stand to what he has said.”

Darkening the counsels of God’s wisdom with our folly is a great affront and provocation to God. Concerning God’s counsels we must own that we are without knowledge. They are a deep which we cannot fathom; we are quite out of our element, out of our aim, when we pretend to account for them. Yet we are too apt to talk of them as if we understood them, with a great deal of niceness and boldness; but, alas! we do but darken them, instead of explaining them. 

This first word which God spoke is the more observable because Job, in his repentance, fastens upon it as that which silenced and humbled him (Job 42:3). 

This he repeated and echoed as the arrow that stuck fast in him: “I am the fool that has darkened counsel.” There was some colour to have turned it upon Elihu, as if God meant him, for he spoke last, and was speaking when the whirlwind began; but Job applied it to himself, as it becomes us to do when faithful reproofs are given, and not (as most do) to billet them upon other people. 

He challenges him to give such proofs of his knowledge as would serve to justify his enquiries into the divine counsels (v3): “Gird up now thy loins like a stout man; prepare thyself for the encounter; I will demand of thee, will put some questions to thee, and answer me if thou canst, before I answer thine.” Those that go about to call God to an account must expect to be catechised and called to an account themselves, that they may be made sensible of their ignorance and arrogance. God here puts Job in mind of what he had said (Job 13:22). Call thou, and I will answer. “Now make thy words good.” [Matthew Henry]

To be continued…