Job Lesson 19
Job 38-
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
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Class Notes
5. Jehovah and Job. 38:1 – 42:6.
5.a. First Round. 38:1- 40:5
5.a.i Jehovah. 38:1- 40:2
Chapter 38
I. Jehovah appears.
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Class Notes
5. Jehovah and Job. 38:1 – 42:6.
5.a. First Round. 38:1- 40:5
5.a.i Jehovah. 38:1- 40:2
Chapter 38
I. Jehovah appears.
A. God does not reply to speeches or make direct reference to the speeches of Job or his friends.
B. God does not discuss the problem of suffering.
C. God does not put himself on the defensive as though he had to explain his action to his lowly creatures.
D. Instead of answering Job’s questions and responding to his demands, God bombards Job with questions of his own (77 in chs. 38-41). Is it enough??? It is not what Job asked. Those questions made Job aware of how little he knew, and led to 42:5-6.
E. God does not rebuke Job for claiming his innocence and integrity.
F. He rebukes him for his boldness and presumption that he can dispute with God as his equal. ISSUE: Is God qualified to preside over creation?
G. God made Job recognize his total dependence, that he must humbly submit to him, and realize that all blessings come from God.
H. It is enough that God speaks at all. All is o.k. between himself and God. Art critics can tell us about the Sistine Chapel, but how wonderful to visit with Michelangelo. Job visits with Michelangelo’s creator.
II. Vv. 1-3. Job takes the witness stand. If God speaks so to Job, how would he speak to us? Rom. 9:20; 11:31-36.
III. Vv. 4-7. Who made the earth? God is pictured as a builder.
A. “You’ll have to help me, Job. Where were you when this happened?”
B. If Job knows nothing about creation, how can he know anything about God’s moral government?
C. If Job cannot explain creation, how can he explain God?
IV. Vv. 8-11. Who enclosed the sea?
A. God is pictured as a delivering mother who gives birth to seas and then clothes them with clouds, darkness, and coastlines.
B. If oceans know their place, so should man.
V. Vv. 12-15. Who commands the sun?
A. God orders the dawn like a general commanding troops. This is something that Job has never done.
B. If Job cannot command the sun, why think that he can command God?
C. The rising sun exposes evil; so Job should be enlightened in his comments in God’s fairness and justice.
VI. Vv. 16-18. Has Job explored the underworld?
A. Another realm beyond Job’s reach.
B. Job never explored them, but God invites him to make a report if he knows all this.
C. If Job cannot explain these things now, could he understand the mysteries of how God works out his moral universe and his spiritual kingdom.
D. To explain this to Job would be like pouring the Atlantic Ocean into a Dixie cup.
VII. Vv. 19-21. Who orders the light?
A. Light and dark are personified as beings who must be led to their place. Can Job do this?
B. If Job were old enough to have been present he might know the answer.
C. If Job can’t understand the light he must be in the dark about God.
D. Job, accept your limitations and let God be God.
VIII. Vv. 22-23. Who sends snow and hail?
A. Did Job understand the giant refrigerators in the sky where God keeps the snow and hail.
B. If Job could not explain such common events, how could he explain God’s providence? Joshua 10:11.
IX. Vv. 24-27. Who sends the rain and lightning?
A. Could Job tell the rain when and where to pour?
B. Why does God water the desert where no man can see?
C. God rains because he reigns.
X. Vv. 28-30. Who makes ice?
A. How much does Job know about ice?
B. How is it born?
C. Until he grasped this simple truth, how could he grasp the working of God?
XI. Vv. 31-33. Who directs the planets?
A. Did Job understand their movements?
B. Could Job steer the planets across the sky? God leads them around like animals.
C. Only God can control the planets on high; only God can control circumstances below (seasons, light, dark, tides).
XII. Vv. 34-38. Who forms the clouds?
A. Could Job command the clouds?
B. Could he direct the lightning bolt where to strike?
C. Could he tell the clouds where to deposit their water?
D. Only God controls nature.
E. Only God is fit to control Job’s life.
XIII. Vv. 39-40. Who feeds the lions?
A. Can Job feed the lions?
B. Would he even know the young lions were hungry?
C. Could he take them to their lair?
D. God can feed them.
E. God can rule the moral order.
XIV. V. 41. Who feeds the ravens?
A. Who teaches the ravens to find food to feed their young?
B. God put the instinct in them.
C. Lion and raven – God cares for all; the God who feeds the birds can care for Job.
Chapter 39
I. Vv. 1-4. Who delivers the goats and deer?
A. Does Job know about obstetrical care for the animals? The gestation period for a goat?
B. How are baby deer born? How does he know when to send them out on their own?
C. Job is ignorant of these things; he is ignorant of the workings of God.
II. Vv. 5-8. Who made the donkeys wild?
A. This is not Job’s domesticated donkeys.
B. Difficult if not impossible to tame him.
C. It lives in the wilderness and salt flats.
D. It doesn’t go near civilization where people disturb his carefree lifestyle.
E. Job is impotent to manipulate God’s creation; he is also impotent to manipulate God with his demands.
F. Is all nature wild except man? Animals obey the creator; man does not. Jas. 3:7-8; Isa. 1:3.
III. Vv. 9-12. Who made the ox wild?
A. A horned animal thought by some to be extinct.
B. It is not a unicorn (Psa. 22:21, KJV).
1. King Thutmose III of Egypt (died 1426 b.c., reigned 1479–26 b.c.) bragged of killing them.
2. Pictured on the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. C. It was not housebroken.
D. God imposes on Job his inability to control; why does he think he can control God who can control this beast?
IV. Vv. 13-18. Who made the ostrich strange?
A. Why did God make an animal that leaves her eggs unprotected and then forgets where she put them (Lam. 4:3).
B. It has a small head, long neck, big body, and stubby wings.
1. Can’t compare to the stork.
2. Job can’t understand the ostrich; how can he understand the trials or the blessings of his life.
C. There are parts of God’s world and Job’s life that seem strange, but God is in control.
V. Vv. 19-25. Who made the horse courageous?
A. This is an eloquent passage, one of the most striking descriptions of an animal in all literature.
B. Noblest of all domesticated animals; it served in many capacities.
C. Did Job give the horse its strength agility, and courage?
D. Only God provided these things; only God is qualified to govern the affairs of men.
VI. V. 26. Who made the hawk soar?
A. Who gave it its migrating instinct?
B. Who made it to soar high and glide effortless?
C. Only God can make it soar.
VII. Vv. 27-30. Who made the eagle nest on high?
A. Neither Job’s intelligence nor his command can make the eagle fly.
B. Ponder God’s creation and stand in awe.
C. Look at ourselves (Psa. 139:14).
VIII. Conclusion.
A. God is wise and Job (and we) knows nothing; who are we to contend with God?
B. The medicine Job (and we) are asked to take is bitter, but it is wholesome medicine.
1. Job has failed both exams.
2. Much like the student who, upon seeing his final exam and realizing he knew no answers, wrote his professor a note: “God knows the answers; I don’t; Merry Christmas.” When he returned from holiday he had the following note from his professor: “God gets 100; you get 0; Happy New Year.”