Page 136 - Reading Job to Know God

written, surely I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it to
myself like a crown. I would declare to Him the number of my steps;
Like a prince I would approach Him.”

He will not come but if He did, I would stand up like a prince. I would
have all my arguments written out and my mouth would be full. I would
say, okay, God, here it is. That is what Job said all through these debates.
In his presumption he had challenged God. If only God would lay aside
His deity and His glory and come down and fight like a man, then I would
respond and I would debate with Him.

It is so easy to read chapter 38 in a ho hum, take it for granted, way. But
try to imagine. Job had distorted the wisdom of God in his affliction. He
had impugned God’s justice. He had challenged God with partiality
toward the wicked, of being unfair, of delighting in His children’s
sufferings of. 38:1-3,
“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘Who
is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird
up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!’ ”
“Job, you had a controversy with me”, God says. “You complained about
what I have allowed in your life?” Okay, Job, I have heard your challenge,
and now I am going to condescend this one time, that it might be written in
the Bible forever, so no one else will ever challenge Me on this again. I will
meet you where you are, and I challenge you. Come on out to the battlefield,
Job, with all your might and gird up your loins like a man.

I cannot imagine what the emotion must have been in Job’s heart. He
never expected that God would answer his outcry of frustration and
desperation. Oh, if only God would come! These guys won’t listen to me.
They don’t know what they’re talking about; they are all talking through
their hats. If only there was someone I could talk to. God knows why it is
going on. I could talk to Him! I don’t know the emotion he felt at that
moment. I can’t imagine it. But what took place in Job’s life at this point
both broke and healed him at the same time. God rebuked him and then
used it as a balm. He is about to give the full answer to the problem of
suffering. So this becomes the last act in the great drama of Job’s life.

Job’s problems were being compounded through the debates. The
problem started off with his suffering. You might think that the simplest
way to deal with that, would be to reveal the purpose for the suffering.
No, Job, it is not because of your sin. It is because Satan came to me and
la, la, la. That would have solved Job’s problem. He would say, oh, thank
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