Job 40:6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
7 “Now brace yourself like a man.
I will question you, and you will answer me.
8 Will you discredit my justice?
Will you condemn me to justify yourself?
9 Or do you have an arm like God?
Can you thunder with a voice like him?
10 “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity.
Can you put on the robes of the Universal Judge?
11 Pour out the fury of your anger.
Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
12 Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him.
Crush the wicked in their place.
13 Hide them in the dust together.
Bind their faces in the hidden place.
14 Then I will also admit to you
that your own right hand can save you.
Though Job refused to answer, God was not finished with Job. God warns Job to prepare for a second round of questioning. Brace yourself like a man. v.7
God’s questions expose a serious flaw in Job’s reasoning up to this point.
Will you discredit my justice? Will you condemn me to justify yourself? v.8
As we look back over Job’s arguments, we realize that Job was more concerned with defending his own integrity than he was with defending God’s integrity. Job had been demanding justice from God as if there was some deficiency in God’s sovereignty, as if somehow God was overlooking Job in his time of need.
God asks: “Can you put on the robes of the Universal Judge?” v.10
In other words God is asking: “Are you able to police the entirety of creation with absolute justice?” And, of course the answer is no. God has shown Job that he can’t even control the natural world. If he is limited in understanding and in ability to control nature, how could he possibly exercise authority in the moral realm? How could Job administer justice?
To drive home his point to Job, next God enters two exhibits into the record of his celestial courtroom.
Exhibit number one:
Job 40:15 “See now, the dinosaur, which I made as well as you.
He eats grass as an ox.
16 Look now, his strength is in his thighs.
His force is in the muscles of his belly.
17 He moves his tail like a cedar.
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18 His bones are like tubes of bronze.
His limbs are like bars of iron.
19 He is the chief of the ways of God.
He who made him gives him his sword.
20 Surely the mountains produce food for him,
where all the animals of the field play.
21 He lies under the lotus trees,
in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.
22 The lotuses cover him with their shade.
The willows of the brook surround him.
23 Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble.
He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.
24 Shall any take him when he is on the watch,
or pierce through his nose with a snare?
As Job is now in God’s courtroom, God proceeds to present two exhibits to build his case that he is sovereign by pointing out two remarkable creatures, first the dinosaur.
We are fascinated with dinosaurs. We build museums dedicated to exhibiting their massive bones. We reconstruct them for display. We offer expeditions to their burial sites. We make movies about their strength, might, and cunning.
God created man and woman but God also created a beast beyond compare in size and strength. He swings his massive tail effortlessly like a giant cedar tree. He is as strong as iron. Floods don’t scare him. He cannot be tamed. He cannot be captured. v.24 The point again being, if Job can’t even control one creature how can he question God’s governance of the universe?
Exhibit number two, the Dragon:
Job 41:1 “Can you draw out a dragon with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope into his nose,
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3 Will he make many petitions to you,
or will he speak soft words to you?
4 Will he make a covenant with you,
that you should take him for a servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird?
Or will you bind him for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons,
or his head with fish spears?
8 Lay your hand on him.
Remember the battle, and do so no more.
9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain.
Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand against me?
11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Everything under the heavens is mine.
12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who will come within his jaws?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
15 Strong scales are his pride,
shut up together with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined to one another.
They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.
18 His sneezing flashes out light.
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning torches.
Sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,
as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath kindles coals.
A flame goes out of his mouth.
22 There is strength in his neck.
Terror dances before him.
23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together.
They are firm on him.
They can’t be moved.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone,
yes, firm as the lower millstone.
25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
They retreat before his thrashing.
26 If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail;
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
27 He counts iron as straw;
and bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow can’t make him flee.
Sling stones are like chaff to him.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble.
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot.
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He makes a path shine after him.
One would think the deep had white hair.
33 On earth there is not his equal,
that is made without fear.
34 He looks down on all that are haughty.
He is king over all the sons of pride.”
Fire breathing dragons are the stuff of legend. Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out. v.19 He makes a path shine after him. v.32 His strong scales v.15 repel every attack. His undersides are as sharp as potsherds. v.30 Arrows bounce harmlessly off him. If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail: nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. He counts iron as straw; and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow can’t make him flee. v.26-28 He flies through the skies. Will you play with him as with a bird? v.5 He looks down on all that are haughty. v.34 He is so fierce that none can stand against [him]. v.10
God is making the point that if you can’t stand against a dragon that he created how will you ever be able to stand against God, the Creator? If you can’t capture, tame, and manage a dragon how can you possibly expect to manage and administer justice across the universe?
Though you are a man made in God’s image, nevertheless, like the dinosaur and the dragon, you are not God. You are a creature with limited knowledge and limited ability. You cannot grasp the mystery of God. You do not have access to God’s council. You must trust your Creator to manage all aspects of his creation including the details of your life.
In his answer God respects Job and treats him like a man. God never accuses Job of sin. Rather, God teaches Job that he is a creature limited in knowledge. As such he never tells Job why he has been suffering. The reasons behind the suffering are to remain a mystery.
Throughout the dialogues Job has been asking:
What have I done to deserve this, where is the answer?
But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
Man doesn’t know its price: Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’ Job 28:12-14
Sometimes the answers that we seek may not be found. You can get to the bottom of the sea but you cannot fathom the mysterious ways of God. Job’s friends were sure that they knew why Job was suffering but when God appeared to answer Job, God never supplied the answer he sought. When God showed up, Job no longer needed an answer to ‘why’ because now Job realized that he had God himself. The question was not ‘why’ but ‘who.’
And that was the answer.
Personal communion with God was far better than impersonal knowledge about God.
Consider Job’s response.