1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 2 “Who is
this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself
like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 “Where were
you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched
a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid
its cornerstone — 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels
shouted for joy? 8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth
from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick
darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud
waves halt’?
- Job 38:1-11, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
A boat was sailing on the open water late at night when storm clouds began to gather. Sheets of rain from above were swallowed up by the crashing seas below. Pounding waves battered the ship as water poured over the sides.
The sailors did everything in their power to stop the flooding. They used buckets to scoop out the incoming water. They even threw their cargo overboard to stay afloat, but it was no use. The panicked expressions on their faces said it all. They knew that they were going to die.
All except one. He was sleeping in the stern of the ship, without a care in the world. With nowhere else to turn, the other passengers hurried down to him and woke him up. In response to their begging and pleading, he calmly got up and spoke a few words: "Quiet! Be still!" (Mark 4:39) And at his command, the night became perfectly calm.
No, this is not a scene from the summer blockbuster movie, "The Perfect Storm." It’s a brief summary of the gospel lesson for the day, the miracle in which Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The account is made up of three major components: a storm, a lack of faith, and God’s powerful Word.
The text before us this morning, the Old Testament lesson taken from Job, presents us with the same key elements, but under somewhat different circumstances. Job takes the place of the disciples. He is the one who shows a lack of faith and trust in God. There is a storm in this lesson, but the storm does not pose a threat to Job’s life. God speaks to Job through the storm. What is the same in both lessons is God's powerful Word.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus clearly had the last word over the sudden storm on the Sea of Galilee. He spoke, and it was gone. Through his conversation with Job in the storm, the Lord demonstrates to us that he is our Almighty Creator, and he too will have the final word.
The Creator Has the Final Word
I. Man’s word supplies no answers
II. God’s Word answers all questions
People who know the story of job or at least know who Job is are probably familiar with the first two chapters of the book that bears his name. They may recall that Job was the man who had it all, then lost it all, and then got it all back again. The opening chapters describe Job’s fall. His ten children were killed. His fields and flocks were destroyed. Job even lost his health when his body was covered with painful sores.
Most of us are familiar with the opening chapters of Job, but do you know how long the book is? 42 chapters! The first two chapters are really background material. They set the stage for the rest of the book. The bulk of Job, thirty-six chapters worth, deals with the "why" of Job's suffering, why this terrible tragedy happened to him and not someone else.
Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, thought that they had the answer. They reasoned that Job was the one to blame for his own misfortune. It must be God's punishment for some terrible thing he had done, a simple case of cause and effect. And Job’s fortunes would not change unless he first repented of his sin.
Job disagreed with his friends. In his heart he knew that he was innocent, and he tried over and over to prove it to his friends. But as strong as he was, Job had to face the facts. Physically speaking, he was ruined. His life had been destroyed just like that, and he had no idea why.
The Lord was all that Job had left, and he even began to doubt that. How could a loving God be so cruel? How could a just God punish the innocent and smile on the wicked? If this was the fate of the righteous man, then he didn’t want any part of it. He wished that he had never been born. From Job’s limited perspective, life had lost all meaning. Above all others, he wanted the answer to one question: "Why? Why me?"
After thirty-eight chapters, God finally broke his silence. He had heard enough of man's attempts to explain the unexplainable. Now it was God's turn. Imagine how Job stood shaking in fear as he heard the Lord’s voice thunder out of the storm clouds: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge" (2)? "Job, who do you think you are? What makes you qualified to criticize me?" God never said that Job's friends were right. God didn’t stand up and defend Job either. God didn't bother to answer either of them because he had his own questions to ask.
He told Job, "Brace yourself like a man" (3). A more literal translation of this phrase is, "Gird your loins like a man." At that time and place in history the common clothing of the day was long, flowing robes, for both men and women. To "gird up your loins" meant to gather up your robes so that you would be able to move about more freely. Men would gird their loins for battle so that they could move quickly to defend themselves or attack.
This was God’s challenge to Job. "Job, are you a man or a mouse? Job, get ready to do battle with me." But God’s challenge was not a physical one. He said, "I will question you and you will answer me" (3). Job had his turn to ask the questions. Now it was time to give God some answers.
Before God came to speak with him, Job firmly believed that his suffering was unfair and unjust. Job’s friends disagreed with him, but they were just as sure that they were right. This know-it-all attitude of Job and his friends gives us two prime examples of sinful human pride.
Pride wants me to trust in myself, not in God. Pride wants me to think that I have all the answers. Pride wants me to believe that there is no problem too difficult for me to solve. Pride wants me to see myself as the master of my own fate. I have the power. I have the wisdom. I have the ability to take care of myself.
But when something goes wrong, when something happens that we can’t fix, when something happens that we can’t explain, then who is the one to blame? Not me. That’s the time to fall back on questions like: If God is as loving as he says he is, then how come there is still so much pain and suffering in the world? If God is as loving as he says he is, then why is there so much pain and suffering in my life?
A gas pipeline bursts in Nigeria and kills over one hundred people, and the skeptic is quick to ask: "Why, God?" A mother in Iowa kills her three children and then takes her own life. Almost instinctively, we demand to know: "Lord, how could you let this happen?" These are just two of the tragic stories reported in Wednesday’s paper.
We say that we believe Paul’s words in Romans: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But when those abstract words become reality, our faith in God is challenged. When those words take on flesh and blood, our trust in God is put to the test. When the battle for human souls is played out in this sinful world, people die. Because we can’t stop all the pain and suffering, because we can’t explain the death and bloodshed, we put the blame on God to salvage our pride.
God’s answer for us: "Who is this who darkens my counsel with words without knowledge" (3)? He demands to know: "Who are you, and what do you know?" When confronted by God, we must confess that we know nothing. We are speechless before the almighty Creator. We have no right to demand answers from God, no right to ask questions like: Why isn’t the world a better place?" or "Why isn’t my life any better?" Really we ought to ask: "Why does God allow the world to go on?" "Why does anything good happen to me at all?"
God came to Job in the storm to condemn his foolish pride, but that was not the only reason. By this final confrontation with Job, God was giving his servant one final test: a test that would purge Job of his pride, lead him to repentance, and cause him to trust in the Lord more firmly than ever. God wants to impress upon us that He has the final word, and that His Word answers all questions.
If you have ever been to a groundbreaking ceremony, you know that it is a joyful occasion. It is the start of something new and exciting. And when you look back at the completed project, you can take pride in the fact that you were a part of it, that you were there when it all began. In order to convince Job, God took him back to the original groundbreaking ceremony, the creation of the world itself.
If Job was as smart as he claimed to be, he would certainly know every last detail about creation. So the questions starting flying at Job: Where were you when the earth was created? Who marked off its dimensions? How was its foundation set?
Job could only stammer and stutter: "I don’t know." That was exactly the point God was trying to drive home. Job didn’t know as much as he thought he did. His knowledge was nothing compared to God’s. God alone created the earth. He was the architect the engineer and the builder all wrapped up into one. Only God understands the mystery of his creation, and he is the only one who can control it.
To demonstrate his awesome power, God used the example of the open sea. We are all aware of the power of water. Water covers over three-fourths of the earth’s surface. Every year hurricanes and tropical storms batter our nation’s coasts, and there is nothing we can do to stop them. In this part of the country, we have a mixture of wind and water that causes little things called tornadoes. What is our best defense when a tornado hits? Run for cover and pray that it passes by.
Now listen as God describes his relationship with the wind and the waves: "Who shut up the sea when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness" (8,9)? To God, the ocean is nothing more than a big baby. He clothed it with the clouds like a mother wraps up her child in a blanket. And he has set limits for it. Doors and bars have been set to hold the seas in place. The tides can advance only as far as God allows.
On the one hand, God’s speech probably made Job feel about this big. In chapter 38 alone, the Lord asked Job more than thirty-five questions? With each question, Job was convicted of his sin. "I created the sea, Job. Where were you? I formed the earth with my own hand. How did you help me then?" Job needed to hear that. As great as he once was, and as innocent as he claimed to be, he did not have a case before the Lord.
The Almighty Creator also wanted Job to remember that he is Master of all things. No matter how bad or terrible things may appear, God is steering the ship. The outward evidence may lead us to a different conclusion, that the world is in chaos, spinning out of control. But God is in control. He loves us, and he promises to take care of us.
Instead of wondering how God could let sin corrupt his perfect creation, instead of asking why life is so hard, perhaps we would be better served to thank God for giving us a way out. In his infinite wisdom, God had the knowledge and the power to create the world in six days. In his wisdom and love, God devised a plan to save us, a plan that only he could carry out. Jesus was God’s answer to the problem of sin in the world. His death and resurrection have given us a permanent solution.
The story of Job has a unique way of exposing our pride and arrogance because we can all see a little bit of Job in ourselves. Sometimes, we may feel that we deserve better. Sometimes we may feel that we have been slighted or treated unfairly by others, or even by God. The Lord’s response forces us to compare ourselves with our Creator. And that has a way of making us humble.
We may not understand exactly why everything happens in the world, but we don’t have to. We put our trust in God, who loved us enough to save us and continues to direct all things for our eternal welfare. That is God’s promise to us in his Word, and his Word is the final word. Amen.