How Do I Gain the Right Perspective? (Job 38-42)
Job’s story teaches us that it’s easy to lose all perspective, especially when we’re in pain. It’s especially difficult when those we love seem to be siding against us. Life just keeps getting harder and harder, and God keeps getting farther and farther away.
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Have you ever felt like you’re in a perpetual funk and have lost all perspective?
You keep hoping to hear from God, but nothing changes, and he feels so distant. In Job 38-42, we read the final chapters of the story of Job. These come after a long series of dialogues between Job and his friends, where they debate the reasons for Job’s suffering. Job has persistently sought answers from God, questioning why he, a righteous man, has been subjected to such profound suffering.
His friends have argued, often harshly, that Job must have sinned to deserve his plight, but Job maintains his innocence and longs for an audience with God. In response, God dramatically appears in a whirlwind. “This word has not occurred previously in Job and is found only sixteen times in the Old Testament. It is often used as an instrument in the hand of Yahweh in an expression of his wrath.”[1]
In Job 38:2-3, God says to Job, 2 “Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words? 3 Get ready to answer me like a man; when I question you, you will inform me.” Or, more literally, “Gird your loins like a man.” From here, God asks Job a series of questions. “Although the queries that follow are rhetorical, Yahweh states that Job should answer. The answer expected is not a reply to specific questions, but a response to God that will reflect a reassessment of Job’s perspective and beliefs.”[2]
God asks where Job was when the earth's foundations were laid and who determined its dimensions or stretched a measuring line over it. God highlights his control over natural elements, such as the sea, light, and darkness, and inquires if Job has ever commanded the morning or entered the storehouses of snow and hail. He asks about Job's knowledge of the constellations and whether Job can influence the weather or provide for creatures like lions and ravens.
“God does not belittle Job’s intelligence, saying he has no understanding of the divine plan for governing the universe. Neither does God pour scorn upon Job, but he encourages him to brace himself like a man…and use all his mental strength to understand God’s intentions, which will be expressed in this speech only indirectly.”[3]
Through these questions, God underscores his unmatched wisdom and sovereignty over the universe. As David McKenna writes, “God does not directly answer any of the issues in the debate. He has no need to defend Himself. He does, however, obliquely address Job’s initial question why from the perspective of His power at work in the natural universe.”[4]
