God’s 4 Chapter Speech To Job

The later chapters of Job are striking to me for two reasons. First, and most obviously, it is by far the longest speech that God Himself makes in the entire Bible, and not be a little bit, but by a lot.

 In the New Testament the direct speeches from God are just the brief announcements of Jesus as His beloved son at His baptism and transfiguration. In the Old Testament direct speech from God is recorded more often, such as speaking to Moses in the burning bush, giving the Ten Commandments in His own voice the very first time they are given and a conversation with Elijah in 1 Kings 19 about the 7,000 who have not bowed to Baal.  But still, any direct speech from God is extraordinary, especially since there is nothing else near this length.

In this long speech (Ch. 38-41) God doesn’t give Job the answer He seeks.  He rebukes Job for his insolence and then He gives him reason to trust God 

38:4,5“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched the line on it?“

God goes on to ask about the stars, the sea, the clouds, the sunrise, the snow, hail, rain, the constellations, the beasts: goat, ostrich, horse and hawk, the Behemoth and Leviathan. Was any man there to set that up with God?  If no, and obviously it is no, then why ask how He governs the world and does it wrongly. The answer God gave did not tell Job why he suffered, but that a great and wise God knew about it and was ruling the world in a marvelous manner. That the answer Job got, and its one for all of us to remember.

The Book Of Job

The entirety of our daily Bible reading was entirely in Job this week, and it will be until Thursday, when we get back to the life of Abraham in Gen. 12. This long trip through such a difficult book to begin the Bible reading program was main reason why we almost didn’t do a chronological program. But, if we want to read the whole Bible, we have to approach it some time, and it is a rewarding study for those who do it. 

Job is the first book in what is often called the “Books of Poetry” or the “Wisdom Literature” of the Old Testament. Oswald Chambers offered this summary of these five books:

• Job - How to suffer

• Psalms - How to pray

• Proverbs - How to act

• Ecclesiastes - How to enjoy  

• Song of Solomon - How to love

In reading Job, remember this inspired summary of it in the New Testament: “You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” (Jas 5:11b)

What Job and his friends seemed to never contemplate was the Satan was an actor in the affairs of men as well as God was. Terrible, terrible things happened to Job. But God was gracious to him, especially in the end. Satan was intentionally, and repeatedly evil and harsh in his dealings.

Job’s Children

Our Bible reading this week took us into Job.  Since our reading plan is chronological, we are reading the earliest events first. The exact time of Job's life is unknown, but most believe that he was a contemporary of, or came not long before, Abraham. That’s why our plan has us reading about him just before the story of Abraham. 

Job's children are mentioned in chapter 1. We find all ten of them old enough to have houses of their own, which they generously open up to one another in a wonderful example of sibling sharing. 

The harmonious relationship that they had with one another seems to have been the same kind relationship that they had with their parents. 

Job 1:5 states “And it came about, when the days of feasting had completed their cycle, that Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually”  From this it can be very clearly inferred that they were very outwardly righteous and devout, and gave Job no obvious cause for concern. His concern for them was for secret sins of the heart, which no man can know. He would not have been concerned for such sin if the more common and obvious sins were alive among them.

These children enjoyed as good a life as one could have, right up until Satan took it from them for his own selfish purposes. Surely the great and just God who dealt so right with Job received these kindly as well.