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Wednesday 4/03/24
Title: God confronts Job’s Pride from the Whirlwind
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God confronts Job’s Pride from the Whirlwind
Last week was our second week reading the words of Elihu to Job. We determined, based upon the limited evidence that Elihu may have been brought to Job by God as an intermediary. An intercessor who would bridge the gap between God and Job by addressing Job’s pride and encouraging a state of humility in him.
We considered this for FOUR primary reasons.
- Though God rebukes Job and his three friends for their words against Him, he never rebukes or corrects Elihu.
- Job was in pride at this point, and we know that God resists the proud. So we reasoned that God may have sent a messenger, “one out of a thousand to show Job, God’s uprightness” [Job 33:23] in order to encourage Job towards a softened heart which would be open to God’s grace.
- Elihu does not make the mistake of connecting Job’s trials to judgment, but even suggests that Job is too “preoccupied with the judgment due the wicked” that “judgment and justice had taken hold of” him [Job 36:15-17]. That perhaps something else may be going on here and that sometimes God delivers people THROUGH their afflictions and speaks to them by means of their suffering.
- God, rather than rebuking Elihu for his counsel, seems to take the words of Elihu like a baton placed in His hand in a relay race seeking to restore Job. God seems to seamlessly pick up where Elihu ends as if He has allowed Elihu to instigate this meeting by means of softening Job’s pride.
To this I will add one more. In this chapter containing the last of Elihu’s words to Job, he introduces God speaking to man from storms and even specifically from whirlwinds which is exactly how God decides to appear to Job at the beginning of their confrontation. What is that but a host introducing God to his servant by cue?
Tonight we begin with the final chapter of Elihu’s encouragement to Job just before God confronts Job Himself. Just before these opening words of chapter 37 Elihu mentions God’s power displayed in the thunder and lightning of storms which He directs sometimes in judgment.
Job 37:1-24,
“(1) My heart pounds at this and leaps from my chest. (2) Just listen to His thunderous voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.
(3) He lets it loose beneath the entire sky; His lightning to the ends of the earth. (4) Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders with His majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when His rumbling voice is heard.
(5) God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things that we cannot comprehend.
(6) For He says to the snow, “Fall to the earth,” and the torrential rains, His mighty torrential rains, (7) serve as His signature to all mankind, so that all men may know His work.
(8) The wild animals enter their lairs and stay in their dens.
(9) The windstorm comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds. (10) Ice is formed by the breath of God, and watery expanses are frozen.
(11) He saturates clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.
(12) They swirl about, turning round and round at His direction, accomplishing everything He commands them over the surface of the inhabited world. (13) He causes this to happen for punishment, for His land, or for His faithful love.
(14) Listen to this, Job. Stop and consider God’s wonders.
(15) Do you know how God directs His clouds or makes their lightning flash?
(16) Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonderful works of Him Who has perfect knowledge?
(17) You whose clothes get hot when the south wind brings calm to the land, (18) can you help God spread out the skies as hard as a cast metal mirror?
(19) Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.
(20) Should He be told that I want to speak?
Can a man speak when he is confused?
(21) Now men cannot even look at the sun when it is in the skies, after a wind has swept through and cleared them away. (22) Yet out of the north He comes, shrouded in a golden glow; awesome majesty surrounds Him.
(23) The Almighty–we cannot reach Him–He is exalted in power!
In His justice and righteousness, He will not oppress. (24) Therefore, men fear Him.
He does not look favorably on any who are wise in heart.”
In these last words Elihu directly addresses Job’s pride.
Now God takes the baton from Elihu’s hands and confronts Job Himself. Directing his heart towards knowing God personally, now that the door of humility has begun to be cracked open in Job’s heart.
God is said to answer Job three times in the coming chapters.
In this first chapter God introduces Job to his rightful place of humility. Job has spoken with pride as if he were the standard and the embodiment of justice itself. So God addresses this by reminding Job of his creatureness. Job was NOT present at the creation of the world or part of the decision making process for establishing how the natural world functions.
Job 38:1-41,
“(1) Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:
(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.”
The NKJV has,
“Who darkens counsel by words without knowledge”
God here was addressing this question to Job. It was NOT a question directed at Job regarding Elihu, but regarding the things Job himself had uttered. To me, the next several chapters clarify this and make it obvious, but in truth, very few believe otherwise. Even those whose view of Elihu and his counsel is not favorable, seem to understand this opening comment of God to Job as addressing Job’s words.
Job himself understood it this way as is clarified in chapter 42: 1-3,
“(1) Then Job answered the LORD and said: (2) “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. (3) You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” – Job 42:1-3
Not too long before Elihu confronted Job in his pride, Job had said.
“(3) Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! (4) I would present my case before Him, And fill my mouth with arguments. (5) I would know the words which He would answer me, And understand what He would say to me. (6) Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. (7) There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.” – Job 23:3-7
Well Job, now’s your chance… but where is your courage and strong confidence now?
Also, as I have told you before, there is something about this which is honoring to a man. Yes it was an intimidating prospect to be confronted in such a way by God, but when God calls upon a man to take his place and stand before Him – there is something in that which speaks to a man. And the wording is specifically male – not human in general. The word for man here literally is a masculine noun meaning warrior. It is a word which would deeply offend those who suffer from gender dysphoria because it attributes certain characteristics as being predominantly male in origin. It is used regarding men but often contains more than just a reference to their gender – it is a referral to the nature of men. It often carries overtones of spiritual strength or masculinity. The verb form of this word means to be mighty!
God here is not being cruel, but is helping Job along the road leading towards humility. It is God Who gave to men their warrior spirit, but even that has its source and origins in the God Who IS a warrior spirit. The thing made is not greater than the One Who made it! So this is an acknowledgement of Job’s strength, but also a reminder of where that strength finds its origin.
“(4) Where were you when I established the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. (5) Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it? (6) What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone (7) while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
This is the other place in Job which people claim is a reference to angels and to me this is the most convincing but even it appears more than lacking. If this is a form of parallelism then while I could see a fleeting reference to the angelic, I think it creates more difficulty for that interpretation than it provides proof. The morning star is a reference to Jesus in the New Testament and is otherwise ONLY used here in Job.
The references in Job are both here and in chapter 3 verse 9 it is used in a literal way.
“Let its morning stars be darkened; let it wait for daylight but find none, nor let it see the first rays of dawn,”– Job 3:9
A different word is used for morning in both of these references in Job.
In Job 3:9 the word is nesheph which can mean either twilight or dawn. It is that time of confused visibility just before the Sun overtakes or surrenders to the night.
Here in Job 38:7 it is only referring to the stars still visible just before dawn.
Again context is our friend and guide to the meaning.
What is God doing here so far as as we continue in this chapter? Is He making a comparison between angels and man or is He pointing out the wonders of God before man – specifically Job himself?
Since clearly the latter is the case, it seems out of place to make such a LARGE leap to say this is parallelism – thus claiming the morning stars and the sons of God are one and the same.
It seems as if this is saying nothing more than that Job was not there when in the early earth mankind would rejoice at the dawning of the sun.
An example of something similar is found in Psalm 57:8-9,
“Awake, my glory!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among the nations.”
Without desiring to make more of this than is warranted I will say that we have little notion of what daybreak or dusk was like in the pre-flood world, only that it was almost certainly different due to the existence of the firmament. That after its destruction dusks and dawns could be MORE resplendent seems counterintuitive. More than likely these evens were spectacular to behold. Nevertheless, I don’t want to stretch this point beyond its obvious scope. [For more on this see – In the Beginning… God Pt. 2]
I think all there is to this is a question regarding the early creation and Job’s obvious absence at that time making him entirely incapable of offering any perspective or wisdom regarding it at all.
It should be noted that it is ONLY due to the presence of the words “sons of God” that anyone ever assumed the morning stars were referring to angels, not the other way about. This is what is referred to as being led about by your preconceptions.
Nothing about this verse, the verses at the beginning of this book NOR in the book of Genesis even slightly imply angels in any way. As such I truly wish all such silliness would stop within Christian circles about such nonsense. If one were to look at what such thoughts have accomplished they might think again about such ridiculous assumptions. A strong case could be made for no other teaching regarding the scriptures has excited more attention to the Bible than the notion of angels being the sons of God – and yet for all that attention directed at scripture, he one thing it never points to is Jesus Who Himself IS the very point and revelation of the scriptures! If anything, it directs the attention away from Him!
Also worth consideration is that this entire statement is metaphorical hyperbole. Examples of such are familiar in scripture.
Isaiah 55:12,
“For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Isaiah 44:23,
“Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!
Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth;
Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it;
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob
And in Israel He shows forth His glory.”
Job 38…
“(8) Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb, (9) when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, (10) when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place, (11) when I declared:
“You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here”?
Another elusion to this is found in Proverbs 8:27-31,
“(27) When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, (28) When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, (29) When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, (30) Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, (31) Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.”
In this passage it is wisdom speaking. I have often thought that wisdom is one of the seven spirits before the throne of God which is referenced in Isaiah 11:1-2; Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5 & 5:6. Of course these spirits may be literal or only manifestations of God’s Holy spirit or something even more bizarre from our perspective than that. Speculation can be fun but it is usually of no real benefit. At any rate I’ve long thought it was funny that the “angel” crowd never seem to connect these two passages and therefore postulate that these “sons of God” spoken of in Job’s similar passage were the seven spirits before God’s throne!
At least such speculation would have SOME basis in reasonable conjecture!
At any rate all of these may be simply pointing to the week of creation where God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. (10) And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” – Gen 1:9-10. OR it could be referring to the receding of the water of the flood.
“(12) Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place, (13) so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
(14) The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment. (15) Light is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised in violence is broken.
(16) Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?
(17) Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of death’s shadow?
(18) Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
(19) Where is the road to the home of light?
Do you know where darkness lives, (20) so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
(21) Don’t you know? You were already born; you have lived so long!
(22) Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail, (23) which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of warfare and battle?
(24) What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?
(25) Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain or clears the way for lightning, (26) to bring rain on an uninhabited land, on a desert with no human life, (27) to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?
(28) Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?
(29) Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven (30) when water becomes as hard as stone, and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?
(31) Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
(32) Can you bring out the constellations in their season and lead the Bear and her cubs?”
God here refers to Job’s former words in chapter 9 verse 9.
“(33) Do you know the laws of heaven?
Can you impose its authority on earth?
(34) Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
(35) Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Do they report to you: “Here we are”?
(36) Who put wisdom in the heart or gave the mind understanding?
(37) Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven (38) when the dust hardens like cast metal and the clods of dirt stick together?
(39) Can you hunt prey for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of young lions (40) when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait within their lairs?
(41) Who provides the raven’s food when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?”
Now in this second round of confrontation, the Lord explains His creatures and in so doing further reveals Job’s ignorance of things created by the Creator and by extension, his greater ignorance of the Creator Himself.
God articulates in simple terms His understanding of animals, their abilities and domains which He has assigned to them.
Again all of this to illustrate His power, omniscience and to address to what degree He is intimately involved in the existence and provisions of His creation.
He not only knows them He made them, even down to the habitations He created for them, the food they eat, the way they give birth, the way they care for their young – everything is due to Him! So is it plausible that matters which involve the judgment of those creatures of His who most closely bear His image could escape His understanding or involvement?
Job 39:1-30,
“(1) Are you acquainted with the way the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?
(2) Do you count the months they must fulfill, and do you know the time they give birth? (3) They crouch, they bear their young, they bring forth the offspring they have carried. (4) Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; they go off, and do not return to them.
(5) Who let the wild donkey go free? Who released the bonds of the donkey, (6) to whom I appointed the arid rift valley for its home, the salt wastes as its dwelling place?
(7) It scorns the tumult in the town; it does not hear the shouts of a driver. (8) It ranges the hills as its pasture, and searches after every green plant.
(9) Is the wild ox willing to be your servant? Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?
(10) Can you bind the wild ox to a furrow with its rope, will it till the valleys, following after you? (11) Will you rely on it because its strength is great? Will you commit your labor to it?
(12) Can you count on it to bring in your grain, and gather the grain to your threshing floor?
(13) “The wings of the ostrich flap with joy, but are they the pinions and plumage of a stork? (14) For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and lets them be warmed on the soil.
15) She forgets that a foot might crush them, or that a wild animal might trample them.
(16) She is harsh with her young, as if they were not hers; she is unconcerned about the uselessness of her labor. (17) For God deprived her of wisdom, and did not impart understanding to her. (18) But as soon as she springs up, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
(19) “Do you give the horse its strength? Do you clothe its neck with a mane? (20) Do you make it leap like a locust? Its proud neighing is terrifying!
(21) It paws the ground in the valley, exulting mightily, it goes out to meet the weapons. (22) It laughs at fear and is not dismayed; it does not shy away from the sword.
(23) On it the quiver rattles; the lance and javelin flash.
(24) In excitement and impatience it consumes the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet is blown.
(25) At the sound of the trumpet, it says, ‘Aha!’ And from a distance it catches the scent of battle, the thunderous shouting of commanders, and the battle cries.
(26) “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?
(27) Is it at your command that the eagle soars, and builds its nest on high? (28) It lives on a rock and spends the night there, on a rocky crag and a fortress.
(29) From there it spots its prey, its eyes gaze intently from a distance. (30) And its young ones devour the blood, and where the dead carcasses are, there it is.”
I have often wondered what Jesus meant by a statement He made to His disciples regarding the end of the age at the abomination of desolation found in Matthew 24.
Of course we know that prophecies almost alway have not only a primary meaning and fulfillment but also secondary ones as well. This has thought to be true regarding Daniel prophecy of the abomination of desolation which had a pre-messianic fulfillment in Antiochus Epiphanies desecration of the temple by offering a pig on the altar. It will have its main fulfillment in the antichrist in the great tribulation, but it may also have had a fulfillment in the destruction of the temple by the Roman armies in 70AD.
I will read to you the passage in question, the key verse I am referring to being at the every end of that passage. Jesus seems to quote from this last phrase in Job 39 and until now it never quite made sense to me like it does now.
Matthew 24:15-28,
“(15) So when you see the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand),
(16) “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! (17) A man on the housetop must not come down to get things out of his house. (18) And a man in the field must not go back to get his clothes.
(19) Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days! (20) Pray that your escape may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.
(21) For at that time there will be great tribulation, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again! (22) Unless those days were limited, no one would survive. But those days will be limited because of the elect.
(23) “If anyone tells you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Over here!’ do not believe it!
(24) False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
(25) Take note: I have told you in advance.
(26) So if they tell you, ‘Look, he’s in the wilderness!’ don’t go out; ‘Look, he’s in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
(27) For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
(28) Wherever the carcass is, there the vultures will gather.”
This has always seemed like a reference to the children of God will be where Jesus is at His coming, but at the same time I’ve always dismissed this because it seems like such a horrible way of symbolizing this blessed event.
However, the word translated as vulture here can also be translated as eagle and the word carcass, if a quote from Job, then refers to “the pieced one” for that is the meaning of the Hebrew word “carcass” in our passage in Job.
So it would be saying that wherever “the pieced One” is, there the eagles of the sons and daughters of God will gather!
Now the way in which this was realized in the Roman destruction of the Temple was that the eagle was a symbol of Imperial power and the destruction of the temple would have been the lost hopes of Israel in their Old Covenant religion [meaning the loss of the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices…etc.]and their false beliefs of Messiah being a Roman conqueror and deliverer. The point being all the more poignant in that it would be Rome itself – the eagle – which precipitated the fall and destruction of both the temple and their delusions of who Messiah would be.
Next week we will examine God’s last confrontation and questioning of Job, in which He explains His understanding and power over mankind. He places Job further in his place of humility by explaining how he does not know how to judge even men like himself, so how much less the God in Whose image they were created?
Then God uses two magnificent creatures to depict the vastness of His power and that only God Himself could tame such creatures, but that man is little more than an insect before their power – again, how much more before the Creator of all!?
Blessings!
