Wisdom Literature (15): Job – God’s Questions from the Storm and Job’s Silence

Job had asked to meet God in court. Now God has come, out of the storm, and it is God who asks the questions: more than seventy of them across Job 38–41. This session picks up from Job 38:16 and follows the Lord’s questions about the sea, the weather, the stars and the animals, until Job gives his first, short reply (Job 40:1–5). It is as if God says: pass this exam first, then we can talk about the courtroom. Use these notes with the recording: read each passage first, then the notes, then the questions at the end.

Reading Plan

1. The Depths and the Storehouses (Job 38:16–24)

Had Job ever walked in the depths of the sea or seen the gates of death (Job 38:16–18)? The deepest point measured in the ocean, in the Pacific, is about 11 kilometres down, and we still do not know everything that lies beneath the seas. As for space, the Voyager 2 probe travelled for twelve years and about 4.4 billion miles before it passed Neptune in 1989. And the God who made all this is the One Job wanted to call into court. Could Job explain where light and darkness live, or the storehouses of snow and hail (Job 38:19–24)?

God’s questions are full of holy irony. He knows Job cannot answer them. They were what Job needed, to puncture his pride and bring him to his knees. We often know only one side of God, the good Father; He is also the Almighty, and a balanced faith knows both.

2. Rain, Dew and Frost (Job 38:25–30)

Who cuts a channel for the rain and the path for the lightning, and sends rain to a land where no one lives (Job 38:25–27)? God has His reasons even where no person is watching. He runs His world with a precision we can only study, like software that reconnects itself once you pay: He arranged it to work in its order. And the same God hears millions of people praying at the same time, when we struggle to listen to two people talking at once.

By now Job was probably wishing for an early pardon. But the Lord kept going. Sometimes God lets us carry on in our own way until we learn the lesson; when He says “wait”, wait on the Lord, for in all things He works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

3. The Stars and the Clouds (Job 38:31–38)

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?” (Job 38:31–33). God is the maker of these constellations (Job 9:9); man may study the heavens, but he cannot control them, and he cannot control God.

In class we discussed verse 33: “Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?” Do the stars rule events on earth, as astrology claims? God set the lights in the sky as signs, to mark seasons, days and years (Genesis 1:14–18), and He used a star to lead the Magi to Jesus (Matthew 2:1–2). But the Lord is speaking with holy irony here, not revealing a secret power: “Job, if you understand so much about the heavens that some say affect the earth, why not use that authority to change your situation?” What God has not revealed is not ours to chase: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us” (Deuteronomy 29:29). He has told us plainly to stay away from divination, sorcery and mediums (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). So go home, eat, rest, read your Bible, go to work: live by what is revealed.

Could Job order the clouds to give rain, or send the lightning on its way (Job 38:34–38)? Creating these things is one thing; keeping them running for our good is another. That is what makes Him God. And God never has to prove Himself to anyone; if He had to, He would not be God.

4. Can You Oversee My Creation? (Job 38:39–39:30)

The Lord then led a parade of creatures before Job’s eyes: the lioness and the raven (who feeds them?), the mountain goats and deer (who watches over their births?), the wild donkey and the wild ox (who can tame them?), the ostrich and the stork, the war horse, and the hawk and the eagle. Each one lives by the wisdom God gave it. The eagle builds high on the cliff and spots its prey from far away. The ostrich cannot fly but outruns a horse. “You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16; see also Psalm 104). If Job could not manage these animals, how did he expect to stand before their Maker?

5. Job’s First Reply: Silenced Before God (Job 40:1–5)

“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?” Job answered: “I am unworthy — how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer — twice, but I will say no more” (Job 40:1–5). These five verses are the lesson of chapters 38–39. Job had no case to present. We have no right to debate with God, and God never makes mistakes, even when we cannot understand our losses.

Putting a hand over the mouth means more than keeping quiet outwardly (Proverbs 30:32); it means silencing the heart too. As one sister put it: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). As long as we defend ourselves and argue with God, He cannot do in us and through us what needs to be done. Yet Job’s reply was still the answer of a tired man, not yet true repentance, so God will continue (Job 40:6–41:34) until it comes.

Lessons for Us

In the storm, ask the right question: not “Lord, how do I get out?” but “What do You want me to learn?” The quicker we learn, the sooner the storm ends; if we abort the lesson, it will meet us again.

Grow up in the faith: God gave pastors and teachers so that we are “no longer infants, tossed back and forth by the waves” (Ephesians 4:11–14). We grow in Bible study, not only in the Sunday service. Mature believers trust that God has them, even if it costs a client or a day’s business to be in His presence.

Wisdom is applying what we know: knowledge alone is not enough. Obey God’s word, including His call to honour Him with what we have and to give generously (Proverbs 3:9–10; 2 Corinthians 9:6–8). Everything we have comes from Him (1 Chronicles 29:14).

Next session: God speaks again from the storm, Behemoth and Leviathan, and Job’s repentance and restoration (Job 40:6–42:17). The teacher announced a time of prayer and fasting for the coming week. An exam on the whole book of Job is coming: keep reading.