Job 40:6

GOD CHALLENGES JOB TO TAKE OVER THE UNIVERSE

"Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

Gird up thy loins now like a man:

I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

Wilt thou even annul my judgment?

Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be justified?

Or hast thou an arm like God?

And canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

Deck thyself now with excellency and dignity;

And array thyself with honor and majesty.

Pour forth the overflowings of thine anger;

And look upon every one that is proud, and abase him.

Look upon every one that is proud, and bring him low.

And tread down the wicked where they stand.

Hide them in the dust together;

Bind their faces in the hidden place.

Then will I also confess of thee

That thine own right hand can save thee."

OK, mankind! Here God challenges you to take over the universe. The humanistic idiots of our own generation need to read this. Their manifesto in 1933 declared that, "Never again shall we seek to build a society upon the principles of the Judeo-Christian scriptures." And the sorrows that have overwhelmed all nations since then have demonstrated conclusively that "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

In these verses, we have the revelation of Job's sin, namely, pride. Although his manifold sufferings were not the visitation of God upon him for gross and reprobate wickedness (as his friends erroneously concluded); nevertheless, Job had imagined that God was acting as his enemy, and had even wished for an `umpire' who might plead against that imagined hostility on the part of God.

"Job's criticism of God's judgment, especially his boast that he will overcome the Lord's imagined opposition to his justification was, in principle, a usurpation of the divine prerogative of world government, a lusting after God-like knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:5)."[13] See under Job 40:8, below.

"Gird up thy loins ... declare thou unto me" (Job 40:7). Some critics have resented what they interpret as God's efforts to "browbeat Job into a more abject submission." Has he not admitted that he is silenced? Why go any further? This is to miss the whole point that Job is indeed a sinner (not as the friends imagined), but in his conception of God.

"Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be justified" (Job 40:8)? To paraphrase this, "Do you think it necessary to accuse me of injustice and to condemn me in order to establish thine own innocence"?[14] There was no need whatever for such a viewpoint. God's justice and Job's innocence were perfectly compatible. In order to see this, it was only necessary to get rid of the false theory, held by Job's friends and unconsciously supported by Job's own suppositions (i.e., that God was his enemy), that earthly sorrows and afflictions are necessarily punitive. In these verses, Job would come to see that, "The things that had been, and still were, a puzzle to men were no puzzle at all to God.[15]

"Hast thou an arm like God? And canst thou thunder with a voice like him" (Job 40:9)? The argument here is that, "The world is so large, and the circumstances and situations of individual life are so infinitely varied, that none but an omnipotent Ruler could govern them with perfect justice. Therefore, one who does not possess God's might must refrain from passing judgment upon God's justice."[16]

"Deck thyself with excellency ... dignity ... honor ... majesty" (Job 40:10). Such language as this is ironical and sarcastic. If Job is really going to take over management of the universe, "He would need to be as splendid and majestic as God."[17] By his imagining that, if he had an umpire, he might even dispute the judgments of God (as he understood his sufferings) with the Lord himself, Job had presumed to question the infinite wisdom and justice of God; and, if he were indeed to succeed in such a role, he would have to look the part! As Franks understood the implication of God's Words here, "If Job cannot put himself in the place of God, and govern the world, neither can he understand the method of the government."[18]

This tremendously significant paragraph makes the devastating charge against Job, that, "If he can do what God here challenged him to do, and what by implication his words had assumed that he could do, - then he will BE God! That was the ancient sin of the pair in Eden, with their attempt to be `like God' (Genesis 3:5); and here it is revealed to be the sin of Job. Every effort at self-justification must ultimately stand under the same condemnation."[19]

"Then will I confess of thee that thine own right hand can save thee" (Job 40:14). If any mortal could justify himself before God, he would not need a Saviour; and by God's Words to Job in this passage, we see that such a justification is impossible, apart from the redemptive love of God and the unspeakable gift of his beloved Son upon Calvary as an atonement for the sins of the whole world.