Job 40:6-14 - Homiletics

Jehovah to Job: the second answer: 1. A sublime challenge.

I. A SUMMONS ISSUED . "Gird up thy loins like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." Here again appears a series of gracious wonders.

1 . That Jehovah should propose to continue further the instruction of his servant. But so God deals with all whom he undertakes to educate, teaching them with patience, perseverance, minuteness, giving them line upon line, and desisting not until their spiritual enlightenment is complete.

2 . That Jehovah should advise his servant of the searching character of the examination to which he was about to be subjected. He had done so on the first occasion. But after Job's partial submission it might have been expected that the second ordeal would be easier than the first. In order to prevent the rise of any such misunderstanding, Job is a second time advised that the forthcoming inter. view, like the first, wilt require on his part the most strenuous resolution and endeavour. God seldom takes his people unawares except with mercy.

3 . That Jehovah should a second time invite his servant to become his instructor. This is practically what he does in giving Job another opportunity to reply to his interrogations. But there is no limit to God's grace in stooping to help his creature man.

II. A QUESTION ASKED . "Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" Jehovah means by this to say that Job's conduct, in maintaining as he had done his own righteousness, really involved two tremendous assumptions.

1 . That he (Job) could govern the world better ( i.e. more justly ) than God. Hence Jehovah inquires if Job proposed to disannul the Divine judgment, and take upon himself the task of administering mundane affairs. Even good men do not always understand how much is involved in the statements they rashly utter. Nor can any interpreter so clearly tell them as God.

2 . That he (Job) was a more righteous being than his Maker. No doubt Job would have shrunk from any such deification of himself, had be clearly foreseen how much his utterances meant. Job's example should teach saints to keep the door of their lips. That Jehovah still urged these interrogations on his servant was a proof that the work of reducing him to complete subjection was not yet accomplished.

III. A PROPOSAL MADE . That Job should for once take God's place, and show what he could do in the way of governing the world. "Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" On the supposition that Job is competent to exchange places with the Supreme, he is invited:

1 . To array himself in the royal robes of Deity. "Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty." Whatever glory man possesses is not inherent, but derived, and is really as no glory by the reason of the glory that excelleth, viz. the glory of the supreme Creator. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." God "covereth himself with light as with a garment," and is "clothed with honour and with majesty." Jehovah means that Job should similarly array himself in splendours like those of the material creation, or that he should occupy the throne of which these constituted, as it were, the external trappings and visible decorations.

2 . To display the righteous wrath of Deity. "Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath;" literally, "Let the overflowings of thy wrath pour themselves forth." A characteristic attribute of Deity to manifest holy indigtation against evildoers ( Isaiah 2:10-21 ), it is here suggested to Job for imitation. This, however, does not warrant good men to usurp the place and function of him who says, "Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord." God's people may pour forth their righteous indignation against iniquity; upon the evil-doer they are only warranted to pour forth pity.

3 . To exercise the judicial functions of Deity. "Behold every one that is proud, and abase him;" or, "Behold all pride and abase it; behold all pride and bring it low; and tread," or cast down, "the wicked in their place." The language sets forth

IV. A RESULT STIPULATED . "Then will I also confess unto thee [or, 'extol thee'] that thine own hand can save thee [or, 'bring to thee help']." The words imply:

1 . That man cannot save ' or even effectually help , himself. The human heart is prone to think it can effect its own deliverance from misery and sin; but the utter helplessness of man to escape condemnation and free himself from the moral pollution in which he naturally lies, or even to surmount the calamities of life, is not only declared by Scripture, but confirmed by all experience. "Without me," said Christ, "ye can do nothing."

2 . That nothing short of Divine power is required to accomplish man ' s salvation. Only on the hypothesis that Job was possessed of powers and attributes that were Divine does Jehovah admit that he might achieve his own emancipation from either the afflictions that assailed his body or the fears that disturbed his mind. This thought lays the axe to the root of the doctrine of the self-regenerative power of human nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

3 . That such power belongs exclusively to Jehovah. Hence he alone is a God of salvation. "I am a just God and a Saviour, and there is none beside me." Hence also he alone is the quarter to which man should look for succour. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help."

4 . That , as a consequence ' to God alone belongs the praise of man ' s salvation. Jehovah admits that to save a man like Job would be a creditable achievement, an extremely praiseworthy deed, and offers, moreover, to extol him if he can perform it. But to God alone pertains the power that is able to redeem. Hence also to God alone pertains the glory ( 1 Chronicles 29:11 ; Revelation 4:11 ; Revelation 5:9 , Revelation 5:12 ).

Learn:

1 . That the proper subject of man's judgment is not God, but himself.

2 . That he who thinks to rival Goat is self-deceived.

3 . That the visible part of God's glory is as nothing in comparison to what is yet to be revealed.

4 . That God's government of the world is always in the interests of meekness, truth, and righteousness.

5 . That man should not stint the praise of him who hath brought salvation nigh to a fallen world.