Job 38

JEHOVAH’S DISCOURSES THE SECOND PART OF THE POSITIVE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM, chaps. Job 38:1 to Job 42:6.

“The aim of which is, to prove that the almighty and only wise God, with whom no mortal should dispute, might also ordain suffering simply to prove and test the righteous.” Zockler.

FIRST DISCOURSE OF JEHOVAH, chapters 38, 39.

Though Job, who at the close of the debate was conqueror, (see page 170,) has maintained the silence he had promised in case he should be convinced, (Job 6:24,) there is as yet nothing to indicate that the soul has been subdued. Notwithstanding he is defeated in the realm of mind, he may yet stand erect in vainglory and self-exaltation.

To say nothing of the spiritual aspect of the case, the work, in an artistic view, would be incomplete with its hero unsubdued and defiant. The pious and evangelical addresses of Elihu have, therefore, served a twofold purpose: that of argumentative conviction of the mind, and of transition to soul conviction a work which belongs not to man, but to God alone. Elihu, as we have remarked, appeared upon the scene as messenger and deputy of God. (See page 201.) The address of the Almighty consequently does not propose to contravene that of his deputy, and is, therefore, made to Job.

It takes up the subject from the sphere of natural phenomena, where Elihu, in alarm, had left it, and begins with a rebuke of Job for darkening counsel by words without knowledge. The discourse practically endorses that of Elihu, and confessedly adds but little to dogmatic argument. However, “a question rightly asked is already half answered.” as Jacobi has observed, and this may be the secret of the divine mode in this address, the severity of which is tempered with divine benignity and condescension. It consists of a series of questions “the proper mode of utterance for the awful majesty of God” which must have fallen upon the startled ear of Job like so many claps of thunder. The lesson which each of these questions served more deeply to impress upon the soul of Job was one of unconditional submission, “without the learning of which, all solutions of problems, whether higher or lower, would be of no avail.” His pride is abased by the unexpected manner in which God appears. We have seen intimations that Job cherished expectations of some grand as well as gracious interference, which, as with a Naaman, should pay great deference to him, the innocent sufferer. He certainly had anticipated a high conference with Deity, in which the reasons of his sufferings should be unfolded, and himself justified. Instead of this, the muttering storm must have aroused apprehensions that the God who draws near has indeed come to judgment. The clearing of the sky betokens the theophany to be one of mercy and of love, an unconscious prophecy of the future incarnate One, of whom it was to be said, A bruised reed shall he not break, and a glimmering wick shall he not quench. Isaiah 42:3. God comes now not to argue, nor bring solutions of evil, but to “offer himself as that which supersedes solution.” The contemplation of the divine glory stills the voice of murmur; the high-sounding arguments Job had prepared against the appearing of Jehovah are all forgotten; and “the problem of trouble is cast aside as a worthless quibble.”

In the mirror of the divine wisdom, goodness, and power, Job sees himself ignorant, self-righteous, vain, and presumptuous. His loud complaints of divine neglect nay, that God had turned to be his enemy suffer stern rebuke from the divine care for the deserted brood of the voracious raven. As Hengstenberg well says, “The lion and the raven, the aristocracy and the proletariat of the world of beasts, rise up as witnesses against Job.… At first sight it must occasion surprise that the mind of the suffering righteous is directed to the war-horse, to the hawk, to the raven, to the behemoth or hippopotamus, to the leviathan or crocodile. And yet, more carefully examined, we see that such a course was fully adapted to its purpose. An almighty, all-knowing, and all-wise God, who is not at the same time righteous, is in truth an unthinkable thought. For this reason those who doubt God’s righteousness are on the high road to doubt His existence.… Then, should we fall into error regarding one side of the divine nature, we shall be able to lift ourselves up by cleaving all the more firmly to another. By and by even the dark side will become light.”

The change of style, when compared with the sublime utterances of Job even, is noteworthy. The tone is exalted; the fires of passion kindle through every verse; the imagery is grander and more massive; the speaker seems to stand within the realms of antediluvian life, and to hold at his command all departments of nature and of being, and, humanly speaking, to have fired his imagination by sights and conceptions to which we have nothing to correspond.

The discourse divides itself into six great strophes, three of which contain twelve verses each; two of them contain eleven verses each, and one of them ten verses.