Year 2, Day 134: Job 40

God Speaks Directly To Job

God lowers the boom in the first verse of chapter 40.  “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?  He who argues with God, let him answer.”  God has brought the fight to Job, now.  It is personal, and Job cannot escape.

This is what I’ve been speaking about the last few days.  Yes, we can take up our quarrels with God.  But we must understand that if we choose to quarrel with God that He will set His sights upon us.  We will become the first target for change and improvement.  We should embrace this eventuality.  This is why we should contend with God.

Contending With God In Return

Contending with God is not about winning or being victorious.  Contending with God is all about setting ourselves up to be proven wrong.  Contending with God is about letting what is on our insides come out so that we can discern what is not good and God can get rid of it.  Contending with God is fundamentally about changing who we are, not about bringing our case before God.  God is righteous by definition.  If we are at odds with God and His plan, it is us who need to change.

Finally, Job gets this point.  He has to hear it from God, but he does get it.  How does Job reply?  Job admits just how small he is.  He admits that not only is it time to stop speaking, but it is time to clasp his hand over his mouth just in case he has the urge to speak again!  When Job is set in his place by God, Job understands that it is time to be humble.

This is such a great point to bring out.  How many of us actually go to God and have humbleness come out of it as a result?  Instead, how many of us go to God seeking only to justify ourselves?  No, when we turn to God it is our humbleness that will be the result.  I read a great quote as I researched this passage.  “Unless we are silenced before God, He cannot do for us what needs to be done.”  (Warren Wiersbe, Be Patient – a commentary on the book of Job)  I wonder how well any of us do in being silenced before God?

God Is Not Yet Done With Job

However, Job is not yet where God wants him to be.  Job understands his place, but he is not yet repentant.  Sure, he is silent.  He is willing to listen.  But he is not yet ready to repent.  That won’t come until the last chapter in this book.  Thus God continues the rebuke of Job.  God will finish the lesson.

God now challenges Job to stand up and dress himself as a man.  As we would say today, put up or shut up.  Even before God starts talking about the behemoth – an animal whose exact identity is unknown to us – God challenges Job to put his power on display.  God tells Job that if he thinks himself so righteous as to judge God’s righteousness, then he should therefore begin to judge the proud and bring them low, too.  Job should clothe himself and adorn himself with his own majesty.  If Job is capable of judging God, then perhaps Job should take care of judging the wicked himself!

The reality is that none of us can judge one another.  We try all the time, but we cannot actually succeed.  We think the scoundrel to be incapable of being saved – when God knows that even the scoundrel can be redeemed.  We also think the holy to be incorruptible – when God knows just how easy it is for a holy person to fall deeply into the throes of sin.  We assume that the person who does right does it for the right motivation and the person who doesn’t do right has a horrible motivation – when in reality neither of those things is necessarily true.

Human beings make poor judges.  There is no way around that.  So why do we insist on spending so much of our life trying to judge?  Even worse, why do we spend so much time trying to judge God?  Why are we so arrogant that we think that we can even bring the creator of the universe under our judgment?

If we are not even capable of judging ourselves, why do we even think ourselves capable of knowing what is best for us?  Why do we spend so much time pursuing our own lives?  Why can we not simply be humble, forfeit our life, let ourselves be crucified with Christ, and pursue the things of God?

Humanity is a funny creature.  We have free will, and we pursue the things that we believe will make us happy only to find out that the lusts of our heart do not satisfy.  But we still continue to pursue.  We even pursue harder when the pleasure fades.  What we – what I – need is to understand humbleness, not free will.  I need more of God’s control and less of my own.

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