Sunday, November 8 · Kenwood Baptist Church
The Lord Answers Job Out of the Whirlwind
After thirty-seven chapters of Job asking where God is, God arrives in the whirlwind and answers not with explanations but with himself, asking Job question after question about creation until Job covers his mouth. The sermon holds that God's greatness is what comforts us when we feel powerless, and that being small in the hands of a great God is not the same as being insignificant.
The passages
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,…
Job 38:1
“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth? They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains. Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again. “Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey, whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place? He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing. “Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough? Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you? Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor? Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor? “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust, and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them. She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear, because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider. “Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane? Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men. He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet. As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high? On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold. From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off. His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”
Job 39:1–30
Moreover Yahweh answered Job, “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Then Job answered Yahweh, “Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Job 40:1–5
Go deeper
Why does God answer Job's demand for a hearing with a tour of creation instead of an explanation of Job's suffering?
Job has spent the whole book asking God to show up and explain himself, and when God finally does, he never mentions the reason for any of it. He asks Job where he was when the earth was founded and who shut the sea behind its doors. The friends had offered tidy answers that turned out to be false comfort; God offers no answer at all, only the sight of himself, and Job puts his hand over his mouth.
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me! “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb, when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness, marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors, and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?
Job 38:1–11
“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it? It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment. From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken. “Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all. “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place, that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house? Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
Job 38:12–21
Moreover Yahweh answered Job, “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Then Job answered Yahweh, “Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Job 40:1–5
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8–9
What does God's care for the lion, the raven, and the ostrich show Job about how God is involved with what he has made?
God moves from the stars to the animals and keeps asking Job the same kind of question. Job is asked who hunts for the lion and who feeds the raven when its young cry out, and the answer is God himself. The wild donkey, the mountain goat, the ostrich that laughs at the horse, all of them are held by a God who stays involved with what he made rather than winding it up and walking away.
“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket? Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?
Job 38:39–41
“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth? They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains. Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again. “Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey, whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place? He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing.
Job 39:1–8
“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust, and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them. She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear, because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.
Job 39:13–18
Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they? “Which of you by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
Matthew 6:25–30