Job 38:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

Navigator

Job 38:2

Comments

In one sense Job has taken a tremendous stand, but he has spoken unworthily and doubted God’s goodness to him. The Lord therefore begins to rebuke him. Job is rebuked for expressing opinions not based on the degree of revelation he had available to him. He had speculated beyond the truth that God had shown him, and roamed way off track. He made the mistake of letting the flesh speak, acting intuitively. He allowed his feelings to dictate his reasoning. Elihu had criticised him for his response to his trials; God says the same. Job’s intransigence has necessitated God to now come to him with firmness to reprove him, for he is not without fault. The Lord mocks Job for all his foolish speeches in which he has complained of the injustice of God. The Lord, who will not be short of an answer for all the wicked on the Day of Judgment when they come with their protests, is easily able to convince Job that he has said what he does not understand. He has gone beyond what is legitimate in his enquiry into God’s providence. He ought to have stopped at the point where God had not revealed himself. He ought to have adored the Lord for what he had revealed, and trusted him for all else.Interestingly, the Lord doesn’t rebuke Job specifically for his complaints, or for the presumption of demanding an interview with God so that he could put his side of the case. Instead he undermines all these complaints by showing Job his ignorance. Presumption arises from our misjudging how much we know, because our awareness of ignorance would take away all confidence to speak. God therefore enlarges Job’s his mind to show him the world and God’s wonderful works in a way that he had never understood before. He was not directly admonished for his criticism of God’s justice, nor was he told the foolishness, but he saw it soon enough. This exhortation taught him all that he needed to understand and he quickly saw his own foolishness. God’s ways are a product of his infinite knowledge and he takes all factors into consideration at once. How can we ever be in a position to challenge them, improve on them, or offer the Lord any meaningful advice when his perfect knowledge is already the basis of all he does? How could we see a situation any differently to him if we really had knowledge? Our response should be to admire what he does and to worship him. We worship without having first understood all he does for we are certain that he cannot err, and by faith we praise him for his unchanging attributes which we see in operation even in a fallen world.

Application

Who is this who darkens counsel by interpreting God’s trials and providence with such ignorance? Better to say that we do not understand than to assume that we do understand and put a false interpretation on events. The one who has not yet understood leaves open the possibility of a true explanation, but to reach a false conclusion is to seal our own ignorance. Calvin remarks that we learn that when the whole world has joined forces together to oppose God, it all amounts to nothing. God can afford to invite his enemies with their best weapons and to face him and battle and they will be utterly routed.

Questions

This is addressed to Job as the previous verse has made clear and not, as some strangely think, to Elihu. Elihu is not mentioned by the Lord and therefore in contrast to the three friends, who are explicitly rebuked by God for their erroneous teaching, we can assume that Elihu’s counsel to Job is approved by the Lord.

‘When we do not find the thing in God’s word, which we desire to know, let us understand that we need to remain ignorant of it, and keep our mouths shut, for whenever we proceed to speak about it, there will be no knowledge in us, nor anything but untruth’ (Calvin – in modern English).

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 38:2 Commentary and Bible Study