Job 40:1 Commentary and Bible Study

At this point the Lord pauses. In the same way that Job and his friends had alternated in their speeches, so the Lord gives Job an opportunity to respond. The reader of course wonders what effect this supernatural correction has had one Job. The questions put to him by the Lord were devastating enough, but the manner in which they came was fearful indeed. What the Lord has said so far contains a twofold message. 1. If you are inferior to this grass eating beast, how can you dare to challenge me? 2. A pastoral lesson – look at his strength. Where are these strengths in you, Job. You have gone to pieces, but you should have held on in these trials and been victorious over temptation. You have doubted me, Job. He did not deny God, but he did have a strong element of self-righteousness and contention with God. Does he still maintain his innocence? Does he continue his petulant attitude and insist that he is more righteous than God, or that he has a better grasp on the rights and wrongs of his situation than the Lord? He is now given this opportunity. The Lord reminds him of the effrontery of his demands and challenges him about whether he can continue to keep this up in given his great ignorance and indeed gross darkness on so many issues. The Lord’s questioning concern affairs on earth, but Job has dared to correct the Lord over things still higher. God does not spare Job’s blushes, but defines his sin in stark terms: he is one who has taken upon him the role of the reprover of God, the judge of the Almighty. If a man exalts himself so high, he should not be surprised if he is required to justify his self-appointment.Job had said that he longed for an opportunity to present his case before the Lord, so that he could vindicate himself and argue for his innocence. He had been confident that, were he allowed to do so, the Lord would be obliged to admit that he had been over severe with his servant, and that he did not deserve such harsh treatment. But now God has set before him this series of unanswerable questions designed to humble him. Without answering the specific questions that Job had wanted to ask, God shows him that his belief that he was in a position to question his Creator was not matched by an understanding of even the most familiar works of God on earth, and therefore that his criticism of God was outrageously presumptuous. But Job remains silent because the medicine has already begun to do him good, and his soul has started to be humbled during this questioning. God urges him to do what he had said he would do, but he reads Job’s heart, and he knows that he has begun to understand what foolish claims he has made and will not dare to follow through.