Job 40:9 Commentary and Bible Study

Job has been very presumptuous. He has spoken as if he were in a position to appoint himself as God’s critic. Where are his credentials to do such a thing? Surely he would need to have something of the power and majesty of God. The Lord in effect says, ‘Go ahead Job; thunder with a voice like mine so that the hearts of the mightiest are instantly subdued and tremble before you. Speak with a voice that causes the world to spring into existence from nothing and that stills the storm or causes the dead to rise. You know that all these things are beyond you, therefore stop pretending that you are more than you really are. Indeed, you are so far from arraying yourself with glory that you are an object of abhorrence to all who see you. How little control you really have over yourself or the world around you!’ He must remember that there is one whose glory exceeds all created things and he alone is God; no one is his equal and no one is in a position to judge him. He is Job: a poor mortal creature, on earth for a short time, subject to the curse, weak in understanding, and limited in power. Can he not see how foolish it is to speak of doing what he has boasted he would do? He would need to have strength like the Lord, and an arm that was capable of doing anything that he pleased. Whereas the truth about him is that he has only drawn attention to his powerlessness. Job’s words ought to eat him up with shame when he thinks about how his lips have carried him away.Our God is full of humility as we see so clearly in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ who was meek and lowly among us. Nevertheless, he will exalt his own glory and not give it to another, for his glory is the great treasure of his people and for their sakes as well as his own, he will not allow any to take away from it. He is in addition a God of amazing beauty whose beauty is seen in his workmanship in this created world, but who is supremely beautiful in himself. He is adorned with the most splendid graces such as have not been given to any creature that he has made. All his attributes are full of beauty. His love is of such ravishing beauty that there is nothing like it. It is capable of accomplishing things that no other agency could accomplish. For these things he will be an inexhaustible source of admiration among his chosen for all eternity.