Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sovereignty 6.*

I don’t know if you recall, but last time I spoke I set a little homework exercise.

You don’t remember?

It’s always a good excuse when it comes to homework: “I forgot”!

We have been looking at the sovereignty of God, and last time, in particular, His sovereignty over animals.

I gave example after example that showed that יְהוָה is in control!* [P] *But I said that I hadn’t looked at the greatest passage of Scripture dealing with יְהוָה’s sovereignty over animal life – your task (remember?!) was to see if you could find out what I was referring to.

Any ideas?

Rhoda had worked it out by the time we hit the roundabout on Bower ave.

– the final chapters of the book of Job – you might like to turn to chapter 38 because I intend to read extensively from there.

I am going to read an extended passage of Scripture – but I am sure no one is going to object to that.

Really I don’t need to say anything, just read what יְהוָה Himself said.

We are probably all familiar with the story of Job *[P]*, even if we aren’t with the book itself.

You can get bogged down in the massive theological debate that is in it.

When you read it, you need to pay careful heed to who is speaking, because יְהוָה Himself at the end said; [*Job 42:7*/ יְהוָה said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath has been kindled against you and against the two of your friends, for you have not spoken to Me what is right as my servant Job has./”]

So Job’s friends were saying things that were not right, and we must not take them as being right.

And, like them, we can get involved in theological debates where what we say is not right.

But you know the story: Job was a wealthy man whom יְהוָה allowed satan to touch.

First he took his property, and then he took his health.

The only thing that he was not allowed to take was his life – and Job at times wished that he had!

In this terrible reversal of fortunes and tremendous suffering, Job had some friends come to him in order give him comfort, advice and counsel.

They were there for Job – you have to take your hat off to them – they didn’t rush in with the solution: [*Job 2:11-13*/ Thus Job’s three friends heard of this calamity that had come upon him.

So each set out from his own place: /(they set aside what they were doing, travelled to be with him in his grief) /Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite.

And they met together to come to console him and to comfort him.

Thus they lifted up their eyes from afar, but they did not recognize him, so they raised their voice, and they wept, and each man tore his outer garment and threw dust on their heads toward the sky./(they mourned for him)/ Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very great.

/(No rash trite platitudes, just being with him in his pain)] We are quick to write them off as “Job’s comforters” but they were there with him in his suffering, with real empathy.

But they thought they knew the answer to Job’s problems.

When you are going through it, having someone with all the right answers is not always what you need.

But after 7 days they couldn’t help holding forth with what Job needed to do, what was the problem, where he was at fault and how to put it all right.

But their answers didn’t hold true, they didn’t satisfy Job and so the debate went on – from chapter 3 all the way through to the end of chapter 37 – 35 solid chapters of theological debate!

And, do you know, that at the end of it they are no further forward than when they started?!

They are each still holding to their same positions, just restating the same old thing in a different way.

This subject of the sovereignty of God is one that engenders huge debate – but does the long discussion accomplish anything?

To my shame, I have to admit that I too have got involved in theological discussions (have you ever spoken to JWs?) – I have found exactly the same thing, each of you becomes more convinced of his original position, marshals his arguments and his proof texts – but no one ever changes their ideas.

You don’t get anywhere!

You can argue on and on, debate till the cows come home, and you do not progress – each just gets further entrenched in their original opinion.

Then, at last, in chapter 38 the arguing stops!

Do you know why? יְהוָה appeared!

*[P]* Hallelujah!

No longer discussion, ideas, knowledge and concepts but REVELATION! *[P]* [*Job 38:1-3*/ Then יְהוָה answered Job from the storm, and He said, “Who is this darkening counsel by words without knowledge?

Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man, and I will question you, and you shall declare to Me!/] No longer answers, but some questions – getting on for 80 of them!

They thought that they had all the answers, so יְהוָה asks them a few questions.

We are going to have a look at a few of them – but they are all unanswerable, except to admit “I don’t know”.

We don’t have all the answers, and should stop holding forth as if we do.

Every mouth is stopped when יְהוָה speaks!

Hallelujah!

No longer man’s ideas but revelation of GOD!

That is what we need!

Job came face to face with יְהוָה!

And everything changed!

What stops the arguments and the speculations is a dose of *revelation of the Sovereignty of God*! *[P]* We waste so much time discussing; more answers would be found on our knees bowing before the Sovereign.

Job and his fellow men were brought down to size before an Almighty Sovereign God! יְהוָה made them realise that they were only men!

So follow with me in Job chapter 38 because basically all I am going to say is what the Bible says.

Now יְהוָה has spoken for some time about His sovereignty over inanimate things, He gets to His sovereignty over animals in: [*Job 38:36*/ Who has put wisdom in the ibis, or who has given understanding to the rooster?/] – well, what is the answer?

It is יְהוָה!

He alone gives creatures the understanding that they have.

Robin and I were discussing, after last time, Monarch butterflies – in America they migrate, flying over a thousand kilometres to one particular grove of trees in Mexico.

Their offspring, who have never been there, fly back to the exact same bush from which they left!

And how big is a butterfly brain?! What amazing aerodynamic control and navigation!

Who gave that understanding to a butterfly?

It is יְהוָה who is sovereign over all His creatures and gives them the attributes He chooses in order that they might live and bring glory to His Name.

[*Job 38:39-41*/ Can you hunt prey for the lion?

/*[P]* – well, no, I can’t!

/And can you satisfy the hunger of strong lions when they are crouched in the dens, when they lie in the thicket in an ambush?/]/ /Again: “No!” We are not talking about designing or making a lion – just providing its dinner.

Even this little thing is beyond us.

But in each of these questions we need to look behind it to its implication: that there is in fact someone who does provide prey for the lion – a sovereign God is behind all these natural processes, providing food for the creatures that He has made.

[/Who prepares for the crow its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and they wander around for lack of food?/] *[P]* Well it’s not me, it is יְהוָה who does.

Moving on to: *[P]* [*Job 39*/ “Do you know the time when the goats of the rocks give birth?/]/

/*[P]* Yet/ /again: “NO!”/ /We boast of our knowledge but we don’t really know, but יְהוָה does.

[/Do you observe the doe deer’s giving birth?/]/ /No, but יְהוָה is watching over it.

He is sovereign – in control.

[/Can you number the months they fulfil, and do you know the time of its giving birth?/

No!/ Who has sent forth the wild ass free?/]/ /Not, me; then who? – יְהוָה!

*[P]* [/And who has released the wild donkey’s bonds, to which I have given the wilderness as its house and the salt flat as its dwelling place?/]

Who gave it donkey the wilderness – יְהוָה says that He did.

It is יְהוָה’s doing.

He is sovereign!

He is in control!

[/It scorns the city’s turmoil; it does not hear the driver’s shouts.

It explores the mountains as its pasture and searches after every kind of green plant./]

It is completely independent of man./ /[/“Is the wild ox willing to serve you, or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?/]/ /Yet again the answer is: “No!” [/Can you tie the wild ox with its rope to a furrow, or will it harrow the valleys after you?

Can you trust it because its strength is great, or will you hand your labour over to it?

Can you rely on it that it will return your grain and that it will gather it to your threshing floor”/]/ /Well, can you?

Will it?

No, no, no!

The answer is consistently “no”.

How man boasts, but fronted up to יְהוָה, he comes to look pretty small and impotent.

Man is not in control at all.

Notice, יְהוָה is not answering their complaints or discussing their arguments – He is just drawing back the veil to give them a glimpse of how great He is.

You see how great He is and your questions disappear.

How dare you question Him!

But He has hardly started.

[/The wings of the female ostrich flap— are they the pinions of the stork or the falcon?

Indeed, it leaves its eggs to the earth, and it lets them be warmed on the ground, and it forgets that a foot might crush an egg, and a wild animal might trample it.

It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own, as if without fear that its labour were in vain, because God made it forget wisdom, and he did not give it a share in understanding./]/

/Have you heard people criticize God’s design in creation?

– as if they could do better!

Here is the ostrich which it seems God didn’t do so well with, in His design … but: [/When it spreads its wings aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider./]/

/Sovereignly יְהוָה made it how He did – and He made each creature differently, giving each the capabilities suited to its own situation./

/[/“Do you give power to the horse?

Do you clothe its neck with a mane?