Week 9: The Lord's First Speech (38:1–40:5)

The Place of the Passage

To our great relief, the Lord finally steps into the debate that has raged in the book of Job, answering Job in a way that both humbles and satisfies him. The Lord’s first speech concerns the structure and workings of creation (Job 38:4–38) and the animals living within it (38:39–39:30). In this speech, the Lord directly answers certain claims Job has made in his protests against God. The Lord directs Job to the limitations of his own knowledge, to the great goodness of creation, and to the presence of violent elements in creation that God keeps within strict limits.

The Big Picture

The Lord responds to Job by showing that his protests have been made without sufficient knowledge of creation, in ignorance of the goodness of creation and of how God contains limited pockets of chaos within it.

Reflection and Discussion

Read through the complete text for this study, Job 38:1–40:5. Then review the questions below concerning this central text of Job and write your notes on them. (For further background, see the ESV Study Bible, pages 926–929; available online at www.esv.org.)

God’s Initial Question (38:2–3)

God speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind.” Although this Hebrew word sometimes refers to a purely natural storm (Ps. 107:25), it is often used in relation to an appearance of God in which he does battle against his enemies, protects his people, and establishes his rule (Isa. 29:6; Ezek. 1:4; Nah. 1:3; Hab. 3:14; Zech. 9:14). Since Job has been claiming that God does nothing to stop injustice and evil, how would the Lord’s appearance in a storm be both encouraging and challenging to Job?

God challenges Job to prepare himself for this encounter (Job 38:3)—but does he accuse Job of any sin (as the friends did)? How does this encounter with God proceed very differently from how Job imagined it might (see 9:14–20; 13:20–28)?

The Architecture of Creation (38:4–38)

In verses 4–7, God describes the creation of the earth. How has Job spoken of the earth in his protest against God’s supposed unjust treatment of him? (See especially chs. 3 and 9.) How is God’s account of creation very different from Job’s? How do these differences help to refocus Job and quell his complaint?

In verses 8–11, the Lord speaks of containing the sea. Remember that the sea is often a symbol of cosmic chaos (Job 7:12). Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we read of God’s ruling over the raging sea from on high (Pss. 65:8; 89:10; 93:3–4) or setting a limit to it (Jer. 5:22). How is God’s treatment of the sea described in a very different way in this passage? How is God’s self-portrayal different from Job’s portrayal of him? How is Job supposed to think about God differently because of these verses?

At a number of points in the book of Job, the debaters have described God’s moral ordering of creation by describing some part of the natural order. God does the same in 38:12–15 as he speaks of the dawn. What moral implications does the dawn have in verses 13 and 15? What is the Lord implying about the moral component of the order of creation? How does this directly answer Job’s complaint concerning injustice?

The Inhabitants of Creation (38:39–39:30)

The first animals God describes are lions and ravens. Although sometimes a royal image (Gen. 49:9), lions are often portrayed in the Old Testament as fearsome and frightening predators; they symbolized the wicked in Job 4:10–11 (see also Ps. 22:13, 21). Ravens are unclean (Lev. 11:15) and are associated with other sinister animals in Isaiah 34:11 and Zephaniah 2:14. When God tells Job that only he cares for these animals, what is he implying about the complex nature of his creation, as well as his goodness toward everything he has made? How does this form an answer to Job’s protest against God?

Read through the Lord’s questions about the rest of the animals in this chapter. What is the implied response to each one? What is Job supposed to learn from this rhetorical exercise?

Job’s First Response (40:4–5)

God asks Job if he will continue to find fault with the way God supervises creation. What is Job’s response? How has this encounter with God proceeded differently from how Job feared it might?

Gospel Glimpses

GOD’S GENTLENESS WITH JOB. Job has said just about everything he could about God without cursing him—according to Job, God is an amoral tyrant who laughs at good people when their lives fall apart (9:22–24). God could have angrily rebuked Job for this, but instead he only asks whether Job really knows what he is talking about (38:2). Without issuing a single condemnation of Job, he asks a series of questions that are easy to answer, all of which direct Job’s focus back to God as the only one who understands or cares for every aspect of creation. These questions are not meant to humiliate or shame Job, nor is their tone sarcastic or angry, because they all have to do with things no human being would feel ashamed of for not understanding or being able to control. This is especially clear in 38:5, where the Lord directs his pupil toward the obvious answer that only God was responsible for creation. The tone is stern but gentle. Job is not being faulted or demeaned because he was not there at the moment of creation—no human being could be blamed for such a thing. Rather, God is refocusing Job’s attention onto the Lord and expanding his vision of God without condemning him.

GOD’S LIMITLESS GOODNESS. God says some things that seem shocking. The image of God putting a diaper on the sea (38:9), cuddling the raging, chaotic waters, perhaps seems absurd to those used to reading about the Lord defeating chaos in battle. But God uses this deliberately strange picture to show his profound goodness. Job has been portraying God as letting chaos run free. God responds not only by describing how he strictly limits chaos (vv. 8, 10) but also by implying that he is much kinder and gentler with creation than Job has imagined. If God cares for even his enemies this way, his goodness truly knows no bounds. And God implies that he cares for the sea even as it resists and rebels against him—this is the meaning of the final reference to the “proud waves” in verse 11 (see the same phrase in Ps. 93:3). Although the symbols used here are foreign to our culture today, consideration of these images within their original context helps to explain why Job comes to worship so reverently the God he had criticized so harshly.

Whole-Bible Connections

THE CONTINUED PRESENCE OF EVIL. The natural order of God’s world reflects moral and spiritual realities. When the Lord speaks of the hawk, who lives by preying on other animals (39:29–30), or the war horse, who strains for battle (39:19–25), or the other wild animals of chapter 39, he implies that he has arranged creation in such a way that some elements of violence are a part of the natural order of things (majestic hawks in hunt), while others are a part of the brokenness of this world (horses used for warfare). Job has continually extrapolated outward from his tragedy in chapters 1–2 to make sweeping statements about creation and the sinister character of the God who sustains it. Through the symbols of these predators, God grants that there are elements of violence and evil in his world that he allows to exist, but he draws a completely different conclusion from Job concerning his world. Out of all of the participants in this wisdom debate, God is the most enthusiastic in celebrating the goodness of creation without ignoring the elements of chaos he also sustains, whether they be natural or caused by sin. In the same way, the New Testament teaches that everything God made is good and is to be received with thanksgiving (1 Tim. 4:1–5) and that God richly provides us with everything to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17), even amid the suffering caused by sin (2 Tim. 3:1) that befalls us prior to the redemption of all things (Rev. 21:1–4).

GOD’S JOY IN CREATION. Job began by wishing he had never been born and by calling down cosmic darkness on everything God had made (ch. 3). Although he moves past that point in the subsequent chapters, Job still cannot see any way to rejoice again (7:7). In his first speech, God gently but firmly challenges Job’s despair. Although God is completely realistic about that which is sinister or violent in his world, he takes Job back to the beginning, when beings higher than Job could not contain their joy as God created the world that Job now curses (38:4–7). God does not have a single bad thing to say about the place he has made, even describing his care for the animals Job would have found most frightening. This is consistent with God’s evaluation of creation in Genesis 1:31 and his joy in everything he has made in Psalm 104:31. It is human beings, from our deeply limited perspective, who see creation as dark and sinister, not God.

Theological Soundings

THE LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. We have seen how God has portrayed creation as entirely good without denying that it houses dangerous predators and elements of chaos (such as the sea). Running throughout this description is a challenge to Job’s certainty of his own conclusions. Job was not there when God put the world together (38:4–7), so how much do his conclusions count? If it were up to Job, mountain goats would cease to exist as a species (39:1–4). Deep pain is so intense an experience that it is easy for it to color everything we see, as we become as certain of our perspective as we are of our pain. But the book of Job shows us that the one person who knows the most about creation is also the most enthusiastic about it. In so doing, the book casts doubt on our dark thoughts of God and his world that we often harbor when we suffer.