Not Why? Who?
I. The God who is wise and powerful enough to create is wise and powerful enough to manage my life too
A. Introductory Issues
1. The Whirlwind
The word way (derek) means “road” or “path” and parallels the next phrase, which poeticizes the clouds as God’s dust-raising footsteps. The verse reads literally: “In whirlwind and in storm is His way, and clouds are the dust from His feet.”
2. The Lord answered Job
3. Tell me what you know
His greatest fault, however, is to presume that his own finite mind can comprehend the infinite mind of God. With such presumption, Job has been staggering along the border between limiting God’s power and denying His justice.
38:2, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?”
38:3, “Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and thou shalt make me know.”
38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou knowest understanding.”
38:5, “Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it?”
The Lord’s first point is to rebuke Job for speaking on the presumption of knowing all about God’s works and ways, of having all the facts at his disposal.
4. Not why? who?
But answering our “why” is never God’s primary concern, nor our chief need.
B. God’s wisdom and power are seen in the creation of the world
Like a master builder He laid the earth’s foundations (vv. 4-7)
The site for the building was carefully traced, i.e., surveyed. A measuring line (qaw) was stretched out to ensure that the earth was constructed exactly according to Yahweh’s blueprints. By implication it is being said that everything created corresponds precisely to God’s plan. But who made sure that the building was framed according to those plans? Who stretched out the measuring line? Was it Job? Of course not!