Job 38:19-41 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Now onto today’s passage. Today’s passage is Job 38:19-41. Let’s go!
Job 38:19-21 (NIV)
19 “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
On verses 19-38: Out of the storm God is answering Job. God moves from asking Job questions about the origins of the universe (v4-18) to questions about the skies and outer space in verses 19-38.
Notice that in response to Job’s highly confrontational and adversarial way of talking to God and about God, God responds in a confrontational and adversarial way as well. Just look at God’s tone in verses 19 to 21. Or in verses 3 and 4. Or verse 18. This is perhaps the closest you will find in the Bible to God trash-talking a person whom He loves and will later bless.
What can we learn from this? God watches and responds to the way we talk to him and about Him. If you come at God with pride, He’ll respond aggressively. If you come to God with humility, He’ll respond with compassion.
People who think “Everyone’s going to heaven” fail to recognize that God actually watches and responds to how we treat Him. If you’ve ignored or resisted God all your life and done your own thing, do you really think God will or should respond to you the same way that He responds to someone who lives their life welcoming Him and being humble before Him? Definitely not. God is not indifferent to the way we treat Him.
This reminds me of what David writes in Psalm 18:25-27: “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.”
Does God hate Job? Of course not. God loves Job, sees him as blameless through Jesus, and will later bless Job immeasurably more than all he could ask or imagine. But in the meantime, to deal with Job’s prideful approach to God, here God is rebuking Job as a father disciplines his child.
No matter what the storm you’re going through, may you keep a humble attitude toward God. For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
