Job 38:1  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2  Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
3  Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
4  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5  Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6  Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

God has many ways to get man’s attention. He proves over and over again that He is in charge. Satan is not in charge. Satan has been given some room to manoeuvre for a short time, but God has limited what he can do. In our text, God chose to get Job’s attention by coming to him out of the whirlwind.
Later on, Moses would encounter God in the burning bush. Elijah would meet God with several different events like a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but then with a still small voice. God is the Creator God. He can command any aspect of His creation for His purposes. Job had asked some serious questions of God. He had also made some accusations against God. He needed to be reminded that God was not asleep. He was not on some long journey. He was not missing in action. Job needed to understand that God was not unreasonable, and he was not suffering at the hands of God, but rather Satan was seeking to attack God through Job.
Job’s three friends and Elihu were false counsellors, but God was not addressing them here. He was addressing Job. Job was darkening counsel with words without knowledge. Job was making statements that were not accurate and they needed to be answered. Job needed to know the true God better. He needed an attitude adjustment.
In verse 3 God challenged Job to come and stand before Him like a man. Job had been demanding things of God and now God would turn the tables on him and He would demand things of him. We can learn here that it is extremely foolish to demand things of God. The charismatic movement is known for making demands of God. They will face the true God one day and they will not be prepared for that meeting. However, in our text, God is addressing Job. He also was making demands of God, that he had no right to make.
God began by reminding Job of Who the Creator is. The Bible begins with the Creation account. It begins by reminding us that “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Creation account reveals so many things about God. It reveals His eternality, His wisdom, His Omnipotence, His Omniscience, and His Omnipresence. God spoke the Creation into being in six literal days. He did so with such perfection that there was no need to make any changes to anything He made. There was no need to expand the universe to make room for all the stars or for the sun and the moon. Nothing was in danger of crashing into something else. Every so often we are told that the earth is in danger of being hit by an asteroid. One of the many lies of evolution is that an asteroid crashed into the earth many years ago and changed the conditions on earth. Evolution is a lie and those “scientists” who think they are so clever, demonstrate their foolishness because they reject the true God.
Job needed to stop and consider Who made all things. That was the first thing he needed to be reminded of. Surely, the one who makes something, has the right to control that which he makes. In the case of Creation, surely God has the right to deal with His Creation in the way that He sees fit. God demanded that Job explain Creation to Him. You notice here that God began with the foundations. What was the earth and everything else built upon? How was it being held together? Did Job understand the intricacies of Creation?
The obvious answer is, no. God continued by asking Job if he laid the boundaries of the Creation. Did Job figure out how big the oceans should be and where the land masses should be in relation to the waters, etc. Did he set the bounds of the waters so they would stay within their limits?
We know that the “engineers” of our day cannot seem to figure many things out even with the aid of computers. They plan a bridge or a roadway and they do not know how to build these things so that they are smooth and ready for the heavy traffic they need to carry. This is just one item.
Job was a wise man, but he was not wiser than God. That is the whole point here. This wisdom of God is revealed in a great way in the Creation account. That is why the devil has been so actively trying to dismiss Creation. He has convinced the majority of mankind to believe the lie of evolution. We can see how foolish man is as he takes evolution as his starting place and then develops his theories based on that lie. Many doctors have made some very foolish choices based on their training and belief in evolution. The murder of unborn children being justified as just a fetus that is going through the fish stage and then an animal stage before it becomes a human being is just one of many examples of the foolishness of man. The idea that when a person has heart trouble they need to be prescribed statin drugs to keep the liver from producing cholesterol which is needed for proper brain function and other things. Then they want to test the liver often through blood tests to make sure that it is not being severely damaged by the statin drugs which are attacking the God-designed function of the liver. When you talk to the doctors about this, they have no answers. Wise men would realize that you do not attack the normal function of an organ to try to fix the weakness of another organ. When God is not in charge, man is quite foolish.
Job needed to understand that God was in charge and he needed to be grounded in how things came into being. If Job would settle that fact in his heart, he would approach life much differently. God knows what the basics are. He knows how to challenge man’s thinking and what a right foundation is. We can learn so much if we just let God teach us.
Job was different than his three friends and Elihu. Job was not going to argue with God. The other men were of a different sort and God would treat them much different than He did Job. Job needed some fine tuning. Those other men needed a heart and mind change.
God continued to speak of the greatness of Creation. What are the anchor points of the earth or the stars or the sun, etc? What keeps the earth in its orbit? Why does the sun not crash into the moon? How come the stars remain in their place and things function so well? What keeps things in such wonderful shape?
There are so many aspects to Creation that would keep any sane person in awe of God for all eternity. It is when man does not have a proper understanding of Creation, that he makes all kinds of foolish assumptions. That is what Job had been doing and thus God would remind him of the intricacies and wonders of Creation.
We will continue on here next time, Lord willing. For those who are saved, we need to be reminded of God’s greatness. Every one of us could learn so much more about the greatness of God. There is nothing that surprises Him. He is not in favour of everything that happens, even among those who know Him. We need a constant reminder of His greatness and of the need for humility in our walk with Him.
For those who are lost, you need to wake up and realize that you are nothing without God. It does not matter if you have degrees or papers to be a carpenter or mechanic, or whatever, you have nothing without knowing God. It would be wise for you to humble yourself today and turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Then you too could begin to build your life on the facts. You would be blessed in doing so.
Pastor Bartel