God’s Answer to “Why?”

Job lost most of his wealth in one day. His 10 children died that day. Then a horrible skin disease covered his body with sore boils from head to toe. His three friends told him that all this happened because he was a sinful man. They said God was punishing him, but Job strongly disagreed. And as they argued more, the debate got more personal and at times sarcastic and cruel.

We as readers like Job know that Job was not the bad person his friends said that he was, but we know something Job didn’t know about all this. At least he didn’t know about it in this book. Satan had challenged God to put Job to the test to see what kind of man he really was. God accepted the challenge and he allowed Satan to torment job, but since Job didn’t know this, he assumed that God did all these bad things to him.

At first he took the loss of his possessions and even the loss of his children well. He didn’t become angry at God. He blessed Him. But when this terrible disease tortured him day after day, he became angry—angry at the situation, angry with his friends, and angry at God. He kept crying out to God, but there was no answer.

He became so frustrated that he longed for a meeting with God to defend himself. He was sure that he was right, so sure that he thought even God was wrong. He actually said that the Lord was being cruel to him.

When Job and his three friends said their peace and made their case and finished a younger man named Elihu spoke. He didn’t agree with either side in this debate. He disagreed with the three friends of Job because they accused Job, but they didn’t have any proof that he was the sinful man that they said that he was.

But Elihu was also upset with Job because he justified himself instead of justifying God. This young man warned Job. He told him that he had gone too far. He didn’t agree with Job’s three friends that Job was suffering because he was a sinner. He did, however, say that Job was sinning because he suffered. He said some things that he shouldn’t have said. So Elihu told Job that he had better remember who he’s talking to.

He’s talking to God. He’s talking about God. He said you need to be careful Job because God might just take your life in a second for saying these things about Him. Elihu said there may be any number of reasons why God has allowed this to happen. Maybe he did it to keep you from pride. Maybe he lets a man come close to death to teach him lessons that he could have never learned otherwise.

But regardless of the reason or reasons for why this is happening, God does not owe us an answer. He doesn’t owe you an answer Job. He is God and he doesn’t have to explain himself to any of us. And then all Elihu points to something that every person in this debate mentioned, and that is the power of God over His creation.

All of them admit that we cannot understand all of God’s ways and the universe that He made and that He maintains. But Elihu appeals to nature not to speak for God, but to say that we don’t need to be sure in our minds about why a man like Job is suffering.

Elihu said think about the wind and the rain and the ice. He said God has different reasons, various uses, for these things. He may use the wind and rain to correct people or to punish men. He may use these things to show mercy to men, or he may use nature just to benefit the earth that he made. The bottom line is we don’t know. And if we don’t even know his reasons for making these things happen in the material world of nature, how can we be sure of his reasons for allowing things in the moral order of right and wrong, of what is fair and not fair? We are in no position to judge. That’s what Elihu is saying. That’s at least one of the points that he’s making.

Now, this brings us to the answer of God in chapters 38 through 42. Now, God had not said anything at all until this time. He let them talk. Now he puts them all to silence. He puts them all to shame with the exception of Elihu, and he speaks directly to Job in these chapters, not to his three friends, at least at first, and not to Elihu at all. He never addresses Elihu.

And the first question that he asked Job put Job to shame. It’s in Job chapter 38, verse two. The Bible says in verse one, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said…” Now when the Bible says that the Lord answered him, it doesn’t say that he explained anything or that he answered to the satisfaction of Job, what Job was wondering about. It simply means that he responded to Job.

And in verse two He says, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” God is saying: who is this down there talking about things that he doesn’t understand? That happens every day all over the world. People say things about God and God’s ways, and they don’t even know what they’re talking about, and God is talking about a good man here.

He’s talking about Job, so we need to confess that sometimes we speak and we don’t know what we’re talking about. God is putting Job in his place. He tells Job to get ready because he has some questions for Job. Now, remember that Job said that he wished he knew where God was all this time because Job said well, I would tell God a thing or two.

I would know not only what He said, but I would be able to answer all His questions to me. Anything that God wanted to throw at me, I’ll be able to answer it. That’s what he said earlier in chapter 23. He was so sure that he was right and that God was wrong and unfair for letting all this happen to him that he’s challenging God in chapter 23.

Now God is saying here’s your chance, Job. Get ready, Job. The King James Version says in verse three of chapter 38, “Gird up your loins like a man.” Now that’s like saying today, “Roll up your sleeves and get ready to work.” In Bible times, even men often wore a long loose one-piece outer garment. It would get in the way if they had to work or climb or run.

So they tied a piece of cloth or leather around their waist to pull it in. We would call it a belt. They called it a belt or a girdle or a sash. Now, that’s why the King James Version talks about girding up your loins. That is your waist. It means to get ready. It’s just an idiom. It’s a way of saying get ready, and God is saying I’m going to ask you some questions and let’s see if you can answer them Job, since you think you know so much that you’re now criticizing Me.

The New King James Version says “prepare yourself like a man,” as we would say, man up. The first question God asked Job must have hit Job right between the eyes. God said to him in verse four, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” God is saying: you think I’m unfair. You say, I’m not managing this creation of Mine like I should. If you’re so wise, why don’t you tell Me how I made all this out of nothing? What did it look like to see Me create the earth right away? God is telling Job that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

If God had stopped right there in verse four with that one question, the debate would’ve been over and Job would’ve changed his point of view, at least somewhat. But God is just getting started. He says in verse five, “Who determined its measurements? Surely you know.” Now that is what we would call godly sarcasm. God is chiding job. This is like a parent talking to a teenager who thinks that he or she knows everything. A few questions will show how little he does know. Notice verses five and six. God is using the illustration of building a house. In Bible times, you had to stretch a line. You had to mark the measurements and then lay the foundation, the most important part of which was what was called the cornerstone. Now that is just a human way of illustrating God’s creation of the earth. God is saying to Job: Can you explain how and why I did all this? By the way, science, even true science, cannot answer this either. Science you see depends on the observation of physical things.

But before the creation of Genesis chapter one verse one, nothing physical existed, then God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing (Hebrews 11 verse three). Scientists today couldn’t have done any better than Job did with these questions that God is asking and God throws in another part of his creation: The angels. In verse seven the angels saw God do all this. They rejoiced, the Bible says in verses six and seven, “To what were its foundations,” that is, “the foundations of the earth fastened, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” The angels saw God do all this.

They rejoiced, and since God is talking about the very beginning of the creation, it appears that the angels already existed. You might ask, what does that have to do with Job’s problem, though? We’ll talk about that more in just a few minutes. The next thing that God ask is about the sea, the waters of the earth in general, but especially the oceans and the seas.

The word seas here is a general word. Notice verses eight through 11 of chapter 38: “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, when I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors, when I said, this far you may come but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop.” The earth is 75% water according to estimates. In this passage, God said that He sets limits to sea levels and shorelines. He calls these limits bars and doors. God keeps the waters from overflowing. God says to the waves here, “But no further.”

There are exceptions times when he allows them to rise and overflow, but there’s regularity and constancy to water levels. We couldn’t survive if it were otherwise. God is saying to Job: you challenged me. You criticized me. You said you could answer any question I ask. Go ahead, answer these questions.

Then God said, Job, explain this thing that is called light. Are you the one that made it? Are you the one that sustains it? When did you ever bring a morning to the earth? God is saying I do all these things. You certainly cannot, and yet you’re going to tell Me how I should run this universe of mine?

Then in verses 16 through 18 God pounds Job with more penetrating questions. Verse 16 is a fascinating verse. He says, “Have you entered the springs of the sea?” For thousands of years man never saw these. They were seen for the first time in 1974. An unmanned submarine went deep to the bottom of the ocean floor and photographed them. They are springs or fountains on the bottom of the ocean floor. They emit extremely hot, highly mineralized water. Scientists today call them hydrothermal vents. But the interesting thing is that the book of Job was written thousands of years before submarines. How did the writer know about these springs of the sea? During the flood the Bible calls them the “fountains” of the great deep and says “the fountains of the great deep were broken up” (Genesis seven, verse 11). There is only one way these Bible writers could have known about them. God told them. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

But the point in this verse is that Job had never been down there. Then God asked Job about the place of the dead in verse 17. Now, remember, Job wanted to go there (to death) because he was in such pain. And do you remember what Elihu told Job? He said God sometimes brings a man to the very door of death for reasons that only God understands. But in this verse, God is asking Job more. He’s asking him if he actually has seen it. Not that he simply felt that he was near death. God is saying the answer is no Job. You’ve never looked into death. You’ve never experienced it. You’ve never seen what lies beyond the doors of death. You don’t understand it. Where did the idea of dying come from? Do you know all of its purposes? Do you know why I brought it into existence and made a world capable of dying? Job doesn’t really understand that anymore than we do. We only know what God tells us about and what we experience in life.

But the Bible goes on to say in verse 18 that God asked Job if he knows the measurement of the breadth of the earth. Now, of course, Job didn’t know that either. Now today someone might say, “Well, you see there, we today know how wide the earth is, so this book doesn’t prove anything.”

Then in response we would say that not everything God mentions in these chapters is still beyond our knowledge, but it was beyond job’s comprehension. God could ask scientists today many other questions that would leave them just as dumbfounded, but this book is not written primarily about these things.

That’s what we have to remember it is about a moral issue, not a material or scientific question. So God again challenges the man who said that he could answer any question God might throw at him. God says tell me if you know all this.

Then God takes Job on a class trip in His creation, and He asks him some profound questions about the most simple everyday parts of nature that we oftentimes take for granted in verses 19 through 21.

He talks about light and darkness. He mentions the diffusing of light in verse 24. God is not just asking Job to give a definition of light or an explanation of how it works. He’s challenging Job to consider why he made all these things and how they fit in with the rest of His creation, and more importantly, what are the moral purposes that these things serve.

He talks about the treasures or the treasury of the snow in verse 22. Do you remember learning in grade school about snowflakes? Every one has a different design, a beautiful pattern. Then he talks about hail again. God made all these things. They are not accidents. Why did God do all this? Why did He create a world with such variety and such diversity?

That is what Job cannot even begin to answer. But the questions keep coming in verses 25 through 30: the channel for overflowing water, the path of a thunderbolt in verses 26 and 27. God causes it to rain in places where no one lives. Why would he do that? In verses 28 through 30, he talks about the rain, the dew, the frost, and the ice that is as hard as rock. God could have made a world without some of these things or any of these things. Why are they here Job? And what about the constellations of the stars above us? That’s what he talks about in verses 31 through 33. He talks about Pleiades and Orion and Mazzaroth and the Great Bear and so forth.

Job, can you hold them in their place like I do? Do you know and do you understand all this? And what about the clouds? Who controls the rain? That’s what he talks about in verses 34 through 38. So far, God has hit job with a barrage of questions about the inanimate features of his creation.

Then beginning in chapter 38, verse 39, he turns to animals. The first one is the lion. In verses 39 through 40, the Bible says that God asked Job, “Can you hunt the prey for the lion or satisfy the appetite of young lions when they crouch in their dens or lurk in their layers to lie in wait?” Why and how do they hunt as they do? That’s not an accident. God causes them to hunt like they do. God gave them their instinct. Can you do that Job?

And then there’s the raven in verse 41. “Who provides food for the raven when its young ones cry to God and wander about for lack of food? Who feeds the birds? God does. Then in chapter 39, God asked Job about other animals in verses one through 12. He points to four examples: the wild mountain goats, the deer, wild donkeys, and wild oxen.

Now I remind you that God is speaking. You may be tempted to think all of this is getting off the subject, but God never does that. If we think these chapters in any way miss the point, it is we who have missed it. So what does God ask Job about these animals? He wants Job to explain the time of their birth in verses one through four. He’s not merely asking how many months the mother carries them in her womb. He is asking a deeper question: why? Why a certain number of days, no more and no less? How does this happen and what are the reasons for it?

Then he asked about the wild donkeys. This was an animal that wouldn’t be tamed, so why did God make an animal like that? That’s what he talks about in verses five through eight. “Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager whose home I have made in the wilderness?” So what purpose does an animal like this serve? If man can’t use him to work like other donkeys, then why did God put him here? That’s for Job to explain. Then in verses nine through 12, he describes the “wild ox,” and that’s a better translation.

It’s less confusing than the King James Version word “unicorn.” There are different opinions about exactly what this animal is, but the point is clear. God said with the hint of sarcasm: are you going to trust him, that is, this wild ox to plow and to pull for you? No. He’s too wild. He’s strong, but he’s useless for work. So again, why would I make an animal like that Job? Explain that.

Then in verses 13 through 18, He talks about another one of his creatures. This one has some strange features. It is the ostrich in verses 13 through 18. She doesn’t take care of and protect her offspring. Other animals do. Now, why is this one different?

The Bible says in verse 17 about the ostrich “because God deprived her of wisdom and did not endow her with understanding. When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and its riders.” The Bible says in verse 16, “She treats her young harshly as though they are not hers.” The ostrich doesn’t have any sense. Why? Because God made her that way. She doesn’t have sense enough to take care of her young. She doesn’t have enough sense to get out of a horse’s way. This creature is a mystery. What purpose does this creature of God serve? The ostrich seems to be out of place in God’s animal kingdom, but God made her like that. Now, God is asking Job: why would I do that job? Answer that question.

And since He just mentioned the ostrich not having enough sense to get out of the horse’s way, He uses the horse as the next example in verses 19 through 25. What a powerful, fearless, useful creature. How is it that most animals would be afraid of the noise of war and battle, but not him? The Bible says in verse 22, “He mocks at fear and is not frightened, nor does he turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the glittering spear and the javelin.” The Bible says in verse 25, “At the blast of the trumpet, he says, aha. He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of captains shouting.”

And yet, looking back at all these creatures that are mentioned in chapter 39, they all have a place. Each one serves a purpose, whether we understand that or not. Every animal is unique by God’s design. The lion, the wild mountain goat, the deer, the raven, the wild donkey, the wild ox, the horse, and even the ostrich. God made them all.

Then God talks about birds. He asked Job about two majestic creatures, and that is the hawk and the eagle in verses 26 through 30. In verse 26, God asked Job if a hawk flies by his, that is by Job’s, wisdom. Did your wisdom make him? Did you figure out a way to design a creature to make him fly? It took men thousands of years to invent the plane. Pilots have to be trained. Engineers have devoted millions of hours to design these aircraft, and yet the eagle and the hawk fly almost without any effort, and they land without crashing or even stumbling. They do all this without man’s help. Do you understand this Job? Can you fathom this?

God could have continued. He could have asked Job about insects and fish and thousands of other creatures. Any one of them was enough to bring Job down from his high horse. God is not simply overwhelming Job with one example after another. He is reminding Job that he as the Creator not only created these things, but that He coordinates them perfectly to serve His purposes.

Those purposes are not just to put on a display of His power, although they certainly do that (Romans one, verse 20). God uses these things as a lesson in his justice as well as his wisdom and power. Not only is the wisdom of God behind this universe, something that is far, far above man’s intellect, but his management of it is beyond reproach.

God supervises the world exactly as He wills. Just because man thinks He should do these things differently means nothing. And just because man doesn’t understand why is no reason to criticize God. That’s what these chapters are about. When Job heard all this, he was ready for God to stop. And that brings us to chapter 40.

In chapter 40, verse two, God asked Job if he actually thought that he could correct his Maker. Verse two says, “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?” And Job said, okay. If I didn’t know what I was talking about, I’ll shut up. He says in verse four, “Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I’ve spoken, but I will not proceed. Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

But God said I’m not through with you yet. In verse seven, God said again, “Prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me.” Verse eight is a key verse. God said, “Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn me that you may be justified?” Now that’s a key verse, and it would be good for you to mark it. Job was a good man, and he was right about what he said about himself, that he was not an evil man, but he was wrong in what he said about God. And God asked him in verse eight would you condemn me that you may be justified?

That’s what Job did, especially in chapter 30, verse 21, when he said that God was being cruel to him. Now, let’s consider that lesson. Well, it is a good thing to be upset when you’ve been wronged. You have the right to defend yourself against slander or abuse or mistreatment, but it’s easy to become so determined to defend yourself that you draw a line and put yourself on one side and the whole world on the other.

You can even get angry with God, blame Him and pull away from your Maker who gives you everything. God says to Job in these verses: If you can speak with authority like Me and humble men like I do, let’s see you do it. Then I’ll confess that you can save yourself. That’s verse 14. Then in the last round of questioning, God tells Job to consider two of his creatures.

This begins in chapter 40, verse 15, and goes through the end of chapter 41. The first animal is the behemoth. This is a huge strong land animal. Notice verses 15, 16, 17, and 18. The Lord says the behemoth is “the first of the ways of God” in verse 19. Now, that doesn’t mean the behemoth was the first animal that God created in Genesis one. It means he is first in rank in power and strength among land animals. Notice how much he eats in verses 20 and 23. “Surely the mountains yield food for him.” In verse 23: “Indeed, the river may rage, yet he is not disturbed. He is confident though the Jordan rushes into his mouth.” So what does God say to Job about this behemoth?

He says: you consider this majestic creature. In verse 15, God said, “I made him along with you,” that is, as well as you. Everything I make and do has a place. It has a reason, Job. He’s saying to Job: you are upset because one thing, one part of this vast world, which happens to be you and your situation, is not going like you expect. The Lord is telling Job and He’s teaching us that God’s creation, His world, is much bigger than our own little world. When that small world falls apart, we need to remember that there’s a much bigger world out there. And yes, pondering the wonders of creation can reset our self-centered thinking.

Then God talks about the leviathan in Chapter 41. This was a sea creature no one could capture or tame. He is fierce. So what was this behemoth? What was this Leviathan. There are many opinions, but when you read the description of both these creatures, it is hard to think of anything else besides dinosaurs. But God is not giving a lesson in biology or history here.

And although it’s interesting and sometimes helpful to spend time looking at these things, if we spend too much time trying to identify the behemoth and the leviathan, whether they’re dinosaurs or not, we’re really missing the point. God tells Job why he’s bringing up the leviathan. It’s verse 10. Mark this verse.

God says, “No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him,” that is, the leviathan “up: who then is able to stand against me.” What He’s saying in verse 10 is this: Job, you wouldn’t dare to challenge a leviathan. So why would you challenge me? You wouldn’t dare to pick a fight with this sea creature, but you’re going to debate with the One who made the leviathan.

God is showing Job his ignorance, and that’s what gets us in trouble. We criticize things that we don’t understand. And Job could not even explain things that he had seen his whole life. And we’re no different. We’re all like children. We see a very tiny part of the whole picture. And we even get mad when life takes away our world as we know it.

How little we see. How little we know. Sometimes we’re angry at life and we’ll do everything it takes to prove ourselves right. That’s what Job did. So what was God’s answer to the problem of evil? He didn’t explain anything. He didn’t say “Job, I didn’t do those things to you. Satan did them. He’s to blame, not me.”

So what was God’s answer? Simply this: Job, if you can’t, if you don’t understand the simple things of My creation, then you are in no position to criticize how I oversee what happens to human beings. If you’re no expert on my reasons for nature working like it does, then you’re no judge of what’s fair or not fair.

So the next time you think life is not fair, go outside and look around for a few minutes. Stop and really consider God’s creation. Think about how powerful God is to make all this. Consider how wise He is to make birds fly and fish swim. Ponder the sun, the moon, and the stars. God made all this. He maintains it.

Can a God like that be unfair? No. Does a God like that know what you’re going through? Yes. As surely as He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29). So what are we to do? Let the creation hold you steady as you go through the storms of life. God knows what He’s doing. He knows your situation and how it will turn out. You don’t. That’s where faith comes in. This is not a leap in the dark. It’s trusting in God through the darkest hours.

Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher. Get in touch with us today.