July 18, 2022: Day 152 – Job 38-42

Now we begin to get some action.  God speaks out of a whirlwhind.  He addresses Job, but I think he also addresses Job’s friends.  Just think of how you might feel if you are decrepit and have just lost everything and God speaks to you out of a whirlwind.  You would be relieved either way.  Either because your suffering is over or because God is going to bring relief.  He asks Job a bunch of questions that have to do with the Providence of God and which only God can answer.  

Job answers briefly in 40 when he states that he is small and cannot compare with God.  God then lays into him again.  Job answers in 42 and states clearly: “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too  wonderful for me, which I did not know. ”  This posture of humility does wonders.  God then speaks and castigates Job’s friends telling them that Job was right all along and they were so terrible to him that Job has to offer a sacrifice to God because God will not accept one from them, only from Job.

Job offers that sacrifice and God rewards him with double of what he had before.  That isn’t the motivation to pursue righteousness, but it doesn’t hurt.