4 Lessons from God’s Interrogation of Job
Republished from Justin Taylor's blog
Andy Naselli on Job 38:1—42:6, from his book From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34-35:
1. God is too small in Job’s eyes.
Prior to God’s interrogation of Job, Job’s perception of God is too soft, too tame, too domesticated. But God’s questions underscore his unshakable trustworthiness as uniquely and infinitely wise, sovereign, just, and good. God is not someone whom Job can drag into court so that he and God can argue their case before an impartial judge. The Almighty God is without peer. He himself is the judge, jury, executioner, and standard of justice.
2. Correspondingly, Job is too large in his own eyes.
God gives Job a theocentric view of the universe because Job cannot help viewing God’s world with himself at its center.
Job actually discredits God’s justice at the expense of his own innocence. So an effect of God’s piercing questions is that Job repents by humbling himself before God as insignificant, ceasing to question God’s ways with him, and submitting to God’s unthwartable sovereignty (40:4-5; 42:1-6). Job does not claim to understand why he is suffering, nor does he insist on his right to know why. Instead, he repents. But he does not repent of sins that he committed prior to his innocent suffering. Rather, he repents of his conceited perspective about God’s justice that he expressed in the midst of his suffering. Job’s maturity grows as he himself becomes smaller.
3. God is not obligated to give Job anything, not even answers to his questions.
So he changes the subject. He does not answer the main question that Job repeatedly asks: “Why am I suffering?” The closest God comes to answering it is rebuking Job for defending his own righteousness at
the expense of God’s righteousness (40:8). God does not answer Job’s “Why?” question because Job’s question, though sincere, is misguided. The narrator and reader know that God challenges Satan about Job’s integrity and gives Satan permission to make Job suffer, but Job never learns this. The point for Job—and the point that the narrator is making for the reader—is that God is not obligated to answer Job’s question. The reason is simple: God is infinite, and Job is finite. God himself is the answer. God as the Creator of the universe owns everything and owes nothing to anyone; a finite person cannot understand the inscrutable ways of the infinite God. . . .
4. Only God is all-wise.
By asking two series of imposing questions, God answers the question “Who is wise?” The answer is that God alone is wise. So rather than accusing God and doubting his integrity, the right response for Job is to trust God, who is supremely wise, sovereign, just, and good. God demonstrates that he sovereignly controls his universe and that he is not unjust and capriciously cruel. To the contrary, τὸ τέλος
κυριόυ [the purpose/goal/end of the Lord] with Job is to show “how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (Jas 5:11).
Andy Naselli on Job 38:1—42:6, from his book From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34-35:
1. God is too small in Job’s eyes.
Prior to God’s interrogation of Job, Job’s perception of God is too soft, too tame, too domesticated. But God’s questions underscore his unshakable trustworthiness as uniquely and infinitely wise, sovereign, just, and good. God is not someone whom Job can drag into court so that he and God can argue their case before an impartial judge. The Almighty God is without peer. He himself is the judge, jury, executioner, and standard of justice.
2. Correspondingly, Job is too large in his own eyes.
God gives Job a theocentric view of the universe because Job cannot help viewing God’s world with himself at its center.
Job actually discredits God’s justice at the expense of his own innocence. So an effect of God’s piercing questions is that Job repents by humbling himself before God as insignificant, ceasing to question God’s ways with him, and submitting to God’s unthwartable sovereignty (40:4-5; 42:1-6). Job does not claim to understand why he is suffering, nor does he insist on his right to know why. Instead, he repents. But he does not repent of sins that he committed prior to his innocent suffering. Rather, he repents of his conceited perspective about God’s justice that he expressed in the midst of his suffering. Job’s maturity grows as he himself becomes smaller.
3. God is not obligated to give Job anything, not even answers to his questions.
So he changes the subject. He does not answer the main question that Job repeatedly asks: “Why am I suffering?” The closest God comes to answering it is rebuking Job for defending his own righteousness at
the expense of God’s righteousness (40:8). God does not answer Job’s “Why?” question because Job’s question, though sincere, is misguided. The narrator and reader know that God challenges Satan about Job’s integrity and gives Satan permission to make Job suffer, but Job never learns this. The point for Job—and the point that the narrator is making for the reader—is that God is not obligated to answer Job’s question. The reason is simple: God is infinite, and Job is finite. God himself is the answer. God as the Creator of the universe owns everything and owes nothing to anyone; a finite person cannot understand the inscrutable ways of the infinite God. . . .
4. Only God is all-wise.
By asking two series of imposing questions, God answers the question “Who is wise?” The answer is that God alone is wise. So rather than accusing God and doubting his integrity, the right response for Job is to trust God, who is supremely wise, sovereign, just, and good. God demonstrates that he sovereignly controls his universe and that he is not unjust and capriciously cruel. To the contrary, τὸ τέλος
κυριόυ [the purpose/goal/end of the Lord] with Job is to show “how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (Jas 5:11).
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