Job 38

For most of his short history, man has been consumed with one thing—his god(s). Story after story in the Bible talks about the lengths man will go to in order to win the attention or approval of whatever god he believes in. From Baal to Molech to Dagon, and from bodily sacrifice to animal sacrifice to human sacrifice, men have employed bizarre (and often tragic) means to rouse their god to action. To no avail. It’s hard to get the attention of someone who doesn’t exist.

Given that backdrop, don’t overlook the simple beauty of this chapter. Job also believed in a god… who happened to be the God of heaven. He believed he was friends with this God and, during his ordeal, kept demanding that this God show up. And, guess what? He did. Our God is the only God in history to show up. For centuries, men have been praying to, pleading with, and sacrificing to other gods—only to be left frustrated and alone. But the God of heaven and earth, the one true God, He shows up. He’s been showing up since the beginning in the Garden, and He’s still showing up today.

Think for a moment about what that must have been like for Job and his friends. We don’t know if Job had ever encountered God in such a personal way before, but from the speeches made by his friends, we could conclude that none of them had ever been in the immediate presence of God. They were of the opinion that God didn’t even care about human beings, so why would He ever bother to show up? Imagine what it must have been like for Job to invoke God’s presence and get exactly what he asked for.

I think that’s a point we often overlook at the end of Job. We’re too busy trying to make sense of the questions God asked. And those questions, in and of themselves, are interesting. Why would this be what God says when He shows up? Why not declare right away that Job is righteous? Why not sympathize with Job? Why not tell Job that He wasn’t the one who caused His suffering?

He doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t provide any answers whatsoever. He only asks questions—and they are questions that Job can’t answer. In fact, most of them are questions that scientists still can’t answer thousands of years later! I don’t think God asked these questions because He expected them to know the answers. They couldn’t know the answers. Rather, God wanted Job to realize that there were many aspects of life (not just his suffering) that he didn’t understand—but that these aspects were known to Him and He had the situation under control.

Regardless, Job didn’t much seem to care that God was asking questions he couldn’t answer. Instead, the fact that God showed up and was speaking was enough for Job. That told him all he needed to know—that things were still all right between him and his friend. To that extent, it really didn’t matter what God said. Job had finally gotten the one thing he wanted—to see his best friend.

Through the centuries, man has talked to a lot of gods. But there is only one God who has ever showed up and talked back. And He is no less willing to show up today than He did in the Garden, in Job’s town, or in Bethlehem. Especially when we encounter the storms in life, we will find that our God is there.