(The recording contains a brief report of the 1995 annual ‘Ministers’ Week of Prayer’)
“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,” Job 38:1.
The debate about Job’s afflictions had been raging now for some time. Job had answered and silenced his three comforters, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. He in turn has been silenced but not convinced by Elihu. Now the Lord speaks to Job. Job, who had held his ground before his three friends and had been unchastened by the words of Elihu now melts before the words of Jehovah.
We are told that the Lord spoke to Job out of a whirlwind. The action of a whirlwind is to gather the dust of the ground and lift it heavenward. That was the case with Job. He is drawn upward to a higher plane as God stoops to speak with him.
God’s answer to Job takes the form of many questions, some sixty all told. Whatever questions we may feel we have for God, He has many more for us. The very first question God asks of Job, verse 4, shows how unqualified we are to question God’s dealings with men generally or with ourselves in particular. As God says in verse 2, we only darken His counsels by our words without knowledge. Our observations and questionings, if made independently of God’s word, serve only to increase darkness rather than bring light upon the subject. I wish to consider what is implied in that verse 1.
I. THE LORD WILL HAVE THE FINAL SAY ON ALL MATTERS
If this were not so, then all would end in confusion and darkness. The disputes of the ages would remain unresolved. But God is the grand and glorious arbitrator of all disputes and questions. Just remember, when we have voiced our opinions and are living according to them, God will yet have His say. We have all to give an account to Him. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God, Romans 14:12.
II. THE FINAL JUDGMENT OF MEN IS FORESHADOWED HERE.
III. THIS PORTION REMINDS US OF THE RESULTS FOR BELIEVERS OF GOD’S FINAL DEALINGS WITH MEN.
Two things were accomplished for Job.
A full vindication of believers will never be granted in this life but it shall come. To this day, many of God dearest saints are maligned and slandered, ie., the reformers and martyrs. but a day of full vindication is coming. II Thess 1:7-10. It will be seen that the grace of God was in them.