A Divine Dress Down

“Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” (Job 38:3 AV)

Every time I read this, I remind myself of the Job’s situation.  Job had lost his sons.  Raiders took away all his wealth.  Then the devil struck him with illness that was so horrible, he sat and scraped off the scars.  His wife counseled him to curse God and die.  For 34 chapters, his friends tried to prove it was all his fault.  Even the young and arrogant Elihu tried to pin this all on Job.  To say that Job was abused is an understatement.  Any ordinary person would have given up on God.  Then along comes God and gives Job a thorough dress down.  For those who don’t know what that is, a dress down is a severe tongue lashing designed to humiliate an insubordinate subordinate.  One almost feels for Job.  But the question arose, if the LORD felt justified in giving Job a dress down, one wonders how many I deserve?  Job did not deserve the situation in which he found himself.  He did not commit, or was living in, unconfessed sin.  He did not make foolish decisions that resulted in these tragedies.  His pitiful life as a simple test initiated by God to prove to Satan that He was worthy to be worshipped regardless of the benefits it brought to man.  God intended to prove to Satan that if Job were to worship and obey Him even though He allowed tragedy to invade Job’s life, then He was the God worthy of all worship.

Job’s mistake was trying to make sense of something which he could not understand.  He was not privy to the conversation God and Satan held.  He didn’t know why God allowed what He did.  In fact, to give Job the cause for tragedy in the midst of it would have undermined God’s purpose.  Job had to be ignorant in order to prove he would still worship God, no matter the situation.  To enlighten Job would have given him a benefit for worshipping God greater than the trial which he faced.  This is why God gave him a dressing down.  Job went places he should not have gone.  Job wanted answers to which he wasn’t entitled.  He surmised God’s wisdom was questionable.  He believed it would have been better if he wasn’t born at all.  Job could not see suffering as a purpose for life.  He surmised that if he wasn’t blessed by his obedience, there was no point in his life.  He didn’t mean that selfishly.  Simply put, if his life was not a testament to the benefits of obedience and faith toward God, then why live?  He cannot affect the lives of others if tragedy was the result of a life of obedience.  Job said a lot.  A lot that he wished he could take back.

aThe divine rebuke was for one purpose only.  God demanded of Job that he explain all that God does and how He does it.  He demanded of Job that he show some cause, wherein he was the authority by which God determined anything.  The arguments from creation are several.  First, Job was not there when God created the material world.  God did not need Job’s permission to create.  God did not need to explain to Job why He did what He did before He did it.  Second, by arguing from creation, God reveals that He controls all things.  What premise does the created possess to determine how the Creator does anything?  The conclusion to God’s rebuke was that God is God and man is not entitled to answers.  If we do know anything, it is purely by the grace of God.  All this brings me back to our main point.  If Job, in his tragedy, was soundly rebuked by a holy God, one wonders how much we deserve the correcting word of God.  If Job got a dressing down in the midst of his tragedy, I wonder how much more I deserve one when times of prosperity seem to be more prevalent.  Job was a righteous man who feared God and eschewed evil.  He helped his fellow man any way he could.  He interceded for his family and covered their sin by sacrifice.  He was more than honorable.  He was a model saint.  Yet the LORD deemed it necessary to give this man the harsh words he needed to hear.  Once more, I wonder how much I have stored up.  I wonder how blunt the LORD must be with me.  I wonder why I have not been put in my place after suffering as deeply as Job.  If Job received such a rebuke in times of hardship, I deserve far more!