Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the portion that we read,
Job chapter 38, and reading from our text, verse 31. Job 38 and verse 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences
of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? And specifically it
is the question, Canst thou? We continue this evening our
Thursday evening series on questions asked in scripture and the book
of Job has more questions asked than in any other book and though
we confine our thoughts really this evening to this question
to Job, canst thou, or are you able, can you do this? And what
is implied is that Job cannot do this, yet as we read this
portion, no doubt you registered how many different ways questions
were asked by God to Job, and really with the same import,
the same intention but in just in this book there's 18 times
that Job is asked with these words, canst thou do this and
these things are said before him So I want to look at three
points. Firstly, God's purpose in asking
this question. And then secondly, those purposes
that are shown in Job's case, what the Lord is aiming at, in
Job's case, just picking a few of these cans of vows. And then thirdly, those purposes
are shown in other scriptures as well. So I want to then look
firstly at God's purpose in asking this question. If we go back
to Job chapter 32, We read when Job's friends stopped
speaking to him and it was because he was righteous in his own eyes. Chapter 32, verse 1, so these
three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his
own eyes. Well, let us just think briefly
of what actually had happened to Job. We have in the very beginning
of the book, the first two chapters, an account of what Satan was
permitted to do in Job's life. May we always remember that Satan
is bound, God is in control, and even in these things that
were brought upon Job, the Lord governed them, ordered them,
and in the end, the latter end of Job was better than his beginning. The Word of God is very clear
to tell us that with Job there was no cause that Satan should
move God to take away from Job many of his things, his loved
ones, his goods, his lands, and then later even his health and
his strength. How often it is that when we
get things coming into our lives and troubles and difficulties,
Satan will first turn around and accuse us and say, this has
come because of something you have done. You can't expect the
Lord to help you, nor to go in prayer to the Lord because you
have brought this upon yourself. These are things that you deserve.
Well, in the book of Job, who more afflicted, we may say, than
any, recorded in the Word of God, we are clearly told in his
case there was no cause, there was no reason at all. And at first his friends, they
came, They came to sympathize with him, but after a number
of days, they sat with him seven days without speaking. But then
they thought, well, this continued trial and the severity of it,
there must be something wrong with Job. And they sought then
to bring many things before him and to bring him in as guilty. And then Job started to justify
himself. Then he started to even set himself
as righteous in his own eyes, or righteous before God. Now
it's one thing for God to say, like he said to Job, that he
was righteous in that his works and all that he did, he, like
the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, even before he was called, all
that he did, he did with a clear conscience before God, even believing
when he was persecuting the people of God that he was doing God's
service. And with Job, he was walking
in an outward way, righteous and upright before God. But we
must know, however outwardly upright we are, sin is mixed
with everything we say and do. Paul is very clear of that, that
the righteousness by the law, that is not saving. It is the
righteousness by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that is saving. And so, with these trials, what
it really brought out from Job, it brought out several things.
First, it made Satan to be a liar, because Satan said that Job only
served God for what God did for him, hedging him about, preventing
things from happening to him, preserving him on every side.
His thought was, you touch all that he has, and he'll curse
thee to thy face. And that will be true. of many,
apart from the grace of God, if God afflicts us, then we will
turn against Him and we will leave Him and not follow Him. Many, many do not pass that trial
of faith They are offended by and by and they go back, walk
no more with the Lord. But with Job and really with
all of God's true children, sustained by grace and by the goodness
of God, they will not can't be cast away, they will not go back
from Him. And so Satan was proved to lie
in that. But God had another purpose,
and that was to show to Job what was really in his heart, to really
bring him in as a sinner, as one guilty before God, needing
the mercy of God, needing the grace of God. And it is in these
trials that Our dross comes out, and all what we didn't know was
there comes out, and then the Lord deals with that. And so this is what came out
with Job. His pride rose up, he was righteous
in his own eyes, and his friends had sought to deal with him,
but now they had ceased to answer him, they couldn't deal with
the matter. Then first of all Elihu, the
younger one, he kept silence while the other three friends
had spoken, But now his wrath was kindled against the other
three that had been speaking with him, because they had found
no answer, and yet had condemned Job. And so now in the portion
where our text is, it is not the friends that are speaking,
it is not Elihu that is speaking, But it is the Lord Himself speaking
with Job and He's bringing these very many questions to Job and
confining our thoughts this evening to this question, Canst thou? So what is the purpose of this
line of questioning by the Lord in a way that he would deal with
Job effectively, not like his three friends, but bring him
to be humbled? And that is the very first thing
that the Lord does when he asks these questions that really are
highlighting here is something that we cannot do. It is to humble
us before His Almighty Hand, make us to feel very small. All the while we think we've
got all the answers, we know all, we have everything at our
control, we understand everything, then we can ride on a high even
before men. And even before man, if we then
have someone that comes and they really show us many, many things
that we cannot do, then our pride starts to evaporate and to disappear. It has the effect of to humble
us. One of the greatest sins is pride
and spiritual pride. And the Lord knows how to bring
that down and to lay us low And that is His design, because as
our Lord was made low, humbled Himself, became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God hath highly
exalted Him. So He'd have us also humbled
and brought low, that He may then lift us up. And that is
what He did with Job. It may be that the trials and
things that we're passing through have brought things out from
us and made us confront things in our thoughts and in our lives
that we never thought was there at all. And we think, why is
the Lord doing this? Why is the Lord showing me such
things? Why am I being so discouraged
and so disheartened at what I feel and what I see? And the answer
is, one of the answers, the Lord is humbling us, bringing us low,
that no flesh might be glorified in His presence. The second reason
is to highlight our inability. Yes, it is God that does that. highlights our inability, our
inability in so many ways to pray, to seek Him, to hear, to
walk in a right way, to do those things that are pleasing in His
sight. Many things might be lying upon
our hearts, our burdens this evening, things that we've had
to see that we've so failed and that we do not have this ability
to do these things. And it's God that's highlighting
it. It's painful to us, humbling
to us. I always remember when I first
started my apprenticeship at Fitting and Turning, and I was
only 16. I'd come from school, and at
school, trade school, I'd made many things. I'd came across
with lots of awards, first at this and that, and I came in
there as a first-year apprentice, But with such pride and such
unteachableness, I knew it all. The fitters, they didn't know
anything. And I had to be brought out of that. Some of the younger
men, they thought the best way was to give me a few punches,
and that might bring me down humble, but that didn't work.
And what did, under the Lord's hand, was when my fitter introduced
me to the boilers, the boilers that run the steam for the heating
of the hospital. I'd never worked on a boiler
before. I didn't know what they were,
and to go into that boiler house at such high temperatures, the
whistle of the steam, and the great sense of the power and
everything that was there, and there was nothing I knew whatsoever. And that stopped me, that humbled
me, here was something that I didn't know, I couldn't do, I needed
to be taught in all of those things, my inability was highlighted,
and it had a good effect upon me. And so We need that in our
lives, to be brought to those situations where we have no helping
self, we have our inability set before us, and especially when
we may think in eternal things, that heaven is at stake, our
soul's welfare is at stake, and here we are, faced with such
a poor, unable to do or think one thought aright. Well the
third purpose in asking these questions like this, canst thou,
canst thou do this or that, is to magnify what God does, what
He can do, that man cannot do. He is in control in all these
things, He was in control in Job's life, He is in yours, He
is in mine. And it is to highlight, who is
he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when God commandeth
it not? And is there anything too hard
for the Lord? We looked at that question last
Thursday. And so it is to magnify what
God can do. May this thought be an encouragement
to you. If God is showing you what you
cannot do, Really what he is showing you is what he can do
and he's preparing you to receive what he can do by showing that
you can't do that. You think of the Apostle Paul
writing to the Romans and in Romans 10 he's saying that his
kindred who he longed to be saved that they had a zeal for God
but not according to knowledge. that they were going about to
establish their own righteousness, really that's what Job was doing,
and had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
They thought their own works were good enough. And what a
blessing it is if God shows us our own works are not good enough.
Not to crush us, not to destroy us, not to show us our portion
is in hell, but to make way for His righteousness, for what He
can do, what He has done, and what He can do for us. So in asking these questions
that are highlighting what Job cannot do, bringing things before
us in our life, highlighting what we cannot do, maybe think
of God's aim, Is it humbling us? Is it showing us our inability? And is it, in turn, showing us
what God is able to do? And so, really focusing our thoughts
and our prayers, our desires, our petitions to the Lord on
those things that we cannot do, instead of trying and trying
still to do them, and to achieve them, The best way is to bow
before the Lord and admit, admit defeat, admit these things cannot
be done. Of course, in this portion here,
the Lord does it in such a way that Job doesn't have any answer. He cannot, he cannot find something
that he can do. So I want to then look secondly
at these purposes as shown in Job's case. Now firstly I want
to go back to when Zohar was speaking, and that's in chapter
11. And we have verses 7 and 8 there,
and the question is asked in the same vein, same way, Canst
thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is high as heaven, what canst
thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst
thou know? And so the question is, canst
thou find out God? Man cannot. He cannot find out
God. Heaven of heavens cannot contain
Him, says Solomon. How much less this house that
I have built. God is a spirit. They that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And Paul, writing
to the Corinthians, says that God has decreed that man, by
man's wisdom, shall never find out God. He cannot be saved that
way, he cannot find out God and he's pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God is to
be revealed, he will reveal himself and man cannot find him out. You know in this very deep trial
of Job One thing that added to that trial was when the Lord
hid his face from him. And you can read in Job 23 the
great distress that he had when that was the case. He says, O
that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even unto
his seat, I would order my cause before him, would fill my mouth
with arguments. But he couldn't find him out,
he couldn't find him. And this was part of his trial,
maybe it's a part of your trial, my trial, that we seem to be
so far off. God has shut the heavens as brass,
Our prayers don't go through, we seem to be so earthbound,
so hard, so dead, so cold, we cannot find out God, we know
not where to seek Him. We think of in that resurrection
mourn, they've taken away my Lord, I know not where they have
laid Him. Our Lord drew out from dear Mary,
why weepest thou, whom seekest thou? But you know that resurrection
mourning, It was a morning when the Lord was showing Himself
to this one, to that one. They didn't find Him. Not all
their searching, they didn't find Him. The Lord revealed Himself
to them. Think of that, remember that.
Well, this is something Job could not do, and yet God would do,
and God did do for him. And may we be encouraged in that
as well. But then Job is asked, can he
control the seasons or the heavens? And this is where our text is,
in verse 31, Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
or loose the bands of Orion? Now these are speaking of the
constellations of the stars in the heavens. And those stars
appear at certain times in the year, and Pleiades especially,
some 800 stars, part of a constellation in the skies, and those stars,
they control the springtime. When it comes to spring, it is
the heavens that move them. We often think, well, the moon,
that is governing our tides. It's pulling the waters backwards
and forwards every six hours. But we little think, well, actually
the seasons They also are governed by the heavens as well. The Earth
is not just on its own and not unaffected by the stars. Of course, the Sun, the greatest
star, is that which gives all heat and life and energy to the
planet and we go around that Sun. So, the Pleiades, we have
the sweet influences, of springtime, when springtime comes, can we
control that? Can we bind those sweet influences
and say we're like winter goo, continue, I don't want the blood
buds to spring forth, I don't want there to be the spring up. We can't control that. or loose the bands of Orion,
that is the winter, the cold that we have now, that is also
governed by the stars and brings the cold in its season on each
part of the Earth. And so Job is pointed to the
heavens and to those things that have a real influence on the
Earth. and he has to face up, he has
no control over the seasons. Now you think about that in a
spiritual way. Those seasons of affliction or
darkness or poverty, those seasons that Job is going through here
and then the seasons of prosperity God has set the one over against
the other, the day of prosperity, the day of adversity. All these things are coming in
His season. We have the day, and then the
night comes, and then after the night the day comes. And that's
governed by the heavens as well. And so, in a spiritual way, We
cannot control those seasons, but God can. And when those things
come that bring darkness upon us, bring coldness, we may know
that God is able to turn that. There is a set time to favour
Zion. There is a time when you change
that, and nothing can hold back those sweet influences of Pleiades,
when the Lord draws his people, sheds abroad a Saviour's love,
drops in those tokens for good, that is the Lord's doing. You
and I cannot control our own frames, our own feelings, but
the Lord does. Our hearts are in His hand. In one place in Job, I think
it is, it says, He maketh my heart soft. And these things
the Lord can do, but we cannot do. So Job had to face with this. Canst thou change these seasons? And how would we answer? And
in a spiritual way. Can we change? Can we lift ourselves
out of the pit, out of a low place? Or do we need the Lord
to do that? And the Lord brings us low to
show us our inability and our need. Our need is His opportunity
to show His ability. But then we have, Canst thou
know times? And this is turning to the next
chapter, chapter 39. And in the first two verses,
he is asked the time when the wild goats of the rock bring
forth. Canst thou mark when the hinds
do calve? Canst thou number the months
that they fulfill? Those times, do we know those
times? Our times are in thy hand. Job is had to face, he does not
know these times. God has appointed those times,
again applied in a spiritual way. We think of what the Lord
said with the 70 years that he would accomplish in Babylon for
the children of Judah. And those times were appointed
by God. The times of His coming to this
world was appointed, the time of His death, His resurrection,
all appointed. And so at our times all appointed
were by Him. Then we have in verse 10 a picture
with the unicorn and Job is asked, Canst thou control Him? Hence their bind, the unicorn
with his band in the furrow. We're not used to them as an
extinct animal, we believe, and very, very strong. Very self-willed. And Job is asked, can't he bind
him? No, he cannot do that. And then
down in verse 19, the horse, all his strength, canst thou
make him afraid as the grasshopper? No, he can't do that. And so there is one that, even
in the animal kingdom, Job he cannot control. man was given
that dominion over the animal kingdom and yet fallen man as
dear Job he must admit no he even has lost that ability in
a measure to control the animal kingdom and many things then
in our lives as well we cannot control and the Lord goes forth
Even further to Leviathan, many thoughts as to what that is,
a sea monster, something that is very, very terrible. Some
have thought it might be the crocodile, speaking of the scales
that you can't get anywhere before. But in chapter 41 we have the
introduction of him, 1 Canst thou draw out Leviathan with
a hook, or his tongue with a cord, which thou lettest down? 2 Canst
thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish
spears? and then we have in verse 10
none is so fierce that dare stir it him up who then is able to
stand before me but if we were perhaps to use the example of
a crocodile that is just lying on the on the grass and we were
to go up to it and we poke it and we stir it up and then suddenly
it would arise in all its fearsomeness and danger. Who would dare doing
that? If we knew what it was to stir it up, we wouldn't want
to do that. We'd avoid doing that. And I
often think with Leviathan, it is a picture of what sin is. What sin is. If we stir up sin,
we cannot control it. It is a great enemy and you cannot
get barbs into it, you can't manipulate it at all. Will thou
play with him as with a bird? No. And many things that are
said about Leviathan often think we're sin. Now you think about
the thought of stirring up this great monster, this fearsome
monster. Only thing of sin is stirred
up. The Apostle Paul, he said, that
I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. Sin was stirred up. That which
was lying, as it were, asleep, then it was stirred up, and it
was brought to be a great monster, as it were, uncontrollable, something
that he had no power, against whatsoever. And yet we know this,
that wherever the Lord stirs up sin like that through the
commands of the law in a sinner, and it rages in their bosom,
and it creates such havoc in their lives, and they cannot
control it, it's like the Apostle said, He died, He died to any
hope when He saw this, what sin really was, in all its angry,
horrible, ugliness, and the great beast that it is. But wherever
God stirs it up, He does it for a purpose, in the Day of Grace,
to bring those to conviction, to bring them to the sinner's
friend, to bring them to the Saviour of sinners, to bring
them to need the Saviour, to bring them to look upon Him that
was made sin for them who knew no sin." And so we have this
thing that Job could not do, and you and I, when sin rises
up, and you may this evening have such a view of sin that
only seems to get worse and harder in your life, something you cannot
manage, and yet the Lord can. Think of this principle, what
God has brought before you and I, that we painfully feel we
cannot imagine, cannot deal with, and cannot overcome. It is to
magnify what He can do, and what He has done, especially in this
relationship, that He is the Saviour of sinners. He laid down
His life to take it again, made sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And so we have
these cases in the book of Job where these purposes are actually
achieved. It humbles even a sense of sin. Under God's hand humbles the
soul. It highlights our inability to
deal with it. and it highlights also what God
is able to do, to save unto the uttermost all that come unto
God by Him. We want to look then thirdly
at some of the other places in Scripture where these purposes
are shown. David in Psalm 139, he speaks
of the many things that God does, the great knowledge
of God. He says, Thou hast searched me
and known me, Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising,
Thou understandest my thought afar off. And he is speaking
of those things that he sees God can do, what he is able to
do. And then he says of this such
knowledge in verse 6, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is
high I cannot attain unto it. Something that dear David could
not do, he could not grasp how great God was. how much he knew
of him, his very thoughts, he could not go anywhere from his
presence. If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. Sometimes the soul can be overwhelmed
with the greatness of God, the majesty of God, how poor we are,
how weak we are, how feeble we are. And David, a man after God's
own heart, was brought to feel that, then we would go to our
Lord Himself. Our Lord says to those that were
full of anxious thoughts and cares, that which of them by
taking thought could add one cubit to their stature. He says, if ye cannot do that
which is least, why take ye thought for that which is greater? And
so the Lord is using those things brought before us, what we cannot
do, to say, well, all those anxious thoughts, those anxious cares,
those burdens that you have, and the Lord's using these And
he's saying these, just adding to you, statue, you can't do
that? Well, how can you do these things?
And where is he directing us? To himself, to seek first his
kingdom, his righteousness, to go to him and not be filled with
worry and care and anxious care. And the way he's doing it is
to show us our inability. God is managing. He is ordering
it. He is doing His will. If there is that which is done
that is to the praise of God, it will not be our works but
God's work. Unto Him be glory. And so our
Lord goes on later on with teaching concerning the vine. He says
that I am the vine, ye are the branches. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, neither
can you, except ye abide in me. And he says, without me ye can
do nothing. And our Lord is very clear, it's
what man cannot do. He has not got strength in himself,
he has not got sap, he has not got life. The Lord says, I give
unto them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of mine hand. He said, I am come that
they might have life and have it more abundantly, not in themselves,
but in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our life is, and
it's bound up with Him. No man can keep alive his own
soul, no, but the Lord can. And the Lord will have us to
feel our dependence. Those times when we feel so lifeless,
so cold, so dead, you think of how the Lord dealt with dear
Peter. Peter said, though all men forsake
thee, yet will not I. And the Lord said to him, Satan
hath desired to have thee, to sieve thee as wheat, but I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And he must go into
Satan's sieve, and he denies his Lord three times. And then the Lord meets with
him afterwards. Lovest thou me more than these? How the Lord knew just how to
humble dear Peter. The Lord had said to him before,
when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. How is he going
to strengthen his brethren? By telling them to rest in their
own strength, to be bold in their own strength? No. Trust in the
Lord and to rely on his strength, not to rise up in pride against
the brethren. but to humbly bow before the
Lord and realize our own weakness, rely upon the Lord's prayers
and Lord's intercession, that we be kept, that we not lose
our faith. That's how, dear Peter, you've
only got to read the epistles of Peter. Beloved, be not amazed
at the strange trial it is to try you, as though some strange
thing happened unto you. But rejoice inasmuch as ye are
partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall appear,
then ye shall appear with Him. The fiery trial of faith, Peter
speaks very much of it, if need be in heaviness. through manifold
temptations. He knew what it was. And if you're
in those trials and temptations and burdens and feel to have
denied your Lord and gone back from Him, you read those epistles,
those two epistles of Peter. One that is strengthening his
brethren after he denied his Lord, after he'd been in Satan's
sieve. They're designed for the comfort
of the people of God. Then we have the Apostle Paul
writing to the Romans. We've already referred to him,
that which happened when The law was brought into his life.
He is brought forth as a sinner. And so how did he find it? In
the reality, when sin had been stirred up like that Leviathan,
we have in Romans 7 and verse 18, he says, For I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is
present with me. But how to perform that which
is good I find not. And we find him before that sin
that is working in his members to be just helpless and no ability
against it at all. And he has the answer there,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? Not me. He says, I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. That
conflict will always go on between the redeemed, renewed soul of
the people of God and their body of death, the sin that works
in their members. They'll find it too much for
them, too hard for them. Many an errand to the throne
of grace will be, Lord, deliver me from this sinful self, my
sins, and the risings up of these sins. No wretched man that I
am is what his language is. And those that walk in the flesh,
he says later on in chapter 8, that they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. We need to be in the Spirit,
we need His Spirit, and to walk after the Spirit, that is, after
the things of God. May we remember the Holy Word
of God is the inspired Word of God. If we're walking in the
Spirit, we're walking in the Word of God. Order my footsteps
by thy Word. Or the psalmist says, wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto and
according to thy Word. And it is then a spiritual way. when we are walking according
to the Word of God, and we seek that the Lord would give us that
grace to know and do His will. But then in verse 26, he says
we don't even know what we should pray for as we ought. But then
is that where it ends? We don't know? what to pray for
as we ought, but know this Spirit helps our infirmities. The Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And so again, scatter through
Scripture. No doubt you and I, as we go
away this evening, will come across other Scriptures and you'll
think, here is something that we cannot do, but here is what
God can do. There is God working out His
purposes to humble us, to highlight our inability, but also to show
us what He can do. Remember that the Lord prepares
the way. for his honour and glory. He'll
have the man that was born blind, so he could give him sign. He'd
have Lazarus not healed before he dies, but dies and then rise
from the dead. He'll have the woman of Nain's
son dead, so that he'd raise him from the dead. His first
miracle, he'd have them run out of wine, so that he could turn
the water into wine. And all the time, it's those
things that man cannot do. And the Lord does. And the Lord
prepares these ways, these individuals, like the man born blind, even
from his birth, or the woman with 12 years with the issue
of blood, all laid up in store, that inability, that no doctor,
that none could come near, against that time when the Lord would
do it. The Lord would appear and in a moment he would accomplish
that blessing. And so we have then in the words
of our text this question, Canst thou? So may the Lord bless this
word to us. May he show us that which he
is exalted to do and give us to be partakers of it. to His
honour and His glory, and may this word be as a key or an interpretation
of your life and mine at this time, and the Lord using it,
so that very soon He will turn that captivity and turn our inability
into His opportunity to work and His way of achieving His
end. to bless our souls and to glorify
His beloved Son, the Lord at His blessing. Amen.