The Lord answered Job out of
the whirlwind, probably in human form, because Job said over here in
chapter 42, verse 5, I've heard of thee by
the hearing of the ear, and now mine eye seeth thee. There's a good possibility that
as he appeared to Abraham and to Jacob and to Manoah and others,
that the Lord appeared out of the whirlwind here and spoke
to Job, because Job said, mine eye hath seen thee. And the Lord was speaking to
Job. Job took it personally. The Lord God said, who is this
that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Back here
in chapter 35, Elihu said concerning Job in chapter 35, verse 16,
Elihu was the young man who spoke when all three friends had been
put to silence. And he said, therefore, that
Job opened his mouth in vain. He multiplies words without knowledge. And over here in chapter 42,
Job confessed to that sin. He said in verse 3 of Job 42,
who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore
have I uttered that I understood not. Things too wonderful for
me. which I knew not. That's what
the Lord said to him. Who is this that darkeneth counsel
by words, words, words, words without knowledge? You see, Job
had talked about what he would do if he were given an audience
with God. He talked about what he would
do and what he would say if God would just give him an audience.
I'll show you that if you'll turn to Job 23. Job spoke wonderful things about
God, but he spoke some ill-advised things too. And that's what God
is, the Lord is rebuking him about here in this chapter. In
Job 23, verse 3, Job said, listen, oh, that I knew where I might
find him, that I might come even to his
seat. his throne. I would order my
cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments. He had
talked a lot, an awful lot, an awful lot. I would know the
words which he would answer me and understand what he would
say to me. I want some answers, Job said.
And then in Job 31, He says something akin to this
in Job 31, verse 35. Oh, that one would hear me. Job 31, 35, Behold, my desire
is that the Almighty would answer me. That my adversary had written
a book, surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it
as a crown to me. I would declare unto him the
number of my steps. a prince would I go near unto
him. So the Lord speaks to Job now
out of a whirlwind and he appears to him and in verse 3 he said,
now Job gird up your loins like a man. They wore those flowing
robes and when they went to work or something they girded them
up about them and he said, now you gird up your loins I'm going to put some questions
to you which demand a direct and positive answer. I will demand of you, listen,
gird up your loins like a man. The Lord God said to Job, I will
demand of you and you answer me. And I'm going to put this to
us tonight, starting up here behind this pulpit and out there.
like God spoke to Job. I'm going to put some questions
to you which demand a direct and positive answer. I'll demand,
he said, and you answer me. Now, verse 4, where were you? He speaks here in verse 4 through
7 concerning the creation of the world. Where were you when
I laid the foundations of the earth? if you have any understanding. The earth has foundations. God
said, where were you when I laid those foundations? The earth
has foundations so firm it hasn't moved since God put it where
he put it. What are they? Where are they? It's hung in the air. No power
but that of God could create it. He says, where were you,
Job, when I made the earth and laid it on the foundation? You
were in a state of nothingness. Nothingness. Declare unto me,
listen, verse 5, who hath laid the measures thereof, if you
know? Who stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened to this world? Who laid the cornerstones? The
cornerstone holds it together. Who laid that cornerstone? Where were you when the foundations
were laid? And he says in verse 7, and when
the morning stars sang together. Where were you when God created
the stars, all of them, and the And that's who he's talking about
here, the sons of God shouted for joy. We just read Revelation
5 in the study. And it said the angels about
the throne were 10,000 times 10,000. Do you know how many
of that 10,000 times? That's 100 million and thousands
and thousands. When the morning stars sang together,
when God made all the stars and called them by name and put them
out there in space, where were you, Joe? And when the sons of
God shouted for joy, where were you? Now concerning the sea,
verse 8, and who shut up the sea with doors when it break
forth as if it had issued out of the womb? Like a child coming
out of the womb, the seas were born. Who gave birth to the sea? Who said when the world was covered
with water, let the dry land appear? And when the dry land
appeared, the seas were all formed, the oceans and the seas. As a child is born, they were
born from the hand of God. Verse 9, when I made the cloud,
the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for
it, and I break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and
doors, and I said to the sea, all the seas and the oceans,
I said to them, hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther. Ezekiel's infant was not salted
nor swaddled, but God salted the sea, put a swaddling band
around, the seven seas and the oceans.
And he put each ocean in its decreed place and the oceans
and the seas with the miles of depth and miles and miles and
miles, hundreds, thousands of miles of water stretching from
shore to shore, but no further. Stop right there. The waves are
high, but no higher. Now tell me, Job, tell me, verse 11, who was it
that said, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here
shall thy proud waves be stayed? Now questions concerning the
morning and the dawn and the rising of the sun. Job, have
you commanded the morning since our days? Have you caused the dawn, the
day spring is the dawn, to know its place? Job, you've lived many mornings,
you've seen the sun rise many times, but you've never been
able to command it, or to hasten it, or to delay it. or to decree it. All you can
do is wait on it, as those that watch for the morning. That it might take hold of the
ends of the earth when the dawn, when the morning breaks forth
and the dawn comes up, the sun comes up. It takes hold of the
ends of the earth. It stretches out to the far corners
of the earth and dispels the wickedness of life, that the
wicked might be shaken out of it, the darkness. And verse 14, it is turned as
clay to the seal. What's that mean? Well, the clay
is just so meaningless. The clay is just so without form. The clay is just without beauty
until the seal in the hands of the potter touches it, and then
the clay turns into a thing of beauty. And the world in darkness of
the night is that way till the morning dawns and the sunlight
spreads across the earth, and then all the beautiful colors
and forward. Can you do that, Joe? And verse 15, and from the wicked
their light is withholding. Darkness is the light of the
wicked. They love darkness rather than light, but the dawn and
the day withholds their instrument of evil and takes it away from
them, and the high arms shall be broken. Verse 16, the springs
of the sea, springs of the sea, The Lord said, Job, have you
entered into the springs of the sea? We know that most rivers
and creeks start with a spring. D'Arcy and I were walking up
a hill, a mountain behind the peaks of Otter to where a little
farm sits up on top, and we came upon a spring. And as it comes
down that mountain, it just seems to get bigger and bigger and
bigger, so cool and clear and beautiful. And they tell me most
rivers start that way. Well, what about the ocean? What
about the oceans and the seas? The Lord is saying, Job, have
you entered into the springs of the sea? How are the seas
and the oceans supplied with water? Are there springs or fountains
at the bottom that keep it full, that supply the rivers that go
into the ocean? Listen, have you walked in search
of the depth of the ocean? In the deepest places, miles
below the surface, have you walked there and measured the depths
of the seas and found the springs from which to come and seen the
animals and minerals and plants all unknown to men? Have you
done that? I know them all by name, he said.
I created them. For my pleasure have I created
them. Job, verse 17. the gates of death
been opened to you? Tell me, Job, what do you know
about death? What do you know about death?
Have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? We know men die, but we don't
know what death is or how they die. or how they go out of this world,
how they go out, nowhere, nor in what state. Oh, we talk about
the building, but what do we know about it? There's no correspondence
or communication between the living and the dead. We cannot
answer factually any question about death except God decrees
it. And for the believer in Christ,
there's hope after death. But the particulars have the
gates of death and open to you. Have you seen the doors of the
shadow of death? Verse 18, have you perceived
the breath of the earth? Declare it if you know everything.
Oh boy. As the Lord spoke to him, he
just got quieter and quieter. That's the way I feel. As I read
this, I just get lower and lower. Have you measured the earth?
He said, have you measured the length and the breadth and the
height of the earth? Have you gone all over the earth
to measure every hill and dale and rock and mountain and lake
and river and forest and fountain? What do you know about the earth? How has it continued so long
with fullness? The millions and millions and
billions of people who've lived and eaten off of the earth and
taken from the earth and mistreated the earth and the animals and
the insects and the fish and all these many creatures, billions,
trillions of them that have partaken and yet the earth's still full,
still full, the fullness thereof, still supplying the need of everything
that eats and breathes. Listen, Job, verse 19, where
is the way where light dwells? As for darkness, where's the
place thereof of darkness? Oh, we know some answers about
light and darkness, but what he's asking Job here is where's
the chamber of the sun? Where's the womb of the sun?
How did the sun first get its light? God said let there be light,
but the sun burns and the sun heats and the sun is a fiery
ball, but who made it that way? The darkness. How did darkness
come to be? Do you know verse 20, that thou
shouldest take it to the bound thereof, that thou shouldest
know the path to the house thereof? Can you take me to the house
of the sun? Do you know the path to the house
of the sun? Tell me, now that there is a
sun, how can it be that one day we won't need a sun? And there won't be any darkness.
It says there's no sun. There's no light. They need no
light in heaven. The Son of God's the light there.
What are we going to do with the son? Where did it come from
and where is it going? Do you know the path to its home? Oh, here's the question in verse
21. Knowest thou it because you were
then born? You know, when men question our
sovereign God and His power and His right to reign, these are
good questions to ask. Do you know all this because
you were then born? Were you born when all this took
place? Were you in the beginning? Or
do you know it because the number of your days is so great? Because you're so old. Verse
22, have you entered into the treasure of the snow? Have you seen the treasures of
the hail? Our Lord talks about in Isaiah
55 as the rain and the snow comes down from heaven. The treasures of the snow are
hidden in the clouds, and we don't know anything about it
except when we see it fall. And then we see that every little
snowflake is different, though there are innumerable snowflakes,
but they're all different. Man just knows it falls. God
causes it to fall. treasures of the snow and the
hail. Verse 23, the hail and the snow,
which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against
the day of battle and war. You know, he sent the hail upon
Egypt. He's used hail and snow in battles. Snow is what Mark the demise
of Napoleon. Wasn't that right? Didn't the
snow in Russia bog him down and defeat him? God sent him. And I'll tell you this, World War II, when the Germans
could have easily taken England, it had fallen into their hands
like a ripe apple at that time. They turned to Russia, and God
sent a winner like never been before, and destroyed the mighty
German army. God said, if you enter the treasure
of the snow, which I have reserved against
the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war, he'll
use it, the hail and the snow. Here's a question, listen. By
what way is the light parted? By whom is light distributed? There's an unequal distribution
of light and of sunshine and of heat in various places at
different seasons. There's a time when the light
is six months in North Pole, six months darkness. Who does
all that? During seasons, different seasons, the days are longer,
the days are shorter. Different climates. Who determines
the east wind upon the earth? It's invisible and yet it blows
and scatters the clouds. It carries the clouds where God
decrees for them to go. Do we have any control over that? Job, do you have any control
over that? Verse 25, who hath divided a
water course for the overflowing of the waters? In other words,
who ordains the rain to fall regularly, gently, and doesn't
come down upon us as a flood? Who divided a water course for
the overflowing of the waters from the clouds? But the waters
from the clouds, they don't come in spouts and floods and heavy
falls like a waterfall at Niagara. The rain falls gently upon our
crops and gently upon our fields. Larger, smaller drops. But God
has a channel for the rain. And He says, listen, and a path
for the lightning and the thunder. which comes together. And verse
26, He causes it to rain on the earth where no man is. There's
some animals out there who need to eat and drink, and plants that need to grow
where no man lives. But God causes it to rain where
He pleases, even where no man is or has been. He sends rain
for the use of animals that dwell where no man dwells. on the wilderness where there's
no man, verse 26, to satisfy the desolate waste
ground, to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth so
the deer can eat, and the little foxes and the birds. Verse 28, does the rain have
a father? Is it you, Joe? People that say
belittle God and talk in a trivial way about God. Are you the father
of the rain? The rain has a father. And listen,
or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Can you even imagine
how many drops of dew there are? The dew on the rose petals and
the leaves. Who hath begotten them? By whose
hand were they born? Verse 29 and 30. Out of whose
womb came the ice and the white frost of heaven? Who had gendered
it? And the waters are hid as with
a stone. That means that the lake freezes
over. And the water is hid under the
ice and the ice is like a stone and where you once Couldn't walk,
now you can walk across it. They tell me there was a time
you could walk across that Ohio River, frozen. Water couldn't be seen. It's
like a stone over it. Drive a car across it. And the
face of the deep is frozen. Who does that? Now listen, verse 31. Now here's
some questions, a whole bunch of questions here in the latter
go through this chapter. Can you bind the sweet influences
of Pleiades? Pleiades is the cluster of seven
stars rising in the spring. Pleiades, the cluster of seven
stars that rises in the spring. And then, or loose the bands
of Oran, which appears in the winter and
brings the snow. Can you bring forth Maserat in
its season? That's, some people believe,
the 12 divisions of Zodiac in the heavens, each are brought
forth in their season. Or can you guide Arturus? That's the big bear and the little
bear with his sons. The stars were guided by God. Can you guide them? Do you know
the ordinances of heaven? The laws of heaven? Who made
the law of gravity? The earth's pressure? The laws of nature? the ordinances
of heaven that control this earth, the sun and the moon, the tides. Can you set the dominion thereof
in the earth? Listen, Job verse 34, can you
lift up your voice to the clouds and an abundance of water will
cover you? A lot of farmers would like to
have that kind of power, wouldn't they? Can you send lightning, Job?
that they go and say to you, here we are. I read an article
one time on the power of lightning, the fierce force and power of
lightning, immeasurable, and yet God throws them from His
fingertips, the lightning. They say, here we are. Go and
come. I love a storm. I love to see
the lightning just flash to the earth. I just, I think of this
verse when it just dances across the heavens. God, and don't you
ever worry about the lightning striking you. God's not going
to let one of his lightning bolts hit one of his children. Forget
it. He says to him, you go and you
come. And they say, here we are. I
like that. Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? David said
in Psalm 51, make me to know wisdom, the hidden wisdom in
the inner parts, because thou desires wisdom in the inner parts. Who gives wisdom to you and me
to love this and know Christ and believe Christ and know his
gospel? The natural man doesn't have
it, but who puts it in Who says that His Word is like a sharp
two-edged sword that can pierce even the joints and marrow? Who gives understanding to the
heart? The Son of God has come and given
us an understanding in the heart. Job, who can number the clouds
in wisdom? Who can not only number the clouds, But He knows, He counts them
and He explains the nature and work and controls the clouds.
Who can stay the bottles of heaven or who can pour out the bottles
of heaven, the bottles of heaven, the rain? Who can stay it until, listen,
the dust grows into hardness, verse 38, and the clods of earth
cleave fast together And yet he can pour out rain, he can
stay it, or he can send it. Who can stay the bottles of heaven? Verse 9, will you hunt prey for
the lion? Will you fill the appetite of
the young lions, all these animals that have to eat? Everything on there. My little
birds are always eating, eating, eating. They eat all the time.
They start from morning till night. Everything is just eating. Can you supply all this? We set a table for our children. God sets a table for all of His
creatures. When they couch in their dens
and abide in the covart, Covert to lying waste, who provides
for the raven his food? When the young ones cry unto
God, they wonder for lack of meat. Let's read on. I won't carry on every verse,
but look at these verses in verse chapter 3. Job, do you know the
time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Can you mark
when the deer brings forth their calves? Can you number the months
that they fulfill, eat the horse, the cow, the deer, that each
one has certain months that it brings forth its young? Did you
decree all that? Do you know the time when they
bring forth, they bow themselves and bring forth their young and
cast out their sours and their young ones are in good liking?
And they grow up with corn, they go forth and return not unto
them? Do you ordain all this? Who hath
set the wild ass free? Who hath loosed the bands of
the wild ass? Whose house I have made in the
wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling? He scorns the multitude
of the city. Neither regards he the crying
of the Tasmascar. The range of the mountains is
his pasture. He searcheth every green thing.
That's the wild ass, Alexander. Roman. God said, I put him out
there. I made the wilderness his pasture,
his home. and he thrives on it. The unicorn,
that's a wild ox. If you look up Deuteronomy 33,
17, it doesn't talk about one horn, it talks about horns of
the unicorn. The unicorn, some of the Greek mythology has a horse
with a horn, but this is a wild ox he's talking about. Now listen,
will the wild ox serve you Abide by your crib. Can you bind the
wild ox with his band in the furrow? Will he plow the valley
for you? Harrowing is plowing or breaking
up the soil. Will he do that for you? Will
you trust him because his strength is great? Will you leave thy
labor to him? Will you believe him and he'll
bring home your seed and gather it into your barn? Do you have
any control over the wild ox? Did you give the goodly peacock
his wings? his beautiful wings. Did you
give the wings and feathers to the ostrich, which lays her eggs
in the earth and warms them in the dust? She just comes along,
lays her eggs in the ground, and she forgets that the foot
might crush them, that the wild bees might break them. She's
hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers,
her labor in vain. Her labor is in vain without
fear. Why is all this? Listen, God has deprived her
of wisdom in this regard. She foolishly plants her eggs
in the sand, the dust, and doesn't even think about somebody stepping
on them or some animal stealing them, but God's deprived her
of that wisdom and neither has He imparted to her understanding.
But now wait a minute, He has given her something Verse 18,
what time she can fly, she lifteth up herself when danger comes,
she scorneth the horse and the rider. She can fly higher and
swifter than a horse with a man on it can catch her. The ostrich,
you come up behind her and she can come up in the air and you
couldn't catch her with a horse. God's given her that characteristic. Have you given the horse, now
watch this, the horse, this is beautiful. Have you given the
horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with
thunder? There was a time when the horse meant everything to
men. It was the only transportation
from place to place. It was the only way to cultivate
a field. It was the only transportation they had in battle or war. Against
an enemy, it was the horse, the rider, and no tanks, vehicles,
just the horse. If you close his neck with thunder,
can you make him afraid of a grasshopper? And yet, the glory of his nostrils
is terrible. He pours in the valley, he rejoices
in his strength, he goes out to meet armed men. He mocks at
fear. You see those horses, the cavalry
charging into battle, and those horses just go into the face
of the cannon and the spears and the swords like they didn't
even exist, like it was a bed of roses. He's not afraid. Neither turns he back from the
sword, the quiver rattleth against him, the spear and the shield,
he swalleth the ground with fierceness and rage, neither believeth he
that it's the sound of a trumpet, he doesn't even hear it. He saith
among the trumpets, Ha! Ha! He smelleth the battle afar
off, the thunder, the captains, and the shouting." Ooh, the horse. Did you do that, Joe? Does the
hawk fly by your wisdom? Watch that hawk sail through
there. Who enabled him to do that? The
little bird up there in the tree in the nest, and one day he flies
out. Stretches her wings toward the
south. Does the eagle mount up at your
command? Make her nest on high, huh? She
dwelleth and abideth on the rock way up there. You remember, Paul,
us seeing that one down in Florida, way up there. Nothing underneath,
just the most dangerous place. There's an eagle's nest. Upon
the crag of a rock in the strong place, from thence she seeketh
the prey, her eagle eyes. She can see, somebody said, for
miles. She sits up there in her strength
and power. God gave her every characteristic.
She sees the prey. And her eyes, behold, are far
off. Her young ones also suck up blood. And where the slain is, there
she is, the eagle. Now then, there's a pause. Two chapters here in the Word,
God has questioned Job. And now there's a pause. There's a pause. As if God is
allowing Job to reflect upon what he has said and to allow
Job to answer. Listen. Moreover, the Lord answered
Job and said, that contendeth with the Almighty
instruct him, he that reproveth God, let him answer it." Come
on, Joe, let's hear from you. What about you and me? What shall we answer? Are we
going to bow to the sovereign God, Almighty God? in creation and providence and
salvation and every breath, every move, every creature? Are we going to object? Are we
going to be still found among those that find fault with God?
I know how it is with men in general. The greatest enmity
of natural man is against this truth, who God is. That's right. The natural man hates God's sovereignty. That's right. I love and cherish
and rejoice in every word I've read tonight. Do you? I love
and cherish and rejoice in the absolute, immutable, unchangeable,
infinite control and sovereignty of Almighty God who does what
He pleases, when He pleases, with whom He pleases for His
glory. I feel like Eli. It's the Lord. Let Him do what He will. Let me give you this hymn. There was an hour when Christ
rejoiced and spoke these words of praise. Father, I thank thee,
mighty God, Lord of heaven, earth, and seas. I thank thy sovereign
power and love that crowns thy purpose with success, that makes
thy ransomed children learn the heights and depths and lengths
of grace. But all this glory lies concealed
from men of pride and might. The prince of darkness blinds
their eyes, and their pride resists the light. Oh, let our souls
adore our God, who gives his gifts as he please, nor gives
to mortals an account of his wise and sovereign decrees. None
can know the Father right, but those who see the Son. Now will
the Son be well received, but where the Father makes Him known?
Then Job answered. See verse 3. God said, Let him answer. And
Job answered, and he said, Behold, I am nothing, I am vile, I am
nothing. What shall I answer thee? I'm
not able to answer thee. Oh, as Daniel said, the strength
has gone out of me. You have confronted me with things
I can't answer and don't understand. What shall I answer thee? I know
what I will do. I will lay my hand on my mouth.
I will impose silence upon myself. Never again. Will I reply against
or question God's sovereignty? Once have I spoken. At one time I spoke, and another
time, yea, twice, but never again. I'm subdued at the feet of a
sovereign God. Now the Lord willing, we're going
to go to chapter 41, chapter 40, 40, 41, 42, next Wednesday
night. I hope you'll be with me. May
the Lord bless the Word.