Job 38 Commentary: This week I left work one day and I was puzzled. I had so many questions. Why am I here? Things are so hard sometimes. Why has God allowed things to transpire in my life that are painful and difficult? Why, why, why?

And thankfully God’s questions to Job came to my mind. And God through his word started asking me some questions.

Paul – do you really understand everything I’m doing in your life? Would you ever be able to begin to comprehend all of the things that I am working in your life – not to mention throughout the universe! – for my own glory and for your good? You can stop your questioning my goodness now.

And I’m not sure if I’m the only one who has experienced something like that. Have you gone through that exercise in your mind this week? Have you been tempted to question God’s goodness or his justice in your life or in this world? Have you allowed God’s questions to Job to be redirected to you?

Well, we’ve seen God ask so far 12 questions to Job. He’s asked…

Q1: Who is this?

Q2: Foundations of the Earth

Q3-4: Measuring the Earth

Q5-6: Foundation and Corner Stone of the Earth

Q7: The Sea

Q8: Bring the Morning

Q9-10: Source of the Seas

Q11-12: Death and Darkness

And that’s where we ended last time. So, let’s turn our attention to Job 38.

We’ll be covering verses 18-33, Lord-willing this time.

And so, I had just mentioned that God was asking questions about the realm of death as we ended last time. But now at this point God returns to the land of the living and questions Job about the earth.

18 Hast thou [perceived/understood/considered] the [breadth/expanse/vast expanse] of the earth?

Did Job understand how wide the earth is? I don’t know – perhaps he did. In fact, if you do a search on the internet for this question you’ll learn that the earth is 7,917.5 miles around at the equator. Don’t forget that half a mile at the end there!

You can also discover at the tips of your fingers that the surface area of the earth is 196.9 million mi². That’s the total land that covers the earth.

Did Job know this? Again, I’m not sure.

But perhaps the question is not so much a matter of knowing bare facts – just like I can type a search phrase into a web browser and have the answer spit back out at me. But maybe the point of God’s question is more – “have you, Job, personally experientially seen the vast expanse of the earth? Have you walked around on all of it, seeing every one of those nearly 200 million square miles? Have you walked around the earth at the equator for all of those nearly 8,000 miles?”

And as God asks that question and Job and all of us answer with blank stares – then God is able to say, “Well, I have seen each and every square mile – as if God works in miles – of the surface of the earth.”

And that kind of thought gives God reason to challenge Job. Did you hear that last line of verse 18? What do you think of God’s question there?

He said “[declare/tell me] if thou knowest [it all/all this].” That question is a little forceful. God is challenging Job.

He’s indicating that Job has been implying that he knows everything. Why does God do that? It’s because Job has been maintaining his righteousness – and that’s fine. But he’s been doing so at God’s expense. He’s been making himself look good – that’s fine – but in the process he’s been insinuating that God is bad.

Job has been demanding God to explain his ways to him. But to do so would not even make sense to Job. God’s ways include and involve managing everything on the earth and in the sky and in the water and even in the realm of the dead. How would a human even comp