Job 38 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 38 Short Summary:

In previous chapters, Job insisted on God giving him answers as to the reasons behind his suffering. In Job 38, God finally speaks and starts demanding answers from Job. This chapter is a series of questions God asked Job to humble him and to make him appreciate the majesty and complexity of the Eternal Creator.

Job 38 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• God – God descends to respond to the debate between Job and his friends.

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• GOD QUESTIONS JOB (38:1-41):

  • In Job 38, God finally descends to respond to the debate that had been going on between Job and his companions.

  • God is not going to give Job the answer we might expect. He isn’t going to reveal Satan’s work that we read about in chapters 1 and 2. Instead, He is going to reassure Job that He is in control, He is going to remind Job that His governance of the world is too complex for men to understand, and He is going to challenge Job on some of the unwise things he’s said throughout the book. In the last chapter, we’ll see God supporting Job and rebuking his friends.

  • God spoke from a whirlwind, which may have been connected with the storm described by Elihu in chapters 36 and 37.

  • God said, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (38:1).

  • Was God speaking to Elihu or to Job? It’s difficult to say, but the statement could apply to both, as both had said some things in their ignorance that they shouldn’t have said.

  • In the next verse, it becomes clear that the following line of questioning (verses 3-41) was directed at Job.

  • Job had question God, now it was God’s turn to question Job. Job had insisted that God give him answers, now God was going to require some answers from Job.

  • This chapter is a series of questions God asked Job to humble him and to make him appreciate the majesty and complexity of the Eternal Creator.

  • Job won’t be able to answer a single one of God’s questions, and this will cause him to immediately question whether he was a little too bold in his insistence that God answer him.

  • God asked, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (38:4).

  • “Who determined its measurements… On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone?” (38:5-6).

  • “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb… and prescribed limits for it… and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” (38:8-11).

  • God asked Job if he had ever commanded the sunrise to start the morning (38:12).

  • He asked if Job knew about the caves and valleys of the deep ocean (38:16).

  • “Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?” (38:17).

  • “Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?” (38:18).  

  • God asked, “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness… You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!” [sarcasm] (38:19-21).

  • Did Job understand the weather, rain, storms, ice, hail, or frost? (38:25-30).

  • Job didn’t just lack knowledge; he lacked God’s power.

  • Could he bind the stars in the heavens to preserve the constellations of Orion or the Pleiades? (38:31).

  • Job may have known about the constellations, but he knew nothing about the natural laws that governed them (38:33).

  • Was Job the origin of wisdom or the creator of consciousness? (38:36).

  • Could Job balance the ecosystem and give food to all the created beings? (38:39-41).

  • Job knew the answer to all these questions was a resounding “No!”

  • God his continue His questioning in Job 38.

APPLICATION

• Let’s all keep this line of questioning in mind before we speak too rashly about the circumstances of our lives and the God who oversees them.

• Although it’s hard, we must learn to be content. That contentment will not always stem from knowing the reason behind every detail of our circumstances, sometimes it will come from our general knowledge of God’s sovereignty and an acceptance of His mysterious complexity that governs all things for good.