(Job: An Epic in Brokenness) 4. God's Voice From the Whirlwind — Roy Hession

And now will you turn to Job chapter 38, the book of Job chapter 38. I want to remind you of our outline which we put on the board at the first time. Excuse me, I'm going to shut the door. You'll hear all right out there, won't you?

They get good reproduction, the few that are out there through the loudspeakers. We're all right there. I want to remind you of our outline which we began with on the first study. We saw that the book begins with a prologue.

A prologue which is prose and history. And it ends with an epilogue which is in prose and is just straight narrative. But in between the prologue and the epilogue there are many chapters of dialogue. And we've been trying to study those extensive chapters.

Job’s Dialogue and the Voice of Elihu

The long drawn out dialogue between Job and his friends. And then yesterday we heard a new voice coming into the debate. It was the voice of Elihu. And he spoke for God in a way that Job's three friends didn't.

And now this morning we move on to the third part of the dialogue section. And that we may entitle the voice from the whirlwind. For God himself spoke audibly to Job and those men there out of the whirlwind.

As Elihu was drawing to the close of his speech to Job. In order to emphasize the greatness of God and the folly of questioning him. He describes a tremendous storm in characteristic poetic fashion. And you must confess that a good thunderstorm is a good subject matter for poetry.

I'm surprised that there aren't more poems about it. But you've got it certainly in the book of Job and in the last part of Elihu's reply or his speech. And it is possible that an actual storm was beginning to break.

And it provided him with his text as to the greatness of God. And when he's finished his speech, that storm really breaks. And turns into a whirlwind which we would possibly call a hurricane or a tornado.

And it was out of that whirlwind that God himself speaks and I could take it he spoke audibly. And this is what we come to in chapter 38. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. Now we won't really understand the point of what God was saying to Job and his friends.

Until we understand afresh and anew the position which Job had taken up. To which position God addressed himself. We've already seen that Elihu's anger was kindled against Job in chapter 32 verse 2. Because he justified himself rather than God.

That meant that he said, I'm right, I'm innocent. And you, you fellows are saying I'm wrong, you're wrong, I'm right, you're wrong. But as we've seen he went beyond that. He then graduated from saying that he was right and man was wrong.

To saying I am right and God must be wrong. In treating me in the way he does and in denying me justice. And that was terrible. He justified himself rather than God. He said I'm right, God somewhere along the line must be wrong.

And in saying that he was in effect putting himself on the same level as God. And he had in doing that forsaken the creaturely position. He was no longer in the place of the creature. He was on a level with God.

Now that is a man to whom God had to speak. And whom he wanted to humble. Until at last he repented of such words and such an attitude. And so we hear God speaking. Chapter 38. Then the Lord answered Job out of the world wind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

And in our verbosity in trying to help people or defend ourselves. We do so in words without knowledge and we darken counsel. We hide wisdom by the very multitude of our words. And that is what God charged Job with doing and of course the three friends too.

And then in verse 3 God says to him, Gird up now thy loins like a man for I would demand of thee and answer thou me. Up to then Job had been asking questions of God. Now God says I'm going to ask the questions.

And I'm going to ask you to answer them. And the speech of God to Job was one long succession of asking Job questions. And he said I demand an answer. Answer them. They were not rhetorical questions. He wanted an answer to his questions.

Job wanted an answer to Job's questions. God said I've got something bigger. I want an answer to my questions to you. And in these next chapters God passes in review the whole of creation. Now this wasn't a new thing for those ancients.

For those ancients read much in the book of nature. They had not the word of God, the book of the law as we have. But they did have the book of nature. And they read much and long in the book of nature.

They lived near to nature. They contemplated nature. And they were intended so to do. It was God's means of revelation of himself. In Romans chapter 1 it says the invisible things of him. Since the creation of the world are clearly seen.

Being understood through the things that are made. Even his eternal power and Godhead. And if you think well that's just Paul saying it. I wonder if they really did read in the book. Here they are reading in it.

And David read in that book. And they saw clearly the eternal power and Godhead of God. So that in the light of that revelation. All forms of idolatry says Paul in that epistle of Romans are inexcusable.

Because the invisible things of him. Since the creation of the world have been clearly seen. Even his eternal power and Godhead. And this is the line that God goes on with Job. We will read at least a bit.

He's asked for an answer. In the version that I'm reading it's really a little bit of a combination of them all. A bit here is best transferred from there. I'm not going to tell you where I get them from.

But they're part of the various versions which are current among us. You need really consulting this one and that one. To clear up little obscurities. Where was thou when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Declare thou if thou hast understanding. Who hath determined the measurements thereof? If thou knowest. Or who has stretched out the measuring line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?

Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning star sang together. And all the sons of God shouted for joy. Or who shut up the sea with doors when it break forth. As it had been issued out of the womb.

When I made the cloud the garment thereof. And thick darkness a swaddling band for it. And I prescribed for it my decree. And set bars and doors and said. Hitherto shalt thou come but no further. And here shall thy proud waves be stayed.

Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days? And caused the dawn to know its place? That it might take hold of the ends of the world. That the wicked might be shaken out of it? Wickedness is usually done at night time.

But when the dawn comes the wicked are shaken out of it. That's what it means. It is changed as clay under the seal. And all things stand forth as a garment. In the light of the dawn. And from the wicked their light is withdrawn.

Their light was darkness. Now it's been withdrawn. And the high arm shall be broken. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee?

Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou know it at all. Where is the way where light dwelleth? And as for darkness where is the place thereof?

That thou shouldst take it to the bound thereof. And thou shouldst know the paths to the house thereof. Doubtless thou knowest because thou was then born. Because the number of thy days is great. There's a little bit of divine sarcasm.

It is. Of course you know, don't you? You know all about these things. By the way you're talking you think you knew everything. Do you? And God enumerates things. Which Job didn't know the first thing about.

And so in chapter 38 we haven't time to read the whole of it. God passes in review the whole of creation. And in particular in chapter 38 the material creation. Then in chapter 39 God passes in review the animal kingdom.

It's the most extraordinary passage. The most beautiful survey. It's marvellous. It can appear in hardly any other scripture. Way back in eternity these ancients, oh how they knew the book of nature. First of all the material creation.

And then the vast array of the animal kingdom is passed in review in chapter 39. And with regard to it all God asks Job certain questions. I've counted them up and in these two chapters God asks Job 35 questions in all.

And he wants an answer. Stand up, be a man. You've asked me questions I'm going to ask you 35. And I want you to answer me. Now these questions can be grouped I think broadly speaking into two. Now those questions will begin with where?

Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the world? Or other questions which begin with who? Who shut up the sea with the doors thereof and prescribed its bounds saying hither shalt thou come and no further?

And in these questions that begin with where or who God is challenging Job's professed knowledge of things. Well he does profess it. If in challenging God's righteousness with regard to his own affairs he's putting himself on an equal with God.

All right if we're on equal with God then I ask you these questions. And he asks him questions for which he hasn't got the first answer. And although science today has explained some of the things that are referred to in this chapter.

Because you must understand that God in speaking to man of that day had to accommodate himself to his limited knowledge of the science that lay behind some of these phenomena. And although science has explained some of the phenomena.

It's only pushed the question further back. Well who caused the explanation that you give? And therefore modern science gives God an even greater opportunity to ask even vaster questions. And modern science doesn't minimize the creator rightly understood but makes him appear even larger than Job could ever see.

And so the questions beginning with where and who are questions which challenge Job's knowledge. Which is nothing. And then there are other questions beginning hast thou, canst thou. Verse 12. Hast thou commanded the dawn since thy days?

And canst thou, verse 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades? By the way when I talk about the material universe it's not only the earthly one it's the heavenly constellations are included.

It was a tremendous thing. And you had these questions. Hast thou, canst thou. And these are challenging Job's fancied power. If he is in effect putting himself on a level with God well how does he match up?

Can you do that? Canst thou, hast thou. And all these questions are designed to one end. They are designed to humble pride. So many questions of this order are of that sort. Romans 9 .20. It says who art thou that replies against God?

God’s Questions and the Humbling of Pride

Rebuke to pride. In Isaiah 51 .12. Who art thou that is afraid of the adversary and forgettest the Lord thy maker? Perhaps you can't see how that's a rebuke to pride. It is. When you are frightened it's pride.

It's in all other cards. Who in the world said you could? What pride to say you can't? You were never expected to be able to. I the Lord am thy God. Who art thou that is afraid of the adversary and forgettest the Lord thy maker?

And so this sort of question, rhetorical if you like, is really a rebuke to his pride and is in order to show Job that adopting the attitude he had, he had deeply forsaken his creaturely position. And I want to say this is what you and I have to see.

In justifying ourselves with regard to what man says about us. In saying that we are right and the other fellows have got it wrong. We have also virtually said we are right and God's wrong in allowing these things to happen.

And that in turn means that we put ourselves on an equality with God and have forsaken that creaturely position which is our right and proper place. And God needs to speak to us of the pride that lies at our complainings, our self-pity, our resentment and above all of the pride that indulges in self-justification.

You say, but I was right. Well, can't you afford to accuse wrongly, can't you take it? No, and you don't like it. And God has to deal with us to show us what this really implies with regard to himself.

And God can still do so out of the whirlwind. He still speaks to man through the mighty convulsions of nature, through the hurricanes, through the volcanic eruptions and through straight, nice, juicy thunderstorms.

I love them. I like them. And I know nothing that makes me feel my littleness and the greatness of God when I hear God moving his furniture upstairs. I tell you, it's tremendous. I don't run away, I want to enjoy it in the lightning.

And I tell you, there have been times when I've been able to forget my little troubles in the light of that. I believe, friends, you who, licking your wounds, are so sad for yourself, having such a hard time, it would do your world of good to stand in the midst of a mighty thunderstorm and God can still speak to us from the book of nature.

And he can still rebuke the pride that lies in our complainings. Well, we cannot read every part of this glorious writing. It's poetry of a very high order and inspired poetry at that. How did Job respond?

Job’s First Humbling Before God

Chapter 40. Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty, which you see me to be, take it upon himself to instruct him? He that argueth God, let him answer. That's it.

I'm wanting an answer, Job. You've been arguing with me, now I've asked you some questions. I let him answer. Job, what have you got to say? Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, authorised version says, I am vile.

But looking at the various other versions and the margins, it obviously should be, behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer further.

Yea, twice I will proceed no further. And so Job has been to quite a degree cut down to size. I am of small account. What in the world have I been saying? Well, that's very good. That's very good. And you can get a sense of your littleness in the sight of the greatness of God in nature.

And you can see perhaps you've been strutting about too much. And you may well say in the sight of all this, I, who have been saying so much, am of small account. What in the world have I been saying?

But that's not enough for God. Job hasn't got low enough yet. And so God goes on. Verse 6,. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind. He's still speaking. Gird up thy loins nigh like a man.

I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou disannul my judgment? Will you say I am wrong? Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be righteous? He hasn't got down to that yet. He hasn't got down to that.

Behemoth, Leviathan, and God’s Sovereignty

And so God goes further. And he goes on with his further review of nature. And in chapter 40 and in 41, the Lord points Job to two of the greatest monsters that he knew. Monsters before whom every man would fear.

Who defied man's ability to tame. And they still defy man's ability to tame. I wouldn't like to meet these fellows that God mentions. Even today. And children are advised not to get too near them at the zoo.

Or in the Everglades in Florida. They're still around. The one is in verse 15. Behold now the behemoth which I made with thee. He eateth grass as an ox. Lo, now his strength is in his loins and his force is in the navel of his belly.

He moveeth his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his stones are wrapped together, etc., etc. Verse 19. He is the chief of the ways of God. It is thought that behemoth is probably the name given to the hippopotamus.

Well, he's not a very pleasant character even in these modern days. One of the fiercest of the creatures. And one of the strongest. And Job is bidden, have a look at him. I made him. I controlled him.

Can you do that? Not on your life. And then God points Job to another huge monster. Verse, chapter 41, verse 1. Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? And it is thought that Leviathan is the name for the crocodile.

There may be bigger animals but I don't know. I don't think he's a very pleasant fellow. Leviathan. Can you pick him out of the sea with a fishing line? With a hook? And there's a tremendous description of Leviathan, this great monster.

We've got to realize that it is poetic writing because further on in the chapter he's breathing fire out of his mouth like the old-fashioned dragons. I don't think for a moment that's meant to be a scientific description of Leviathan.

It's just meant to describe the fearsomeness of this great animal. And then he goes on to say, verse 33, Upon earth there is not his like who is made without fear. He's got no fear of anybody. Behold, he looketh down on high things.

He is a king over all the children of pride. Well, whether it really was the crocodile or some other great creature, we're not told. But there they are, the Haemoth and Leviathan. But I think perhaps the most important verses in that passage are verses 10 and 11.

Having described this creature, God says, Who then is able to stand before me? I made him. He's subservient to me. But you can't get anywhere near him. Who then is able to stand before me? And then come these words.

I read it as it is in the authorized version. Who hath prevented me that I should repay him? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. Now, prevented is, of course, an old Elizabethan word which we do not use.

And it means, Who hath first given to me that I should repay him? And it's very interesting to know that Paul quotes that very verse in Romans 11. Verse 35. Almost word for word. He's once again talking.

He's here talking of the greatness of God. And he says, Who hath first given to him that it should be recompensed to him again? Who has ever done so much for God that he succeeded in putting God in his debt?

And the answer is obvious. No one. Do what you will. You can never put this mighty God in your debt. I want to tell you, he just doesn't owe you a thing. If he gives it to you, it's sheer charity. That's a great word.

Who hath first given to him that it should be repaid? That's all we all hope to do. If we're good boys and nice Christians, very consecrated, God owes us blessing. He does nothing of the sort. You've forfeited any right to blessing a hundred times by sin.

As if God is under obligation to his creatures that they've done this and that. Who hath first given to him that he should repay him? He is a God of grace. He does things, but they're all of grace. Not because we've succeeded in putting God in our debt.

Sometimes we try to put God on our debt to give us revival. By long nights of prayer, if God gives us revival, it's an act of sheer grace. And it's blasphemous to think that this that I'm doing or the other is going to put him in my debt.

And then he goes on to say, we're back in Job 41. Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction. He goes on to say, we're back in Job 41. Whatsoever, he says, is under the whole heaven is mine.

And Job, cannot I do what I will with my own? And am I any obligation to explain to you what I do with you? You're mine. You've been talking about rights. You've got no rights at all. You're mine and I can do what I will with my own.

God used that to me once when I was going through a hard time. When going past a cemetery, I was so down, I said, they're in a happier place than I am. There the weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling them.

And I remember when a certain thing was about to happen and I was going to have to go through a deprivation. This was early on. I remember sitting up in bed at midnight. I said, Lord, you can't. You can't mean it.

It wasn't the death of rebel. This was long before. There was something a little more painful, it seemed at the time. And God said to me, can't I? Can't I? Can't I? Cannot I do what I will with my own?

Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. I don't owe you a thing. And this was the message to Job. Elihu said some good things to Job, but nothing compared with what Jehovah himself said. And the result, ah, this was the end of the Lord.

This was the point to which God was moving. Then Job answered the Lord and said, chapter 42, I know that thou canst do everything. And no thought, no plan of man's, no, sorry, that thou canst do everything, and that no thought, no plan of thine can be withholden.

No purpose of thine, says the old revised, can be restrained. And then we've got to put in the next verses, this is very important verses, a sentence in inverted commas. Because here is Job quoting to God.

So much so is this case that the NIV actually puts it, adds a word or two to help us. You asked, who is he that darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge? I'll answer that, Lord. I uttered things I understood not.

Things too wonderful were for me, which I knew not. That's good, he's coming along. And then in verse 4, there's another bit that needs to be put in inverted commas. And the NIV adds a little word that helps us.

You said, hear and I will speak. I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me. That's what God had said. And his answer to that is this. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the air. But now mine eye seeth thee.

Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Now verse 5, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the air, now mine eye seeth. There are two sort of approaches, two sort of revelations he's had.

He's heard one, which is he's heard of God by the hearing of the air. Now I would suggest he's probably referring to that very wonderful counsel that Elihu gave him. I heard of thee by the hearing of the air, that was right counsel.

But now, I've had something more than Elihu gave me. What he said was right. It was true doctrine, it was true counsel. But I've got something else. Now, mine eye seeth thee. And in this great revelation that God gave him himself, although God was speaking to Job, Job was seeing him.

Which leads me to say this. You may have very wonderful counsel. You may have those that love you enough to be an interpreter, showing unto you what is right for you, who will counsel you in your battles.

And it's good, it's helpful. But you need something else. Way and beyond the wisest counsel that man can give, you need to hear Jehovah himself. You need to see him. And it's that which finishes us off.

There will be those who will pray with you. There will be those who will counsel you in these days. And that will be helpful. But beyond that, your eye needs to see him. You need to have the vision that Jehovah himself gives.

He himself needs to speak to us on, and he does. And you may well come back to some of those who have tried to help you. I heard of thee by the hearing of the air. I got some help from what you said. But now, but now, but now, it's been so personal.

He himself has approached me. And my eye sees him. Well, we have been trying to look at what Job saw. He got as far as being cut down to size. I'm of small account. But now he's going to take the place that God's wanting him to take, which has promised us of infinite blessing.

He's going to take at last the sinner's place. Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Now, in the authorised version. Myself is in italics. This is so helpful in the authorised that if they've had to provide a word that's not in the original in order to make it sensible English, they tell you so.

The authorised is more word for word than any other version. That's why perhaps it's a bit awkward in places. But it is word for word as far as it can be. And if they have to add a word, they put it in italics.

Myself is in italics. Therefore, you're at liberty to look again and say, well, is that the best word to go in there? And I find in the revised version of 1881, in the margin of that revised, wherefore, I loathe my words.

When I saw that, I said, they've got it. They've got it! That's absolutely true to the context. What Job repented of was not the things that his friends said he ought to repent of because he hadn't done them.

But what he did repent of was his words, his attitude, his self-justification, himself saying that he was right and God must be wrong and others were wrong. He repented. Praise the Lord! It's a great thing when at last a man repents, when he sees where he can repent.

Sometimes he goes, nowhere I can repent. I can't repent of what those fellows attained because it just isn't true. God must show you where he wants you to repent. It might be the way in which you've answered those men, the way in which you protested your innocence, how you demonstrated you weren't willing to be accounted wrong.

You loved your own righteousness more than anything. I mean, inasmuch as you were saying that they were wrong, you had also been virtually saying God's wrong to have allowed certain things to happen. This is that which Job repented of.

Wherefore, I loathe my words! All those chapters, eighteen of them of self-justification, I loathe a lot of them! I'll go to my file and I'll tear up all the carbon copies of the letters I've written, only which I get the originals and tear them up too.

I loathe a lot of them! And repent in dust and ashes. At last, Job has been willing to lose what he wasn't willing to lose before. We saw he was willing to lose his wealth if God should decree it, willing to lose his family if God should decree it.

He was willing to lose his children if God would decree it, but he wasn't willing to lose his righteousness. Someone said, what does that phrase mean? Said to me yesterday, lose our righteousness. In this case you can see what it meant.

Job was willing to be no longer the right man, but the wrong man. That's what it means. He wanted to be the right man, and God has laid violent hands on him, and torn and stripped away from him not his sins, but this justification of his righteousness, and at last the right man, as he thought himself to be, is willing to be the wrong man.

Victory Through Surrender and Brokenness

And I want to tell you that's victory. That's absolute victory. Victory is not me conquering sin, but Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, conquering me. There's been wrestling a man with me from the breaking of the day, as he wrestled with Jacob, not to patch Jacob up on his weak points, but to break him on his strong.

To reduce him. That's victory. It is. Why does everybody sing, glory, glory, hallelujah? Why do the Africans always sing, took a tender answer, the moment someone admits their wrong and repents? Because it's victory.

Not their victory, but the victory of Jesus. Not their victory over sin, but the victory of Jesus over them. He's won the victory, hallelujah. It's all over now. The affairs will take a different turn, all will be in his hands, and the man himself begins to say, oh, the cleansing blood has reached me.

Glory, glory to the Lamb. And it was all achieved by that vision of the Creator. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they were and are created. And I have forsaken the creaturely position.

And it was achieved, in Job's case, by that vision. But for us, we are given a greater and more compelling vision to bring us to the place of brokenness, the place of the sinner. It's the vision of the true Job of the New Testament.

Christ as the True Job

You can look upon Jesus as the true Job of the New Testament. He suffered many things, but the most painful of all was to lose what Job hadn't been willing to lose. He lost his righteousness for us. That is explained for us, it seems, in that great passage in Philippians 2, who, being in the form of God, counted not equality with God a thing to be held on to, but when our need required it, he emptied himself of it and took upon himself the form of a slave and washed the disciples' feet, which was the work only of a slave, being made in the likeness of men.

What a big step down that was. And if that wasn't a big enough step down, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. Lower still, become obedient unto death. Ah, but that's not the lowest point.

But he became obedient to a certain form of death, the death of the cross. You see, you can die on a bed, there's nothing disgraceful about that. People die on the field of battle, that's a noble death.

Very often it is considered. But Jesus didn't die on a bed. He didn't die on the field of battle. He died on the cross, and the cross was a punishment reserved only for criminals. It's like being hung in our day, or in America, the electric chair.

That's how he died. That was what he was willing to submit himself to. And because he died that death, everybody thought he must be a criminal. After all, they said any criminals are put on crosses, he must be one too.

In any case, a criminal one side and a criminal the other. He must be one too. And if Job suffered being wrongfully accused by his friends, I suggest to you that this was the most acute point in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.

To be classed with and counted as a transgressor, when he wasn't one. And do you know he never disabused them? He didn't do what I would say, oh I know I'm on the cross, but do understand folks, do understand I'm not here for anything I've done, I haven't done anything.

I'm here for other people's sins. He didn't say that. He just let them think it. He just let them say it. And he, the holy right, was willing to appear for us as the holy wrong. And he let his righteousness go.

He was willing for what Job wasn't willing for. For us. That that righteousness, as we shall see tomorrow, should be reckoned to us. There was a famous preacher a generation ago called Dr. Joseph Parker.

And he was famous for his reading of the scripture in his services. He would read the lesson, and as he read it he would put little interpolations, which were flashes of insight. And so valued were these interpolations of Dr. Joseph Parker, that there has been produced, I don't know if it's still being published, called the Parker Bible.

With these beautiful little interpolations of his in the margin. Campbell Morgan tells somewhere of how as a young man he went to hear Dr. Joseph Parker. And Dr. Joseph Parker was reading that passage we were reading last night.

Isaiah 53. And he got as far as verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him smitten of God and afflicted. It's implied on his own account. That is quite obviously the implication of that verse.

Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And then Dr. Joseph Parker said, but we were wrong. But we were wrong! He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.