God's Challenge to Answer

Job 40:1-24 

1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said:

2 "Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?
He who rebukes God, let him answer it."

3 Then Job answered the LORD and said:
4 "Behold, I am vile;
What shall I answer You?
I lay my hand over my mouth.
5 Once I have spoken, but I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further."

6 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
7 "Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me:

8 "Would you indeed annul My judgment?
Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?

9 Have you an arm like God?
Or can you thunder with a voice like His?
10 Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor,
And array yourself with glory and beauty.

11 Disperse the rage of your wrath;
Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him.
12 Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low;
Tread down the wicked in their place.
13 Hide them in the dust together,
Bind their faces in hidden darkness.

14 Then I will also confess to you
That your own right hand can save you.

15 "Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you;
He eats grass like an ox.
16 See now, his strength is in his hips,
And his power is in his stomach muscles.
17 He moves his tail like a cedar;
The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
18 His bones are like beams of bronze,
His ribs like bars of iron.

19 He is the first of the ways of God;
Only He who made him can bring near His sword.

20 Surely the mountains yield food for him,
And all the beasts of the field play there.
21 He lies under the lotus trees,
In a covert of reeds and marsh.
22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade;
The willows by the brook surround him.

23 Indeed the river may rage,
Yet he is not disturbed;
He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth,
24 Though he takes it in his eyes,
Or one pierces his nose with a snare.

The LORD counsels Job further, beginning with challenging him to give a response for trying to correct God as he questioned His workings in Job’s adversity.  He must answer for this.  Job responded by admitting his insignificance before the Almighty.  He put his hand over his mouth and refused to speak further as he had been doing, for he knew his error as God pointed out to him.  Out of the storm, God continued to speak with the challenge of rebuke and correction, telling Job to be a man and answer when God questioned him more.  He began by asking how in the world could His servant make His judgment as nothing in order to justify himself.  He asked if Job had God’s power or voice or majestic splendor.  He then told Job to humble others if he was really like God in these ways, pointing out of course that he could not because he was not; for if he could do these things, Job would have the power to be able to save himself from the suffering.  God pointed out the behemoth as an example of God being the only one who could bring such an uncontrollable beast under control.  Only God could care for such a powerful and massive animal; no man, including Job, had the power to subdue it.  This was the LORD’s way of using imagery to reveal Job’s prideful thinking of self-reliance and self-righteous pride, as if he were that immense and immovable behemoth.  We should consider our prideful ways as well, humbling ourselves to take every thought captive to His and His word (Romans 12:3, 2 Corinthians 10:5) as we confess and repent from such inflated opinions of ourselves.  Let us learn from Job’s example as we submit under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6-7).  God’s challenge to us comes daily from His word.  Do we submit humbly under His mighty hand of grace, or fight in our own supposed power and wisdom as if to save or deliver ourselves?