Ultimately Job’s attitude to his awful trials was one of self-pity. At first he met his misfortunes with remarkable courage and patience. Even after his wife urged him to curse God and die, he did not sin. However, as the days wore on, even this great man of God did lose control of himself. With his friends around him in silence, his faith tottered and collapsed. He curses the day of his birth, 3. 3, and this note of complaint and self-pity continues in almost every answer he gives to his so-called comforters. Sometimes he is wildly defiant and accuses God of cruelty and injustice. He describes God as being against him, 10. 10, 16; 16. 12, 13; 19. 6, 8. At other times he is argumentative, wanting to plead his innocence before God, 23. 3-4. He remembers his former prosperity, ch. 29, and contrasts it tearfully with his present distress, ch. 30. He cannot see beyond his suffering and lapses into complete self-pity. We come to the attitude required by God who answers Job dramatically out of the whirlwind, ch. 38, and hurls a series of bewildering questions at Job. ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’, v. 2. ‘Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?’, v. 4. ‘Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?’, v. 16. ‘Have the gates of death been opened unto thee?’, v. 17. ‘Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?’, v. 22. ‘By what way is the light parted?’, v. 24. ‘Out of whose womb came the ice?’, v. 29. ‘Canst thou bind the chain of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?’, v. 31. ‘Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens?’, v. 33. ‘Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go?’, v. 35. ‘Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?’, v. 39. ‘Who provide for the raven his food?’, v. 41. This continues into chapter 39, setting forth the Creator’s mighty power, wisdom and loving providence. Job is overwhelmed and confused. He stammers a few words but then stops and says nothing, 40. 3-5. He had silenced his friends, now the Lord silences him! The Lord’s questions continue in chapters 40 and 41 where Job is confronted with the revelation of God’s eternal power and Godhead in creation, Rom. 1. 20. Job is being taught to fear the Creator more than the creature; he sees the Lord and himself in a completely new light.
