Tag: Where were you? Job 38-39

Job 38:22-24

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,

or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

which I have reserved for the time of trouble,

for the day of battle and war?

What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,

or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

Tags: Where were you?

Job, for most of this book, has been in search of what God is doing in his life.  He is in pain physically, spiritually, psychologically and mentally.  He wants answers.  Like most of us, he has taken his quest to the extreme.   Toward the end of his inquiry he begins to question God’s love for him and/or God’s control over the events of his life.  Like most men today, Job sees bad circumstances as evidence that God may be disconnected or unconcerned, or, worse, lacking the power to do the job.  Job’s three friends believe Job is just a sinner getting what he deserves.  In these last chapters, God is asking Job, “where have YOU been when I did the following.”   God is putting Job (and, by extension, any man who questions God power) in his place.  In the above passage we see God questioning Job were he was when God stored up the snow and the hail.  God uses the snow for many reasons.   In the above he mentions it might be to slow battle or war.  Think of the lives saved during war when God sent a weather storm man had to seek refuge from?   Note Job’s earlier passage:

Job 37:10-13

By the breath of God ice is given,

and the broad waters are frozen fast.

He loads the thick cloud with moisture;

the clouds scatter his lightning.

They turn around and around by his guidance,

to accomplish all that he commands them

on the face of the habitable world.

Whether for correction or for his land

or for love, he causes it to happen.

God uses weather to correction and to express his love and his power.   Job should quit wondering why God is doing what he is doing.   Job should rejoice that God can do what whatever He wants.