God’s Comfort - Job 38-39

 Job 38:25-27 (ESV)

“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain

and a way for the thunderbolt,

to bring rain on a land where no man is,

on the desert in which there is no man,

to satisfy the waste and desolate land,

and to make the ground sprout with grass?

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no man there to hear, does the tree still make a sound?   In the above verses we have an answer to that old philosophical question.    In Job 38, God is coming directly to Job with a one-sided conversation.   God has heard Job continually ask for a “conversation” where Job can defend himself.   But, God has decided to simply speak and ask Job a series of deep questions.  Each question reveals that God is God and Job is, well, only Job.   

In the above verses we see God questioning Job if he was there when God sends ran on a land where there is no man.   This series of verses has a number of implications for Job (and for us):

1.  The answer to God’s question is that no man was there when this part of God’s rule and provision for creation happens.   God is making the point to Job that he, Job, is not the center of the universe.  In this entire story we read it as though Job were the central figure.   He is not.  The central figure is God.   Mankind (each man in particular on this earth) tends to think they are the center of the universe.  But, no!   God is sending rain on the earth, even were there is on man. God is at the center of the universe and this story. 

2. This implies, obviously, that there were, in Job’s day, places where man has not gone that God cares for as if man was there.   We know that we, as mankind, no very little about the bottom of the seas.  Yet, God has created an entire ecosystem that He cares for.  Mankind is so “man-centric” that he fails to realize that God has an entire universe that He upholds by the “word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). 

3.  Lastly, a point God is making to Job is that if he (Job) doesn’t even know about these elements of the world around him, how can he think that God is not in control of the elements impacting him (Job).  Job can’t possible know what God does in places where there is no man to report it.   So, how can Job be complaining that God may have deserted Job.   If God sends rain on a land to make sure the grass grows and yet there is no man to cut it, share in it, lay in it, and/or admire it, doesn’t it make sense that God is in control of where man does reside and controls all that, as well? 

God wants Job to understand His eternal power and greatness.   Job is, rather normally, focused on his problem.  God is, rather normally, focused on all creation, which includes Job’s problems.  This is a comforting thought.  The next time we think God is not paying attention, remember that He is no only watching over us, He is also caring for a land where there is no man to enjoy it.