Job 40:10-14 (ESV)
“Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;
clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low
and tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them all in the dust together;
bind their faces in the world below.
Then will I also acknowledge to you
that your own right hand can save you.
God is starting on His second session of teaching to Job. Job has complained that somehow all this happening to him was God’s fault. God never answers Job’s questions. But he does make one thing clear. Here is what one person said about this exchange between Job and God:
It is important to recognize that God does not here charge Job with sins that have brought on his suffering. He does not respond to the “whys” of Job’s suffering, nor does he challenge Job’s defense of his own integrity. The reason he calls Job on the carpet is not because of Job’s justification of himself, but because of Job’s willingness to condemn God in order to justify himself. In other words, God does not here “answer” Job’s questions about the problem of evil and suffering, but he makes it unambiguously clear what answers are not acceptable in God’s universe.
In the above passage, God tells Job he can express his anger. He tells Job he can call out the proud of this world. God tells Job he has no strength to save himself. God is okay with Job (and us) expressing his hurt, anger and pain. But God is not okay with Job relying on himself and even giving one hint that He, God, might be in the wrong. Express your pain to God. Cry out to God. But in the crying and in the hurt to NOT slander God.
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