God Can Set The Boundaries For Our Days - Job 38-39

Job 38:8-11 (ESV)

“Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

when I made clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed limits for it

and set bars and doors,

and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

Imagine telling a profession of quantum physics that they don’t know basic math.   Imagine insinuating to a heart doctor they are failing in the basics of taking someone’s temperature.  Imagine telling an engineer they are inept at building something with LEGO blocks.   These things would be utterly ridiculous.  Yet, imagine telling God He doesn’t know what He is doing with your life! Utterly ridiculous! 

This is Job’s plight, however, at this point in the story.  He has lost everything.  He has nothing left.  Even now, the friends who came to console him, have judged him.   He claims God has abandoned him.   Job has called God out.  He is claiming God is inept at caring for him.   In this section of Job, however, God now gets to talk.  God’s opening line to Job must have been a shock to Job’s system:

Job 38:2-3 (ESV)

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Dress for action like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

Imagine in the midst of all this to suddenly hear God’s voice!   Job is about to be examined by God about what he knows about the universe that God created. The one Job is part of.  In the above lines Job is questioned about his ability to control the seas.   God simply asks him if he has control over the boundaries of the seas, like God does? 

Throughout this section of Job, God never answers Job’s burning question as to “why” did all this happen to him.  Instead God moves Job’s eyes away from himself and onto God’s majesty and glory.   It is easy for us to try to out-master God.   We know what is best for us, or so we think.    God is in control of the universe.  He knows what is best for us.  He wants the best for us.  When we focus on us and our circumstances we lose sight of who God is.  God has to often come in an ask, “Who is this that darkens the counsel by words without knowledge.”    Let us not get so focused upon our own desires that we forget that God has set the boundaries for the seas.  He therefore can set the boundaries for our days.