IMITATE THEIR FATIH/JOB

 "Out of the Windstorm"

As Elihu spoke, he often mentioned wind, clouds, thunder, and lightning.  He said of Jehovah: "Listen carefully to the rumbling of his voice."  Moments later Elihu referred to a "storm wind."  (Job 37:2, 9) It seems that as he spoke, a storm was brewing, growing steadily more intense.  Finally, it was an all-out windstorm. And then something far more dramatic happened, Jehovah spoke!  -  JOB 38:1.

When reading the book of Job, it is a wonderful relief to come to these  marvelous chapters containing Jehovah's speech to Job.  It is as if a windstorm of truth were blowing away all the empty speechles, all the false words of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  Jehovah did not even  address those men until later.  His focus was on Job  alone; he firmly addressed his beloved servant as a father would correct a son.

Jehovah knew that Job was in pain. And he felt pity for the man, as he alwayts dies when his beloved children suffer. (Isaiah 63:9; Zechariah 2:8)  But he knew too, that Job had speading without knowledge," making his own problems worse.  So Jehovah corrected Job by questioning him extensiely  "Where were you," he began, "when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you think you understand." At the dawn of creation, "the moring stars,"  God's family of angels, shouted in applause over the wonders of creation,"  (38:2, 4, 7) Job, of course, knew nothing of this. 

Jehovah went to speak of his creative works.  In a sense, he gave Job a brief tour of waht humans today might  call the natural sciences, touching on subjects as astronomy,  biology, geology, and physics.  In particular, Jehovah described a numer of animals then found in Job's part of the world-the lion, the raven, the mountain goat, the wild donkey, the wild bull, the ostrich, the horse, the falcon, the eagle, Behemoth (evidently the hippotomus),  and finally Levithian (likelythe crocodile).  Imagine the privilege of attending a lecture about the natural world delivered by the Creator of the universe." 

Next time: IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOB - Teaching About Humility and Love

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