Often, we, as Christians, give non-Christians the same terrible understanding of God and the Gospel that Elihu and the friends had. We judge them according to what we believe the Spirit has given to us. So, when they sin, in our eyes they could hardly be more wicked, and they, obviously, deserve the judgment of God. On the other hand, Jesus claimed they are ignorant and don’t understand the truth at all, for as he hung on the cross, he prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). We are a lot like Jonah, who, also, had a misconception of the lost. After he accepted God’s call to preach to Nineveh, not only didn’t he preach the correct message, but he afterwards waited for God to destroy them, just as he (Jonah) had predicted. However, when Nineveh repented, and God turned from the judgment he planned (Jonah 3:10), Jonah became indignant. He complained that he knew it would go badly from the beginning, which is why he didn’t want to preach to Nineveh (Jonah 4:1-2). However, just as he did with Jonah, God helped Job understand the value of repentance and mercy, when dealing with folks who are ignorant (Jonah 4:10-11).
I believe something similar is true, when we read an ancient book like Job. We do an injustice to the word of God, when we require ignorant unbelievers to have an understanding of God that we have today. Did Job and the friends have the same kind of understanding of God that Christians do? No, they didn’t! Nevertheless, isn’t our understanding of God something that we received by coming to know Jesus (John 1:18)? If this is true, then, to require Job to have an understanding of God that comes only through knowing Jesus, would be very wrong and cause us to miss the point of the book.
So, when the Lord shows up in chapter 38 and rebukes Job, if we truly wish to understand what’s going on, we need to consider what God says about himself in the context of the discussion about him that had been taking place for 35 chapters prior to his speaking out of the whirlwind. Let God be God, but also let Job and the friends be who they were in that culture that existed long before Jesus showed up to give us a better idea of who God is. What was their concept of God? According to Paul, in the beginning or as the Bible records: in Eden Adam, or mankind, knew God. However, neither Adam nor his descendants glorified the Lord as God. In other words, they rejected him as their Authority (Romans 1:21). Neither did they appreciate him, but, instead, they became vain in their thinking, so the Lord allowed their hearts to become dark, as they gloried in their ignorance. Thus, they corrupted their knowledge of the Almighty by thinking of him in terms of his creation: birds, mammals and insects (Romans 1:21-23).
So, as we come to the Book of Job, arguably the oldest book in the Bible, we come to a place or a culture, where the wisest of men are already somewhat ignorant of who God is. They don’t know what he is like. Of course, some truth has been retained, but much has already been lost. Later, Job would confess that he heard about God (Job 42:5) but he really didn’t understand who he truly was (Job 42:3). Therefore, when God shows up, he starts with the very basics, explaining himself in terms that everyone could understand.
Therefore, the Lord began by calling Job’s attention to what he (God) created. Paul concludes that “the invisible things of him (God), from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they (men) are without excuse” (Romans 1:20)! So, God can be understood for who he is, if men consider creation. Nevertheless, men express their ignorance of God, when they made him into what he created (Romans 1:21-23).
In the ancient world men recognized that, if something didn’t move, vis-à-vis a rock, it wasn’t alive, but, if an object moved, it was alive (at least probably so). A leaf from a tree moved, but its movement could be explained by the blowing of the wind. But, how does the wind move? Folks called it the spirit or breath of God. When they looked to the heavens, the stars moved across the sky during the night, and certain collections of stars or the constellations would appear upon the horizon during certain seasons of the year. After further consideration folks found that these same stars and constellations, apparently, left human sight later in the year, only to reappear in their correct seasons a year later.
Therefore, these moving lights in the heavens were thought to be alive. Science at the time, vis-à-vis astrology/astronomy, gave these lights power over the kingdoms of men. How much of this was believed by Job and the friends is guesswork. Nevertheless, it is certain, if we believe what Paul says in Romans, chapter one, that they could not have had the understanding man enjoyed in Eden, when God was known. By the time we arrive at Job’s generation, much knowledge about the Creator has been lost, and this ignorance will be addressed by the Lord in the remainder of the book.
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