LIVE DISCUSSION: "The Lord Answers Job" (Job 38), Part 3/5

God doesn’t answer Job with a neat explanation. He answers with creation, with the sea shut behind doors, with the dawn taking its place, with light that exposes what darkness wants to hide. That shift matters when you’re living through suffering and everything feels chaotic, personal, and unfair. We walk slowly through Job 38 and ask the question the text keeps pressing: if God sets boundaries for the ocean, what does that imply about the boundaries on affliction, fear, and the “whirlwind” seasons of your life?

We also dig into providence and God’s sovereignty in a practical way. The point isn’t that hardship is painless, or that faith is pretending. The point is that chaos is not independent. God is not scrambling to fight disorder; He handles it, orders it, and stays present inside it. Along the way, we talk about how the morning becomes a living metaphor for hope, spiritual illumination, and moral clarity, and why God’s silence should not be mistaken for God’s absence.

From the depths of the sea to the “treasures” of snow and hail, Job 38 invites us to see God’s handiwork everywhere and to speak with humility about what we don’t know. We even end with a simple challenge: let everyday weather talk become a doorway to talk about God’s majesty and care. If this helped you trust God in suffering, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Reading Job Through Job’s Eyes

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Let's read on.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

No, I mean in the in the passage here. I don't want to I don't want to go down uh you made the point, so you we I got the point. So I'm asking you, how do you think Job understood this? How do you think God uh Job understood this? You, Candy, the person. How do you understand it?

SPEAKER_04 0:20

Just like I said, for me, it it makes me look at the boundaries. It was setting boundaries.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

No, look through Job's eyes. Look, look, look, look.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

I don't know what you're saying. I'd have to go back and read it and for you. No, Candy.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

No, I want I'm at I'm just asking you what you think. I'm asking you what you candy. I'm asking you what you think. Forget the pages. Just tell me what you think. Yeah. If you're Job, if you're Job, if you're in awe.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Job's in awe and soaking up everything God's saying to him after everything that he had to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

But when Job is, but but when like you you quoted these verses, and I'm sure you quoted them because they connect somehow to these these passages here in Job. So what I'm asking, you know, Job is hearing this directly from God. So if you are standing in Job's shoes, based on what we know about Job up to this point, what are you thinking when God says these words?

SPEAKER_04 1:29

I did it all. I did it. I created it for my for my reasons. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

No, no, no. Let me go back. I'm gonna stick with you on this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

Go for it. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

What I'm asking you is you are Job. You're in Job's shoes. God is telling you that he shuts up the sea with the doors when it broke forth and it had issued from as if as if it issued out of the womb and so forth. All this chaotic thing. God is telling Job, God is telling Job that I set limits to all these things. So you are Job. God's telling you this. How do you understand it? What is he telling you?

SPEAKER_04 2:09

He's saying he created it, he made it. This is how I made it. I did it this way. I'm in control of everything.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

I know. So what I'm asking you, what do you think Job? How do you think Joe? Let me ask this way. How would you, if you're in Job's shoes, how would you relate what God is saying to you in your current circumstances? You're Job. God says this. Why? How how what what relevance can you pop could you glean out of this from your experience up to this very point?

SPEAKER_04 2:51

That he's in control of everything.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Yeah.

Chaos Has Limits Under God

SPEAKER_02 2:59

He is in control of everything. You're right, but there's something else I'm looking for here. Sister Mariah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Um, so something um that Sister Sean said made me think also to the point in which she so eloquently said better than I could. But it says, and and said, Here shall thou come, but no further, and here shall thy pride ways be stayed. And it reminds me of what he said to Satan, you know, that you can do what you want unto him only, thus do not take his life. So you could do that, but go no further. And and shout whatever pride and and uh Satan that he had, um, thinking that he could overcome the the servant of God um was stayed. You know, it it was only to that point. So I I just thought of it.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Say that last part again, sister uh that the last part about the staying part. Say that part again.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

That that the pride of this of like Satan that could only be stayed and go no further.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Okay. All right, all right, good, good. Sister Sean, so I want to come back to you. I'm gonna I'm gonna swing it back around to you. Because you you you you opened up the door that I'm trying to get to. And and now we got little pieces. Candy gave me pieces, Mariah gives me pieces. You started off, you started with this. So let me ask you the same question I was asking Sister Candy, especially now that we've heard everybody, you know, all these other comments. You're Job. You've gone through what you've been going through in these 37 chapters. We all know his narrative. God tells him these things, the verses you're talking about here. How do you understand it? How do you think Job is hearing this, or how Job should be hearing this?

SPEAKER_05 4:59

Um chaos is not independent. There is a boundary to suffering. There is a boundary to chaos that cannot go any further than what God allows it to go.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Yes. This is what I'm getting at. This is what I'm getting at. And this is this is what I'm talking about, about God in his showing his paternal affection toward Job. He's not shooting thunderbolts at Job. He's telling Job, he's going, look, I control this chaos. See this whirlwind that I'm coming out of? You see all I have control of it. I'm riding here on it to come talk to you. He goes, So think about this for a second. All the commotion and the chaos in your life, all this affliction, all that you went through, all of this, it has limits. I set limits upon it. And so, and like Lisa said, and I'm with you in it. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I am in the chaos. What the affliction you're going through, I am in it with you. And it has its limitations. And like, notice what he says in the first verse, verse 8. Or, or shut up the sea with his doors when it broke forth, meaning that the sea broke forth as if it had issued out of the womb. And he he talks about how the the oceans and the seas just flooded over the earth, and God put limitations on the on the sea. And and you will see throughout scripture, uh, especially in the book of Revelation, that the sea has always been symbolism for the world, and the world being a chaotic place. And so, and um, and like Brother D.T. says, nothing is random, even the hairs of your head are numbered. This is what God is showing him by speaking about nature. Remember how Christ is, look at the flowers and see how they toil and spin, and God cares for each one of them as well. See, this is what God is starting to show Job. If I if I give this much attention to the natural order of things, if I give this much attention to nature, to the beasts of the field, to the vegetation, to the clouds, to the rain, to the snow, to the hail, how much more would I do it for you, my son? Sister Sean, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 7:29

Yeah, and I just wanted to add that the way that Job was battling the chaos when he was asking, where is God? God is not battling chaos, he's handling it.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Right. Awesome. He's using it. He's using it. And uh, and so it it's it's it's really it's really amazing what's happening here. So, yeah, good, good, good words here. And he's, you know, God's relationship to creation is not some you know distant thing and and uh where that that God separates himself for. He is pointing out to Job that not only did he did he create, but he's and not only does he sustain creation, but he orders it and manages it, just like Joseph says. He orders his creation and he manages it. And we call that providence. God providentially, sovereignly controls his creation. He controls everything. So good answers from everybody on this one, because it's it's a good one. And I'm surprised that I'm surprised, and I guess I shouldn't be, not with this group, at the number of uh at the the volume of input and engagement on this particular subject. I think it's I think it's heavy and I think it's great. But again, the last thing before I move on to the next section of the verses is that um we see that that God's creation is not just a matter of of just some kind of you know mechanical creation, but it it is more um it's more uh what's the word I'm looking for? Um organic, if you will, more organic and literally so. But God looks after it, He takes care of it, He's showing Job this, and what Job should be seeing is like what we just talked about. He's saying that if God controls all of this, what makes you think that I'm not in control of what's happening to you, Job? And even though what you're going through may seem like a flood, I am also in the flood, and I set doors and limitations so that the sea cannot go beyond. I put the sand like Sandy, like Candy read, I put the sand where it is to restrict the ocean from going any further than the prescribed limits that I've set for it for us. Sister Candy, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

You know, when you read that uh earlier about the enclosed the sea with doors and the bur bug, anyway, you know what you said, it makes me think of the ark as well. Especially when you go back to where he says, who who set who set its measurements? You know, you know what I'm saying? There's certain things, and who stretched out the line, certain things that, and then when we got to that verse, it makes me think of him when he closed the door up because that way he saved what was beyond the door.

Providence And God’s Care In Suffering

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Right, right, absolutely. Uh verse 12. The Lord says to Jove, Have you commanded the morning since thy days, and caused the day spring to know his place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? It is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment, and from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken. So now God is speaking about the morning. He's asking Job in very poetic terms, as brother Nathan says, or uh Joshua says, He says, He says, Have you commanded the morning since your days? And have you caused the day spring to know his place? You know, how are you are you governing the morning in the dawn? Are you in control of it some kind of way? Sister May, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

I I would be being so patient because I wanted these three verses. I just wanted to read these. Um, can I do you mind if I read it from a different version? Sure. Okay. Verse 12 says, Or was it by you that I appointed the light early in the day, and the morning beheld its own order to seize the extremities of the earth, to shake out the wicked from it? Verse 14, or you yourself having taken earth, did you form from the clay a living being and one who endowed with speech and place it upon the earth? That because we were talking, I was excited about verse 14 because yesterday we were talking about the clay, right? And then in in verse 14, this just makes it even more he says, or you yourself have taken the earth. Did you form from the clay a living being? Right. And one endowed with speech and placed it upon the earth, what? Like, yes, he did it. Yep, but but to me, it's like in verse 12, he is he's I feel like he's asking Job, like, Job, can you make the morning? Can you start the morning of the day? Can is it your responsibility to start the morning to do these things? Where is your place in any of this, Job? Please tell me if you know. And I I just feel like Job is like, I mean, I can see like in verse chapter 40 when he's like, I'm just gonna put my hand over my mouth. I'm not gonna say anything because I feel like I would be the exact same way. It's just like, what is one's response to the Lord God Almighty speaking to you in your situation? You know, even from those last verses, it's like Job, you're you're speaking beyond what you understand, but I'm gonna show you something greater because I am that I am. Right. I'm about to show you what I am.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Man, it's just this is I'm I'm so I love this. And I like hearing other people's responses too. It's really good.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, it's good because there's so much, there's so much uh so much depth about here. And I think it's interesting too that that God uses the language of a light. Like he says, like he when he talks about um, you know, have you commanded the morning since that since your days and cause the day spring uh to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth? And this is the part that I like, that the wicked might be shaken out of it. And he's pointing out that that even the morning light, that the light of day has a way of exposing the wicked and put and putting an end to the open, the open to open corruption. That's what the daylight seems to do. It exposes, light exposed, exposes. And I think that he and I think that this is also giving Job an indication that that all all the wickedness that was surrounding him, his friends, his wife, his uh, you know, what was happening up in heaven with Satan, all these things, I think that Job is seeing that that his that that I think God is pointing out to Job that all these calamities, all these calamities are also in God's control. It's all his control. He's he's overseeing all of it, and he's the one that is that is partly you know behind it and that he gave Satan, he says, Hey, how about my servant Job? But I think that God is using this great language, this great language to bring home a point. And I think that he is, he's not just beating Job over the head, he's carrying him gently through this whole thing. He's he's he's like he's walking him through this thing like a father is trying to educate his son. And it's just a beautiful thing to look to look at this, you you know, because he's God is is speaking Job some tough things, but it it's the kind of language that that a that a parent gives to a to his or her child, and um and is a gentle swooning, you know, and bringing him to a gradual understanding about himself. And God is telling him, you know, he in all these things, if I control all these things, Job, what makes you think you, my servant, what makes you think you stand outside of that control? And yet, so many men today, Christians, believe they stand outside of God's control, or at the very least, and worse, that God can't move or exert his own power and authority unless man moves or agrees with the direction that he's taken. You know, but God is telling Job, listen, I control the seas, I control the wind, I control the snow, the all these things. Do you think I'm not going to pay attention to you, who I have given the capacity to know me? You know, but it's just like Meg says, this is this is phenomenal language. This is great language. And it probably would have been a better version for me to read a different version for especially this this discourses from God here, because it's really uh it's really powerful when you when you really read it. But the point here that God is making to Job is that he governs all daily events. In other words, he talks, he's talking about the sunrise, the morning. So he's not talking about just one morning or two or a week of mornings. He's talking about morning in general, the morning in general. He controls the day cycles, he controls every day cycle. So even the day and night cycles are in his are in his command, all of it. And he's pointing out to Job, I control all of it. I limit, I restrict it, I apply it, I move it, I reroute it. But whatever it does, it is coming from me. And he's telling Job, this same thing has to do, it needs to be understood that this is the way I work with you as well, my servants. And Christians, this is something that we all should learn. No matter how grievous we think our hardships are. There may be. And and people's relative experience could make it seem just as bad. But my point is this whenever, whenever and whatever happens, we need to understand these words that God is speaking to Job. Because these are really important words. Sister Lisa, go ahead.

Can You Command The Morning

SPEAKER_03 18:23

Well, as you were reading that and and speaking just now, um, it came to my mind that just as we as children trust our earthly fathers, I mean, I could picture my own dad saying, Hey, you know, you've got to trust me. You've got to trust me. You can't doubt. And that's how I see the Lord here um speaking to Job. I mean, Job knows all these things because in, you know, in previous chapters, you know, Job was speaking of God's glory and his greatness and how God handles the wicked and so on and so forth. And I think God in his goodness is just gently reminding him, Job, you know who I am. You know who I am, you know, just like you said, everything that happens with you, don't you know that I'm there? Remind like reminding him. It's just so beautiful to me. I keep thinking, I mean, I don't feel, I don't feel at all as though I I would I if I were Job, I'm trying to listen to what the Lord is saying. And I don't feel I don't um I honestly don't feel a rebuke at this point. I feel like God is gently restoring what I what I knew before. I knew I stood before, and I at the beginning of the book, Job is standing so strong in, you know, shall we not, you know, can we not expect God to give us good and bad at the same time? However, that however that verse goes, you know, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. And then gradually he's he's just losing, he's being beaten down. I mean, he's really taking a beating um from the friends, and I think right now God is just restoring him to remind him again, God, I I Job, remember who I am. Remember who I am, right? I was I think it's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Yeah, sister candy. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Dude, I just seen Jesus in my lap. Like Jesus is the one that he's speaking of, in my opinion, right here. Because he's the morning star, he is the lot. He does go from the the earth, you know what I'm saying? The earth is his and it's under his feet as well. And he is the one who comes and separates the light from the darkness. He is the one who is broke all the curses from the ones who have the light. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, like yeah, like, especially with the version, whatever version Meg was reading out of. Definitely. And then I went back and read it in mine, and it's like, absolutely, yes. I like see him expressing sin and his son.

Light Exposes Evil And Brings Hope

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Yeah, I think I think that um another another point here too, because when he talks about uh when God talks about the morning, you know, the morning, the light of the morning, because it it it also it speaks it it doesn't it doesn't just speak of light purely in the sense of of um illumination. But it also speaks about light, like, like when you think of um, I think the Job could reference that to moral light, or we could when we look at it now. I mean, this is one of the things that I got out of this, which is that because when he talks about how how um that the that the you know that the wicked are shaken out of it, out of the light. Um and then it says, and from the wicked their light is withheld. And so there's a there's a there's a moral aspect to to how he how God is using light in this sort of poetic sense. And I think that it it also should remind Job that um what's that verse in Psalm where it talks, I can't think of what it is. I think it's Psalm 32, I think. When when when the Lord says that joy comes in the morning, uh I don't know, I can't remember the verse, but um, but he talks about joy coming in the morning. And so I think that this is also a a hopeful uh lesson for Job to understand that when you when you go through these dark seasons in your life, that you can be certain that the morning is on its way. That the morning is on its way, it's coming. And so, and so I uh you know, when I'm going through this, and I and I'm sure you guys all see things as you have been describing, so and I love it. Um But I think, you know, I I see things in there, and I'm and I and I just it just overwhelms the heart when you real when you realize that some of the things that God is saying, they hit you a certain way, but that's the way God's that's the way God's word works. It always does that. But light, what does light do? Light, it exposes, it restrains, it disrupts evil. Um and and and but it is also used with reference to our own spiritual illumination. And I think this is what Job is getting right now, a spiritual illumination. Verse 16. God says to Job, Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Have you walked in the search of the of the death? Have the gates of death been opened unto you? Have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you perceived the breath of the earth? Declare if you know it at all. If you know it all. And this is what he's this is what God is saying. He's basically telling Job, you were talking a little while ago, like you knew it all. So if you know, then declare it unto me. And of course, Job is not gonna say anything. God is is is is questioning Job about the depth of the sea. Did you walk on the bottom on the ocean floor? Did you, did you, you know, you know, um, what do you know about the deep? How little is known? What about the vastness of the earth? Have you walked the breadth of the earth? Have you covered every every ground you know, all ground on the earth? And what he is telling them is that there are many places and there are many realities, Job, that go beyond your reach, and because of that, they go beyond your understanding. If you haven't, if you haven't dealt in the depth of these things by participation, what makes you think you can question my judgments? If I handle all these things, what makes you think there's something I missed? And what puts you in a place where you feel you can judge how I manage my works? I am the Lord. I control all things. And nothing falls from my hand that I am unaware of. Do you think there's something, Job, that I missed? Do you think there's something that is going on in your life that I don't understand? Do you think that I am not intricately involved in what you're going through? Do you think that my silence means that I left you alone? These are the things that Job has to contend with. And no doubt, he's glad to have to contend with it. You know, man has to admit and understand his own limitations. Somebody said earlier, you know, people we need to stay in our own lane and not speak beyond what we know. And listen, this is important even when we're sharing the gospel with people, even when we're talking about biblical things with other people, whether it be in other lives, whether it be in person, whether it be at our Thanksgiving dinners or or whatever, we need to, when we when we engage with people, it is always best to stick with what you really understand and not to go beyond. I know what it feels like to do that and to be truly sorrowful for that. So be make it you make it your sincerest desire when it comes to handling the word of God to be as biblically precise as possible. Don't speak about what you don't know. Just because there's a break in the conversation doesn't mean you have to fill it with something that you don't understand. And this goes for every, every one of us, all of us, myself, everyone. Sister Sean, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

Because he's like, he's God is telling him, You haven't even been in a place where death feels close. Right. You haven't the the shadow of it. I thought that was interesting because at one point we thought Job himself thought that death was close. Right. And God is telling you death wasn't even near.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Right. Yeah, and and and that's that's a good point because um because uh yeah, he hasn't even approached the shadow of it. You're right. That's a that's a really that's a really good point. Really good point. Um verse 19. The Lord says, Where is the way where light dwells? As for darkness, where is the place thereof that you should take it to the bound, that you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof. Do you know it because you was then because you were then born, or because of the number of your days is great. So what he's saying, what he's saying is that were you were you there, were you around, are you old enough to know? You know, were you born then when these things when these things were happening? And obviously the answers are no. But God is showing him his own majesty, God's that is. He's showing him his majesty, he's showing him how how um uh intricate his involvement is with all of his creation, even in things that don't that just seem that we take for granted as, you know, we look up at the sky and see the stars and the moon, we go to the beach and we see the ocean. But if you go to the beach, if you go to the beach and all you see is the ocean, or if you look up to the night sky and all you see is the moon and the stars and the constellations, is that's all you see. If you look at, if you look to a botanical garden and all you see is flowers and roses and and these and these these you know wonderfully pruned bushes and trees. If you go to a zoo and all you see is animals, you're missing the whole thing. Because what are we supposed to see in all of these things, anybody?

SPEAKER_00 30:08

God.

Seeing God In All Creation

Snow And Hail In God’s Armory

Turning Weather Talk Into Witness

SPEAKER_02 30:09

God. God's handiwork. That's right. We look at his handiwork, and that's a great reference because his handiwork means that these things were all made by his hands. So like Meg said, everything you see, you should see God. In humanity, you see God in the night sky, you see God at the beach, you see God at the zoo, you see God. When it rains or snows or the wind blows, you see God in everything. There should be nothing that you see with your open eyes that is not God, and even much more so when you shut them, to meditate on his handiwork and what he's done, and to reflect on the fact that if he shows that much concern, if he shows in all his creation the glory of what he's able to do and what he has done, we need to see that if he can sustain all those things, if he can hold the sun and the stars in this place, if he can hold the earth in this place, spinning on its axis where it sits, suspended on nothing. If we can see all of that, how much more? How much more can he hold on to us and manage to bring us home to him, which is his ultimate desire in this creation, to bring his people home? It's is is it's beyond words, it's beyond words. Job 38, verse 22. He asked Job, Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? Have you seen the treasures of the hail which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth? So here you get snow and hail, they're being described as being stored up by God and used for his purposes. And notice what he says, even in times of war and in judgment. He is saying this is one of the reasons why he stores up snow and hail. He reserves them against the time of trouble and against the day of battle and war. Do we think that God is not behind all of these wars? And in a sovereign way, whatever God does, he is in the chaos. And what is chaotic to men, and from the perspective of men, is not so with the Lord. The snow and the hail, all these things. God says He He's He equates them to being in His armory that He uses in the time of trouble against the day of battle and war. It's amazing. And it's amazing how he talks about how these how his governance over nature impacts even man to the point where it prevents men or restricts men and restrains men in a variety of ways. Even how he controls how when the daylight comes, it exposes the wicked. So it's it's he says that snow and the hell, they're in his armory, they're like his weapons that he uses. And he points out, like I think it was Brother D.T. said earlier, that even that nothing is random, not even the weather is random, but under God's control. When we meet people, one of the first things we talk about is the weather. Or you call somebody you haven't spoken to in a while, oh hey, how are you doing? Everything is great. Oh, how's the weather where you are? Think about this now. The next time you have a conversation and somebody asks you about the weather, or you or the conversation comes up about how's the weather where you are, it's a good time to think of something pithy but profound that you can say about God. Think of it as a segue into a conversation about the Lord. See God in everything. Talk about God and everything. There is no subject on earth that any man can have that cannot end up leading into the glories of the Lord Himself, the majesty of our God. Nothing. God divides the light. He's dividing of light and the east wind again, showing forces of nature that man cannot command. Man has no command over it. Man can't control it. All he can do is observe it. All we can do is observe and assess, contemplate, project. But how often does God remind us that just when we think we