Job 40 - God's Holy and Purposeful Might

40 The Lord said to Job:

2 “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?

    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

3 Then Job answered the Lord:

4 “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?

    I put my hand over my mouth.

5 I spoke once, but I have no answer—

    twice, but I will say no more.”

6 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

7 “Brace yourself like a man;

    I will question you,

    and you shall answer me.

8 “Would you discredit my justice?

    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

9 Do you have an arm like God’s,

    and can your voice thunder like his?

10 Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,

    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

11 Unleash the fury of your wrath,

    look at all who are proud and bring them low,

12 look at all who are proud and humble them,

    crush the wicked where they stand.

13 Bury them all in the dust together;

    shroud their faces in the grave.

14 Then I myself will admit to you

    that your own right hand can save you.

Job 40:1-14

At the beginning of chapter 40, God pauses in his interrogation to give Job a chance to respond.

And the Lord said to Job, "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it." Then Job answered the Lord: "Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further."

Job is getting the point: a finite creature who has no wisdom to run this world and is utterly ignorant of 99.999% of its processes has no business instructing his Maker and Ruler how to run the world, even condemning God for the way he runs it.

God presses his case further against Job in 40:6–9 as he speaks again out of the whirlwind.

Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? 

So we then ask the question: Are God's ways right simply because He is Almighty God? 

This is disturbing argument. Does God mean that we are to submit to the justice of his ways simply because he has a powerful arm? Are we supposed to acknowledge his right simply because he has might? Is something right and good just because God does it?

I think the answer to that question is yes and no. On the one hand, there is no greater reality than God with which we can judge God's actions. He would not be God if he submitted to something outside himself.

But on the other hand, when we say the sentence, "God is good," or, "God always does what is right," God wants us to mean more than simply, "God is God." He wants us to see that his might does not make right in the sense that it could be capricious and arbitrary and irrational and nevertheless right. Instead he wants us to see that his might is purposeful.

So in 40:10–14 he challenges Job to join him in this holy and purposeful might.

Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour forth the overflowings of your anger, and look on every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that 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 give you victory.

This is very different from saying, "Acknowledge that my might is right no matter what I do." Instead, God says, "I employ my might to clothe myself with splendor and to abase the proud and (by implication) to exalt the humble." In other words the rightness of God's might is not merely that it is God's, but also that its purposes are consistence with his excellence.

The goodness of God is just this: that he upholds his glory by abasing the proud and giving the humble delight in his excellence.

So in bringing Job to submission, God did not simply say, "Might makes right. So stop condemning my ways." He said, in the first place, there are ten million things about running the world of which you don't know the first thing, but I know perfectly. So it is presumptuous to assume you can counsel me about how to run a more just world. You can't begin to know all that has to be taken into account in making decisions about how to run the world for my glory and for the joy of my people!

And in the second place, God showed that his might is not arbitrary but purposeful. And the purpose is to uphold his glory by abasing the proud and blessing the humble. Therefore Job should not presume to accuse God of being arbitrary or capricious or irrational. He should submit to the wisdom and goodness of God's dealings and hold fast to the promise that "God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11).

Taken from John Piper sermons https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/job-the-revelation-of-god-in-suffering