Job 38.04 l GOD SPEAKS

Today’s reading: Job 38.01-40.24

Job 38.04 “4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,”

In today’s reading, we see that Job’s desire for God to speak (Job 09.33; Job 13.22; Job 16.19-20; Job 31.35) was finally granted. But instead of answering Job, God asked Job questions. With all these questions, not one of them Job was able to answer (Job 40.03-05).

God answers Job by asking him questions. To fully understand the origin of all things, man needs to be there when they are formed. Being of finite mind, man cannot comprehend the infinite wisdom of the Creator of all things. God said that the stars and angels sang and shouted when He made the earth (Job 38.07; Genesis 01.01-02.31), Job has no idea how God makes snow or hail (Job 38.22). God uses His creation to water the earth (Job 38.26; Job 38.37-38). God is in control of creation & places boundaries on it (Job 38.08-11). In the animal world God provides for animals (Job 38.39-41; Job 39.29-30), helps them (Job 39.01-04; Job 39.26-28), releases them (Job 39.05-12), and strengthens them (Job 39.13-25).

In comparison, Job could do nothing like this. God not only created everything, but He also provides for everything.

The greatest provision of all was when God sent His Son to become man like us, and had Him die on the cross for our sins, raising Him on the third day so that we might live forever with Him having our sins forgiven (1Corinthians 15.01-04).

Remember that Jesus has paid the price in full when He hung and died on the cross John 19.30. Our salvation is all a work of God and not a work of man!

When Jesus died, we read, “…the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Mark 15.38

This veil was thirteen-seventeen feet high, six-eight inches thick, and it took one hundred priests to move it. So when Jesus died, the veil was ripped in two, thus making it now possible for man to approach God (Hebrews 04.01-16).

Jesus became sin for us, even though He was perfect (2Corinthians 05.21)! He is the only One who knew it all, saw it all and willingly paid for it all (1Peter 01.03).

He rose from the dead on the 3^rd day, just as He said that He would (Mark 16.06).

The writer of Hebrews tells us that offering the sacrifices can never make us free from the guilt of sin (Hebrews 10.01).

But look at what Paul tells us in…

Colossians 02.14 “14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; & He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

The picture here in this verse is that of a written contract, in which we bind ourselves to do any work, or to make a payment, and which remains in force against us until the pledge is fulfilled. Once the contract is fulfilled, they would either then blot out the names, or draw lines through it, what was also common in that culture they would take a nail and drive it through it. The Jewish law is represented here as such a contract, binding those under it to its observance, until it was then nailed to the cross when Jesus died. What this means is that the burdensome requirements of the Mosaic Law are abolished, and it is now replaced by the death of Christ. His death had the same effect, in reference to those laws, as if they had been blotted from the book of the law. This was accomplished by fulfilling them, by introducing a more perfect system and by rendering their observance no longer necessary, since all that they were designed to typify had been now accomplished in a better way.

If the blood of animals would have been good enough, the writer of Hebrews says that they would no longer have to offer sacrifices (Hebrews 10.02-04). All that the sacrifices did was to cover their sins; it never took away the guilty conscience that is within man. We see a perfect illustration of this in Genesis 03.21 when the LORD made garments for Adam and Eve.

The first shedding of blood is recorded in Genesis 03.21. What we see is God’s perfect plan of redemption already laid out that there needs to be the shedding of blood to first cover then to forgive us of our sins. This shedding of blood only covered them, later when the Savior came He completely forgave!

Offering sacrifices reminded the Jews about how sinful they were.

The blood of animals was not sufficient because in order for our sins to be completely forgiven and for us to be redeemed, we need a kinsman redeemer (Leviticus 25.25).

In order for us to be redeemed (bought back) we needed One who was like us to do the buying back. Since an animal is not related to us, their sacrifice could only cover our sin…but Jesus came as a man (Philippians 02.08)!

This is something that the High Priest had to do, every year, go into the Holy Place and make atonement. Today, we don’t have to have a High Priest, because Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 02.17).

Jesus said to the disciples to remember that He died for us once and for all (Luke 22.19). We no longer need to offer sacrifices, or be bound by legalism, such as “did I read my Bible and pray today? Did I go to church this week?”

Praise the LORD for His great and perfect provision!