Job 40:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is a humbling challenge God gave Job. After he had asked many hard questions, God pressed him once more. By showing Job how little he knew about nature, God showed him how unfit he was to judge God’s ways and purposes. It seems God paused for a time, as Elihu had done, giving Job space to answer or to think about what he had heard. But Job stayed silent in his distress, so God called on him to reply (Job 40:1, Job 40:2).

This was not said from the whirlwind, as before. Some think God spoke now in a quiet, still voice, which reached Job more deeply than the storm had, as happened with Elijah (1 Kings 19:12, 1 Kings 19:13). God’s teaching can fall like rain and do great things. Though Job had said nothing, God is still said to answer him, because he knows people’s thoughts and can answer even their silence.

God first asks a strong question: “Does the one who argues with the Almighty try to instruct him?” In other words, does Job mean to tell God how to run the world, or set rules for God’s wisdom and will? Would God take advice from every angry complainant and change his wise plans just to please him? The question carries clear contempt. Who can teach God knowledge? (Job 21:22). Those who argue with God are, in effect, trying to teach him how to do his work better.

If we argue with another person because we think they have done wrong, we may at least explain how they should do better. But is it fitting for any man to teach his Maker? The one who contends with God is, in truth, acting like his enemy, and yet he dares to act as if he has gained enough ground to give God directions. We are ignorant and short-sighted. Everything lies open before God. We are dependent creatures, but he is the sovereign Creator. How, then, can we pretend to instruct him?

Some read the question this way: Is it any wisdom to contend with the Almighty? The answer is obvious. No, it is great folly. It is foolish to oppose the one whom it will surely ruin us to resist, and whose rule it is our greatest good to submit to. God then calls for a quick answer. Let the one who criticizes God answer this question to his own conscience, and let him answer plainly: Far be it from me to contend with the Almighty, or to instruct him. Let him answer all the questions God has already asked, if he can. If he will not answer now, he must answer later, at God’s judgment seat, to his own shame.

Those have proud thoughts of themselves and low thoughts of God who correct anything he says or does. Job now comes to himself and begins to melt in godly sorrow. When his friends argued with him, he would not yield. But the voice of the Lord is powerful. When the Spirit of truth comes, he convinces the heart. His friends had condemned him as wicked, and Elihu had been very severe with him (Job 34:7, Job 34:8, Job 34:37). But God had not spoken to him with such harsh words. We may sometimes find better treatment from God, and a fairer judgment of what we do, than we get from our friends. Overcome by this, Job gives himself up as a conquered man to God’s grace.

First, he admits that he has done wrong and has nothing to say for himself (Job 40:4). “I am vile,” he says, meaning not only low and weak, but base and shameful in his own eyes. He now sees that he has sinned, and so he calls himself vile. Sin lowers us, and true repentant people humble themselves, blame themselves, and are ashamed, even deeply ashamed. “I have acted badly toward my Father, ungratefully toward my Benefactor, and unwisely for myself. Therefore I am vile.” Job now speaks of himself as poorly as he once spoke highly of himself. Repentance changes how a person sees himself.

Job had been too bold in asking to meet with God. He had thought he could defend his case. Now he sees his mistake and admits that he cannot stand before God or bring anything worth his notice. He feels like the smallest and most worthless worm on God’s earth. When his friends spoke, he answered them, because he thought himself as good as they were. But when God spoke, he had nothing to say, because compared with God he sees himself as nothing, less than nothing, worse than nothing, all vanity and worthlessness. So he asks, “What can I answer you?” God demanded an answer (Job 40:2), and this is Job’s reason for silence. He was not stubborn, but convinced he had been wrong.

Those who truly feel their own sin and worthlessness do not try to justify themselves before God. They are ashamed that they ever thought of doing so, and in shame they put their hand over their mouth. Second, Job promises not to offend in this way again. Elihu had said that this was the right response toward God. When we have spoken wrongly, we must repent of it and not repeat it or defend it. Job puts himself under restraint: “I will lay my hand on my mouth.” He will hold his tongue as with a bridle and keep his passionate thoughts from spilling out in sinful speech.

It is bad to think wrongly, but it is much worse to speak wrongly. Speaking gives wrong thoughts approval and makes them public. It spreads the harmful message abroad. So if you have thought evil, put your hand over your mouth and let it go no farther (Proverbs 30:32). That is one sign that you do not approve of the thought. Job had let his bad thoughts come out. He says, “Once I have spoken, yes, twice,” meaning on several occasions, in more than one speech. But now he is done. He will not answer. He will not stand by what he has said. He will say no more.

This is what true repentance looks like. It corrects our mistakes and the false ideas we used when we acted as we did. What we have long defended, and often defended strongly, we must give up as soon as we see it is wrong. We must take shame to ourselves for holding it so long. Repentance also means turning back from every wrong path and going no farther in it. “I will not add,” is the sense of the word. I will not keep giving myself over to passion. I will not use my tongue that way again. I will not keep saying what I have said or doing what I have done. Until repentance reaches that point, it is incomplete.

Those who argue with God will be silenced in the end. Job had been very bold in asking for a meeting with God. He had spoken confidently about making his case and being justified. He said he would go near to God like a prince (Job 31:37), and he would come to his seat (Job 23:3). But he soon has enough. He lets go of his defense and will not answer.

“Lord, all wisdom and right judgment are on your side, and I have acted foolishly and wickedly by questioning them.”