Job 38:4-18
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.
From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday. This is a podcast of first Lutheran Church that looks at the readings for the upcoming Sunday. So you can be familiar with them. When you come to church, I examine the Old Testament, epistle reading and Gospel reading for each week with a few notes and a simple explanation. So let's begin. The Old Testament reading for August 13. Is from Job chapter 38, verses four through 18. Let's read it. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding? Who determined its measurements? Surely, you know, or who stretched the line upon it On what were its basis sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shot in the sea with its doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds, its garments and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors and said, thus far shall you come, and no farther. And here shall your proud waves be stayed? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and cause the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked, that light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken. Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of its deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this, here ends the reading. This is a tough one. The Book of Job is a challenging book to read, especially as you dive into the depths of some of these conversations. In the book. The book of Job begins with a famous story. Satan and God are up in heaven. And God says look at my servant Job, Isn't he awesome? Satan says he only is great because you're so nice to him. And so they make kind of a deal. Satan's allowed to go and terrorize job to test job to see if he's going to curse God. And so eventually God, Job goes through all these horrible things, loses everything, and his health is taken away. And yet he still doesn't curse God. And he turns to God, and ask a whole bunch of questions. And these questions are like, basically it comes down to what in the world are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? God's response is what we see in job 38. God basically says, You got all of these questions, who were you to question me, and what I do in creation. And so that's where we get to this. He got asked the questions. Where were you? When I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding, who determines its measurement? Surely, you know, are who stretched the line upon it On what were its basis sunk or who laid its cornerstone. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Now, you'll see all of these are building metaphors. God is saying, Where were you? When I built the world? Did you watch me when I laid it out? When I measured it when I put it together when I built it foundations? And the answer is obviously, Job didn't exist. He wasn't there. He has no idea the height and depth of creation. And he makes a similar question about the the sea when he goes, or who shot in the sea with its doors when it burst out of the womb, and I made the clouds it's garment and thick darkness it's swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far shall you come and no farther. And here shall your proud waves be stayed? This isn't actually upping the ante. God is saying, are you able to lock the sea into its place? Because that's what I did. Do you know how all of this happened? Were you there? When I fixed the sea and said the most dangerous thing in the world, you stop, you can't progress anywhere. And that's what he's saying to job like the sea was the most dangerous place in all of creation. It was scary. And so God is saying to job, I control this scary thing. The most terrifying thing in all of creation. I put a limit on it. And, and then later it's I commanded the most Burning since your day is began and cause the dawn to know its place. Basically, what God is saying, you're this little human being job. You don't know creation, you don't know why I do the things that I do. You don't understand. And so you need to understand what your place is in creation. Basically, it's God is God, and you are not. And I think it's a good reminder for us Christians, as we consider what God does in the world, is that it's, we're not God. We don't understand his reasoning. We don't know why he allows the things that he allows or does the things that he does. We don't understand why one person gets sick and another is healthy, or one gets rich and another is poor. We don't understand why some are in church and others are not. We can't know any of these things because we are far more limited than God who made heaven and earth and created everything. But what we do have is a Savior who was there, a Savior who came and died for us as a human being, and took our place on the cross. And so while we can never be the ones who were there when the foundations of the earth were laid, or the sea was was, was limited. Jesus Christ was and he came and took our place on the cross.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai