Job 41:1 - 42:17 - When God Does Not Explain Why (Session 40)

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 41–42, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches the final session in the book of Job and brings the entire message into focus. After four chapters of questions from God, Job is finally humbled, repentant, and silent before the Lord. Yet even at the end, God still never tells Job the reason for his suffering. That becomes one of the greatest lessons of the whole book. 

This session explores the meaning of Leviathan, God’s total control over every creature and even over Satan, Job’s repentance in dust and ashes, God’s rebuke of Job’s three friends, Job’s role as intercessor for his enemies, and the restoration that follows. The study also addresses whether all believers should expect Job-like restoration in this life, or whether the greater hope is the final restoration God promises in the life to come. 

The episode ends by drawing out the final pastoral lessons of Job: God is in control even when earth feels chaotic, suffering is real but never greater than God, believers are not cast away every time they sin, and trusting God remains the only true answer when the reason for suffering is hidden. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 41 explained 
•  Job 42 explained 
•  Leviathan and God’s control 
•  Job’s repentance 
•  God does not explain why 
•  intercession for enemies 
•  assurance and God’s mercy 
•  restoration after suffering 
•  final hope beyond this life 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Welcome And Design In Creation

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. We are in our final session in the book of Job. If you've not studied our ministry, then go to our website, reasoningthible.com, and you'll find resources there that help you teach classes for your church or your small group. We go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the word of God. We trust that you'll follow along with us. And today, if you have your Bible, open it to the book of Job, chapter 41. As we've seen so far, God has been speaking to Job, reminding him that there is great and grand design in the universe. The design of nature is one of the greatest proofs for the existence of God. Everything that is designed requires a designer. And as God has been pointing out here for several chapters, the universe and all of creation has great, grand, glorious design. Chance and purposelessness do not even give the appearance of design, let alone the severe and great complexity, well beyond what is needed for survival. That's one of the great things about the design argument is that evolution only produces enough for survival. Whereas here with design, we have the universe designed well beyond anything that was ever needed for survival.

Meeting Leviathan In Job 41

SPEAKER_01 1:44

So in Job chapter 41, as we saw last time, there's a beast called Behemoth. Now we have one called Leviathan, a very fierce animal. I'm reading in Job chapter 41, verse 1. Can you drag out Leviathan with a fish hook and press down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a rope in his nose and pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you, or will he speak to you gentle words? Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird and tie him down for your young girls? And then if we look down in verse 13, he continues with this description. Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can pierce his double armor? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth there is terror, his strong scales are his pride, locked as with a tight seal. So here the question becomes: who is this animal? Many commenters think it's a crocodile. Crocodiles do have double scales, fierce teeth, they are extremely large, and they're very complex animals. The passage goes on to describe this animal as breathing fire and smoke. If I look at verse 18, his sneezes flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eye of dawn. From his mouth go burning torches, sparks of fire leap forth. From his nostrils, smoke goes out as from a boiling pot and burning reeds. His breath sets coals aglow, and flame goes forth from his mouth. One commenter said that this was a poetic description of bad breath. Well, there seems to be a little bit of a better answer. Leviathan is mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures. It's mentioned in Psalm 74, Psalm 104, and Isaiah 27. It's always a picture of a very large, very fierce animal. But in all of these places, it's communicating that God is in control of even the greatest and most severe of creatures. Here in Job, the poetic language is saying that God can control the greatest creatures and Job cannot.

Fire Breathing Imagery And God’s Control

SPEAKER_01 4:07

The passage starts out describing Leviathan as similar to a crocodile, but then it moves on and describes Leviathan as a great fire-breathing dragon. The dragon is a symbol of Satan in Revelation. So God is saying in this passage, at a minimum, that he is in total control of everything in the universe. Even such a being is the largest of the fierce crocodiles, and he has that on a leash. But similarly, Satan can do nothing without God's permission. God starts out with describing this earthly creature and goes on to describe a great dragon, a great Satan. Even Satan cannot do anything without God's permission. The beginning of the book of Job opens up with God having Satan appear to him as if a general would be inspecting his troops and God in total control. And here at the end of the book, we have God still in total control over Satan as an ugly dragon. The beginning of the book is book-ended with the ending with God in total control over Satan. In this speech that God has given up to this point, God has shown several things about his nature. He explained his omnipotence. He is all-powerful, his omniscience, he is all-knowing, he has all wisdom, he has wrath. God spoke about his anger against wickedness. Job refers to God as a judge, so he is interested in justice. In the book of Job, God also reveals himself as his power in creation, how powerful he would have to be to create all these creatures, his wisdom in creating wonderfully complex creatures. He's the one who takes care of creation. He not only created it, but he sustains it. He is the one who has the authority and the ability to control the earth. He is the just one. Steve, is he worthy of worship?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Obviously, he's worthy of worship. The one that has created all of this that we've been talking about in the last few chapters. Now, we haven't seen in our lifetime this fire-breathing dragon that you described. And some have said, oh, there could never have been any type of such a thing. Maybe there has been, maybe there hasn't. But we do see in creation an insect that utilizes fire in defense and also in its hunting its prey. In its abdomen, it has two different chemicals, and it shoots these two chemicals out when they combine, it creates a little spark of fire. So it's perfectly available for creation to have the ability to be able to have some sort of fire come out. We see that in creation today. So, like you, I agree with you, Glenn. The point is not what is this animal? Does it exist now? Did it exist then? Did it ever exist? That's not the point. It's another iteration of God showing his creativity in creation. And that's what we've seen over these last couple of chapters.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

God has spoken to Job from a tornado for four chapters now. Job started out in the book very puffed up, very proud, very sure of himself, thinking he was going to cut God down to size once he got him where he could ask questions. But once God shows up, God has not only reminded him of his great power, his great wisdom, but it also has shown Job how majestic he is. And now we're gonna see him in chapter 42. Job is a changed man. He is now humbled. If we come face to face with the real God, we will be humbled. I'm reminded of Peter in the Gospels when Jesus did the miracle of the fish. Peter was very humbled. And the first thing he says is, Lord, depart from me because I'm a sinner. Once we come face to face with God, we realize how low we really are. Job is now very meek and contrite. Steve, can you read the first six verses of Job chapter 42?

Job’s Repentance And Humility

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things, and that no plan is impossible for you. Who is this who conceals advice without knowledge? Therefore, I have declared that which I do not understand, things too wonderful for me which I do not know. Please listen and I will speak. I will ask you and you instruct me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I retract and I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Once Job really got face to face with God, with the Almighty Creator of the universe, he realized how small his situation really was. Job is now humble and repentant. Steve, what does God want from human beings?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

He wants to have a relationship with us. He walked with both Adam and Eve in the garden. He told them to go forth and multiply, but he walked with them, he conversed with them. So he wants to have a relationship with us and he wants our worship as well. I think that's reasonable considering who he is.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I submit that what God wants is a repentant person, an humble person. He does not want a proud person. Psalm 3418 says, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves such as has a crushed spirit. And God says in Isaiah 66, 2, but I will look to this one at one who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. What God wants is somebody who loves him, somebody that is contrite and humble. And I think Job has gotten to this point.

Why God Doesn’t Explain Suffering

SPEAKER_01 10:24

God has been very harsh with Job for four chapters now. And I think we need to kind of get a big picture of what has happened in this book. First of all, was Job's suffering real? Was it truly painful, both physically and emotionally?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yes, I think it was. And we've talked about that as we've gone through the sessions on how suffering and pain can affect our outlook of God and the relationship that we have with him, whether or not we stay faithful to him during the pain and suffering that we go through, how it affects the outlook and the ability for us to react to the different people in the world around us, through the characters of Job's friends and how they reacted to him, the advice they gave to him. But through all of that, it was Job actually physically suffering through all of this. And we again talked through all of the different types of psychological things that he was going through as we went through our sessions. Very much so, it was something that was real.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

I would agree. It was very real, very painful. It was significant suffering. The question then arises: compared to the magnificence of God, how does Job's suffering compare to everything about the Lord God Almighty?

SPEAKER_00 11:43

It says there in verse six that he retracts, he repents, sitting on the dust and the ashes. There he is in the ash heap where he has gone to scrape himself with the broken pots to relieve himself from the pressure of the boils. And here God shows up. And I think it's telling there in verse five when he says, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. It's the physical presence of God that has put Job in this position of retraction, of repentance, and the awesomeness of God as he shows up and asks these questions and really puts Job in his place by saying, Who are you? I created all of this. You were nowhere near around when I created all of this. Who are you to question me? Or who are you to put words in my mouth and put ideas and my personage of how I treat evil or whether I deal with it or whether I don't, how I handle the suffering and things like that. All of these things that you and your friends have accused me of all this time, how is it that you have the ability to do that? You didn't create anything. So I think God, through this, has made a great case for himself in his creation and his creativity. And lastly, it makes me think of the atheists and skeptics today, Glenn. They say if there was such a God, then he should make himself known to me, and then I might believe. They don't even come to the place, some of them, that say that they would believe. They are still prideful and skeptical, and they say, I might believe. Well, here Job is saying, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now I have actually seen you in the whirlwind and the things that you've done. And my reaction is in verse six I repent, I sit on the dust and ashes quietly, and I retract everything that I've said, and I retract myself physically in worship of you.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Job's pain and suffering was quite real, but compared to the Lord God Almighty, the creator of the universe, Job realized that his suffering was relatively small compared to God. And the reason I bring that up, my friend, I don't know what's going through your life right now. I'm sure I'm talking to people out there that are suffering. I'm sure some of you are suffering severely and significantly. And I don't want to minimize that. But the lesson of the book of Job is that God is larger than your problem. God is larger than your pain and your suffering. And when he shows up, then the suffering tends to diminish and pale to the size and the immensity and the profoundness of God. We would all be miserable if all we do is stay in our suffering. We need to get at the feet of God and realize how large he is. And then we, like Job, will say, I really have nothing to say because you need to instruct me. Now, in this, Steve, God has finished speaking. Did he ever give a reason for why he allowed Job to suffer?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

No, no reason has been given at all. He has just spoken through his creation, what he has done, and the vast areas of diversity of his creation. That's how he has answered Job.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

And that's one of the great lessons of this book is that yes, God is in total control from the very beginning to the end. Yes, God is all-wise, he is all powerful, but he does not explain himself always. He does not explain why. And the question then becomes, what do we do? My friend, I'm reminded of earlier in our series on Job, we did an interview with Ashley Gladder. And if you didn't get a chance to hear that, I would encourage you to go back to that interview. She had a brother that was murdered. And she said with that, she could see God's hand afterwards and could see some good come of that, and saw God work good out of her brother's murder. She then had a child, a baby, that had severe birth defects and had many people praying for it. And the baby was not healed, but died. And she said she never saw any good that she could see come from that. And I think that's a great lesson that we can get from here in Job. Sometimes we can see God's hand working through suffering, and sometimes we cannot. Sometimes we don't know why God does things. But the question that then becomes face to face with us is even if we do not see the reason why God does things, if all we see is pain and suffering and then somebody dies and we never see God's reason why, are we still to worship God? Or are we to turn inward and become miserable? Are we to blame God for these things? Are we to walk away from the faith? Are we to trust Him and fall at His feet? My friends, that's the only options. Trusting God is really the only solution for the others, are all far worse. God is the only answer that can reconcile any of these things. The human condition is indeed miserable. The only true answer out of it is to fall at the feet of God and realize how immense he is, how wonderful and powerful he is. And we don't understand him, but we can take some consolation in knowing that in the end, in the afterlife, he will wipe away every tear and he will solve every problem. If we don't see the good that comes of it, we can take comfort in knowing that he is still in control and what he does is

God Confronts Job’s Friends

SPEAKER_01 17:53

best. Now we see how God will deal with his three friends. They get their dealing with here. Steve, can you read verses seven, eight, and nine?

SPEAKER_00 18:02

It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is trustworthy, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and my servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept him so as not to do with you as your foolishness deserves, because you have not spoken of me what is trustworthy, as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them, and the Lord accepted Job.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

So in there in verse 8, God says, I will accept him so as to not do with you as your foolishness deserves. So Steve, did God deal with Eliphaz and the friends the way they deserve to be treated?

SPEAKER_00 19:07

No, they didn't. He shows his mercy on them by dealing with them through Job and the sacrifices and Job's prayers up to God on their behalf. Now they didn't go and offer up these sacrifices to Job. Job is operating as an intercessory for them between them and God. And God says, I will accept what Job offers up to me in the way of prayers on your behalf. So God is not dealing with what they deserve, he's dealing with them in mercy and with love.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

In this book, the three friends had taught false teaching and had maligned God, and all that is sin. They they deserved punishment for their sin, but God was merciful and provided for them a way back to him, a way back to reconcile with him. We do not want God to give us what we deserve, we want his mercy. Then I find it interesting here in verse 8, God says, My servant Job will pray for you.

Intercession For Enemies And Assurance

SPEAKER_01 20:13

From this, we learn two things. First of all, even though Job maligned God and God was angry for that, the Lord still refers to Job as my servant. That's the first thing. Secondly, Job was to pray for his enemies. So, Steve, what does the Bible tell us to do for our enemies? Jesus has some things to say about that over in the New Testament, does he not?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

He says that we are to pray for our enemy. He says if we're maligned by them, that we are to turn the other cheek and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And we see in the New Testament that love conquers all. It's the highest thing that we can do. So those are the things that were taught over in the New Testament and what Jesus spoke about. I think it's also telling here in that while Job was complaining about his condition and even offered some of the things that was happening to him on behalf of God, we noted as we went through, as Job did on a couple of occasions, he still kept his integrity. He did not curse God. He didn't do what Satan accused him he was going to do way back in chapter one and two. So you can see here now God is acknowledging that by saying that he's condemning the other three friends because of the way they spoke and the doctrines that they put forth, saying basically God punishes the wicked. Job, you're suffering. Therefore, God is punishing you because you've done something and encouraging him to repent of his sin. Job kept his integrity through all of it. And we see God acknowledging that in this section on how he's dealing with Job's friends. Using Job as a person that intercedes for them.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

We are often told in the Bible to be nice to our enemies, to pray for them. The New Testament book of Romans, chapter 12, verse 20, quotes the Old Testament, Psalm 25, saying this: if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. We are to pray for our enemies. And that's what God has Job doing here. The other thing that we learn from this is that even though Job has sinned in this book, God still refers to him as my servant. So, Steve, do we lose our salvation every time we sin?

SPEAKER_00 22:43

No, we don't. Once we have that salvation, we are in the palm of Jesus' hands and he keeps us and nobody can remove us. So, no, I do not believe that we can lose our salvation. Otherwise, why would we have 1 John 1 9 that tells us to be faithful, to confess the sins that we have once we have salvation so that they can be forgiven? It's obviously talking about there that these confessions of these sins are not ones for salvation. It's part of our sanctifying process. And it's because we still are here in these physical fallen bodies, living in this fallen world. But there's going to be a time whenever we're going to have glorified, restored bodies in a restored world when we're not going to be under those conditions where we're always being tempted by the world to have sin.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

The book of Job makes it quite clear that sin did not cause Job's suffering in the first place. Job was not suffering because he's previously sinned. However, as Elihu pointed out, in the suffering, Job's response to the suffering, he did sin. Even though Job sinned in response to the suffering, hereafterwards, God was even quite terse, quite angry at him. He still calls Job my servant. God does not cast us away every time we sin. And we can take great comfort in that. Just because we commit a sin doesn't mean we lose our salvation. That is a great teaching that is found throughout the Word of God, is that God accepts back his children. Now he may chastise us, but nevertheless, we are still his children. We are still his servants. Now in the next section, we find out how God reconciles with

Restoration And Hope Beyond This Life

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Job. Steve, can you read verses 10 through 17?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

The Lord also restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased double all that Job had. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they sympathized with him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of money, and each a ring of gold. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning, and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jeminah, the second Keziah, and the third Karen Hapach. In all the land no women were found as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father gave them inheritances among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his grandsons for generations. And Job died an old man and full of days.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

So in this, God restored and blessed Job here at the end. God gives Job twice as many of the livestock and gives his children back. The question then becomes can we trust God to restore and bless all people who are suffering today? Can we expect in this life to get like Job multiply? If I last through the suffering, I'm going to get twice as much money and things like that. Is he going to restore us always after suffering in this life?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

We are going to be restored at some point. As I mentioned before, we're going to have glorified bodies. These bodies that we have here are ones that are breaking down. And there are pathogens that are in this world today. And we get those and we contract them and it affects our body and it breaks down. The restoration that we can look forward to is a glorified body. Will we always be restored as Job was restored here? I don't think so. We have seen ourselves, Glenn, you and I in our lifetime that people have gone through great suffering and they are restored somewhat. Sometimes they are restored with greater things, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're not restored at all. They pass on to the other life. So I think Job is a unique story in the way that it's dealt with. I don't think that it's one that is going to happen to every person every time. Does God always offer us up whenever Satan accuses us? I don't know if we can say that or not. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Can we all say that every time that we come under sickness that it's that it's Satan inflicting us? I don't think so that we can, but I think that we can for sure take the promises that God has given us of a restored body unified with our spirit in a restored creation in a restored kingdom and ultimately a new heavens and a new earth.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

When we look at human suffering around us today, it is clearly not the case that God blesses everyone in this life as he did Job. God restores some in this life, he restores some blessing to some people, but others he does not. However, the message of Job is very clear. It's crystal clear. In the end, God is in control and he does what is best for those who suffer. He is the one, it's his universe, he's designed it quite well. Thank you very much. And he will bless his children. He may not do it in this life. I submit, my friend, that more money and better health might not be a blessing that we think it is. It might be more of a curse. There's been many people that have fallen because they lean on their own health or they lean on their own resources. Plus, the afterlife is the real place of service to God. The Lord rewards and blesses in the afterlife. We can take that for an assurity. In here, we also see that God doubled the amount of livestock and gave the same number of sons and daughters 10. But I submit that God did indeed double the sons and daughters. How could that be? Well, Job never really lost the original 10 that were killed by Satan at the beginning of the book. And now he has 10 more. He will see the first 10 when he gets to heaven. He will be with them in heaven. And now he has another 10. So, in a sense, he did double them. When we lose loved ones in this life, we don't lose them really. We just temporarily are disconnected from them. We will know them in the afterlife. God promises the Christian that knows him will be resurrected and will be with their loved ones in the afterlife. If our loved ones are Christian, we do not lose them in death. Death is a temporary separation for the Christian. The non-Christian really has no hope, but the Christian does indeed have assurance that we'll see our loved ones again. I also note here, if we look at verse 15, that Job gave his daughters inheritances the same as the sons. Sometimes in the ancient days, the inheritance only went to the male sons, the male child. Here, Job does not discriminate against his daughters, but is fair to them. It points that out specifically. He gives them an inheritance also. The same idea happened over in Joshua. Joshua gave daughters a fair inheritance in Joshua 17, verses 3 to 6. These are examples of how God holds value in women. God does not discriminate and does not downplay the life of the women. Throughout the Bible, we see God lifting up women and treating them with respect. So to wrap this up, Steve, what are the final lessons that we can take out of the book of Job?

SPEAKER_00 30:38

I think that we can take from Job that suffering might come upon us, but we should keep in mind where we're ultimately headed. And we should not abandon God. We should not attribute to God things that we don't know should be attributed to him as we go through the suffering. And I think that we can take comfort in the fact that God has made a way for us to be redeemed to him, for us to have bodies that are going to be at some point not corrupted. We're going to be in a world that is not going to be fallen with the way it is now. That's ultimately where we're going. And whenever we go through the suffering that we do, the valleys, that we should keep that in mind in order to know that where we're going, we don't know exactly what it's going to be like. I think it's going to be like Job in the earlier parts where he said, I heard of you through my ear, but now that I've seen you, I'm just going to keep quiet and I'm going to retract and repent. I think it's going to be the same thing whenever we get in our glorified bodies and over to the other side and how that world is going to be. I think we're going to be in awe of it. And I think we're going to look back and we're going to say, you know, that suffering and the things that I that happened to me and my family over in the old world is something that is nothing compared to the greatness and awesomeness that we have now in this new world, in these new bodies. Now I understand why God has told me to stay faithful to him because this is what he has had planned for me and all of us all along. It's something that he knows where we're headed. We don't know it yet, but we will at some day in the future. The question is, are you, the ones that are listening and watching, are you going to be there along with us, or are you going to be separated from God forever? The choice is yours.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

There are many lessons in the book of Job. The one that I perennially come up with is that in heaven, there is God who is in control. He is running his heaven in perfect order, and he is in total, complete, organized control. Whereas down here on earth, we see pain, we see suffering, we see chaos. We should not lose sight of the fact that he is worthy, fall at his feet and ask him for direction. That's what he wants. And if we do that, we will be blessed in the end. Thank you for being with us.

Final Lessons And Listener Contact

SPEAKER_01 33:14

We're at the end of another great book. We'd love to hear from you. Send us an email, if you would, info, that's I N F O at reasoningthrutheble.com. We rarely hear from very many of our listeners. And so most of what we do is one way going out to you. So please send us an email, info at reasoningthruthebible.com. And if you go to our website, you'll find out that a lot of what we do is not just these sessions, these online things, but we offer teaching materials, training materials so that you can teach the Bible in your church or your small group. All that's offered on our website and most of it free of charge. So you can go to our website and you can find out ways to reach out to us. Steve, we've at the end of another great book, and I trust that our listeners will hang on. So we're gonna reason through another one.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

It's been such a great book. It's been a long book, but it's one that's been well worthwhile studying.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

So we trust that you'll be back with us next time as we continue to reason through the Bible. Thank you so much for watching and listening.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

As always, may God bless you.