How do we see God? In Chapter 40 of the Book of Job, God continues His answer to Job. Within it, God challenges not only Job’s view of Him, but ours as well. Whether we are Christians from birth or non-believers, at some point we tend to think God isn’t enough and we act on our own. If I were to sum up Chapter 40, I would say it’s an invitation from God to get to know Him.
Declaring Justice
Would you really challenge My justice? Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?
Job 40:8 CSB
God doesn’t just act in justice, He is justice. Justice is a part of Him, part of His character, the same as loving-kindness and mercy are. But how many times is He called unjust? How many times do we declare Him too slow in order to excuse our own form of justice? How many times do we blame God for things that seem to go wrong instead of seeking Him and His heart?
When God’s view doesn’t line up with our view, we convince ourselves that the interpretation must be wrong and that God’s view really lines up with our own. In doing so, we forget that God is infallible and we are not.
Would we really declare that God’s way is wrong so that we can claim that we are right?
Maybe we don’t do it so directly.
How often did Job claim he lived according to God’s law then declared God had found fault despite Job’s loyalty? Job worked to justify himself in some way, and in doing so he was saying, “God’s way is not right”. Or if not fully wrong then not all encompassing, meaning there would be places where God’s justice does not reach. Instead of relying on God for His judgment and justice, Job attempted to take it into his own hands and declare himself righteous without consulting God.
In this time, it seems like there is a lot of grey area. This idea is well conveyed in the quote, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” I’m not saying that the saying is wrong, but it often seems to be used in terms of letting people get away with sin. Even us Christians will use it to excuse ourselves when we place ourselves where we know we should not be.
We cannot afford to live in the grey area. We cannot afford to say we live in the white and ignore the black in our lives. We cannot be judge and jury alone in our lives and the lives of others. We are not the Judge, God is. We are not even the jury! We are the messengers, the ones who convey the words of the Master. When we deal out justice, we have to make sure that the justice we are declaring is God’s justice and not our own.
One day we will stand before God, Justice itself, and then what? If we spend a life excusing ourselves in some way then how will we react when we stand before Him? What you practice is what will come out. If we’re in the habit of declaring ourselves correct and God, in some form, incorrect, what hope do we have when we’re face to face with Him. Will we tell God to His face, “Your justice is incomplete”? I highly doubt that.
We cannot declare ourselves justified and instead need to let God declare it for us.
Talking with God
Does the critic still want to dispute Shaddai? Let him who wants to correct God give an answer! […] Stand up like a man, and brace yourself; I will ask questions; and you, give the answers!
Job 40:2&7 CJB
Between these two verses, Job does speak up only to say, “Yeah I’m gonna shut up now.” But God isn’t satisfied with that. Why? Because God wants to speak with us, not at us.
Yes, God is challenging Job’s idiotic words and laying down truth, but He wants siach. Siach is the Hebrew word for discourse. It also is used in reference to meditation, as in thinking over something and rooting out its hidden meaning. When we meditate in this way, we focus on it, contemplating it, we let it root into our heart and mind.
What God is saying is He wants to speak together in a way that draws Him and the person closer. God didn’t want Job to stop talking, He wanted Job to hear the truth, to let it root within him, and let that truth draw him closer to God. But this is a discourse because one cannot reach those intimate truths without God. In essence God was saying, “Listen to the truth of the matter and then come to Me and let’s work it out together.”
God doesn’t want a monologue either from Himself or from us. If He did, He would not have created us the way He did. If He wants to monologue then there are billions of creatures that are not human who will easily listen to His voice. No, He wants to have a conversation with us. This is evidenced from the beginning of time when He would walk in the cool of the day and speak with Adam and Eve. It’s there when He was present as Adam named all the animals and together they searched for one like Adam.(Gen. 2:18-24)
When He commands (not demands) Job speak, it isn’t because He’s trying to shame Job. It’s because words have power and part of that power is freedom. He wanted Job to bring everything before Him and talk it over with Him. Every grievance, every feeling of anger and despair, Job’s feelings of confusion and loss, every question, everything Job had been dealing with and trying to work out on his own, God wanted him to lay it all out there so they could work it out together.
God has not changed, either from the time of walking with Adam and Eve or from the time of telling Job to keep talking to Him. God has not changed and He wants the same thing with us.
Every joy, every sorrow, anger, questions, loss, the whole gamut of what we experience in our life, He wants us to bring it to Him, to lay it out there then sit down and discuss it with Him. He wants siach with us. There is an intimacy to siach that comes with such a discourse; a strengthening in the our relationship with Him.
God wants to walk with us, in the storm or the calm, and talk with us, to discourse with us. God wants to root out the truth and hidden treasures of things with us. He wants to work out our problems and confusion with us. He wants to hear from us about everything going on in our lives and then, because again He doesn’t just want a monologue from us, He wants to discuss it all with us as a friend.
Yes there are times for our silence as we listen to Him, but He doesn’t want us to completely stop talking to Him. As we move forward He wants to meet with us and talk together.
How can we know God if we won’t talk with Him?
How can we know God’s way if we don’t open ourselves up to a discourse with Him?
How can we declare ourselves justified if we have not first talked with Him about what actual justice is?
How can we judge Him if we have not taken the time to get to know Him?
I challenge you to talk with God today. Not a monologue, but reach for an actual two-sided conversation with Him. I believe if you try, He will meet you and talk with you.
Above My Waves 
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