Job 38:12-41 (HCSB)
12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,
13 so it may seize the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
[its hills] stand out like [the folds of] a garment.
15 Light is withheld from the wicked,
and the arm raised [in violence] is broken.
16 Have you traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked in the depths of the oceans?
19 Where is the road to the home of light?
[Do you know] where darkness lives,
20 so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
21 Don't you know? You were already born;
you have lived so long!
22 Have you entered the [place] where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?
24 What road leads to [the place] where light is dispersed?
[Where is the source of] the east wind that spreads across the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,
26 to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
[on] a desert with no human life,
27 to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven
30 when water becomes as hard as stone,
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?
31 Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you bring out the constellations in their season
and lead the Bear and her cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of heaven?
Can you impose its authority on earth?
34 Can you command the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?
35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: "Here we are"?
36 Who put wisdom in the heart
or gave the mind understanding?
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven
38 when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods [of dirt] stick together?
39 Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of young lions
40 when they crouch in their dens
and lie in wait within their lairs?
41 Who provides the raven's food
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?


Job is listening to the LORD. God finally started speaking in chapter 38.
GOD will speak when HE gets ready – GOD come in HIS own time.
Matthew 14: 24But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

Mark 13: 32But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
33Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
GOD is working in our lives. HE is concerned about all that happens to us. GOD comes in HIS own way, i.e. walking on the water. What is GOD doing during the waiting time?
One possibility – waiting for us to ripen on the vine – we don’t need to be picked prematurely.

Starting in Job 38: 4 (Where were you when I established the earth? Tell [Me], if you have understanding. ), God asks a series of questions to Job, to get him to understand his limitations. We are limited in what we can understand – our ability to access understanding is limited.
God says HE was there - HE was the creator - the only one who understands – therefore HE says for us to trust HIM.
Who among us understands GOD?
Who among us are learning to trust GOD?

“The only place to find help is always with truth because the truth will set you free.” Chuck Colson

Are we as a church preaching cures or are we merely putting band-aids on the problems?
God saves to the uttermost – HE can and does deliver and set us free.

It is fine to pray for healing, God will answer either “yes” or “no”. If HE says “no” it means HE has something else for us.

God has laid out your life – set the dimensions.
Verse 12: Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
The rooster thought the sun came up when he crowed. God commands the morning light. God is showing Job his limitations and God’s limitlessness.

Verse13: so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
Light shakes the wicked – the wicked tremble in the face of truth - Light exposes the deeds of men done in darkness – Light exposes our sin without the light of Jesus we think we are just fine – we compare ourselves with those around us and we can say “I’m ok” but Jesus’ light compares us to Him and exposes us and our sins.

Page Coffee: counselor, football player, unfaithful in family, alcohol, got saved, wanted to make amends with family and spend time with them – RV road trip – couldn’t wait to get across Mississippi river to buy Coors Beer – bought case – each one tasted awful – his anger flared – started swearing – God convicted him of his anger as they went farther along the road – he repented of the anger - then God began to convict him of the alcohol – pretty soon he got to trash can and threw every can away.
God works on us one by one.
God is working to expose us as we are and then HE forms us in the LIGHT
God’s knowledge of what HE wants us to be and what we are is different – we must be formed as a potter forms clay.

Verse14: The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;[its hills] stand out like [the folds of] a garment.
Remembers watching his mom make homemade garments, she would cut the patterns with pinking shears using a different pattern for the girls than the boys.
A white robe is the garment that God has sewn for us – clothed in righteousness – unique for each of us. Revelation 6:11 And white robes were given unto every one of them;

There are folks who refuse to receive the light that is given so they get none. If they respond to a little light then God will give more.

Verse15: Light is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised [in violence] is broken.
“upheld arm” wicked holding fist in anger to God but the arm will be broken.
Light – clarity –seeing self


Verse 22: Have you entered the [place] where the snow is stored? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,
Job obviously can’t answer these. The question that Job has been asking that he could not answer is “why me?”. God is asking still more unanswerable questions. We will have to live with unanswerable questions in this life.
“treasury of snow” comes in winter when everything is dead – all f the sudden the dead grass and the dead trees , all the dead, brown and ugly becomes covered with beautiful white and shining snow – the snow covers and beautifies
“hail” beats and destroys

Verse 24: What road leads to [the place] where light is dispersed? – diffused – a rainbow
Job must come to the place where he admits “I don’t know”; he realizes that his perspective is so limited that he can not be judging God or questioning God.

Verse 31 – 33: stars and constellations
Job might have been able to identify the stars by the name of constellations but that is all he could do – God had set them there after He created them. The obvious answer for Job is “no”; for God is “yes”.

God is saying I will be there – both God’s speech and the book of Genesis start with God as Creator in order to reveal HIS POWER.
Too many of us want to know God only through someone telling us about HIM through preaching, teaching, or music. The only way to really know God is to personally get into the WORD - speak with God personally – live your life by what God says.

Look at life through the crucible of the Bible – this is wisdom.
Looking at life through your own eyes, your own perspective, your own feelings leads away from God’s truth.
Read God’s word – when you connect everyday life experiences with the words of God in the Bible – the whole world just opens up – God makes sense out of your life.
Know we can trust God in whatever situation.