WHEN GOD REBUILDS OUR SHATTERED WINDOWS by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC
Introduction: James Garner was my favorite actor. In the movie with Mel Gibson, there is the scene of the runaway stagecoach because the driver had died. Mel Gibson had to stop the horses to keep the stagecoach from going over the ravine. Many people, when they go through trauma, see their lives as a runaway stagecoach about to go over the cliff. Even Christians feel that the stagecoach driver, that is God, has died or is temporarily unable to help us. In those moments, our greatest need is to know that God is in total control of the world and everything in it. Turn in your pew Bibles to page #824. In our series on the book of Job, we come to the final section of the book when God finally shows up to talk to Job, but what he says to Job is very different than what we would expect.
Job 38 (page #824-5) 1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 2 “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? 3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”
Context: The book of Job is made up of several dialogue cycles:
- 3 between Job and his friends,
- one between Elihu and Job, which Job doesn’t even response,
- and the final one, between God and Job. Job responds once very briefly before God speaks again.
We come now to this final dialogue cycle between God and Job. This section has been a source of much debate and confusion for a very long time. The big question is – “How does God answer Job’s questions about his unjust suffering?” Those of you who have read Job 38-41, you know that there is no answer other than God himself asking a bunch of questions. It begins with Job 38:3 “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” Then, it is like rapid fire questions: Job 38 (page #825) 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?…16 “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?…31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?…Job 39 (page #827) 1 “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth? Imagine going to a counsellor or therapist that you’ve been trying to get some help for a while. When you finally get to see him, he launches into all such questions! What in the world is going? Is God dodging the real-life tough questions from Job? Is God unable to answer us when we need him to help us make sense of our suffering? Is he just a big cosmic bully who cannot handle the intricacies of our pain and trauma?
Let me say this as clearly as possible – there is no God as the God of the Bible. There is no God as the living true Triune God. He understands us better than we understand ourselves. He answers our deepest needs in ways that we don’t even know but we desperately need! The questions that people are asking and raising in 2026, he has already answered 4000 years ago.
To better understand what God is doing, we need to back up to Job 1. Life was going great for Job. Job 1 (page #776) 1 He was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. 2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.” Along with offering daily sacrifices to God, he even sacrificed for his children, lest they had sinned unknowingly before God. His schema was a well-ordered world where God was in charge of his life and his family. God was in charge of what happened in the world.
Application: Some of you are in this world. Some of you remember this world before trauma came into your life.
Unbeknownst to Job, there is a wager in heaven before God and Satan – Job 1 (page #777) 9 So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” 12 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” All of a sudden several bricks went through the glass window of Job’s life, as you know, and his schema (deeply held core beliefs) was shattered. We will see what that schema was in a moment. If that’s not enough, God again poses the same question to Satan – “Have you considered my servant Job?” Satan replies, “Skin for skin…” Now, Job is sitting on an ash heap scraping his sores with a potsherd.
His friends come and sit with him 7 days and nights. At the end of that, in Job 3 (page #779) 1, he “opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.” Job wishes that he had not been born – Job 3:3 “May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’ Now, the order of his world has fallen apart. He doesn’t know who is in control any longer. He makes his “de-creation plea” (Michelle Keener). 4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it. 5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months. 7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! 8 May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan (Remember that. We will return to it). Job wishes that he had died at birth – Job 3:11 “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Job again wishes that he would die – Job 3:20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul, 21 Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than hidden treasures.”
Application: Are you the Job of Job 3 whose ordered world has fallen into chaos?
Starting in Job 4, the friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) start helping Job rebuild his schema. Unfortunately, they offer “divine retributive justice” as the replacement – all the bad that happens is simply because of all the bad you’ve done in the past. Job 4 (page #780) 7 “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? 8 Even as I have seen, Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the same. 9 By the blast of God they perish, And by the breath of His anger they are consumed.” There way of rebuilding the shattered glass was by putting a mirror on it. How did Job respond to that? Job 16:2 “I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all!” The whole time Job is simply crying for an audience with God. He wants to take God to court, not to judge him, but to stand in judgment before him. He wants God to acquit him.
Application: Although there is some truth in divine retributive justice, but most of the time, this is a lie: Reject the lie that I’m paying for what I did. Receive the grace that comes through Christ.
Finally, Elihu shows up in Job 32. He is a liar. He is a type of the Antichrist. Job 33 (page #817) 1“But please, Job, hear my speech, And listen to all my words…3 My words come from my upright heart;My lips utter pure knowledge. 4 The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life…6 Truly I am as your spokesman before God…32 If you have anything to say, answer me; Speak, for I desire to justify you. 33 If not, listen to me; Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.” In a sense, Elihu is trying to portray himself as Job’s mediator, redeemer, and second Adam. Unlike Job’s friends who put up a mirror on the shattered window, Elihu puts up a painting, a false view of the world. As I mentioned last week, Job doesn’t even respond to Elihu. He recognizes him for who he is.
Application: Do you recognize false teachers? Can you tell when the Enemy sends people into your life who masquerade as your helpers, but they are anything but that?
Finally, God comes in Job 38 (page #824-5) 1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 2 “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? 3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” Remember, in Job 3, when Job made his “de-creation plea?” All the order that he knew was in disarray, in shambles, in chaos. God has come to put order back in Job’s world. He had come to rebuild his schema. If you remember, in all the chaos, Job talked about needing a mediator, seeing his redeemer, and even referred to Adam in Job 31:33 “If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, By hiding my iniquity in my bosom…” God was revealing to Job that he was still the God who was in charge of creation, and, in his timing, he will send the Second Adam, the Mediator and the Redeemer.
Michelle Keener explains the difference between meaning and meaning making space – “the book of Job is not focused primarily on providing a theological meaning for Job’s suffering as much as it is focused on providing a meaning-making space within which Job is able to heal and resume his life as a servant of YHWH.”
With that in mind, let’s read it again as God brings up Cosmogony, Meteorology, and Zoology to recreate creation order for Job – Job 38 (page #825) 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb…Job 38 (page #825) 16 “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? 18 Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. 19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light?And darkness, where is its place, 20 That you may take it to its territory, That you may know the paths to its home? 21 Do you know it, because you were born then, Or because the number of your days is great?22 “Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, 23 Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war?…Job 38 (page #826) 31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades (Hebrew – chima, 7 sisters, 444 light years away) , Or loose the belt of Orion? (Hebrew – kasil, 1300 light years away) 32 Can you bring out Mazzaroth (another constellation) in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? 33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? 39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lion, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 40 When they crouch in their dens, Or lurk in their lairs to lie in wait? 41 Who provides food for the raven, When its young ones cry to God, And wander about for lack of food? Job 39 (page #827) 1 “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth? 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young?…Job 39 (page #828) 13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? 14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust; 15 She forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may break them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; Her labor is in vain, without concern, 17 Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding. 18 When she lifts herself on high, She scorns the horse and its rider…26 “Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, And spread its wings toward the south? 27 Does the eagle mount up at your command, And make its nest on high?” God even uses some humor!
God was speaking to bring order into Job’s disorder. The greatest need that a trauma victim has in the face of trauma is that there is order and that someone is in charge. I don’t need pat answers. I don’t need shallow assurances. I don’t need to forgive and move on. All that may be true, but I need to know that God is still God. And he is!
We began with the clip of the runaway stagecoach. Our world may feel and even look like that, about to go over a cliff, but God is perfectly holding the reins. He is in total control. Do you know him? Are you saved?