Job: God's response

The key to God's response to Job's questioning about his suffering is in the first sentence (notably, a question, of a series of questions):

'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?' (38.2)

The friends have accused Job of speaking without knowledge repeatedly (though they are guilty of the same offence), and Job's assertion of his blamelessness is based on his knowledge of his own situation. But the point is, Job doesn't have the knowledge to understand God's actions. The reader, via the prologue section where Satan is given permission to afflict Job, already has knowledge of Satan's testing of Job that he himself does not have. God's repeated questions to Job firstly reflect Job's questioning of God, and secondly draw Job's attention to all the things in the wider universe, beyond simply his own suffering, that he does not understand: from the foundations of the earth (38.4), the boundaries of the sea (38.8), the dawning of each day (38.12), the constellations (38.31), the calving of the does (39.1) and the callousness of the ostrich (39.13-18). The point is, there is so much going on in the world that we don't even consider, let alone affect or govern. Part of our sense of entitlement to know and understand now why suffering has come into our lives is rooted in our proud desire to be 'like God', just as Eve was tempted back in Genesis 3. But, just like the unfathomable details of creation, these things are beyond our knowledge - because we are not God!

Job has demanded justice from God, and complained that his righteous living should have protected him, but God shows him that he can't comprehend justice on a global scale: 'Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low... Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.' (40.12-14) Job has to embrace his dependence on God, because then he will know the joy of salvation.

Job is humbled and awed by the Lord's revelation. He confesses and repents: 'I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted... Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me; which I did not know.' (42.2-3)

The conclusion of the book shows that God gave Job 'twice as much as he had before' (42.10). His community is re-established as his three friends are humbled and need Job's mediation (ironically as they perhaps sought to be mediators for Job themselves). The ESV study Bible notes that Job ends up receiving comfort primarily through his matured relationship with the Lord. Job's comfort does not lie in getting the answers to his questions about his own suffering and the wider concept of justice, but in knowledge of God's character, the security that everything is in His hands.