BRACE YOURSELF

“Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.”Job 40:7

Children love to ask their fathers why, but fathers are not always able to answer. God is always able to give an answer, but he does not always choose to. This poses problems for men. Like their own children, men not only expect an answer to every query, they expect the answer to meet with their approval.

God’s silence had been unbearable for Job. With no answer to his questioning why and his beseeching please, Job resorted to drawing his own conclusions while his friends resorted to their own theories. Both got it wrong. There were flashes of insight, there were elements of truth. Yet in the end Job accused God and the friends abused Job.

At last it was time for God to speak. “Brace yourself,” God told Job, and it’s a good thing he warned him. Job’s request for an audience with the Lord had been granted, and it was overpowering—Job was engulfed in a torrent of questions. The Maker made it clear that Job’s questions, as well as his friends’ explanations (42:7), had been full of foolishness. God is God—he alone has the power, wisdom, and justice necessary to be God. In response, Job recognized his impudence and put his hand over his mouth in silence. At the end, as at the beginning, silence was the best posture in the presence of almighty God.

There are times in our lives that we must trust God enough to be silent, even in our home life, our marriage, we some time has to be silent and watch God be God.