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Shirley H
Supporter
I think the answer to this is found in Job 42:1-6: "Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 'I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be witholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understand not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak : I will demand of thee, and declare unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The problem of Job is that he is made to see himself! Who is he to question God! Job in his self-righteousness lacked humility in the presence of God! Even believers can become self assured! Sometimes affliction may come to purify thinking! God is God. 1 Corinthians 11:31,32; Romans 3:23:
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
With these 2 examples of Job 38:4, what type of figure of speech is this? CEV "How did I lay the foundation for the earth? Were you there?" ERV “Where were you when I made the earth? If you are so smart, answer me." God is questioning Job with rhetorical questions here. He is not giving Job an answer to why he is suffering. He's changing the conversation from human query to divine wonder. He uses exquisite rhetoric to reveal Job's limited knowledge. Job is nowhere, and if he were somewhere, then he would be nowhere near God when He was creating the world. The next verse, Job 38:5 uses the figure of speech, irony or sarcasm. CEV "Doubtless you know who decided its length and width." ICB "Who marked off how big it should be? Surely you know!" I'm sure this humbles Job. He doesn't "know a thing about" creation! And the last verse, Job 38:6 says in the ISV, "On what were its bases set? Who laid its corner stone?" Here God is answering Job with a metaphor, another figure of speech. God likens Himself to an architect and builder of a house, or let's say a structure. But the project is so vast that all it does is "wow" Job. The earth is intricate and well-planned out. This is creation. If Job knows nothing of something so big as creation, how will he ever be able to understand the wise design of his suffering? "God doesn’t explain. He explodes. He asks Job who he thinks he is anyway. He says that to try to explain the kind of things Job wants explained would be like trying to explain Einstein to a little-neck clam...God doesn’t reveal his grand design. He reveals himself." Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p. 46, quoted in Disappointment With God, Philip Yancey, Zondervan, p. 190
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