Job 38:3

"Now gird up your loins like. man": "When undertaking. strenuous task such as running, working, or fighting,. man in biblical times would gather up his flowing robe and tuck it into. sash-belt (Exodus 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46). Thus this figure of speech suggests that Job was to be alert and prepared for. difficult task-that of explaining God's ways in nature" (Zuck p. 165). "And. will ask you, and you instruct Me!" Job the plaintiff has now become Job the defendant. God was not on trial, rather Job was. "From the agony of his seated posture among the ashes-scraping his skin with. potsherd and suffering from the weight of grief over the loss of family, possessions, health, and friends-Job was confronted by the divine Interrogator with more than seventy unanswerable questions whose subject matter ranged from the constellations to the clods, from the beasts to the birds" (Zuck p. 164).

One might be tempted to think that putting Job,. man who has suffered so much, on trial is being very unmerciful, but the unmerciful thing would be for God to allow Job to wallow in self-pity and arrogance. Job is actually going to feel better after this test! God puts Job, and all of us, in our place in these final Chapter s. Job was shown to be ignorant and impotent in contrast to God's wisdom and power. If Job could not comprehend or control the natural world, then he had no right to complain about God's moral care of the universe. Yet this barrage of questions proves that God had not forgotten about, nor had He abandoned Job, for the Lord chastens those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:5ff). Let us also remember that the following questions and examples only are the mere fringes of God's power.