God speaks:
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who argues with God give an answer” (Job 40:2).
Job replies:
“I am so insignificant. How can I answer You? I place my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not reply; twice, but now I can add nothing.” (Job 40:4-5).
It’s a very different thing to state that God is in the wrong when God is being silent. But when God speaks, Job gets a reality check.
God speaks again:
“Would you really challenge My justice? Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?” (Job 40:8).
Let’s be honest. How often have we done just that? When we are suffering, especially long periods of time, do we not accuse God?
God, why don’t you love Me?
Why don’t you do for me like you’ve done for others?
Why don’t you answer my prayers?
Where are the miracles for me?
What have I done that I’m worse than others?
Why do you leave me out?
We’ve all said, thought, and believed these accusations against God. And at the root of them is that God is unjust and unloving.
“Would you really challenge My justice? Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?” (Job 40:8).
God then asks Job if he can adorn himself with majesty and clothe himself with glory. If he can do great and powerful things.
Then he points to the Behemoth and asks Job if he can make things like the powerful Behemeth, a beast that is like a walking fortress of strength and power.
“His bones are bronze tubes;
his limbs are like iron rods.
He is the foremost of God’s works;
only his Maker can draw the sword against him.”
–Job 40:18-19
What is the Behemoth? A dinosaur? A hippopotamus? A rhinocerus? We don’t know. And for the purposes of what God is wanting to communicate, it’s not important to know. It was just a huge, powerful, massive creature that Job would know about. And God is asking Job if he is so powerful he can create one of these. Obviously Job can’t.
God is basically giving a good reality check to Job on the might and power of God. That Job has no room to justify himself before God as Job does not know or understand his ways. Job is not powerful like God.
These things are good to remember when we are in terrible distress. It is easy to turn against God in our hearts, and to question him and his love and his motives when we don’t understand. But God’s ways are so beyond us. There’s a bigger reality to trust Him in our pain. Even when our suffering lasts a long time.