Did you know that if humans sit in total silence they will quickly go crazy? There’s a lab that reduces all sound and allows talking every five minutes but that’s it. The longest someone has ever gone is a little over an hour because a person will start to go out of their mind (see someone try).
It’s made me think on this lately how sound is one of God’s very unique creations. He has attached sound to so many objects and they all differ. He could have made a world without sound. But right now as I’m typing, I hear a train in the distance, cars passing by, my fingers typing, a little bit of a ring in my ears, and a slight rumbling from something. I don’t know what. What about you? What sounds are you hearing at this exact moment?
When God steps up to finally speak to Job, there is a new kind of silence, the silencing of Job. God says to Job (Job 38:1-3):
Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:
Who is this who obscures My counsel
with ignorant words?
Get ready to answer Me like a man;
when I question you, you will inform Me.
Then God begins (Job 38:4-7).
Where were you when I established the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone
while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
The whole chapter is about the intricate and beautiful mysteries of creation, so profound and far beyond man’s ability to manufacture himself.
Who enclosed the sea behind doors…? (v. 8)
Have you ever in your commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place (v. 12)
Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the ocean (v. 16)
Where is the road to the home of light? (v. 19)
Can you bring out the constellations in their season…? (v. 31)
Who put wisdom in the heart or gave the mind understanding? (v. 36)
Question after question to Job. Job has questioned God’s justice in his agony and God is answering Him in a powerful way, asking Him if he can understand, know and do the things God does.
God will not stop with a few questions. He will continue on. But the bottom line is this:
Who is man to accuse God? Who is man to understand the ways of God?