.40:1-14.

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A direct challenge (Job 40:1-14)

God now challenges Job to present his arguments (Job 40:1-2).

Although God’s speech has not specifically dealt with the problem of Job’s suffering, Job has no argument to present. God has not solved Job’s intellectual problems, nor has he confirmed or denied the theories of the three friends. He has said nothing against Job, but he has shown Job that people cannot expect to understand everything about the activity of God in the complex world he has made.

Job is sorry for his former rash words and has nothing more to say (Job 40:3-5).

However, God is not yet finished with Job. He asks about Job’s accusations of injustice in God. Does he still want to make God wrong merely to prove himself right? Does he want to be like God, to take God’s place and govern the moral order of the universe, to decree what is right and what is wrong (Job 40:6-9)?

If so, let Job clothe himself with God’s magnificent robes and sit in judgment on all who are proud and wicked. Then God will acknowledge Job’s assessment of himself as correct (Job 40:10-14).