Job 38:1–11—At the end of the book of Job, God answers Job, who has demanded the opportunity to interrogate Him for the calamities which have befallen Job. God answers with an interrogation of His own: Who is Job to question the Creator of all things? The Lord, who laid the foundation of the earth and determined its measurements, who prescribed limits for the sea, knows what He is doing. How can the creature second-guess the Creator?
The Lord says, “Gird up your loins like a man.” God is saying to Job that he should be a man. He is to stretch himself into his being. God wants him to answer some questions. They are to stretch his mind and challenge him to the very depths of his humanity. God calls us to be alert, to do our best in confronting the ultimate issues of life.
To make Job realize his humanness, finiteness and smallness, God asks, ‘Where were you at the time of creation?’ Obviously, to be there would mean to be eternal, but a human being is temporal. Where were you when the sea was put in its boundaries? If you as a human were not there, how then can you know or understand God’s power and wisdom? His ways are past finding out. God is to humans incomprehensible. Why then does God allow a good person to suffer? No one knows, but one can trust God that he knows what he is doing. 1
Collect for Peace: O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, give to us, Your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey Your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness;
Prayer for Peace: Almighty and everlasting God, King of Glory, and Lord of heaven and earth, by whose Spirit all things are governed, by whose providence all things are ordered, the God of peace and the author of all concord, grant us, we implore You, Your heavenly peace and concord that we may serve You in true fear, to the praise and glory of Your name; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, 2
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