God before the beginning

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Job 38:4

When God finally comes to “answer” Job, He does so with a barrage of hard questions. Job had been asking hard questions of God, egged on by his uncaring, misguided, critical friends. And in Job’s confusion over all of his suffering, he developed quite a consistent litany of questions for God. God’s “answer” was to pepper Job with even tougher questions to get him to think, and repent, properly.

God did not do this belittle Job or make less of his suffering. Job’s friends had already done that. Instead, God evokes a sense of awe again in Job. God begins before the very beginning: “Where were you when the earth was made?” Of course Job knew nothing of it because he was not there. But God was right there. God existed before at all began.

Job could be led back to proper worship when he again believed the God Who is before the beginning. This is the God Who made it all. This is the God Who controls it all, even suffering, by His wisdom. This is the God Who will remake it all, even the worst of our pains, to bring Himself great glory!