Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 281 · October 8
Where Wast Thou
“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”
"I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me." That is Job, deep in the book, describing a God who has gone silent on him.
The silence ends when God Himself answers out of a whirlwind, and He speaks for four chapters. Soon He asks, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding." Later He asks, "Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?" The questions keep coming, about the weather and the wild animals, the ostrich and the horse. Most of them cannot be answered, and some carry a gentle irony. Yet God never answers the one question Job asked, which was why. You were told in the first two chapters what happened in heaven, and as far as the book tells us, Job never was.
The book leaves you to weigh whether that is enough. Job's own answer is worth reading slowly, because it describes a change in the kind of knowing he has, more than in the amount: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee." What Job received was God Himself, present and speaking, even though the speech never touched his question. The same is offered to you.
So bring your question to God anyway, and keep bringing it. Job did, at full volume. And look at how the book ends. God's anger falls on the friends who defended Him with neat answers, and He tells them, "ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." The man who cried out honestly to God is the one God calls His servant.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 281 is Grace Upon Grace (John 1:16).