Get ready to answer me like a man; when I question you, you will inform me. . . . Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place? ~Job 38:3, 12
When our girls left home for college and other frontiers, my late wife and I were left with what has become popularly known as an “empty nest.” The adjustment to the silence—no late-night curfew-waiting, dinners without the chatter, and less laundry to do—was unmistakably more difficult on Bobbie than on me. But both of us knew this was going to be an adjustment. So we looked for new things to do together.
I had never been interested in clipping coupons. To me this promotional riffraff did nothing but gunk up my Sunday newspaper. Then one post empty-nest Friday evening many years ago, my late wife, Bobbie, invited me to go grocery shopping with her. As was her custom, she brought along her accordion-like coupon organizer—separate sections to store coupons for cereal, bar soap and detergent, soups and condiments, and so on. Before we got halfway down the first aisle, I was hooked. Weeks of carefully collecting and organizing these redemption slips were now going to be rewarded at the checkout counter. Simple printed vouchers transformed into cash money!
From the beginning of the account of Job and his trials, God collected Job’s complaints like coupons. He even organized them into sections: Creator, Sustainer, Orchestrator of the universe. Then, in chapters 38–41, God visited the grocery store. Aisle by aisle, shelf by shelf—line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, the sovereign God cashed his coupons at Job’s checkout counter. Nowhere else in the Bible does God more thoroughly defend Himself.
This conversation with the sovereign God stunned Job. At one point, right in the middle of God’s monologue, Job interrupted with these words, “I am so insignificant. How can I answer you? I place my hand over my mouth” (40:4). Can you see Job, eyes wide open with his hand over his mouth like a twelve-year-old watching a horror movie? Except for Job, this wasn’t imaginary. It was the real thing.
It was striking—humbling—when God reminded Job that He is God and Job is not. “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place?” (38:12). Job was broken in the face of this reality. His view of God was sharpened and Job was undone.
Job’s fresh view of his status before a holy God is a great reminder for us as men. You and me as dads. Struck by God’s greatness. His sovereignty. His control. His right alone is to do as He pleases (see 23:13). This proper perspective, absent of our own self-reliance, puts us in a correct posture to lead our families.
God is God and we are not.
You’re welcome to forget collecting any “God owes me because I’ve been a good boy” coupons. He has the right and the authority to do whatever He wants to do. So He will. For our good.