God Commands the Morning: Job 38 Devotional
There is a silence that creeps in after you have asked the same question a hundred times. You begin to read the quiet as proof—proof that the universe does not notice you. But what if the silence was never empty? What if God was about to speak in a register you never expected?
There is a particular kind of silence that has nothing dramatic about it. It is the silence of an ordinary Tuesday, when you have asked God the same question for the hundredth time and the morning simply arrives, indifferent, with no answer attached. You go on holding the question, the one with no return address, and the temptation creeps in to read the quiet as proof. Proof that the universe is too large to notice you. Proof that your particular pain is a rounding error in something vast and uncaring.
But what if the silence was never empty? What if God was about to speak, and what God said was not what you would have chosen, and also not nothing? Job knew this silence. And when it finally broke, the answer came in a shape no one expected. Not an explanation. A question. A great many questions. About dawn.
Take a moment to read Job 38:12-21. Read it on Bible Gateway if you'd like.