성경 주석서

대부분의 논쟁에서 다툼의 초점은 누가 마지막 말을 하느냐에 있다. 이 논쟁에서 욥의 친구들은 순순히 마지막 말을 욥에게 넘겼고, 욥은 다시 엘리후에게 넘겼다. 그러나 법정에서 변호인들이 아무리 다투어도 마지막 말은 재판석의 재판관에게 있어야 한다. 여기서 하나님이 마지막 말씀을 하셨고, 모든 논쟁에서도 그렇게 하실 것이다. 모든 사람에 대한 심판은 하나님에게서 나오며, 하나님의 최종 판결에 따라 각 사람은 서거나 넘어지고 모든 사건은 승패가 결정되기 때문이다. 욥은 여러 차례 하나님께 호소했고, 자기 사건을 하나님 앞에 어떻게 진술할지 담대히 말했으며 군주처럼 하나님께 가까이 나가겠다고 했다. 그러나 하나님께서 보좌에 앉으시자 욥은 자신을 변호할 말이 없어 그 앞에서 잠잠했다. 전능자와 다투는 일은 어떤 사람들이 생각하는 것만큼 쉽지 않다.

욥의 친구들도 때로 하나님께 호소했다. ‘오, 하나님께서 말씀하신다면!’(욥 11:7). 이제 마침내 하나님께서 말씀하신다. 엘리후의 명료하고 치밀한 논증으로 욥의 마음이 조금 누그러지고 자아가 꺾여 하나님의 말씀을 들을 준비가 되었을 때이다. 주님의 길을 준비하는 것이 사역자의 직무이다. 위대하신 하나님께서 이 담론으로 뜻하시는 바는 욥을 낮추고, 하나님께서 섭리로 자기를 대하신 일에 관하여 격정적으로 무례하게 말한 것을 회개하고 철회하게 하는 것이다. 하나님은 욥에게 하나님의 영원성과 자기의 짧은 시간, 하나님의 전지하심과 자기의 무지, 하나님의 전능하심과 자기의 무능을 비교하게 하심으로써 이 일을 이루신다.

I. 하나님은 먼저 욥 38:2, 3에서 욥을 깨우는 일반적인 도전과 요구로 시작하신다. II. 이어서 욥이 무지하고 연약하여 하나님과 다툴 능력이 전혀 없음을 여러 구체적인 사례와 증거로 보이신다. 1. 욥은 땅의 기초가 놓인 일을 전혀 알지 못했다(욥 38:4-7). 2. 바다에 경계를 정한 일도 알지 못했다(욥 38:8-11). 3. 아침 빛에 대해서도 알지 못했다(욥 38:12-15). 4. 바다와 땅의 어두운 깊은 곳도 알지 못했다(욥 38:16-21). 5. 구름 속 물의 근원과 그것을 지휘하는 은밀한 계획도 알지 못했다(욥 38:22-27). 6. 욥은 비와 서리와 번개를 만들어 내는 데 아무 일도 할 수 없었고(욥 38:28-30, 34, 35, 37, 38), 별과 그 영향력을 이끄는 데도 아무 일도 할 수 없었으며(욥 38:31-33), 자기 영혼을 만드는 데도 아무 일도 할 수 없었다(욥 38:36). 마지막으로 사자와 까마귀에게 먹이를 마련할 수도 없었다(욥 38:39-41).

욥이 이처럼 일상적인 자연의 작용 앞에서도 당황했다면, 어떻게 감히 하나님의 통치 계획을 깊이 헤아리고 판단하려 할 수 있겠는가? 패트릭(Patrick) 주교가 지적하듯이, 하나님은 여기서 진리에 가장 가까이 다가간 엘리후가 시작한 논증을 받아 이어 가신다. 그러나 하나님의 말씀은 흉내 낼 수 없는 것이며, 문체의 장엄함에서 엘리후와 다른 모든 사람의 말을 능가한다. 그 차이는 천둥이 속삭임을 능가하는 것과 같다.

주님은 회오리바람 속에서 욥에게 대답하시고, 그에게 욥 38:1-3라고 대답하라고 도전하십니다. 그분께서는 당신이 행하신 몇 가지 위대한 업적을 열거함으로써 그 사람의 무지와 연약함을 확신시키십니다. 특히 지구의 창조 욥 38:4-7에 대해. 바다와 심해, 욥 38:8-18. 빛, 욥 38:19-21. 눈, 우박, 천둥, 번개, 비, 이슬, 얼음, 서리, 욥 38:22-30. 다양한 별자리와 하늘의 법칙이 땅에 영향을 미치는 욥 38:31-33. 대기권, 특히 천둥, 번개, 비 속에서 자신의 힘과 지혜를 보여주는 욥 38:34-38. 짐승 창조 욥 38:39-41에 대한 그의 섭리.

INTRODUCTION TO Job 38

In this chapter the Lord takes up the controversy with Job; calls upon him to prepare to engage with him in it, and demands an answer to posing questions he puts to him, concerning the earth and the fabric of it, Job 38:1; concerning the sea, compared to an infant in embryo, at its birth, in its swaddling bands and cradle, Job 38:8; concerning the morning light, its spread and influence, Job 38:12; concerning the springs of the sea, the dark parts of the earth, the place both of light and darkness, Job 38:16; concerning the various meteors, snow, hail, rain, thunder, lightning, and the influences of the stars, Job 38:22; and concerning provision for lions and ravens, Job 38:40.

Ch. 38–42:6. The Lord answers Job out of the Storm

We are now to witness the last act of the drama. And to understand it we have to go back to the starting-point and recall the idea of the Poem. This idea is expressed in the question, Doth Job serve God for nought? Or, as otherwise put, the idea is, The trial of the Righteous. This trial has been observed proceeding throughout the whole Book. Now it approaches its conclusion. The Lord, who caused it or permitted it, and has watched it from afar, must now interpose to bring it to an end, and bestow on Job the fruits of it. The trial has been successfully borne: for though Job has sinned under it, his sin has not been of the kind predicted by the Adversary; he has continued to cleave to God, and even sounded deeps of faith profounder than ever he had reached before (ch. 19), and tasted the sweets of righteousness with a keener delight than during his former godly life (ch. Job 17:9).

At the point at which we are now arrived the sole object of interest is Job’s mind in its relations to God. The speculative question discussed between him and his friends concerning the meaning of his sufferings, or the meaning of evil in general in the providence of God, has no importance, except so far as the conclusions which Job has arrived at have left his mind in a condition of perplexity in regard to the ways of God. The Author’s didactic purpose in raising the discussion between Job and his friends has been served (ch. 21, 23–24.). Job himself now remains the problem.

Though the trial has been successfully borne upon the whole, Job has not come out of it scatheless. His demeanour towards God, especially in presuming to contend with Him, has been at many points profoundly blameworthy. And the thought, which he refuses to abandon (ch. Job 27:2-6, Job 31:35 seq.), that God is unjust in His rule of the world, even though he maintains it more as a theory and necessary construction of facts as he observes them, without allowing it much to influence his life, or destroy his larger faith in God, is a thought not only derogatory to God, but one that must cripple every religious movement of Job’s heart. So long as such a feeling remains his trial cannot be said to be ended. But nothing that Job himself can do, nor anything that his friends can urge, is able to remove it. It was God, by His mysterious providence, who raised this dark doubt in His servant’s mind, and He must interpose to drive it away.

It might be supposed at first that the simplest way of restoring Job to peace would have been to reveal to him that his afflictions were not due to his sin, but were the trial of his righteousness, and in this way solve the problem that perplexed him. But the elements of blameworthiness in Job’s conduct forbade this simple treatment. The disease had spread in his mind, and developed moral symptoms, which required a broader remedy. Besides, it is God who now speaks to Job; and in His teaching of men He never moves in the region of the mere understanding, but always in that of the religious life. He may remove perplexities regarding His providence and ways from men’s minds, but He does not do so by the immediate communication of intellectual light, but by flushing all the channels of thought and life with a deeper sense of Himself. Under the flow of this fuller sense of God perplexities disappear, just as rocks that raise an angry surf when the tide is low are covered and unknown when it is full. This is the meaning of God’s manifestation to Job out of the storm. He brings Himself and His full glory near to Job, and fills his mind with such a sense of Him as he had never had before—“Now mine eye seeth thee” (ch. Job 42:5). At this sight of God his heart not only quivers with an unspeakable joy, but he abhors his past thoughts of Him, and his former words, and repents in dust and ashes.

The object of the Lord’s answer to Job out of the storm is twofold, to rebuke Job, and to heal him—to bring home to his heart the blameworthiness of his words and demeanour towards God, and to lift him up out of his perplexities into peace. The two things hardly differ; at least both are effected by the same means, namely by God’s causing all His glory to pass before Job.

The Lord’s answer to Job out of the storm consists of two parts, or contains two questions:—

First, ch. Job 38:1 to Job 40:5, Shall mortal man contend with God?

Second, ch. Job 40:6 to Job 42:6, Shall man charge God with wrong in His rule of the world?

The two questions, however, are hardly kept apart, for the first implies the second, inasmuch as a man’s contention with God will naturally be because of His unjust treatment of himself. And Job, in his final words of penitence (ch. Job 42:1-6), refers back to ch. Job 38:2.

In the beginning of His first address Jehovah invites Job to enter upon that contention with Him, which he had so often sought, “Gird up thy loins like a man; and I will demand of thee, and answer thou me” (ch. Job 38:3). The point aimed at by the Divine Speaker is the presumption of Job in desiring to contend with the Almighty. Then the Lord causes a panorama of creation, both inanimate and living, to pass before Job (ch. Job 38:4 to Job 39:30). Having done so He demands, “Will he that reproveth the Almighty contend with Him”? (ch. Job 40:2.) Does Job, now that the glory of God has been made to pass before his eyes, continue to desire to contend with Him? To which Job replies, “Behold I am too mean; how shall I answer thee? I lay mine hand upon my mouth” (ch. Job 40:4). The exhibition of the great panorama of creation was but a method of revealing God, not in one attribute but in all His manifoldness and resource of mind. It was designed to abase Job before God, and rebuke his presumption. And this was its effect: “Behold I am too mean”! But the revelation of God had another design besides abasing Job. It was given to Job that he might know God, and be at peace (ch. Job 22:21).

The process, however, is not yet complete. In a second address the Lord again commands Job to gird up his loins and answer Him. But now He is more specific: “Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be in the right”? (ch. Job 40:8.) And He ironically invites Job to clothe himself with the attributes of the Supreme Ruler, and conduct the rule of the world himself. The invitation brings home to Job a still deeper feeling of that which the Almighty is, and he exclaims, “I had heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee” (ch. Job 42:5). And in this light of God his own past thought of Him seems the darker: “I abhor it, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Thus the solution to Job’s problem given in God’s answer from the storm is a religious solution, not a speculative one. It is a solution to the heart, not to the intellect. It is such a solution as only God could give; a solution which does not solve the perplexity but buries it under the tide of a fuller life and joy in God. It is a solution as broad as Job’s life and not merely the measure of his understanding; the same solution as was given to the doubting Apostle, making him to exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” and teaching him that not through his sense of touch or his eyesight, but through a broader sense, God makes himself felt by man.

Ch. Job 38:1 to Job 40:5. The Lord’s First Answer to Job out of the Storm. Shall mortal Man contend with God?

The passage has three general divisions:

First, ch. Job 38:1-38, a review of inanimate nature, the wonders of earth and sky, all revealing the manifoldness of the Divine mind, and suggesting by contrast the littleness of man.

Second, ch. Job 38:39 to Job 39:30, a review of the world of animal life, having the same object as the former division.

Third, ch. Job 40:1-5, the impression produced on Job by this vision of the glory of God in creation—he is abased and brought to silence.

This first address to Job touches simply the presumption of a man seeking to contend with God. Hence it is taken up with presenting God and man in opposition to one another. The vivid pictures of the inanimate creation, with its wonders, and the world of animal life, with its instincts and properties—all of them originated and bestowed by God—are but the means used for displaying God. And the sharp, ironical questions put to Job, where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth; whether he hunts her prey for the lioness; or combined such contradictory qualities in the ostrich; or created that wonder of beauty and fierceness, the war-horse—these questions but serve to bring out by contrast with God the feebleness and meanness of man.

욥기 38:1-41. 1. 여호와께서 회오리바람 가운데 갑자기 나타나신다. 그 바람은 이미 모이고 있었다(욥기 37:1, 2). 이는 욥이 하나님께 요구했던 "심판"의 상징이다(시편 50:3, 4 등). 하나님은 이제 욥에게 그 다툼을 위해 몸을 준비하라고 하신다. 욥이 하나님의 자연적 통치 현상들을 설명할 수 있는가? 그렇지 못하다면 그분의 도덕적 통치 원리를 어떻게 이해하리라 기대할 수 있겠는가? 하나님은 이처럼 사람의 몫은 하나님의 길을 따져 논하는 것이 아니라 그 길에 복종하는 것이라는 엘리후의 생각을 확증하신다. 경건한 자에게 시련이 주는 징계적 목적과 함께, 이것이 이 책의 큰 교훈이다. 하나님은 미래의 보응을 언급하여 난제를 해결하지 않으신다. 그것이 당장의 쟁점이 아니었기 때문이다. 그 진리에 대한 희미한 빛은 이미 14장과 19장에서 주어졌고, 그 완전한 계시는 복음 시대를 위해 남겨졌다. 그러나 지금도 우리는 욥기에서 엘리후와 하나님이 가르치신 교훈을 배워야 한다.

그때에 주께서 욥에게 대답하시되 — 이 말씀은 특별히 욥에게 하신 것이다. 욥이 이 책에서 다루는 중심인물이기 때문일 뿐 아니라, 그가 원망과 불평의 말을 마음껏 했기 때문이다. 하나님은 공개적으로 욥을 변호하기에 앞서 그를 올바른 마음 상태로 이끌려 하셨다. 하나님은 자신의 백성을 대하실 때 변호자와 친구로 나타나시기 전에 ‘그들을 올바른 마음 상태로 이끄시는 것’을 목적으로 하신다. 따라서 그들의 시련은 흔히 길어지며, 하나님이 나타나실 때에도 처음에는 그들을 책망하기 위해서만 오시는 듯 보인다. 욥은 매우 부적절한 감정에 빠져 있었으므로, 하나님이 자신을 그의 친구로 나타내고 위로의 말씀을 건네시기 전에 그러한 감정이 가라앉을 필요가 있었다.

회오리바람 가운데에서 — 광풍, 곧 폭풍 가운데서라는 뜻이다. 아마 엘리후가 다가오는 것을 보았던 바로 그 폭풍이었을 것이다(욥기 37:21–24). 하나님은 사람들에게 이와 같은 방식으로 말씀하시는 것으로 자주 묘사된다. 시내산에서는 번개와 폭풍 가운데 말씀하셨고(출애굽기 19:16–19), 위엄의 표징으로서 폭풍의 천둥과 번개 가운데 나타나시는 것으로 자주 묘사된다. 시편 18:9–13; 하박국 3:3–6을 비교하라. 여기서 ‘회오리바람’으로 번역된 말은 오히려 ‘폭풍, 광풍’을 뜻한다. 칠십인역은 이 절을 ‘엘리후가 말하기를 그친 뒤 주께서 폭풍과 구름 가운데서 욥에게 말씀하셨다’라고 번역한다.

주님은 회오리바람 속에서 욥에게 대답하셨습니다. 앞 장의 욥 37:9처럼 סופה supha가 아닙니다. 그러나 סורה searah는 소란스럽고 소란스럽거나 격렬하게 동요하는 것을 의미합니다. 그리고 여기서는 우리가 폭풍이라고 부르는 것을 의미할 수 있으며, 이는 욥의 마음을 엄숙함과 하나님의 위엄에 대한 무서운 감각으로 채우려는 의도였습니다. 갈대아인은 슬픔의 회오리바람을 가지고 있어 전체를 실제라기보다는 우화적으로 만든다. 욥의 상상력으로 그 장면을 인상깊게 만들었다.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,.... As soon as Elihu had done speaking, who saw the tempest rising, and gave hints of it, Job 37:2; and hastened to finish his discourse. This was raised to give notice of the Lord being about to appear, and to display his majesty, and to command reverence and attention. The Targum calls it the whirlwind of distress, as it might be to Job; and a representation of the distressed and disturbed state and condition in which he was. The person that spoke out of it is Jehovah the Son of God, the eternal Word, who very probably appeared in an human form; there was an object seen, Job 42:5; and spoke with an articulate voice to Job;

and said; in answer to his frequent wishes and desires that the Lord would appear and take his cause in hand.