Brace Yourself Like a Man

Fighting With the Almighty.

I ran across this line in the book of Job:

“Brace yourself like a man.” Job 38:3

I suppose I was drawn to it because of the reference to ‘like a man’. What does it mean to ‘fight like a man’? What does it mean for you? What does it mean for our sons?

God is getting ready to unleash 77 questions on Job that all have to do with science. They are rhetorical because they are unfathomable and unanswerable. They are questions of science.

“Have you ever given orders to the morning or showed the dawn it’s place?” (v. 12)

“Have you entered the storehouses of snow or seen the storehouses of the hail?” (v.22)

“Can you bind the beautiful Plieades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?” (v.33)

77 in all; The number of complete completion.

The point to Job is that he (we) can’t even understand the natural. How in the world do you suppose to understand the supernatural?”

Well played, God.

So, brace yourself like a man. God is going to speak to you out of a whirlwind. And I know how you will respond.

You’ll respond like Job.

“My ears HAD heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. THEREFORE, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6)

You’ll respond like Isaiah who saw the Lord high and lifted up.

“Woe is me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6)

Yes. Your response is “Woe is me. WOW is you.”

When the temple was dedicated by Solomon and the priests, just the glory of God or his manifest presence that filled the temple caused the people to fall on their faces in worship. The priests were unable to stand and carry out their duties.

There is not even a hope of your standing even in the shadow of the Lord Almighty.

The apostle John looked upon “One like the Son of Man” in revelation and he ‘fell at his feet as though dead.”

And God says, “Brace yourself like a man.”

To me, that’s not even a taunt. It’s a transition into the 77 questions that are about to ensue which are going to decimate you.

The literal translation for this verse is “Gird up your loins and prepare for battle.” The “girding up” was literally a redressing of the tunic into the belt so that a person/soldier could run better. Loins are most often considered the seat of a man’s virility, honor, and strength. The original Hebrew word for ‘like a man’ here is strong man or warrior. It is clearly a call to battle.

‘Them there is fighin’ words.’

Interesting that Job didn’t even know who he was fighting against. He thought he was fighting against God the whole time, when in reality, his enemy was Satan. Such is the case when what you DON’T know about God overshadows what you DO know about God. The pivot in our lives is to always trust what we know about God to be true.

Rule #1: Know your enemy. It is NOT God and if it is, you’ve already lost.

I’m reminded of another ‘battle’ like this, where God wrestles with a man. In Genesis 38, Jacob (The ‘grabber’ who supplants through cunning or deceit) is about to meet his estranged brother Esau after a long period of separation. Left alone along the Jabbok River (which also can be translated as ‘wrestling’) Jacob wrestles with God. It’s a Christology; an appearance (most likely) of Jesus in the Old Testament. It is God in the flesh.) What’s interesting is that the two wrestle all night and seem to come to a draw in their ‘fight’. The fact was they only ‘appeared’ to be evenly matched and appearances can be deceiving. Perhaps man may (erroneously) THINK he can contend with God. But you’ll notice that the struggle changes on a dime when the Man touches Jacob’s hip and dislocates it, basically paralyzing Jacob from continuing in the fight.

Jacob must have known He was wrestling with divinity because he asks the stranger to “Bless Him”. Clearly, Jacob is NOT in a position to make demands but he is clinging to the man with all his (remaining) strength.

And if you’re thinking I’ve gone down a rabbit hole…

Here’s the point. Both Job and Jacob are blessed because they faithfully wrestled with God. Their LOSS was a win. (Yet another paradox of the Kingdom of God).

Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. His identity was transformed from a deceiver to a receiver; ‘one who has seen God’s face and survived’.

Job is restored. Everything he once had is doubled except for the number of children. God even refuses to forgive Job’s friends, unless Job prays for them.

We can contend with the Almighty, but with the understanding that we are dust and He is the Storm. We are Woe. He is WOW. God can appreciate it when we raise a fist and shake it; when we come pounding on his door, demanding that He open it to us; when we forget that God is NOT our enemy but we feel like He is against us. God is BIG ENOUGH to handle that. But be prepared to “Brace Yourself and fight like a man.” It will bring you to your knees.