2nd Evangelical Free Church

Why we can’t judge what God does.

 

Job 40

Yahweh now asks Job to respond, but he is overcome by what the Lord has said. He feels that his own wisdom and knowledge are small and insignificant when compared to the Lord. Job is beginning to realize that he should not have called God to answer him and that he spoke hastily when he accused the Lord of wrong doing. Now he chooses to remain silent so the Lord can continue his instruction and teaching. And the Lord again calls on him to behold the deeper mysteries of all that He has created. Job had questioned God’s judgment in maintaining that God had done an injustice against him. The Lord’s however replies that Job cannot even begin to judge God because he cannot even begin to judge his fellow human beings fairly and justly.

 

The Lord then brings up the example of Behemoth, an animal which is a great and powerful creature, one which the Lord labels as the first of all beasts. Behemoth has been variously identified as a dinosaur, an elephant, a hippopotamus or a mystical beast from Jewish tradition. Whatever the case, this beast is powerful and beyond human control. Again the point is the same that the Lord has been bringing our before: there is so much in the world beyond human control that we really cannot compare our human sense of fair play and justice with God’s. Therefore, no human can really complain about what He does because our ideas do not take into account the entire universe and how our behavior affects every one else on the planet.

Meditate & Apply: Do you think you know better than God? If you could rule the universe for one day, what would you do and why?

You are not the center of the universe!

 

Job 38:39-39:30

Yahweh now turns his attention to the animal world. Lest Job should think that here he may have something to say to match Him, God selects animals which can be not fully tamed and domesticated for they were not created for such a purpose. As in the previous section, the Lord reveals that He alone can control and direct all such wild creatures which lie outside the scope of man’s efforts. The example of the ostrich tells us that God has a sense of humor and has created some creatures which to us may appear weird, foolish or irrational, not worthy or capable of survival of the fittest. Yet they defy our petty human attempts to categorize or explain them. Finally the Lord presents the example of the war horse. Though such an awesome animal can be trained, it possesses traits that are wild and unconquerable, beyond man’s abilities to fully comprehend.

 

In our present day we may think that God’s argument does not stand up. Humans have been able to tame many animals and domesticate even wild ones. But they can do so only up to a point and only according to His laws and rules. Wild animals retain their feral nature and those who try to tame them realize that and respect it, yet, as those who own pets know, animals act in ways we cannot always predict or control. Only God has full control over them. In addition, many animals, especially insects seem to serve no useful purpose to man. This shows us one of the main points of Job: we live in a theocentric world. All that occurs is managed by the Lord God for His purpose and pleasure. The universe and all that happens in it cannot be properly judged or evaluated primarily from the vantage point of any human being.

Meditate & Apply: How do you feel about the idea that God is the center of the universe and that what happens does not have to fit in with your plans or preferences? Does this change the way you respond to adversity?

God is very, very, very, very BIG!

 

Job 38:1-38

Yahweh speaks at last. He ignores the empty eloquence of Elihu completely and addresses Job. The Lord asks him a question that implies that Job is no position to offer an opinion or assessment on how He should manage and run the universe He has created. Job cannot because he does not see things from the Lord’s perspective nor does he have access to or knowledge of all the Lord knows. He hasn’t a clue has to how Yahweh runs things or why. The Lord proceeds to demonstrate to Job how small his knowledge is, to teach him that he really has no business to question God or call Him unjust or unfair. He does this through a series of powerful and graphic yet unanswerable questions that ought to make each one of us keep our mouths quiet and never again boast of our “wisdom”.

The Lord begins with the origin of the world. Since Job was not there to see this, he lacks the understanding to accuse God of wrongdoing or mismanagement. Job, indeed all men, stand helpless before these aspects of creation that the Lord speaks of especially the chaos of the raging sea, the rushing torrents of rivers and the awesome power of wind, rain, thunder, and snow storms. All these have their origin in the mind of Yahweh. These all seem to us to occur with random unpredictability and without reason or logic; but the Lord uses all such things for His own purposes and controls them and sets their limits, things which man can attempt to do but with extremely limited and merely temporary success. As if this were not enough to convince Job, the Lord draws his attention to the constellations and the stars. Yahweh’s power is so great that even these are within His sovereign grasp.

Meditate & Apply: How do the efforts of man try to prevent or control natural disasters or bad storms? Do any of these succeed? For how long? Do you think man can control or prevent climate change or global warming?

Can we really know God?

 

Job 36-37

In this his last speech Elihu softens the tone of his accusations. He still takes a rigid view of God’s way of working with humanity that indicates a strong belief in God’s just retribution which belies Job’s experience and ours. Job has maintained that the wicked often seem to be blessed while the lowly suffer pain and oppression. Elihu contradicts him with a firm assertion again that the Lord always punishes the wicked. He also argues that if the righteous suffer it is always because they need to be disciplined for sinful deeds or attitudes, or else they need to grow in holiness. So the righteous ought to embrace their suffering and endure it as an opportunity for growth. While this is sometimes the case, Elihu is still wrong about Job and should not make such absolute statements.

 

Elihu goes on to speak of God’s awesome power. He admits that the ways of the Lord are so mysterious that, ultimately, we cannot fathom them or assert with any certainty how God will act. This is a great piece of wisdom that Elihu seems unable to apply to himself. Instead he uses it as a way of continuing his attack on Job. His attempts to describe God’s awesome power in such a pompous manner as if he alone knows what the Lord it is like demonstrate that he is an ignorant windbag, full of pride and self-righteousness. Any one who claims such superior knowledge of God’s ways and His deepest mysteries as to be blameless and above reproach, cannot even claim to know God and should keep his/her mouth shut. The fear of the Lord, as we know, is the beginning of wisdom.

Meditate & Apply: Beware media preachers (or other preachers) who claim to know God so well that they can tell others how to live. Look at their lives. Usually they demonstrate an arrogance that makes them think they do not have to live by the standards and rules they enforce on others. Isn’t that reason enough to ignore them? 

Does God really so remote that He does not care what we do?

 

Job 35

Elihu continues his attack on Job with a rather overconfident claim to knowledge superior to any of the 3 friends. He directs them all to consider how great the difference is that separates man from God. Because of this vast chasm, Elihu asserts that it is vain and useless for Job to question God or demand justice or a fair hearing. God is so far exalted beyond man that he is unaffected by either the good or the evil that he does. The deeds of an individual such as Job affect only himself and his fellow men. God does not even hear the prayers of most humans including those who are afflicted and in pain because most requests are made with ulterior motives, not out of repentance or sorrow over sin, but out of a desire for relief and peace or to exalt one’s pride.

 

We know, however that God is in fact quite affected by the deeds of man. The evil things men do insults His law, His perfect holiness and even His love. He created all human beings and loves each one. He shows grace and kindness to all, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. This is often rejected. God is accused, cursed and maligned; man ignores His help, preferring to do things his own way rather than God’s. God is pleased when we do the right things, not for personal gain or to earn favor in His sight, but because they are right and pleasing to Him. He will not answer prayers offered solely out of pride and self-righteousness, but He often answers those prayed with mixed motives because He knows our weakness and imperfection. He knows who asks with a humble admission of imperfection coupled with an earnest desire to serve Him and do what is right. 

Meditate & Apply: Does God hear and answer all prayers? When will God not answer prayer?

How dare you complain!

Job 34

Although we can agree with much of what Elihu says here about God, his presentation paints an incomplete picture of the Lord. He claims that Job is wrong to accuse the Lord of wrongdoing or injustice. He asserts that no one, not Job, or any on else for that matter can make such a statement to God for no man is God’s equal or peer. No man can maintain an attitude of innocence before God, nor can anyone rightly complain about His ways. The way in which this is expressed, however, makes it seem that the Lord administers justice, doles out rewards and punishments in a mechanical and methodological manner. Though this is true to a certain extent, Elihu’s words fail to account for the afflictions endured by the righteous or the goodness enjoyed by the wicked.

 

Even though Elihu is a windbag he speaks quite eloquently of God’s sovereign nature. He presents a masterful exposition of God’s omniscience. God knows everything, so no one escapes His justice. The wicked will never really escape His punishments for God sees all their deeds. He knows their hearts and minds as well, the reasons why they did what they did. Therefore no one can say that God acted unfairly, or without considering all the circumstances. We humans do that. We tend to overlook or excuse our bad behavior or evil acts or those of others attributing them to the ills and prejudice of society which corrupted and deprived us of the right to a good education and the opportunity for proper growth. God does not do that for he knows all the facts.

Meditate & Apply: Only those whose sins have been placed on Jesus will escape punishment. Justice for them has been satisfied at the cross. How do you feel about that statement? Do you think it unfair for God to send someone you know and love or some celebrity you admire to Hell because he/she never repented?  

Another bag of wind blows more hot air.

Job 32-33

At this point we encounter Elihu, a 4^th friend of Job’s, younger than the others. Although his words convey a lot of truth and wisdom, he is way off the mark when he accuses Job. First of all, he rightly observes that age does not equal wisdom. Yet he does so to express his anger over the failure of his older colleagues to refute Job and set him straight. So we must be aware that even though much of what he says may edify and enlighten us, Elihu is sadly lacking in wisdom for he has misjudged Job entirely. His speech reveals to us that he is nothing more than an arrogant bag-of-wind as he unwittingly claims in 32:18-20. Although he claims to speak for God, that he has the answer to the argument, none of what he will add is going to resolve the situation for he insists that Job is guilty.

 

In response to Job’s allegation that God is silent, Elihu rightly observes that God speaks in dreams and visions and through the circumstances of adversity. He also rightly notes that God does not desire the destruction of any man  but wants all to come to repentance. And so Job would have to repent if he was guilty but he is not. Despite Elihu’s error he does claim that we need a mediator who must act to restore our relationship with the Lord. Elihu wrongly attributes this role to an angel which is perhaps where the idea of guardian angels may find its root. How this angel mediator provides a ransom to deliver the sinner, he does not say. The truth is that when the sinner admits his wrongdoing to the Lord he finds healing and restoration but only because of the ransom that was paid for sin by our mediator, Christ Jesus, on the cross.

Meditate & Apply: How does God speak to us today? Are dreams and visions reliable and valid avenues of godly communication? Why or why not? 

If I had done wrong, I should be punished.

Job 31

After lamenting his present state of affliction, Job makes a final detailed statement of his innocence. He lists all the possible sins he has been or could be accused of and dismisses them as baseless. He has not committed any sexual sins, has not even looked at a woman with lust in his heart. He has not lied to or deceived anyone either in his personal relationships or his business dealings. He has treated his servants fairly. He has been generous to the poor and sought justice for those oppressed. He has not made an idol of his wealth, but rightly saw it as a gift from the Lord to be used to help others thereby giving glory to God. He has not rejoiced at the calamities of others, not even his enemies. And he admits that if he had done wrong in any of these areas, he would justly deserve a punishment that would fit the crime.

 

At this point Job is tried of speaking, tired of the whole messed up state of his life.  He has performed a reasoned and thorough review of his life, a complete examination of his conscience. The result: he is not hiding anything. Were most of us to perform such an examination, we would probably miss some sin or bad habit or overlook some indiscretion possibly because, as Job rightly observes, we are loathe to admit to wrongdoing. We fear the opinion of others: we do not want to appear weak or bad. We want the respect and honor of others. And so we will lie and proclaim our innocence, or else put a certain spin on the whole matter, as is common in the media and with politicians and practically everyone else, so that we turn words, actions and thoughts that were wrong and sinful into something good or harmless. Such is the corrupt state of the human heart.

Meditate & Apply: How would you evaluate a good life? Compare that to the criteria Job uses? Are your values comparable to his? In what ways? Are the traits you value more in line with the views and norms of society?

 

Do you long for the good old days?

 

Job 29-30

As Job resumes speaking, he longs for the good old days much as any of us would when we are in the midst of troubles and problems. We yearn for those days when we were young and everything was going right, when nothing was beyond our reach. Job looks back with yearning to the time when he was respected, vigorous, blessed and at peace with God and man. He obeyed God, he did what was right and all was well. He was generous to the poor, dispensed justice to the oppressed and downtrodden, gave counsel to the young and confused, and was hospitable to all. And everyone thought well of him.

 

Job then contrasts that blessed time with his present experience. He now has become a reproach, a laughingstock. He knows that the Lord is the one who has caused all this to happen and he still cannot figure out why. He feels that God has abused and afflicted him without cause and what is worse, God will not speak to him regarding his allegation and questions. We who have suffered pain and loss can understand what he felt, because in the midst of our own trials we have felt the same, even those of us who claim to be righteous and faithful. Job was righteous and faithful, perhaps more so than any human being who ever existed, though of course not sinless. Yet even as good as he was he fell into despair. Thus there is hope for us all: our sufferings and doubts will help us grow in wisdom for they will bring us into a more intimate relationship with the Lord.

Meditate & Apply: Can you say that the troubles you have endured in life have brought you more wisdom? In what ways?

Hey guys, wisdom comes from God.

 

Job 28

The nameless author of Job presents us with a transition from the dialogues of Job and his friends to the resolution of the book. His purpose is to bring us back to the real issue which has been obscured by all the theological rhetoric and emotional responses. We may have thought that the core issue of this book focuses on suffering and its causes, or why the good suffer while the bad do not, or even God’s justice. These are all topics which we have explored, but the real issue is wisdom. God possesses it without limit; He acts according to it and in a way consistent with his Divine nature and sovereignty. Yet man is unable to begin to grasp or understand it on his own.

 

Human beings seek wisdom by observing the created world and by thinking about the wonders of the entire universe. Human beings mine the world for answers and explanations as miners dig for precious metals and gemstones. The author lets us know that the key to finding wisdom is not by human efforts. Wisdom comes from a relationship with the Lord. Though we can never hope to fully comprehend Him and His ways, we can begin to understand Him as we humbly acknowledge our weakness, as we admit that compared to Him we know nothing, as we declare our total dependency on Him. Then we will respond in worship and in obedience to follow all the thing He has commanded us to do knowing that without Him, we cannot begin to even follow lest He draw us.

Meditate & Apply: Who in our world is considered wise? Why? Who should be considered wise?