A Reflection on Job 38
“Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? Job 38:28 💧
God showed Job that man was completely unable to cause rain. Charles Spurgeon took this idea and likened rain to the grace of God. “If both Houses of Parliament were to be called together, and the Queen were to sit upon her throne of state, and they were unanimously to pass an act ordering the rain to fall, that sitteth in the heavens would laugh, the Lord would have them in derision, for the key of the rain is in no hand but that of Jehovah. It is exactly so with the grace of God. You and I cannot command it. The presence of the most holy men in our midst would not of itself bring it. The most earnest preaching, the most Spiritual doctrine, the most faithful obedience to ordinances, would not make it necessary that we should receive grace. God must give it; he is an absolute Sovereign, and we are entirely dependent upon him. (Spurgeon)
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? Job 38:36 🎓
Job knew that man had intelligence and wisdom, and that this intelligence must have been given by an Intelligent Designer. Like all men, Job’s intellectual capacity was not the product of random chance or mysterious processes; it was designed by a great Designer. “What does man, with all his reason and wisdom, really know about his world?” Man does not know very much, and therefore must pursue knowledge with a humble trust in the God, who does know all. (Enduring Word)
Posted on:
March 24, 2020
Writing today's daily post was a struggle. I was wondering why I wrote about this entry way back then. Rereading Job 38, I finally understood the complexities this chapter is and how majestic God's glory truly is... the sovereignty of God and the Preeminence of Christ.
For some background info, Job was a man who went through a lot off tribulations in his life. In Job chapters 1-2, we learnt off God's conversation with Satan to allow His servant Job to be tested to prove his righteousness and fear of God. Before, Job had it all. In terms off wealth, power, health, and family. To put it in today's context, imagine being as the richest as Jack Ma, having great influence in the marketplace, having seven sons and three daughters and having multitudes off servants. Yet Job lost it all in one instance...
What strikes me the most is how even Job's health was taken away. Job had these loathsome sores the point where he needed to take broken pottery to scrape himself.. ouch! 😰
Even his closest confidant- his wife asked him to curse God and die... what the heck right. Hmm the deceitful human heart. Anyways, as we soon learn Job didn't once blame the Lord despite all these trials... and it was getting harder. When I was reading Job chapters 3-37, Job underwent dialogues between himself and his three friends. It was very confusing and distressing. These three friends constantly tried to rationalize why Job was inflicted with suffering...
This raises the existential question:
Why does God allow suffering for the righteous?
Their reasoning is a syllogism [deductive reasoning as distinct from induction]. God sends calamities upon wicked people only. You have suffered a calamity. Therefore you must be wicked. Job himself avoids this false syllogism. But it is very commonly accepted by Christians. It is called a theology of divine retribution, and it assumes that God blesses those who are faithful to him and punishes those who sin.
Sometimes we fall into the trap as Job's friends- Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar does. We try to guess and over rationalize. And this common misconception of divine retribution that only wicked people suffer is correct but paradoxically incorrect in this case. It is much more complex than that for Job's case.
As Elihu alludes in the previous chapter:
Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty. The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Job 37:22-23 👑
Elihu's argument is simple. That God is awesome, majestic, powerful, justice, righteous, and we can never truly "find" Him due to our own limits.
In parallel to Elihu's statement, always at the right time, in Job 38, the title of the chapter is The LORD Answers Job. In which despite all the "theories" off Job's friends and Elihu, The LORD's answers them. Even though He did not give a direct answer:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:4-7 🌍
Rereading chapter 38, the Lord answered Job by proclaiming His greatness. He shows Job how everything in nature: its complexities, intricacies, unseen splendor is orchestrated by the Lord ever since the beginning of time. Who are we to judge or understand God's sovereignty if we ourselves don't really know what's going at a larger scope?
The Lord proclaims His majesty by revealing to Job to see the seas with its doors, the clouds and its garment, the dawn and its timeliness, the deep depths of the oceans, the expanse of the earth, the dwelling of light, the storehouses of snow, the intricate channel for the torrents of rain, the star cluster bind of Pleiades, the ordinances of the heavens, the number of clouds, and even the lions, the ravens, and it's prey... ALL fall to the splendor of the Lord. Have we ever thought or understood about all that?
Reflection
Dear Lord, thank You for today's message. Living now at a time of the pandemic of the Corona virus, I am relearning once more of how powerless we are as a human race. Despite all the progress and "wisdom" we really don't know what the heck we are doing. As vaccines are contingent on situations, as new virus strains keeps stumping the workforce, what is man? How much more evidence do we need to know that even our foolish wisdom is just a false pretense?
Just like Job 38 shows that the real question to ask is not why is this happening? But what we should ask is- do we sincerely trust in God's sovereignty?
As Paul alludes in Colossians of the Preeminence of Christ:
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17 🌟
The word "preeminence" means the fact of surpassing all others; superiority. Oxford Dictionary. Paul here writes that Christ surpasses everything, even our own limited wisdom. Similar to how the Lord answered Job, the Lord only needed to show Job a glimpse of His majesty to trust in Him once more.
That just as the Lord created everything from the beginning, seen or unseen, He will bring it to completion at the end. All for His glory. Lord thank You for Your grace in my life that shows how Your Sovereignty reigns. Sometimes there are times of pain and uncertainty. But looking back, how I am able to go from glory to glory and to see how You have orchestrated each moment.. seen or unseen, is truly a blessing. I don't know what's going to happen. But just as I try to understand rain, I can never truly make it rain. Just as I try to design, I was never the designer to begin with.... As Spurgeon reiterates:
God must give it; he is an absolute Sovereign, and we are entirely dependent upon him.
Help me today to see once more off Your majesty in nature and in my life. To depend in Christ in every step. For from Him, and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Question for today: When was the last time we experienced and trusted in Christ's preeminence in our lives?
Updated on:
February 4, 2021
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Credits:
Job 📷Léon Bonnat, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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