Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?
34 "Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, `Here we are'?
36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens?
...
40:3 Then Job answered the LORD:
4 "I am unworthy--how can I reply to you?
I put my hand over my mouth. Job38:31-40:4
We know the story of Job. He suffered terribly and as he struggles to make sense of his anguish, heartache and pain, he comes to a place where he wears his trouble like a badge and _demands_ a hearing and accounting from God.
It's a crucial tipping point in the story...
While we feel sorry for Job, we have to recognise that he has reached the point where he (Job) wants God to "please explain" (like a naughty school boy) why he (Job) who as already proclaimed his righteousness and innocence should suffer so. Job wants God to explain the universe to him. (See Job31:35-37 below)
Because we know that Job is innocent we feel a certain camaraderie with him. We feel he deserves an answer - but it would come at the cost of making God accountable to Job.
And so God puts Job in his place.
Job is a creature not the Creator.
Job is not infinite - he is finite.
Job can't put the starry constellations in place.
Job doesn't have rain, thunder, lightning and hail at his command.
You can read ch38-41 to see God relentlessly making one simple point.
God is God and Job is not!
To truly be "God" means and implies that any Being carrying that title is not limited by humanity: Such a Being transcends our limitations, conceptualisations and our imagination. Such a Being isn't answerable to us or can even be grasped by us. (In a beautiful illustration of this, in Ephesians 3 we see Paul praying that we have the "power to grasp (understand)" the height, depth, length and breadth of God's love. Even His love is beyond our natural ability to grasp - God has to help us understand it!)
To declare that there is a God is to admit that I am not God.
To declare that there is a God is to recognise His transcendence.
To declare that there is a God is to worship.
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Here's Job getting ahead of himself...
JOB 31:35 ("Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
I sign now my defense--let the Almighty answer me;
let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
36 Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,
I would put it on like a crown.
37 I would give him an account of my every step;
like a prince I would approach him.)--
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
