Sunday, January 13, 2008

Questions from God

January 14, 2008

Job 38:2-3 BBE
(2) Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge?
(3) Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.

As we have been reading through the Bible, we seem to have been parked here in Job for a while. As we have seen, Job and his friends have had their say and no one is any wiser for it. His friends have blamed him for what has gone wrong to him (some friends) and Job has demanded that God explain why God is picking on him. Needless to say, we are getting to the end of the book, everyone has shut up and now God gets to talk.

And does he talk? Does He explain things to Job, does he tell Job's friends that they have it wrong? No. He asks a bunch of questions to Job. Sometimes they are a bit sarcastic, but for the most part, he is trying to get Job to understand one thing. God is God. He does not have to answer to us. He is the one that made things and He has to answer to no one if we do not like it.

In our day so many churches are trying to show that God is our friend. While it is true that Abraham was a friend of God and I can be also, God is not necessarily our friend as we think of friend. He is our God. He has the right to say things to us that hurt because he is our friend. He does not have to get along with us when we sin, though He loves us.

God was there from time's beginning. We do not fully understand all that happens to us, I know that I do not. Next time you want to question God about what is going on, look at chapter 28 and 29 in Job. When you can answer God's questions, then you can question God.

Read through the Bible in historical order in one year:
Today
Job 38:1-39:30
Tomorrow
Job 40:1-42:17