A lesson for Job, a principle for everyone: God is God and we are not

By Dean Collins

We’ve heard many sermons about the importance of prayer. I’ve written dozens of devotionals encouraging prayer. Several verses likely come to your mind as they do to mine involving the when, the why, and even the how to pray.

“Pray without ceasing”
“In everything give thanks”
“When you pray, say…Our Father…”

Solomon tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not to lean on our own understanding. It seems that praying to the Lord, then, includes that we believe he will answer and that his answers are better than our answers. The problem, of course, is that we usually believe our solutions and our answers are, in fact, the best or right ones.

Honest prayers

The prayers of David in the Psalms are honest and often raw. Consider David’s prayer in Psalm 13. After questioning God about how long will he hide his face from David and allow the enemy to beat him down, David says this to God: “Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say ‘I have overcome him.’” Pretty dramatic. It sounds almost fatalistic. Show up God ,or I will simply die at the hands of my enemy.

I have prayed some honest prayers, and I am sure you have as well. But as I read the Psalms and especially as I read Job, I am struck not just by the transparency of Job, but also by the tone of God when he answers Job.

When feeling down and discouraged, sick and desperate, or tired and defeated, don’t we want God to answer us like a gentle shepherd? After all, didn’t he say the Holy Spirit would be a comforter? Many places in Scripture, including many Psalms tell us as much: “The Lord is my shepherd. . . . ”

Confrontational conversation

But God’s answer to Job in chapters 38-41 sounds more confrontational than comforting.  In fact, Job describes the Lord answering out of a whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Sounds like the experience Elijah had with God as he held onto the mountain rocks for dear life:  “And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake” (1 Kings 19:11.) God’s responses to Elijah and to Job hardly seem gentle and comforting.

Neither rhyme nor reason

God proceeded to give instructions to Job: “Dress for action, like a man.” Some translations say, “gird up” or “gird your loins,” which is what soldiers do to prepare for battle. Is God challenging Job? It appears he is challenging Job’s thoughts and tells Job to stand strong because he is about to unleash some strong words of truth.

What follows is nearly three chapters worth of questioning that leaves Job speechless. God demonstrates to Job that his understanding of all that is going on in his life has neither rhyme nor reason from the perspective of the human mind. No one can know or comprehend God’s wisdom or argue with his decisions. We are free to try. We are free to plead and argue. But God is God, and his ways are not our ways.

‭‭Job freely questioned God earlier in 13:22 and in 31:35. Now the tables are turned, and the Almighty God questions Job. God comes to Job and then again in 40:1-9. Here is the opening to the passage: “And the Lord said to Job: ‘Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.’” 

Job responded that he had no answer to God’s questions and he placed his hand over his mouth and told God he had no words. God did not hold back but told Job to “gird up” again and added more questions of Job that were anything but comforting.

Not just for Job

Maybe there are times when we need the comforting hand of God on our shoulder. And maybe there are times we need to be reminded who is almighty and who has a better plan, even when we cannot comprehend it. God does not need to defend himself to us.

God’s conversation with Job doesn’t appear to have been just for Job. God wanted Job’s friends to hear and know how pitiful their help was as they attempted to correct Job’s thinking and attitudes.

When God finished, Job humbly replied,  “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” 

We don’t need to hold back any of our questions and complaints when addressing God. But we do need to understand that from time to time God might challenge us through Scripture and by his Holy Spirit. Our feelings may be real, but our thinking about God will often be shallow and incorrect. But even in our misunderstanding, God will still love us, defend us, help us, and deliver us. 

The story of Job ends with God pouring out blessing after blessing in Job’s life: his finances, his place in the community, and the blessing of more children and grandchildren than Job could imagine. God’s blessings to us will not be identical, but as we surrender to him and to his will, he will do more than we could ask or imagine. But we must learn one thing. God is God and we are not.

‬‬ Your time with God’s Word
Job‬ ‭38‬:‭1‬-‭4‬; ‭13‬:‭22‬; 31‬:‭35; 40:1-9; 42‬:‭2‬-‭17 ‭ESV‬‬

Photo by Jorge Bermudez on Unsplash
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