Day #14 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the ESV Study Bible. Click here to learn more. You are most welcome to join along at any time.
Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Job 38-39
Here we are, at one of the rare summits of the Bible. God himself is present in the whirlwind, and will speak to Job!
Abba, open our eyes that we might see.First of all, it seems important that we consider all that is contained in the words "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind."
Who can wrap their minds around this narrative.
God and Satan have a conversation. God allows Satan to completely destroy Job's life. Everything but his life has been taken from him. Even his health has been destroyed.
To make matters worse, Job friends have been on the attack for 37 chapters telling him that it is his sin that is to blame, while townspeople walk by spitting on him, and mocking him.
Job has claimed his innocence, and we know this to be true because God proclaimed in the very first chapter that Job was blameless, upright, and feared God.
So we, along with Job cry, "why God, why"?
Tears stream when I consider that God made a personal appearance. Don't miss this. Surely he appears in a cloud, but we will learn latter, from Moses' encounter with God, that our earthly bodies would be nuked in God's presence.
Nonetheless, consider how personal, and infinitely precious it would be to have God join you in your study right now. If he never said a word, I would be melted and mute.
Then, we must meditate long and hard to understand what God is teaching us here. Every single time God says, "Who are you too...", or, "Where were you when...", it must penetrate us to the core of our being. Every single time God says the word "you", I am stabbed in my heart with my pride.
I can't read these words without seeing my presumption, my arrogance, my pride, my insolence, and my insubordination.
From the Fall of Man we all fight this desire to become gods unto ourselves. We think that we possess the knowledge to understand the ways of God.
How wrong we are, and how rightly we are corrected by God's words.
Abba, you are the Potter, and I am merely the clay. I stand completely mute, and again corrected by these words. And furthermore Abba, when I consider the depths of your sovereignty, I find great comfort. When I am screaming at the top of my lungs in pain, help me to remember that you alone are sovereign, you made, control, direct, and dictate everything that is. And help me to find in that the great comfort that this also applies to me.Before the world was even created, you knew me, you loved me, and you chose my path. Abba, I am mute before you, and seek your forgiveness for my considerable, and oft pride.Dear reader, I hope you too found understanding.
