05.10.2021
IBC Admin
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?"
Job 40:6–9
We discover in the last chapters of Job, that God reveals Himself to Job by pointing to His creation. From the skies above and the vastness of the heavens, to the animal kingdom and even dinosaurs, God challenges Job's complaints concerning God's justice, "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?" And of course the answer is no. How are we to question God's goodness in the face of suffering and evil?
What is beautiful about Job is that Job's only two responses to God were of silence before God and then repentance. "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." (Job 42:5-6) Here we find the path to peace and healing in the midst of our suffering--we are to go before the Lord with humility and an understanding that in our sinfulness, we cannot possibly accuse God of wrong doing and understand why God has allowed us to suffer in this life.
The book of Job is there to help us, because one of the most common struggles of mankind in when difficulty comes our way is to contend with God. And when that happens, and it does to all of us, the great temptation is to question God's goodness and distance ourselves from Him, rather than trust Him. But if we are to accept God as Creator of all things and understand that this same God has all power and all knowledge and all wisdom, than we can trust Him no matter what may come.
May we learn to trust the Lord. For the Scripture teaches us that none "who trust the Lord will be put to shame." (Psalm 25:2) And the word for shame in the Hebrew is not just a sense of guilt for the sins we have committed, but it is also has to do with our confidence and standing before the God Himself. It is by faith in who He is and that through Jesus we can stand before Him without shame and know that despite the wickedness of this world we have life everlasting, for "He who has the Son has life... and that light was the light of men." (I John 5:10; John 1:3) So let us remember that despite the troubles of this world in Jesus there is peace (John 16:33) and "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:31)