Job 38:1-13 (NASB) 1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 2"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3"Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me! 4"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? 6"On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8"Or who enclosed the sea with doors When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; 9When I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10And I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, 11And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop'? 12"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13that it might take hold of the ends of the earth…”
Job was greatly blessed by God. He had a good home, a good family, a good income. He regularly went to church and sought forgiveness for himself and even for members of his family. God had been good to Job, and God was in his heaven and all was right with Job’s world.
Have you been there? Do you know God as one who has blessed you with a very good and comfortable life? Knowing God is good is truthful, but there is a pitfall. What would happen if God was not good to us as with Job?
For a while after losing everything, Job remained strong. But then the pain became too much for him and he cried out to God and cursed the day he was born. He came to believe that all of his life he had had nothing but troubles and worry.
Have you been to a place in your life where you knew God only as One who was absent, disinterested, seemingly out of control, or possibly even cruel and uncaring? This can be a place of anger toward God, or it can be a time of becoming very apathetic toward God. This is when we figure it is better to forget this “God stuff” and take matters into our own hands.
But, in this place of anger or apathy, God comes from out of the whirlwind and says, “Why do you talk so much when you know so little? Now get ready to face me" (CEV). Job meets the God of the covenant, a responsible relationship.
In the marriage covenant we promise to be faithful in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow as long as we shall live. These are the terms of the relationship. The covenant God offers us is different than the marriage covenant. It is more like the covenant a king might make with the people who either accept or reject the terms of the relationship. Job accepts the terms of this God and human relationship. He agrees to let God be God.
Are we willing to do the same? To know God better begins with the willingness to let God be God. Out of the whirlwind. Here is not sentimental God for the spiritual dabbler. This is God Almighty, the God of the covenant, who sets the terms of the relationship. Out of the whirlwind assumes that we resist the terms of the covenant. We want to know God better but not at the cost of a blank check commitment to him. We may be beaten but we will not be broken.
We stand in stiff resistance or we give in and let God be God. For most of us it is not a one-time acceptance, but a daily acceptance. To know God better begins with willingness and continues with willingness to let God be God.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 18, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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