A couple of weeks ago as I was teaching through the book of
Job in my Old Testament class, I noted
that though perhaps Job did not curse God, he did voice no little despair at
his severe trials. In fact, he even
despised the day of his birth: “May the
day perish on which I was born” (Job 3:3a).
Job ends, of course, with God speaking out of the whirlwind. Job and his friend had placed God on trial,
but now the tables are turned, as the Lord asks, “Who is this who darkens
counsel by words without knowledge? Now
prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me” (Job
38:3). The Lord asks Job where he was
when he created the world and all its creatures. The point:
His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts than our thoughts. The Lord’s speech ends with him challenging
Job: “Shall the one who contends with
the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.” (Job
40:2). A chastened Job answers, “Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer
You? I lay my hand over my mouth” (v.
4). As I told the class, I think what
happens here is that Job becomes a Calvinist.
He humbles himself in the knowledge of the sovereign Godhood of God.
I was listening to an interview on the radio this week with a
woman who said, “I was raised Baptist [and not charismatic]. We were taught not to pray that God would
take away our troubles but that he would give us the grace to walk through
them.”
When Sarah Edwards, wife of colonial theologian Jonathan
Edwards, learned that her husband had died in 1758 at age 54 after
complications from taking a small pox vaccine, she is reported to have said to
her children: “What
shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we
may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has
made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he
has my heart.”
What trials have you undergone or will you
undergo in the future? Will you place
God on trial and question his justice, fairness, and goodness? Or will you kiss the rod and lay your hand on
your mouth?
Grace and
peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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