It's Time

In Job 38:11 God is talking to Job after Job has requested an audience with God (because Job believes he has been unjustly punished).  In God's little discussion with Job, God asks Job a very good question.  God establishes the "pecking order" at the beginning of the chapter when Job, full of questions for God, is told by God, "I will question you and you will answer."  This is not the dialogue Job wants, but God is God, and Job learns pretty quickly God makes the rules.  Here are a few of the questions Job is asked:

1. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth (v. 4)? The question is rhetorical ... God knows exactly where Job was!

2. "Who laid its cornerstone  (v. 6)?"  Again, God knows this answer too.

3. "Who shut in the seas with doors, when it burst out from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, 'this far you shall come and no farther ... here your proud waves shall be stayed' (v. 8-11)."

God asks many more questions of Job, without an answer from Job.  Because Job has no adequate answer ... God is God.  Let's spend some time on that last question.  "this far and no farther."  There comes a time when a line is drawn and a stand is taken.

Drawing lines in the sand reminds me of a childhood fight I had because of an argument over scuppernongs and muscadines.  In Wikipedia, scuppernongs are described as "a large variety of muscadines."  9 year olds in North Carolina didn't have Wikipedia ... we didn't even have air conditioning!  So, over this little thing, I punched Chris Venable in the nose.  It was not a proud moment, but kids will be kids.

But what do we do about God's words to Job?  Job 38:8-11 indicates that God creates limits for a purpose, whether we understand it or not.  It (in some pretty beautiful imagery, from what theologians would like to tell you are 'primitive' people) paints a picture of knowledge, intent and purpose as God creates the natural order of the world.  I (and Job for that matter) cannot really tell you how all this was done, but God's action here is one of those things bound up in the passage that says "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine (Isaiah 55:8-9)!"  When God says, "where were you" when all this happened, I think Job is starting to get the point.  There is a creator God, and it isn't Job.  There is a purpose in the universe, but it is beyond Job's ability to fathom.  There is a higher authority that is wiser, more powerful, and more loving than we can even grasp.  Powerful enough to create everything we can see and not see, and loving enough to remove our sins "as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12)."

So ... a quick few thoughts.  1) Do we believe God is wiser than us?  My answer is yes ... His word (Scripture) proclaims this, His action in history demonstrates this (Tradition), my life with God solidifies this (Experience) and my mind, while unable to fully grasp God's vastness, understands this (Reason).  2) Do we believe God knows more than we do?  My answer is yes ... because my choice is to either follow the whirlwind of the world or stand on the solid ground of God.  3) Do we think we (people) can devise a better plan for our world?  This one is a no-brainer!  Humanism does not work, along with a lot of other 'isms' we have tried.

As I look at Job's story here, he (Chapter 40:4) says, "I place my hand over my mouth."  Maybe that is what Adam and Eve should have done, rather than listening to the serpent say, "your eyes will see and you will be like God (Genesis 3:5)" ... this far and no farther!  Maybe this is what we need to say as the proud waves of humanism flow over our church and our nation trying to drown the church in societal wisdom ... this far and no farther!  Maybe, when we hear our own church say "there will always be a place for orthodox believers" (while simultaneously teaching humanism in lieu of Scripture, and overflowing the bounds God has wisely set for a Church He has called out of the world) we need to say, this far and no farther.  Will we, as God's Church, here to save the world by Christ's power, follow the two oldest lies in human history ... "did God really say that (Genesis 3:1) and "your eyes will see, and you will be as God (Genesis 3:5)."  For me, I say ... this far and no farther.