Today in God's Word—July 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
July 4, Job 39
”Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?" - God, Job 39:26-27
We usually ask questions when there’s something we want to know and do not know. We use questions to gather information. It starts when we’re children and goes on the rest of our lives.
Our all-knowing God never asks a question to learn something he does not know. God's questions stem from his desire to give information to humans, not to get it from them. God started asking humans questions when Adam and Eve sinned. He knew exactly where they were hiding and why they were hiding. But they needed to understand what their obedience had done to them and their relationship with God. The Q&A has continued ever since. Jesus asked questions when he interacted with disciples, seekers and enemies. He called attention to what they needed to know by asking questions. Even if they evaded the question, refused to answer it or didn't know the answer, they still got the point.
God asked Job all these questions about what he had done in Creation and how he had done it. He wanted Job to see that he did not know what he asked for when he wanted to have a meeting with God and reason with the Almighty. Job, like any other created being, did not know how God worked or why he did what he did in Creation. He could observe other creatures, but could not understand how God made them to do the things they did.
If Job couldn't understand all these created animals over which God had given humans dominion, how could he possibly understand the ways and actions of a superior being, such as God? Job did not know how God could imprint the strong instinctive patterns of behavior on animal brains. Why did the mother ostrich lack the instinct to care for her young, and how did
the baby ostriches survive? Why was a horse not terrified by the loud sounds of warfare? How could an eagle high on a rocky crag or flying high in the sky see its prey running along the ground so clearly from so far away? Of course, the questions all point back to God as the only one who could have designed, created and enabled such amazing creatures. It was not only the spectacular vastness of space and the stars or the fury of the storm that bore witness to God's power. The intricate details and characteristics of the entire natural creation proclaimed the wisdom and power of God the Creator.
Humans have domesticated some of the animals. We put them to work or raise them for food. But there were many wild creatures as well. Who provided for them? How did they know what they knew to sustain and feed themselves? No human could explain the mysterious and wonderful ways and characteristics of those wild creatures. God’s questions called Job (and the rest of us) to humbly admit that God has power and wisdom far beyond our own.
When Nicodemus came to visit Jesus at night, Jesus told him things the Jewish leader could not understand. When Nicodemus expressed his lack of understanding, Jesus said, "Are you the teacher in Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" But God's questions to Job remind me of something else Jesus asked Nicodemus: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" With Job, God's questions said, "If you cannot understand and explain the created things, how can you understand the Creator himself?" The next chapter will tell us whether or not Job got the point.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Comments