Wednesday, June
14, 2017
“Is it your wisdom that makes the hawk soar and spread its wings toward
the south? Is it at your command that
the eagle rises to the heights to make its nest? It lives on the cliffs, making its home on a
distant, rocky crag. From there it hunts
its prey, keeping watch with piercing eyes.
Its young gulp down blood. Where
there’s a carcass, there you’ll find it.”
Then
the Lord said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the
answers?”
Then Job
replied to the Lord, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” Job 39:26-30, 40:1-5(NLT)
Many a
defendant on trial has been his own worst enemy by taking the witness
stand. There is just something about
having a voice and also having someone else’s ear; we just have to talk.
It’s a
particularly unfruitful practice to try to defend your actions to God. In this passage which is part of God’s answer
to Job, there have been 35 chapters of Job hollering out into the dark, why me; I’m a good guy, God – why didn’t you
pick on one of my miserable neighbors who beats his wife? Or that drunk in town? Or….well there’s plenty more where they
came from…and you give ME boils….seriously?
In answering
Job, God goes down the creation
checklist, asking Job if he was there when all this came
about. Now, of course Job wasn’t there,
so God is being rather sarcastic (He must be from New York, right?).
If you ask
non-believers about the feeding and flying habits of the hawk and eagle, you’ll
get a Darwinian mush of natural selection and survival of the fittest. It would not be cool to concede the
possibility of intelligent design. But,
mush aside, and whether or not skeptics approve, it is God who, with a simple
word created the majestic birds, complete with DNA that tells them when to
soar, how to locate a carcass, and feed their young. Clearly it was not Job who did all that.
I love
Job’s response. He has that look all
over his face, somewhat like an actor who has stepped onstage in front of a
huge audience; all eyes are on him, and then he realizes he forgot his
clothes!
Job
realized he had spent 35 chapters blaming the unfairness of his situation on
God, and God, in a kind way, simply asked Job if he thought he was ready to
stand toe to toe with God and slug it out.
Job chose to switch to humility; Lord,
I shut my mouth!
For You Today
There are
two important truths you can learn from Job’s encounter with God.
1.
When
people like Job’s friends ask: what sin did you commit to get God so mad
at you, keep quiet. Like the
man once said about responding to gossip, never wrestle with a pig; the pig likes it, and you’ll
both wind up in the mud.
2.
When
you’re tempted to debate your sinless record before God, take a deep breath and
pray that God has given you enough wisdom to keep silent. There was only one sinless person who ever
lived…and it wasn’t you.
Learning
from God about your troubles is done much better with two ears than simply a
mouth.
NOTES
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