Job 39:17 (KJV)
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
While I know this is not the typical interpretation of God’s words to Job, I want to entertain the idea that God’s monologue in chapters 38-39 is not directed at Job precisely, but that God is speaking to Job about his friends. It will lead naturally into the dialogue that follows. They had given bad counsel because they did not fully understand God.
God’s explanation can then be broken into two segments:
Chapter 38 — God governs a world man cannot comprehend.
(We don’t know enough to explain God.)
Chapter 39 — God governs creatures man cannot control.
(God’s ways are far more varied, intricate, and surprising than their tidy theology allowed.)
That problem did not end with Job’s friends.
Whether we speak of the varying religions of the world, the differing philosophies that have been introduced, or the angry responses of those who basically hate everything and choose to think of themselves as little more than animals, the reason they can’t get things adequately figured out is because they just miss who God is.
Even Job fell short on this count. So do we.
The great danger is not that we do not understand everything about God. We never will. The danger is that we speak as though we do.
Job’s friends took what little they knew of God and used it to explain what they could not know about Job. We can make the same mistake. We see a circumstance, observe another person, collect a few facts, and become certain we know what God is doing.
Better to know God than to insist upon explaining Him.
There are things God has not given us the wisdom to understand. Faith does not demand that He explain them. Faith trusts that the God who governs what we cannot comprehend and controls what we cannot control can also be trusted with what we cannot explain.
“Because God hath.”
Let that settle it.
#BecauseGodHath #TrustGod #BookOfJob #FaithOverUnderstanding #DailyVisitWithGod
The Danger of Thinking You Have God Figured Out: Knowing Our Limits and Learning to Trust Him
What do you do when God does not explain what He is doing? Job 39 reminds us that limited understanding should never become confident assumptions about God. “Because God hath.” Let that settle it.
What has the Lord taught you about trusting Him when you cannot understand His ways? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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