Thursday, April 23, 2009

It has been a while since I have written. Coming back from being away from the office for 3 weeks yielded a whole bunch of work and catching up that I needed to do. I feel like I just came up for air.

I have been working through Job lately because of what has happened to my mom. There are several stages that Job went through as he went from rich and religious (and, by the way, highly acclaimed by God Himself; see chapter 1), to having nothing but his house (tent) and sores all over his body. I could relate somewhat to Job and his catastrophic loss.

I am still working through the record of Job, but I really don't like how it ends. Sure, his wealth is restored and he had 10 more kids (imagine how long that took; restoration of his life was not a quick process!!!!), but God never answered his question. Read chapters 38-40 where God is talking to Job. He never answers the "why" question that Job has asked for several chapters.

I have thought about why God didn't answer it. I am sure there are several answers as to why, but one might be "because you wouldn't understand it". I think the essence of what God was driving at with Job in chapters 38-41 was - "I am God and you are not. I understand these things, you don't and you can't."

I used to think that when I got to heaven, I would ask God why and He would give me an answer. I am not so sure of that anymore. He may give me an answer, but I may never be able to understand. I will never have the mind of God and therefore will never be able to comprehend what He can (although I have eternity to learn!!!). His mind is infinite; my mind is not. As Isaiah wrote:

ISA 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I am OK with that - still another reason why I am not God and never will be.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent point, Sam. I remember sitting in the living room one day reading the newspaper and my dog (Zack) walked into the room. There was a candle burning on the table, and he got too close to the candle and his tail caught fire. I looked up, then sprang into action, chasing him and pinning him into a corner and beating the fire out with the rolled up newspaper. The fire went out and the dog never felt or saw a thing except me beating his butt with a newspaper. I'm sure he thought I was an idiot and probably felt a lot of anger and confusion as he looked up at me. But everything I did was with love and caring, 100% good intentions for his well being and with a good result. But he is just merely a DOG and there is no way for him to begin to comprehend what just happened. I think the same relationship exists between mortal humans and God, the Master. We just don't have the comprehension to understand all that is going on, but God still remains 100% good all of the time regardless of our limited understanding.

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  2. Brian, what a beautiful analogy. Life sometimes feels like a swat on the behind. If we believe that God is good, we believe the swat is for our good and for the good of those around us. Thanks for journeying through this with us.

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