Saturday, April 14, 2012

Job’s Final Answer

Job 42:2 "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."


 

In chapter 41 God confronted Job with the power and might of Leviathan. A massive creature created by God that revealed the power of God. Don't tell me that men and dinosaurs did not exist together. Here is proof that Job knew what God was talking about when He talked about this animal.


 

So here it is. God asks Job if he can answer the One who has created all things. Job's final answer: "God you are God. You can do anything You want. No one anywhere can change whatever you have purposed to do." The point: God has a plan and that plan will be carried out no matter what. Sure, men think that things are all up to them. We think that we can change things. We think we can direct things. We think that we can mold things to accomplish our purpose. Frankly, that thinking is a bunch of pompous poppycock. (And I am not talking about the popcorn.)


 

Who knows, maybe Job was here at one time. Yes God said that he was a man of integrity and that no one was like him on the earth, but I wonder if Job, in his secure comfortable position, thought that he was, in part, responsible for all of the stuff he had. The lesson that he learned was that nothing was up to him. Everything was up to God…everything. When he learned how small he really was, when he acknowledged the Authorship and Lordship of the God of the universe, God doubled his fortune and his family. It wasn't up to Job…it was all up to God.


 

Sometimes I think it is humorous what we in the American church think we can accomplish. We are self reliant, self confident, and self absorbed. That is dangerous territory to be in. We can't be self anything. We have to be God dependent and know that He controls it all. No purpose of His will be thwarted. We have to get to the place where Job was and acknowledge our utter helplessness without the Lord. It is then that He can take us small, needy people and use us to expand His kingdom.


 

No matter what, however, God's purpose will prevail. He will get it done. He doesn't need us but He wants to use us. I need to totally rely on Him and He will do it.


 

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