Proper 14: Old Testament, Job 38:4-18

Job 38:4-18

God is so very good and very patient with us. And even when we don’t quite see it, it’s true. Just take a moment and think of all the times that God in His glorious holiness and might could have simply brushed us away as a race and started over. Or perhaps not. God “keeps His cool” over and over again and steps back, if You will, to take a deep breath and hold His peace. Of course, these are just ways we can attempt to understand His ways. They are beyond tracing out. 

But here in our Old Testament reading from the lectionary, the old saint Job receives a lesson on creation after sounding “big” with his friends and taking stabs on the big questions of just what life is all about. Job’s wisdom and understanding is challenged in a big way and God finally unloads the barrels. But how? By speaking for Himself. With words. With His Word. 

This is one of those passages I will give you counsel to read on your own. Savor each and every question God asks. Take in, as best you can, just what the Lord of Creation is actually asking the now-timid sage. They are all stunning questions and each one and its assumed answer opens the folds of creation’s veil just a bit further. I think one of its greatest applications is to read and reread this chapter of Job every so often. It cannot help but put us in our rightful place. It is His Word that puts Job in his place. It exposes in Job not only his sin, but the original sin which resurfaces in us all time and again where we lay claim to deity by claiming to know it all.

It is good to know where we truly fit in all of the creation’s schemes. It is healthy to remember how great our God is. It is good, just every so often to “keep it shut.” Blessed quiet.