[Discoveries] 09-17-07 Divine unpredictability

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

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/*Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue 
with a rope? ... If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the 
struggle and never do it again! -- Job 41:1, 8*/

I love the book of Job because it is raw and honest. I especially love 
chapters 38-41 where God speaks, because He speaks here with a candor 
that you find nowhere else in scripture.

The Lord has an opportunity to address the cries and the whys of a 
suffering man, and He does so in a way I would never predict - never in 
a thousand years.

God is the God of all comfort, but He doesn't seem to make any attempt 
here to comfort Job.

God is the God of all wisdom, but He doesn't answer any of Job's questions.

Instead, God talks about the wild things. He talks about mountain goats 
and wild oxen, about eagles drinking blood and horses frenzied in 
battle. He speaks in admiring terms about the leviathan and the 
behemoth, creatures of immense strength and fierceness. These creatures 
were untamed and the Lord delights in them.

What masculine chapters these are! You will find no little lambs with 
pink ribbons here. And the Lord speaks to Job, not in a gentle whisper 
(as He spoke to Elijah), but out of a howling tornado.

Why is God so in love with the wild things? Why did He create an entire 
gender that resists domestication?

I get a picture of freedom. I get a picture of celebration. I get a 
picture of victory. I get a picture of Divine unpredictability. I get a 
picture of overwhelming confidence and strength.

God is no wimp. He and His army of mighty men risk much, sacrifice much, 
achieve greatness and go from victory to victory. Towering above them 
all is God, filled with joy, freedom and adventure.

No, God didn't answer Job's questions. But He lifted Job up, took his 
eyes off his painful sores and put them on the stars, on hope, on 
freedom, on victory.

I will have to speak as a man here, because I don't know how all my 
female readers will take this - but to me what God gave Job was 
priceless. It's what I've always longed for and, in some small measure, 
have received.

And for that, I am thankful.

Be encouraged!
Dwight



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