God Questions

God’s silence is deafening.  The struggle is immense.  It has gone on and on.  Back and forth.  We’ve endured the arguments between Job and his friends and Job to God.  We’ve gained insight into the shortcomings of human wisdom.  No one can adequately explain or make sense of the suffering Job has withstood.  And truthfully, none of us can wrap our minds around the mind of God.  Chapters 38 and 39 of Job are awe inspiring and reveal God’s majesty and how his very being is simply beyond our understanding.

Job’s friends have suggested suffering comes only to the evil as punishment from God.  Repent of your sin and the suffering will end.  But Job knows this is a false understanding of God.  We may find it easier to blame God for suffering, but that is to fall short of knowing the truth of his character.  The truth of his character reveals an abundance of righteousness.  God is right.  He is not evil nor does he ordain or cause evil in the world.  Adam and Eve’s choice to move away from God and to seek from understanding beyond what God had for them ushered in evil to the world.  Evil, at its core, is the absence of God.  Suffering is a direct result of evil.  Not God.

Reading Job today allows us to take a breath of ease if we have been suffering.  While God is silent for the major portion of the book he is hardly absent.  When he finally appears, it’s clear he has not been distracted or otherwise engaged.  He is fully aware of all that has transpired in Job’s life and the arguments between Job and his friends.  Rather than defend himself, God chooses to reveal himself.  His is a commanding presence that requires all of us watching and listening to stop in reverent awe.  Taking center stage, he ends the debate by asking some profound and revealing questions.

These questions open the door to consider him in the truth of his being beyond the scope of suffering.  His questions are a welcome relief from the arguments gone round and round trying to solve the dilemma of suffering with the human mind.  The truth is we simply cannot.  We cannot resolve God sized issues with the extraordinary limitations of our human minds.  The vastness of who God is and what He knows is only a pin drop in our consciousness.  We can’t know what we simply don’t know.  It is pride to think we can.

Each question God poses to Job and his friends sweeps back the curtain of his majesty and his strength.  There are hardly words to describe how inept and insignificant one feels to follow God’s queries and to recognize how close to simple dust we are.  God’s questions reveal the heart of who He is in the splendor of his glory.  And no one can remotely access it but by God’s permission himself.  In asking Job these questions, he simultaneously challenges Job to understand him while pointing out that there is no way to fully comprehend him.  Even partial comprehension seems an extraordinary leap of our limited minds.

God’s questions are worthy of a second read.  A third, fourth, fifth…well, they are worthy of pondering for the rest of our lives.  They offer us rest in the midst of our trial to let go of our control and slip into a place of yielded trust to Him.  He is so much greater.  He is so much wiser.  He has ideas and purposes we can’t begin to articulate in our minds.  So once you have wearied of the wrestling and struggle, walk into these questions with the space of being simply the created walking hand in hand with the Creator.  And the Creator is good.  In his immense proportion to ourselves, we can rest in the knowledge that out of His great love for us he created us.  He has plans and purposes beyond our skirmishes today.

“Wise up!”

As life presses in and difficult situations arise, how do you navigate the challenge of making sound decisions?  The person whose mind is set on the world’s ways cannot see the wisdom of God’s ways.  Do you look to God for wisdom or do you rely on the tactics and strategies you’ve learned from the world?  The world’s ways are different from God’s ways.  In fact, they are often called “rebellion” by God.  But to the person focused on the world, rebellion is not rebellion, but simply common sense. The bible insists upon a life guided by God’s revelation as the only truly wise life. Are you learning God’s wisdom or do you still rely upon the world’s common sense?

In Isaiah 30, we see these differences magnified.  The people of Israel are at a time of crisis in their national life.  The mighty Assyrian army is threatening to invade. Disaster seems imminent. So what do the Jewish people do?  Instead of turning to their true King, the Holy One of Israel, who has promised to protect and keep them, they make a political alliance with Egypt.  God is not pleased by this faithless rebellion. He says, “Ah stubborn children, who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!” (Isaiah 30:1-2).  Not only do they neglect to seek God, but also they run in the opposite direction.  They are looking for the world’s security. They are seeking an old way of protection.  Ultimately, they are seeking to save themselves and the Lord makes clear that what is sought outside of him, though seemingly wise in the world’s sight and simply ‘common sense’, actually becomes their source of defeat and degradation.

How often have I seen this kind of dynamic operating in my life?  When a time of crisis comes, I run about seeking ways to fix the crisis.  I wrack my brains trying to figure out how to make it go away. Too often, I follow the way the world resolves things —  for instance, by looking out for number one rather than living openly and generously; or by believing that the end justifies the means, or that preserving an image is more important than walking with integrity.   I sometimes seek comfort from old habits, behaviors and addictions.  Sadly I have spent far more time than I care to admit seeking out the world’s ways and my ways of fixing my life.  God lovingly, but bluntly names this, “Rebellion.”  He tells me to, “Wise up!”

God counsels His people in a completely different and counter-intuitive way.  He advises us to come back to him and trust in his kindness and strength.  “In returning (repentance) and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength,” (Isaiah 30:15). God calls us to come back to him.  He calls us back to the cross. He calls us to turn away from our sinful independence and to rest in his care.  He advises us not to speed up busily trying to fix things, but instead to be intentional in seeking his counsel.  When we diligently seek him, he promises that we will always find him. This is what it means to trust.  It means to place ourselves in his strong and faithful care, expecting his answers and then obediently following his direction despite how it looks or seems to the world around us.

Are you learning God’s wisdom or do you still rely upon the world’s common sense? Are you learning to, “Wise up?”

Restless

There is a mindset that drives many of our lives that I believe stems from fear and unbelief.  It leads us to try to be in control of our lives even though this control negates our trust in God’s care for us.  We live a kind of practical agnosticism where we trust God for the big things we can’t see like salvation and heaven but we don’t trust him to handle the little things with struggle with daily. It’s as though we’re afraid to trust the kindness of the heart of God and his provision for our lives. He might not make the same decisions we would.  He might like something we don’t.  He may have an idea that is different from our idea.  And so we live our lives at a frantic pace that prevents us from listening for his still, small Voice. We stay busy. We stay active. We stay harried and scattered.  And most of our running around is focused on “good” things.  But is it spiritually healthy? Is it God’s best for our lives? I don’t think so.

In Hebrews 3 and 4, the author speaks about the “rest” of God.  He speaks of 3 basic kinds of rest: (1) the rest of salvation, (2) the rest of victory in the midst of trials, and (3) the future eternal and heavenly rest.  The first rest, the rest of salvation comes in assurance that Christ has done the work necessary to bring us to God for eternity.  Our sins are forgiven; we are safe forever in his arms.  The third rest comes at the end of our days on earth.  The first rest leads to the third. When its all said and done, we will enter the rest where there are no more tears or sorrows; no more struggles, and we’ll be at peace forever.  These two types of rest are easier to grasp because they don’t affect our daily decision making the way the second type of rest does.

The second rest is a way of life that is not supported by our culture and society.  It is a rest that allows us to walk in peace through seemingly impossible situations.  Jesus lived this kind of rest.  It is a rest born out of belief that requires nurture to grow every day.  The bigger the problem, the more belief we need.  Thankfully, belief in and of it self is not something we have to muster up.  It is already given to us with God’s Spirit.  He believes on our behalf.  We simply choose to enter into this belief.

I’ve heard it said about life:  “If you’re not in a storm presently, you are either exiting one or heading into one.”  Isn’t this true?  We all have lived through torrential rainstorms of adversity in our lives.  Some of us seem to travel from one storm to the next. It’s in these times that I am tempted to doubt his goodness.  I wonder what I’ve done to bring about this latest adversity.  I compare my life to another life and find my path weedy and overgrown next to their manicured, paved roadway (this is spiritually hazardous, by the way).  What is their secret?  Their secret is just that.  A secret.  Knowledge about their life I simply don’t have.  My perception of their life is usually quite different from their reality.  If I really knew their life, I would see that their path looks a lot like mine.

The “rest of victory” amidst trials is born out of belief but nurtured in a quiet steady trust that God is good and his words are true.  He has promised to overcome these difficulties in this life if we trust him.  How can we trust him if we can’t slow down long enough to sit with him and listen to him? How can we trust him when we aren’t  listening to his counsel and love for us?  Are we trusting him when we continue to add activity and responsibility that crowds out any chance we have of hearing him?  What would it look like to spend an hour a day; a half hour a day on our spiritual knees talking to him and listening to him?  What would our lives look like if we were to ask him throughout the day to show us our next steps.  And then just to listen and when we hear to obey.  I think our hearts would enter an extraordinary place of rest and I think the world might see a clearer picture of how deeply he loves us.   I think we would receive his love more deeply, with more purpose and it would radically change our lives.  It would affect the lives of everyone around us.  Isn’t this what Jesus did?  He lived in this victorious rest.  And from this reality, He changed the world forevermore.