Year 5, Day 131: Job 37

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency, King

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.
• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time talking about God as King.  Today, we get another great opportunity to do so.  Elihu gives us many images to ponder God’s awesome nature.  He makes the snow fall.  He makes the rain fall.  He gathers all the clouds in the sky.  He scatters the lightning.  God set the world in motion and He continues to control it all.

God is clearly the king of the universe.  That is a huge part of Elihu’s great message for us this morning.  But I think we can take this chapter and go farther with it than that.  I think we can push past simple awe of God and take it to our relationship with this creator.

Elihu asks a deep and probing question: shall it be told to Him that I would speak?  This is fundamentally the same question that Paul asks in Romans 9:20 as to whether the clay can look at its potter and demand to know why it was made in such a manner.  What right do we have to stand before God and question Him?  We can be in awe in His awesome presence.  But what right do we have to question Him as to why anything happens?

This is where the idea of competency comes in to play.  Am I competent to do what God asks me to do.  So often we think of competency in terms of just being able to accomplish what I should accomplish.  But there is another side of competency.  Am I able to refrain from doing that which I have not been called to do?

Who am I to stand before an almighty being and question Him?  Who am I to stand before my maker and think that He owes me any answer?

Of course, I am in relationship with God.  He wants me to grow closer to Him.  But in order to be a competent follower I must learn the difference between seeking truth and demanding God explain Himself.  It is not wrong to seek answers because we seek His truth.  But it is always wrong to make demands that God explain Himself when things go differently than we estimate they should go.

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