Thursday, May 10, 2018

Year 8, Day 130: Job 36


Theological Commentary: Click Here



For the most part, I think Elihu gets much right in this passage.  Perhaps the greatest point is that we need to extol God’s greatness more.  We need to make sure that we do not forget to extol God’s greatness.  God is great, all the time.  God is abundantly great.  God’s greatness is ever-present!



Who can explain God’s wisdom?  Who can fathom His hand at work? Who can anticipate the full coming of His grace?  Who among us are not amazed at the abundance of His love?  We need to extol this greatness.



I also think that there is also a hint of truth in what Elihu says about wicked people dying early in life.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to talk about the opposite in the next paragraph.  The hint of truth, however, is that we often do reap what we sew.  When we make bad choices, there are consequences.  If we make bad enough choices, we might even snuff our life out before our time.  He does allow people to be delivered into the consequences of their own choices.



That being said, it’s also time to lift up the old argument against this line of thinking.  While people do suffer the consequences of their actions, it is not fair to say that all wicked people die young and all righteous people live to an old age.  We cannot assume those with an unfortunate life story are evil and those who live in luxury are righteous.  It simply is a fair conclusion to reach and it is a worse conclusion to teach to others!



God’s grace falls upon the evil and the righteous.  God’s generosity is bestowed upon all to the measure of Gods choosing.  That is something for which we should praise God.



<><

No comments:

Post a Comment