Year 2, Day 133: Job 39

How Can We Know the Mind of God?

At first blush, this looks like yet another chapter of God telling Job just how small he actually is.  After all, can Job control any of the wild animals that are mentioned here?  Can Job get any of them to actually do his bidding?  Can Job know about them all, love them all, and care for their young intimately?

Obviously the answer to this is “no.”  So if Job cannot do any of those things, how can Job possibly know the mind of God and know his plan?  If Job cannot understand the plan of life – much less the plan for the whole universe – then how can Job possibly be understand what is happening to him?

See, I think that is a point to which it is really worth listening.  Human logic says that I am really the only person who can truly understand what is happening to me.  Nobody can understand what is happening to me completely because I am the only one actually living every moment of it.  From a limited human understanding, this makes absolutely great sense.

But here’s the problem.  The only way that the paragraph above makes any sense at all is if I am the center of the world.  The only time that it ultimately matters if I understand what is happening to me is if the world revolves around me.  Which, for the record, I confess that it doesn’t!  LOL

Okay, I might have shocked a few people with the conclusion of the last paragraph.  In fact, I might have made a few people want to take up arms against what I was saying!  So let me explain.

I’m not saying that I shouldn’t care about what is happening to me.  I’m also not saying that I shouldn’t try to learn and understand what is happening to me.  The same is true for you all as well.  I’m not saying that any individual should not care about what happens to them.  We should be trying to do all those things because they do matter. 

But I shouldn’t be trying to understand what is happening to me for my sake.  Rather, I should be trying to understand what happens to me so that I can understand my role in the greater plan of God.  It is not my life that is ultimately important; it is the plan of God that is ultimate.  Thus, I understand my life so that I can try and understand how I can make myself available to the plan of God.

Do you see the shift in perspective?  God is looking to Job and telling Job that he is completely wrapped up in what is happening to him.  He is so concerned about whether the stuff that is happening to him is fair or not.  He is so concerned that God might be misjudging his righteousness.  He is so focused on himself that he becomes the center of his own universe.  As Elihu diagnosed several chapters ago, Job is so wrapped up in his own life that he is blind to think that what may be more important is how what is happening to him might fit into God’s much more significant agenda.

This is absolutely huge.  I think this is probably the most universal understanding of how sin enters into our life.  We become so focused on ourselves, the recognition of our righteousness, and the fairness of our lives that we totally forget that what is most important is the advancement of God’s kingdom.  We forget that something may happen to me not because I deserve it but because it will be important for God’s plan.

Think about the story of Job from this perspective.  Why is Job under this curse?  God is fighting a war with Satan.  God is trying to teach Job a lesson about his own perception.  God is trying to teach all the generations that come after him the same lesson.  Does Job deserve what is happening?  From a sin perspective, yes; but from a righteousness perspective, no.  But is that question even important?  No.  What is important is the greater advancement of God’s plan that is happening through Job.  What is important is our willingness to be a part of whatever God deems as righteous and worthwhile.

In the end, I suppose this chapter and the last chapter really go back to the creation story in Genesis.  In the last chapter, God seemed to be saying to Job: can you explain creation?  The answer to that was clearly “no,” and that answer would have been “no” for any of us.  In this chapter, the overarching question is: can you even oversee creation, much less explain it?  Again the answer is “no” – no for all of us, not just Job.  We can’t even oversee creation.  We’re not righteous enough.

In Genesis it is God who creates, not us.  In Genesis is it God who oversees, not us.  God does tell us to go and subdue the creation and care for it … and we know how well we’re able to do that.  We can destroy creation really well, but we’re not so great at genuinely caring for creation.  But we’ll save that question for tomorrow.  For today it is enough for us to realize how much our limited and self-centered perspective truly keeps us from having the right attitude towards the work that God is doing in the world.

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