Can God manage even this?

 Job 26 & 27

• Summary 

This week we return to Job, picking up where we left with Bildad's reply to Job speaking of God's holiness and our position as worms in his sight.

Job now replies somewhat sarcastically to Bildad with questions about how did God manage without Bildad's help.  He then in turn outlines some of God's greatness as we see it demonstrated in the wonders of creation, commenting that these just show a little of his power.

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In chapter 27 Job then continues to profess his integrity, but in contrast to his previous statements that the wicked are not always judged in this life, now speaks of the punishments which are brought upon them.

• Thoughts

As I sit here in the quiet sounds of the house this morning I can hear the wind gustily blowing and vibrating through the airvents.

It is dark outside and the table lamp is casting a cosy light into the room...and I am thinking of God's greatness.

The wind that I can hear is just one example of his creation, but it is like a speaking voice of his power this morning.  And yet as Job says in verse 14 of chapter 26, 'Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him?'

We admire the wonders of creation and yet these are just a little example of his greatness!  How little do we understand of him!  How this can comfort us as we think of things in our lives which seem too big for us to manage.  

Perhaps you have something on your mind or in your heart, which constantly seems to go round and round in your thoughts as you worry how to deal with it.  Perhaps you cannot see a way out of it and the burden of it seems too great to bear.

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Is it too hard for the Lord, dear reader?  Is it too hard for the great God of heaven and earth to manage?

Amongst our Christmas presents this year we were given a novel gift - a globe which suspends in mid-air beneath a magnetic arch plugged into the mains.  I have very limited knowledge of the laws of physics etc which God has created to perform his wonders but this gift beautifully illustrates the wonder which Job speaks of in this chapter 26:7, 'He...hangeth the earth upon nothing'. 

As I look at this little manmade earth replica suspended in mid-air my breath is taken away as I think how great God is - and yet, this display of his power is just a part of what he can do, just a portion of his greatness!

How these thoughts of God's greatness can encourage us today.  Whatever our situation, whatever problems or impossible things we may have, God is greater than them.

My thoughts go to the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 32 of his prophecy. 

He was in prison. 

He was in a city which was being beseiged by the enemy.

He knew from what God had told him that the enemy would conquer the city and take them into captivity for 70 years.

Does this not seem a terrible situation?  What hope was there for him and his fellow Jews?  What could possibly happen to improve this awful situation?

And then God seems to tell him an impossible thing regarding the future.  An event that could not be more contrasting to what is happening right now. 

"Your cousin will come to visit you and ask you to buy his field."

"Buy it."

As part of the purchase, as if it was just the normal business of the day he was to sign the land deeds with witnesses and then place them in an earthern vessel that they might be preserved for many years.

Why?

To demonstrate to those around him that they would - despite all seeming to the contrary - again return to their land and own houses and vineyards.

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Can we blame Jeremiah - in a prison, in the middle of a war - for then reverently praying to God, acknowledging God's great power, sovereignty, mercy, judgement and faithfulness in bringing to pass what he has told him, telling God that he knows there is nothing too hard for him.... but in effect asking, really?  Buy land in the middle of a war when they are all about to be sent into captivity many miles away?  Buy land which was 'desolate' and 'given into the hand of the' enemy (verse 43)?

How does God answer Jeremiah?  How does he answer the questions in your heart and mine today?

Yes, he asserts, 'I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?' 

He doesn't lambast Jeremiah and tell him he should just believe and accept what he is saying.  He isn't offended by his poor prophet's bewilderment.  He condescends to tell him all the things that he WILL do.  He speaks of his love to his people and his absolute faithfulness to do what he has said for them.

Are we like Job and Jeremiah - bewildered by the situations we are in or by what God is seemingly asking us to do?  Are we too bewildered to trust him?

Perhaps we do believe that God has made all of creation, that he is greater than what we can even begin to comprehend, and that nothing is too hard for him, but still our heart says,

"Really Lord?"  

"Even this?"

"How Lord?"

This hard thing which we are in, which we can see no way out of, no end to, does he really have a plan for this, will he really work it out for my good?

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Dear reader, whatever you and I are experiencing today, let us take it to the Lord, the God of all the universe, the Creator, Him that made us and all that we can see, the Lord that can move mountains at the whisper of a command. 

Let us tell him in sorrow our unbelief but confess to him our trust that he will work it out although we cannot see how.  And let us keep coming back to him, keep lifting out thoughts to him, keep asking for the unbelieving thoughts to be held captive, and keep asking for the trust to sit still, be still, to know that he is God, to watch and to wait and see how he will make a way through these hard things.

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