“Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this..” (Job 38:17-18)
As we endure this time of pandemic and social chaos, a lot of experts have arisen to promote their moral and scientific agendas. We read their posts on social media and hear their rants on the cable news shows. They pontificate on the best way to handle the pandemic or the best way to promote social justice or end violence or educate our children. These experts and pontificators often contradict themselves and each other, often with anger and venomous ridicule. Yet all of them, even those who have credentials and degrees from the most prestigious universities and professional organizations, really know nothing compared to God.
Therefore, it is fitting that we read the words the Lord God Almighty in the light of our current corona chaos. The Lord spoke out after hearing Job’s questions and the false wisdom of his friends. He ignored the empty eloquence of Job’s friends completely and addressed Job directly. The Lord asked him a series rhetorical question that demonstrated that neither Job nor his counselors were in any position to offer an opinion or assessment on how He should manage and run the universe He created and sustains. They did not see things from the Lord’s perspective nor did they have access to or knowledge of all the Lord knows. They haven’t a clue as to how Yahweh runs things or why. The Lord demonstrated that neither Job nor his counselors had any business to question God or call Him unjust or unfair. This series of powerful and graphic yet unanswerable questions ought to make each one of us keep our mouths quiet and never again boast of our “wisdom”.
People want to blame the pandemic, violence and racism on someone, or something, but the truth is that all these things result from sin, and we are all guilty. We are all sinners. We all lack the understanding of God’s ways. All men stand helpless before these aspects of creation that the Lord speaks of especially the chaos of the raging sea, the rushing torrents of rivers and the awesome power of wind, rain, thunder, and storms. All these have their origin in the mind of Yahweh. These all seem to us to occur with random unpredictability and without reason or logic; but the Lord uses all such things for His own purposes. He controls them and sets their limits, things which man attempts to do but with extremely limited and temporary success. We pride ourselves on the worldly wisdom of science and academia but we haven’t got a clue as to the origins of life on earth let alone how things work or why except what God has chosen to reveal.