The Incomprehensible God: Understanding the Unfathomable ‌

Job 8:20–9:3 ESV

“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.” Then Job answered and said: “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

Prayer

The Incomprehensible God

Understanding the Unfathomable

It’s important to remember where we have been in the book of Job.

We saw everything that Job had taken from him when God allowed Satan to take everything from him.

Everything physical was taken.

Even his health was removed from him.

Now we find him sitting on a garbage heap being verbally assaulted from his friends.

Last time we heard from “Eliphaz the Elder” who brought his worldly wisdom.

Today, we get to the second cycle of friends.

Have you ever thought you were so right about something and it turned out you were wrong?

I mean, not like a little wrong, but like really really wrong?

[Story of the Wrong Turn in Canada]

In this second cycle of argumentation, we are introduced to a man named Bildad.

Job 8:1 ESV

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

I am calling him “Bildad the Brut”

Which is fitting because Bildad’s name means “Son of Contention.”

But “Bildad the Brut” is exactly that, he is a brut.

He’s gruff and mean to Job.

He holds the similar line of reasoning as Eliphaz but is more blunt.

Bildad’s Response

“Is God Unjust?”

He says, Job 8:2

Job 8:2 NET 2nd ed.

“How long will you speak these things, seeing that the words of your mouth are like a great wind?

Bildad is tired of Job’s comments.

Job’s words have been to Bildad a “great wind”

Do you know the feeling when someone is talking, and you know they’re wrong, and what they’re saying is annoying to you?

That’s what Bildad is experiencing here.

He describes Job’s speech as a great “wind”

They seem to Bildad to be such an offense because all of Job’s words seem to bring into question God’s justice.

Bildad is offended because Job seems to be questioning if God is just.

Which is why he says, Job 8:3

Job 8:3 ESV

Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

Is God Unjust?

“Of Course Not!”

Bildad is simply asking Job,

“Is God unjust?”

“Do you really think God is unjust?”

And what Bildad is about to do is present his case why he thinks God isn’t unjust.

Job 8:4–6 NLT

Your children must have sinned against him, so their punishment was well deserved. But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty, and if you are pure and live with integrity, he will surely rise up and restore your happy home.

Basically, your children have sinned, thats why they’re gone.

Your children have transgressed the Lord that’s why he removed them from the earth.

He’s also implying that Job himself has sinned by reminding Job that the “pure and upright” will only find restoration.

For Bildad good things happen to good people, and bad things for bad people.

What’s funny is Bildad is about to make a prediction that is true...

Job 8:7 ESV

And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

The irony of it, is that he is completely wrong and yet right at the same time.

It’s like the saying, “A broken clock is right twice a day.”

This brut of a broken clock is indeed right that God will restore Job but it’s not because he needed to repent.

Just ask Tradition!

“Remembering the ‘Wise’”

He pleads with Job much like Eliphaz to remember this wisdom of the past.

Job 8:8–10 NLT

“Just ask the previous generation. Pay attention to the experience of our ancestors. For we were born but yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are as fleeting as a shadow. But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you the wisdom of old.

Bildad like Eliphaz refers to this old wisdom.

The old “grain of the earth” will direct you.

Negative

“The Wicked Plant”

Job 8:11 ESV

“Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

He’s simply asking, “Can a flower grow without water? Of course not!”

Job 8:13–14 ESV

Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish. His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider’s web.

Again, he is trying to show Job that he is obviously unrighteous.

That’s why he is having so many problems.

He is unrighteous.

Then he gives the positive example...

Positive

“The Righteous Plant”

Job 8:16 ESV

He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.

Like David in Psalm 1:1

Psalm 1:3 ESV

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

It’s like Bildad is taking this Psalm and saying…

“Look! Your life is a mess, that means you’re unrighteous!”

“If you were righteous, then you would be like a tree that doesn’t wither!”

Bildad “the Brut’s” summary statement is important because it begs us to answer the question.

Job 8:20 ESV

“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.

Bildad is telling Job if he simply follows his advice, there will be green pastures ahead.

If he simply recognizes his sin and repents, then God will restore him.

The screaming question we need to consider is...

Is what Bildad is telling Job true?

If it is true, this means there are no undeserving sufferers in the universe.

If it is true, every bit of suffering you have ever experienced is a result of a “sin” in your life.

I want to pause at this point and make an observation.

The vast majority of people that you and I know, hold a similar line of reasoning as Bildad.

There reasoning is...

“I am living a good life, so that means that everything is going okay for me.”

“I am living a good life, so I must be walking the right path.”

And brothers and sisters, we need to be clear this is fundamentally NOT true.

The Bible is abundantly clear, all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Everyone, apart from the grace of God in Christ alone is utterly LOST.

It is actually God’s grace to a person for them to realize their own sinfulness and rebellion before Him.

Before we look at Job’s response, I want us to consider something.

God’s Incomprehensibility

“The Godness of God”

I label this as the GODNESS of GOD because it is the very essence of the Creator-creature distinction.

God is the CREATOR.

We are the creature.

Deism – God exists but does not have a relationship with his creatures.

There is no revelation, incarnation, or basically anything.

Idolatry – God is completely knowable.

We can somehow know God fully.

This is always an attempt to bring God down to us.

Bildad is essentially saying that “God is COMPLETELY KNOWABLE”

There is a limitation to our knowledge of God.

God is knowable truly but not exhaustively knowable.

We are NOT saying that God is unknowable.

We are saying that we cannot know God fully.

Since God is Incomprehensible, we cannot know Him exhaustively, but we can trust that God is truly knowable in His Son.

Now I place this before you because it’s important to understand Job’s response.

Job has just had his theological categories destroyed!

Job 9:1–2 NLT

Then Job spoke again: “Yes, I know all this is true in principle. But how can a person be declared innocent in God’s sight?

Job concedes that he has held this view of the world.

But in this moment, it does not square with his life and experience.

Job firmly held the conviction that bad things happen to bad people and good things to good.

But he hasn’t done anything wrong and his life is falling apart.

So how does this square up?

As we hear Job’s speech, we need to keep in mind the difference between Job’s perception and Job himself.

Job’s perceptions are all over the place, but his heart is one that is made right before God by faith alone.

He is a believer, which is why the Lord commends him in the end.

But his perceptions are faulty because they rest in his outward circumstances.

Yellow Circle - Represents Job’s Given Identity

Black Circle - Represents Job’s Perceived Identity

It’s also called “constructed” because this is not the authoritative version of it.

If his given identity is what God is saying about him, then his constructed identity is what his experiences have shown him.

They are not necessarily accurate.

Job—The Wisdom of the Cross Chapter 9: Job’s First Reply to Bildad: The Trouble-Maker Maker (Job 9, 10)

We hear in these speeches the honest grapplings of a real believer with a heart for God as he sees what he thought was a secure worldview crumble around him. This is why we will hear Job say some things that are plain wrong, and yet we hear him say them from a heart that is deeply right.

Job now responds to Bildad “the brut”

Job’s Pursuit for Litigation

Litigation is simply a process of taking legal action.

Innately within Job there is a desire for justice because he knows he hasn’t sinned to bring on this suffering.

Since we are creatures made in God’s image, we are outraged by injustice.

Job recognizes that God is the ultimate cause behind all things.

Which is good and right.

He’s not blaming God for the evil.

But he also knows that since God is good and right, then it will be like standing before the sun.

The Futility of Litigation

Job 9:3–4 ESV

If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

Job is saying that he would have no hope of contending with God, even if he were in the right.

Who can bring any charge?

Even if he was correct, how could he contend?

Job gives several reasons for the pointlessness of bringing charges against God.

The Reasons for Futility

Job now gives two different kinds of reasons for why it would be utter vanity to bring his case before the Lord.

God’s Creative Ability

Job 9:5–10 NLT

“Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble. If he commands it, the sun won’t rise and the stars won’t shine. He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea. He made all the stars—the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the southern sky. He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.

Job is saying,

“How can I contend with the one who formed the heavens?”

“How can I contend with the one who formed the earth?”

God’s Elusive Presence

Job 9:11–13 NLT

“Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves by, I do not see him go. If he snatches someone in death, who can stop him? Who dares to ask, ‘What are you doing?’ And God does not restrain his anger. Even the monsters of the sea are crushed beneath his feet.

Job cannot discern what God is doing.

This is the same question that Paul later picks up in Romans 9 when he asks…

Romans 9:19–21 ESV

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church The Incomprehensibility of God

No one has yet breathed the whole air, nor has any mind entirely comprehended, or speech exhaustively contained, the being of God.

The Hopelessness of Litigation

Job 9:14–16 NKJV

“How then can I answer Him, And choose my words to reason with Him? For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge. If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.

Job is begging for someone to show up and answer him.

But he knows that even if God were to show up and answer him, it would be too much for him

And just like Moses being told in Exodus.

Exodus 33:18–23 ESV

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

It’s at this moment that we realize that God is utterly unlike us.

He is utterly different than we are.

Men are never appropriately touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.

Job in this moment knows he needs something more than God’s justice.

The Impossible Pursuit

Job knows this is an impossible pursuit.

And yet it does not stop him from beginning to ask these questions...

Think about how often, when something terrible happens, we ask ‘why?’

An often occurrence of a family member or friend begins to take a terrible path.

We ask…

How did we get here?

What did I do wrong?

What should I have done?

Why is this happening to us?

“You pound on ‘why’ because you think the answer reveals the mysterious virus causing the problems.

You think, ‘if I had obeyed God this wouldn’t be happening.’

You ask relentless questions....and look for what you may have missed. It ends with you collapsed into a heap, exhausted, and defeated by the question!”

The Journal of Biblical Counseling: Volume 33, Numbers 1–3, 2019 (Christ’s Suffering Brings Meaning to the Weariness of Why)

Sometimes it’s clear, but often it’s not.

And just like Job, we want answers.

Why are you indifferent?

Job 9:21–24 ESV

I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life. It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?

Suffering is often the situation that presses our hearts to question our perceptions of who God is.

And Job is simply asking,

“If you’re not in charge, then who is?”

Why can’t I have an arbiter?

Job 9:32–35 ESV

For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.

Job knew what I think everyone begins to know who encounters suffering.

We are desperately frail and weak.

We are desperately in need of help.

Because of sin in humanity, we cannot approach God with confidence.

Job is wrestling with this tension.

If God is Sovereign, which He is.

If God is Just, which He is.

And Job knows he didn’t do anything wrong, then there must be a way for him to be made right.

Job’s concludes then that there must be someone to stand before God who will speak on Job’s behalf.

Job knows that God’s courtroom is in heaven, and he can’t go there.

Then God must either bring His courtroom down, or have a mediator in heaven for him.

He has been asking for a mediator.

He is asking and longing for GRACE.

Job’s Lament Before God

Why are You against me? (10:1-3)

Job 10:1–2 ESV

“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.

Job cannot figure out why God seems to be against him.

Why do You watch me? (10:4-7)

Job 10:4–7 NLT

Are your eyes like those of a human? Do you see things only as people see them? Is your lifetime only as long as ours? Is your life so short that you must quickly probe for my guilt and search for my sin? Although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your hands.

Why did You create me? (10:8-17)

Job 10:8–9 ESV

Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?

Why don’t You kill me? (10:18-22)

Job 10:18–19 ESV

“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.

Job is saying some things that bother us here.

But what we need to recognize again is that Job is not done speaking.

All of his speaking is vertical.

All of his speaking is upward toward God.

Job may be wrong in his perceptions of God.

But he is deeply correct in the direction he is facing.

We Need a Mediator!

“One to Touch God and Man”

Over and over again in these three chapters, Bildad and Job ask questions that beg a response.

The problem is, the book of Job does not give a response.

The book of Job is silent.

And we are Christians, who live on this side of the cross.

The answers that Job and Bildad could not have comprehended, we behold.

Job asks for a mediator...

Job 9:2 ESV

“Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?

Job 9:33 ESV

There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

We are Christians who know this mediator that Job longs for is.

We know who He is, and in the face of suffering we cling to Him!

1 Timothy 2:5–6 ESV

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Only someone both fully divine and truly human can effectively mediate between God and men, and Jesus is exactly that.

C. J. Mahaney

The God-man, Jesus Christ, is the ONE who touches both God and man.

He is the ONE who is able to mediate between us.

The ONE who Bildad did not have a concept of, has come.

The ONE that Job longed for, is HERE.

Christ’s Suffering Brings Meaning to Ours

The more we know, the more our sense of wonder ought to increase, because increased knowledge brings us into greater contact with the incomprehensibility of God.

John Frame

Since God is Incomprehensible, we cannot know Him exhaustively, but we can trust that God is truly knowable in His Son.