Messengers of the Knowledge of God

Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

This is the only “direct speech” in the Book of Job outside of “Job’s brief internal self-address” in Job 1:5 and his response to the first set of sufferings in Job 1:21 where Job actually speaks in a tone of agreement with God.

Suffering brings to the surface both the blasphemy and the slander of Man

Yet God has a purpose in suffering: to be glorified in reaching the greatest number of people, at the deepest level of love without violating the measure of free will He has allotted to Man.

Before Job can say, “I’ve heard of you, but now I see you,” he has to face Mount Impassible: the Knowledge of God!

Before he can utter those words, he has to face the words of Elihu in

Job 36:26-33 “Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.”

God is great, and we don’t know Him.

Here we see the gospel shine forth in the Book of Job. We could never know God had He not made Himself known to us!

The Issue of the Knowledge of God is a great crisis facing the pulpits of the church in this hour.

Tozer the problem of the knowledge of God

“All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared to the overwhelming problem of God:

Tozer the living creatures

If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth how meaningless to him would be the the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men. How strange to him would sound the flat, stale, and profitless words heard in the average pulpit from week to week. And were such a one to speak on earth would he not speak of God? Would he not charm and fascinate his hearers with rapturous descriptions of the Godhead? After hearing him could we ever again consent to to listen to anything less than theology, the doctrine of God? Would we not thereafter demand of those who would presume to teach us that they speak to us from the mount of divine vision or remain silent altogether? A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Messengers of the knowledge of God

Ezekiel: “eat the scroll”

“You know that verse, but does that verse know you?”

Eph 3:8 “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,”

God is mysterious, but the way to God is not mysterious

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Prov 2:1-5 “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”