The Wisdom of Loss part III: Trusting in God's Sovreignty
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Last week we talked about how God’s justice is an idea that isn’t necessarily black and white. It is complex. Does that mean that God is morally ambiguous? No we talked about how God is good and faithful. He is just but He is also patient and merciful.
Today we are going to ask the question of ourselves, “Is our view of God big enough?”
Job IV. Life Application: Creator and Creation
By virtue of his position as Creator, God is Lord over all his creation. He has the divine right to do with it whatever he pleases. The Lord is the Potter; we are the clay. He is the Shepherd; we are the sheep. He is the Master; we are the slaves. He is the Father; we are his children. Never must the believer lose sight of the position of God, as he reigns and rules in the heavens doing whatever he pleases.
Do you have a proper heavenly perspective? Do you submit to God as Creator and understand that you are a part of his creation? Only when you understand God’s lofty position will you understand your humble position before him. Then you will relate to your Creator in the right way as you see him as he truly is.
Job had lost everything and his friends did nothing to soothe that pain. While his friends were accusing Job of sinfulness, Job was appealing to plead his case before the Lord. Here in Job chapter 38 he gets his request.
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Notice where God responds to Job from. While our God calls us friend and is a God who is near it is also important to remember just how different He is from us. There are attributes about God that set Him apart from us. These are His incommunicable attributes or the attributes that we do not share.
God’s incommunicable attributes
God is independent: God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy. His nature is not defined by creation’s view of Him. His nature is defined by what and who He is in being.
God is unchangeable: God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
God is eternal: God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time. God is in the beginning and in the end simultaneously. He exists outside of time but chooses to act in time in the lives of His creation.
God is omnipresent: God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places. He isn’t an old man with a big long beard He is. He is the I Am.
God is unified: God is not divided into parts, yet we see different attributes of God emphasized at different times. He is simultaneously justice and mercy, wrath and love, wisdom and light. His attributes do not play second string to each other. At all times He is perfectly fulfilling every one of His attributes never wavering for even a second.
God is Triune: He is three in persons yet one in being. Each member of the Trinity has its own role yet they are one in nature.
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, 9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
Have you ever looked around at the nature around you and wondered how it got there? The actions required to create the earth are far beyond understanding, to the point that the only option scientists have come up with for the earth’s origin other than God is chance and happenstance. The world around us points solely to a designer. God is meticulous in His creating. Every square inch of the earth was accounted for. Every star and every planet has its place and its orbit. God has carefully laid the foundation of the earth. He has dug the ocean depths and holds it in its place. He created clouds and the water cycle. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation the Lord has designed it all. There is nothing in Creation that He is not in control of.
God is king over Job
God is king over the Earth
God is king over the Sea
4 He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. 5 Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? 14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. 15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.
Have you ever looked at a sun rise? New Mexico has, I think, the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. You can look out and see miles of horizon. Its all these pinks and oranges and purples. In St. Louis you look out at a sunrise and there’s a jogger getting mugged and a Jack in the Box. But more than the beauty of a sunrise have you ever thought about how the sun always rises in the East and always sets in the West? There is not a single second in which the sun is outside of God’s control. He puts it in its place He holds all things together. There is even a story in the book of Exodus where the Lord holds the sun in its place so that Israel can win in battle.
God is king over the Sun
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
Did you know that even today we as a human race has never been to the bottom of the ocean? Yet God knows every nook and cranny.
God is king over the Deep
19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, 20 that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? 21 You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
Every ray of light and every shadow cast is done by God’s design.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
God is king over Light and Darkness
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, 23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? 24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? 25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, 26 to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, 27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass? 28 “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? 29 From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? 30 The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Every rain drop and every unique snowflake falls exactly where God tells it to. He causes rain to fall in the desert for grass to grow. He causes the dew and frost. He causes hail and ice.
God is king over the Weather
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? 33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
Every constellation and planet is put in its place. There are stars and planets that we as humans will never discover. No telescope can cover the expanse of the cosmos and yet God has placed every star and planet in its place for His own glory.
God is king over the Cosmos
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? 35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? 36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? 37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, 38 when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?
God is king over Clouds
39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket?
God is king over Lions
41 Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?
God is king over Ravens
1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, 3 when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young? 4 Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open; they go out and do not return to them.
God is king over Goats and Does
God is king over Reproduction
5 “Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, 6 to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? 7 He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver. 8 He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. 9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? 10 Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? 11 Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor? 12 Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
God is king over Domesticated Animals
13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? 14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, 15 forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. 16 She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, 17 because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. 18 When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.
God is king over Wisdom and Understanding
God is king over Ostriches
19 “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20 Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying. 21 He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons. 22 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword. 23 Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin. 24 With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. 25 When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
God is king over Horses
26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold. 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away. 30 His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.”
God is king over Birds of Prey
1 And the Lord said to Job: 2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” 3 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
God is king over All Creation
How do we respond to the sovereignty of God?
Humility. In chapter 40 and 41 God continues to prove to Job how powerful He is. In all these things Job is getting a front row seat to all that it means to be Yahweh, The Almighty God, who created all things and holds all things by the word of His power. He sees first hand just how small he is. Job is brought out of his grief to find new perspective about the nature of God. He sees the Lord’s justice first hand. God who cares for even the most insignificant creatures, God who is Holy and perfect, God who deals patiently and lovingly with sinful and rebellious humans. All of creation calls Him king except man. We have turned from God and tried to make ourselves king of the universe but that is not an office we can fill. Only God can be king of creation. The creation cannot be greater than the one that created it. So Job responds with humility.
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘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. 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
When dealing with loss and grief it is important to remember what God is and who God is. He is the lofty king ruling over all creation, holy, set apart, all powerful, all knowing but He is also a good, good Father, He is gracious, He is patient and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. He created all things but also became like His creation. He submitted Himself to the Law and was obedient even to death on the cross. He was born in a manger, He grew up in poverty, He was beaten, mocked, acquainted with grief. There was no pain Job felt that Jesus did not also suffer tenfold. On top of all that It is easy to forget that God sympathizes with us. He is not cold and unfeeling towards us. He hurts with us. He cares for us.
Job’s story did not end there. God stepped in and made right what had been broken by Satan and Job’s friends.
7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. 10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
“I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that he gives us the gift of suffering. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.” -C.S. Lewis