God the Archaeologist
This comes from my S.O.A.P. journal today:
Scripture
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:
Job 40:6 (NIV)
Observation
Job’s is done with his ugly rant. Job’s friends are also done with their less-than-helpful comments. Now the Lord speaks “out of the storm.” Claiming his sovereignty might sound like an angry parent’s retort, “Because I said so” correction of a wayward child, but I question that divine motivation. This morning, a quick Google search on Job 40:6 led me to this commentary on the text. In the “Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament,” I read these profound words: “This second time also Jehovah speaks to Job out of the storm; not, however, in wrath, but in the profound condescension of His majesty, in order to deliver His servant from dark imaginings, and to bring him to free and joyous knowledge. He does not demand blind subjection, but free submission; He does not extort an acknowledgement of His greatness, but it is effected by persuasion. It becomes manifest that God is much more forbearing and compassionate than men. Observe the friends, the defenders of the divine honor, these sticklers for their own orthodoxy, how they rave against Job! How much better is it to fall into the hands of the living God, than into the hands of man! For God is truth and love; but men have at one time love without truth, at another truth without love, since they either connive at one or anathematize him. When a man who, moreover, like Job, is a servant of God, fails in one point, or sins, men at once condemn him altogether, and admit nothing good in him; God, however, discerns between good and evil, and makes the good a means of freeing the man from the evil. He also does not go rashly to work, but waits, like an instructor, until the time of action arrives. How long He listens to Job's bold challenging, and keeps silence! And then, when He does begin to speak, He does not cast Job to the ground by His authoritative utterances, but deals with him as a child…” Yes! This is it: “profound condescension of His majesty; God is much more forbearing and compassionate than men; For God is truth and love; like an instructor, until the time of action arrives.” And my favorite line in this commentary: “How long He listens to Job's bold challenging, and keeps silence!” The God who is long silent carefully, and full of grace and truth (John 1:14) speaks to a wounded and weary Job. Whatever God speaking “out of the storm” means, it is not motivated by God out of a desire for Job’s blind allegiance, but rather a wooing and restoring grace for this broken child of God.
Application
A.W. Tozer famously wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” For the four plus decades that I have read the Book of Job, I have drifted towards thinking these words from Yahweh to Job at the end of the book are God’s “I’m going to put you in your place Mr. Job!” Heck, I have taught this! Yet, this violates everything that the Story of God that is the Bible says about the character and nature of God. Yes, God is holy and I am not, but he is also loving. As a parent of adult sons, I do not always like what my boys say and do, but when I push into it (on my best days), I do so cautiously and after much thought and prayer with a heart of tenderness and love. I have taught for decades that to “take God’s name in vain,” is to ascribe to God things not worthy of his character. God does get angry at me when I settle for less than what he wants for me, but his correction is always for my restoration. Just this morning as I listened to John Ortberg’s lesson of our “shadow mission,” I felt the sweet correcting presence of the Holy Spirit bringing to mind an unhealed memory from my childhood that is a root cause for my shadow mission. It was an invitational wooing of love and not a finger-waving discipline. Like an archeologist, God with his trowel, brush and pick, yearns to sweep away debris in my soul with a deep desire to reveal the buried treasure locked within me.
Prayer
Thank you God for your kindness but it indeed leads me to repentance. Keep doing your archeological dig in my life. Unearth those things that keep me from flourishing in you. Sweep away the rubble of generational and personal sin that rob me of my God-given privilege to live as your son. Amen.
If you want to watch John Ortberg’s fantastic teaching, “How to Identify and Conquer Your Shadow Mission,” watch below: