thoughts from the Book of Job, chapter 31...Job has "seen through" to God.

-God does not directly answer any of the issues in the debate.
-He has no need to defend Himself.
-He does, however, obliquely address Job's initial question why from the perspective of his power at work in the natural universe.
-Does Job have the power to create and to understand heaven and earth, stars and sea, morning and night, light and darkness, snow and hail flood and lightning, rain, dew, frost, and clouds?
-To think that these are the "mere edges" of God's power!
-Job is overwhelmed. Without waiting for an answer, God adds the mystery of His living creation- the lion's cub, the mountain goat, the wild ass, the buffalo, the ostrich, the horse, me hawk, and me falcon.
-They arc God's glory and in His care. Confessing that he is impotent and ignorant before the mystery of creation, Job repents witl1 the realization that he cannot judge God or understand the moral order of the universe.
-At last! The Lord comes.
-All of us who have felt the tedium and the ten Sion, the anguish and the anger, the doggedness and despair of the Jobian drama-we are more than ready for God to speak.
-The setting is significant. Elihu has concluded his speeches in one of those treasured moments after a storm when the splendor of a golden calm bathes the soul in glowing hope.
-Then, like an intruder in the tranquility, an isolated whirlwind spirals into view, sending tumbleweeds end over end in its wake. Whirlwinds in the desert are not out of place.
-On the barren stretch of sand between Needles, California, and Hoover Dam, Nevada, the air burns with temperatures above one hundred and twenty degrees in the summertime.
-But against the visible waves of thermal heat, you can see the dust-filled cones of whirlwinds dipping and dancing over the desert floor.
-At one and the same time, they are partners with the desert, yet independent of it. God comes to us the same way-in sequence with our surroundings, but also with surprise.
-A burning bush, a ladder of angels, a still, small voice, a wheel in a wheel , a lo lofty throne, a solar eclipse, a sheet filled with animals, a trumpet sound- all announce the coming of the Lord.
-God sees Job's words as a similar tactic.
-Bombarded by suffering beyond his comprehension or control, Job sends a screen of verbal scattershot to defend his ignorance and his impotence.
-Because his faith is too small to cover the contingency of the innocent suffering, Job projects the blame on God and, in so doing, creates a shadow of darkness over the mind of God through which he cannot see.
-Words are a common defense for our insecurity.
- In an interview with a prospective field representative for a Christian organization, I asked one simple question that triggered a veritable fifteen-minute barrage of words.
-Only by interrupting could I ask a second question. Another fifteen -minute fusillade followed.
-The lesson is that God is in control of what he creates. Job cannot understand why God controls His creation as he does any more than Job can comprehend creation itself. To believe in God is to live with mystery.
-Yet, God assures Job that the seasons do not come and go by whimsy. The movements of the celestial constellations-Pleiades, Orion, the Great Bear (vv. 31- 33)-are bound, freed, started, and guided at His command to control the seasons of the earth.

- In between the heavens and the earth, there are the clouds that contain tile water, rain, and electricity tor lightning-falling and flashing upon his command
- Is there any connection in the fact that God is speaking out of a whirlwind, the very force of nature that took the lives of his children?
- If so, God is not saying that He caused their deaths, but He is saying that the lightning was not out of His control.
-God is paying Job the greatest compliment that a teacher can give a student.
Instead of giving him answers, God only asks questions.
Instead of asking conclusions, God presents only the facts.
Induction, not deduction, is God's method of teaching.
He might have pronounced His conclusion to Job , and then presented the supporting facts as a deductive teacher.
- If He had done so, Job's fear of being "swallowed up" would have been realized.
-But God shows how much He cares for His creation by refusing to violate Job's freedom or insult his intelligence. He gives him assorted facts upon him to make the connections, see the meaning, and apply his understanding to the next higher and more complex level of learning.
- Underneath the process, however, God is at work on faith development.
- Facts and faith go hand in hand.
-When we have the facts, we need no faith. But when the facts add to the mystery of the unknown, even greater faith is required.
- A conundrum begins to clear. "Why," we ask, "does God speak to Job without answering any of his questions?"
The answer is that Job is casting a dark shadow between his mind and God's mind with the why of ethical questions about his suffering, which the human mind cannot comprehend or understand.
-We lack the perspective of God's view in creating tile universe, controlling its forces, and caring about its creatures.
Job needs to learn that the issue is not ethical, the question is not why, and the need is not of understanding. The issue is spiritual, the question is who, and the need is trust.
- God is not yet finished. Passing by Job's repentance, God unveils the mystery of His grace.
-Two exceptions to the beauty and harmony of the created order are noted. One is the margin of evil that appears to be out of God's control-an apparent exception to his omnipotence.
-The other is the ridiculous animals-the behemoth or hippopotamus and the leviathan or crocodile-who appear to be out of harmony with the rest of creation.
-For these exceptions, God's grace is sufficient. For the first time, Job sees his suffering from the perspective of God's view.
-In a leap of faith, he shouts, "I see"-the beauty of God's power, the harmony of His creation, the justice of His ways, and the sufficiency of His grace.
-Job is more than reconciled to God-he is redeemed.
-As an intimation of that time, God is showing Job his grace in a situation where justice rules and when he owes the wicked nothing but punishment.
-Yet, he does not destroy them as Job might wish because of his genuine love for his creation.
-Whenever human beings have the power to play God and use that power to punish the wicked, evil triumphs.
-The Spanish Inquisition and the Holy Wars are horror stories in human history. Prompted by the motive to punish evil in the name of Christ, they concocted greater evil than the sins they sought to punish. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when the Roman guard came to arrest him, Jesus rebuked Peter for brandishing the sword and cutting off the Roman servant's ear, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matt. 26:52).
-Job is quick to understand the point. If he exercised swift and certain justice upon the wicked, he too would die because he has acknowledged that he is not without sinful nature. What appears to be God's injustice, then, is in reality the patience of redeeming grace.
-He can sing his hope with new meaning:
I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God. (19:25-26)
-Job can now bear his suffering through his seeing, He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. (23:10)
-Knowing the answer to the question wich Job no longer needs to ask the question why.
-Why then does Job conclude his response to God by bowing and repenting once again? The answer is that one who "sees through" to the great grace of God bows humbly and repents sincerely.
-By bowing, grace lifts him; by repenting, grace liberates him.
-So, like the phoenix bird rising out of the dust and ashes with the colors of the sun, God will lift Job to his feet and set him free-reconciled, restored, and ready to serve others with new-found grace.
-Job has "seen through" to God.