Job 38
God speaks to Job out of the storm you need to read this with the right ambience, I'm sure some special effects guys along with a philharmonic orchestra , John williams to write the score and a suite of CGI computers would still take some time getting this down!
"Who is this that darkens my plans with words without knowledge?"
Rather than laying the blame for Job's woes at the feet of the accuser (Satan), God tests Job on his scientific knowledge and his ability to command nature.
God's questions really touch at the development of science - some of the language is not scientific but the questions can be termed that way.
Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation? Who marked off its dimensions?
Who laid the cornerstone of the earth while the morning stars sing together and the angels shouted for joy?
Who shut up the sea and made boundaries for the oceans?
Have you ever given orders to the morning? or shown dawn where East lies?
Have you walked the recesses of the deep or seen the hidden sea springs?
Have you seen the gates of death?
How do you find light? How do you find darkness?
What about the storehouse of snow or hail? Where does lightening originate?
Who prepares a path for a thunderstorm to pass over a land where there is nobody to see it?
How does water become ice?
Can you change the constellations of the heavens?
Do you know the laws that govern the universe?
Job 39
What about nature close by -
Do you provide food for the hunting lion?
Where do mountain goats give birth? (mountains? just a guess!)
Do you watch the doe give birth and how long is the pregnancy?
Who let the wild donkey go free?
Can you domesticate a wild oxen?
Consider the ostrich - wings flap joyfully but they are no comparison to the wings of an stork.
the ostrich lays eggs on the ground and has no maternal instinct - they are not endowed with great wisdom, but oh boy when they run the horse cannot keep up!
Did you give the horse its attributes? and the ability to be trained for war?
Consider the Eagle - flying around, nesting in high places and where slain are, so is the Eagle.
Job 40 & 41
Job realises that he is out of his depth here and says that he spoke out of ignoramce and will say no more.
God continues challenging Job to clothe himself with power and bring down the proud with his own hand - if Job can do this God will admit that he was wrong.
God then talks about 2 animals that seem to be mythical the Behemoth and the Leviathan in the next chapter - in some ways they resemble the Hippopotamus and crocodile but not all the attributes fit, perhaps they are from local myths? I honestly don't know, it seems on occasion the Bible does draw on local myths, though they do not carry a message or teach about God in the Bible.
both of these animals are more than a challenge for man to tame and defeat - more deaths are caused by Hippos in Africa than lions and crocodiles and alligators regularly attack people who are not extremely careful
Job 42
"Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, too wonderful for me to know .
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you I is ashamed and repent of my words " says Job.
After God spoke he addressed Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar that he was not impressed that they had not spoken the truth about God as Job had and he told them to get Job to offer an offering and pray for them.
After Job had prayed for his friends, God then restored his position and belongings - God gave Job a new family with sons and daughters - apparently very beautiful daughters.
Job lived 140 years after this and saw his great .grandchildren
For me the book of Job does not really give a satisfactory answer for the question of suffering - so what do I take from this book?
Bad things can happen for no reason and this does not mean that the sufferer has done wrong.
There is always a larger viewpoint - we do not see the whole picture
Science does not have all the answers but it does have some tough questions!
In Douglas Adams Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy books the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42 (discovered by a super computer programmed with all knowledge after 7.5 million years)
To discover what the question actually is to which the answer is 42 another computer is built but destroyed seconds before readout of the answer.
the reason is that if you have both the answer and the question the universe will disappear and be replaced by something more inexplicable
A school of thought states that this has already happened!
Perhaps the question of suffering and evil has a nice simple answer - perhaps it is 42 - all we have to do is understand what the question actually IS?
Do share if you have a nice, simple, understandable answer to the question of suffering and evil.
God speaks to Job out of the storm you need to read this with the right ambience, I'm sure some special effects guys along with a philharmonic orchestra , John williams to write the score and a suite of CGI computers would still take some time getting this down!
"Who is this that darkens my plans with words without knowledge?"
Rather than laying the blame for Job's woes at the feet of the accuser (Satan), God tests Job on his scientific knowledge and his ability to command nature.
God's questions really touch at the development of science - some of the language is not scientific but the questions can be termed that way.
Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation? Who marked off its dimensions?
Who laid the cornerstone of the earth while the morning stars sing together and the angels shouted for joy?
Who shut up the sea and made boundaries for the oceans?
Have you ever given orders to the morning? or shown dawn where East lies?
Have you walked the recesses of the deep or seen the hidden sea springs?
Have you seen the gates of death?
How do you find light? How do you find darkness?
What about the storehouse of snow or hail? Where does lightening originate?
Who prepares a path for a thunderstorm to pass over a land where there is nobody to see it?
How does water become ice?
Can you change the constellations of the heavens?
Do you know the laws that govern the universe?
Job 39
What about nature close by -
Do you provide food for the hunting lion?
Where do mountain goats give birth? (mountains? just a guess!)
Do you watch the doe give birth and how long is the pregnancy?
Who let the wild donkey go free?
Can you domesticate a wild oxen?
Consider the ostrich - wings flap joyfully but they are no comparison to the wings of an stork.
the ostrich lays eggs on the ground and has no maternal instinct - they are not endowed with great wisdom, but oh boy when they run the horse cannot keep up!
Did you give the horse its attributes? and the ability to be trained for war?
Consider the Eagle - flying around, nesting in high places and where slain are, so is the Eagle.
Job 40 & 41
Job realises that he is out of his depth here and says that he spoke out of ignoramce and will say no more.
God continues challenging Job to clothe himself with power and bring down the proud with his own hand - if Job can do this God will admit that he was wrong.
God then talks about 2 animals that seem to be mythical the Behemoth and the Leviathan in the next chapter - in some ways they resemble the Hippopotamus and crocodile but not all the attributes fit, perhaps they are from local myths? I honestly don't know, it seems on occasion the Bible does draw on local myths, though they do not carry a message or teach about God in the Bible.
both of these animals are more than a challenge for man to tame and defeat - more deaths are caused by Hippos in Africa than lions and crocodiles and alligators regularly attack people who are not extremely careful
Job 42
"Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, too wonderful for me to know .
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you I is ashamed and repent of my words " says Job.
After God spoke he addressed Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar that he was not impressed that they had not spoken the truth about God as Job had and he told them to get Job to offer an offering and pray for them.
After Job had prayed for his friends, God then restored his position and belongings - God gave Job a new family with sons and daughters - apparently very beautiful daughters.
Job lived 140 years after this and saw his great .grandchildren
For me the book of Job does not really give a satisfactory answer for the question of suffering - so what do I take from this book?
Bad things can happen for no reason and this does not mean that the sufferer has done wrong.
There is always a larger viewpoint - we do not see the whole picture
Science does not have all the answers but it does have some tough questions!
In Douglas Adams Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy books the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42 (discovered by a super computer programmed with all knowledge after 7.5 million years)
To discover what the question actually is to which the answer is 42 another computer is built but destroyed seconds before readout of the answer.
the reason is that if you have both the answer and the question the universe will disappear and be replaced by something more inexplicable
A school of thought states that this has already happened!
Perhaps the question of suffering and evil has a nice simple answer - perhaps it is 42 - all we have to do is understand what the question actually IS?
Do share if you have a nice, simple, understandable answer to the question of suffering and evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment