When You Have It Figured Out
Read Job 38:1-21.
The best way to learn something is to do it. There aren't many places where an apprentice model still is prevalent, but in such a model (widely practiced in an earlier age), an older mentor showed a new worker how to do a particular job, step by step. You learned, not from books, but from practical experience. Our preferred model today is learning from books and instructors, graduating from college thinking we know everything we need to know. We can argue as to which way is better, but in either model, the best way to learn something is to do it. (I learned more about BEING a pastor from my first two years as an associate pastor than I ever learned in four years in seminary.)
And if it's a particularly big job, we might learn the process in pieces. Someone, perhaps, shows us how to do one thing and then they might say something like, "When you have that part figured out, come back and see me and I'll show you the next part."
That's sort of the feeling I get as I read this chapter of Job—this whole section of Job, actually. For the last many chapters, Job has been arguing with his friends about big theological issues while, at the same time, demanding that God show up and explain himself. Why have all these bad things happened to him? What is God up to? So in chapter 38, God does show up. He gives in to Job's demands...sort of. He doesn't explain himself to Job, and he doesn't answer Job's questions. What he does instead is take him on a tour of creation, asking questions along the way.
Can you do this? Did you do that? Have you made this and that and the other thing? Tell you what, Job...if you can't do the simplest thing like fixing limits for the sea (38:8-11), then you have no business questioning me. When you have that part figured out, come back and see me and we'll talk.
It's a humbling response for Job, and it's meant to be. Job has overstepped his bounds—not in questioning God, but in demanding God explain himself. Questioning God is, it seems, part of human nature. And God can take the questions. What God will not put up with is when we demand his place. We think we know so much. We believe we could run the universe better than God seems to be doing. And God says, "Okay, sure, when you get the 'making a blade of grass' part figured out, let me know and I'll show you the next thing."
God is not trying to put Job down, but he is reminding Job of his place. It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw a few years ago: "There are two things I am certain of: (1) There is a God. (2) You're not him." I would only add to that, "And neither am I."
The best way to learn something is to do it. There aren't many places where an apprentice model still is prevalent, but in such a model (widely practiced in an earlier age), an older mentor showed a new worker how to do a particular job, step by step. You learned, not from books, but from practical experience. Our preferred model today is learning from books and instructors, graduating from college thinking we know everything we need to know. We can argue as to which way is better, but in either model, the best way to learn something is to do it. (I learned more about BEING a pastor from my first two years as an associate pastor than I ever learned in four years in seminary.)
And if it's a particularly big job, we might learn the process in pieces. Someone, perhaps, shows us how to do one thing and then they might say something like, "When you have that part figured out, come back and see me and I'll show you the next part."
That's sort of the feeling I get as I read this chapter of Job—this whole section of Job, actually. For the last many chapters, Job has been arguing with his friends about big theological issues while, at the same time, demanding that God show up and explain himself. Why have all these bad things happened to him? What is God up to? So in chapter 38, God does show up. He gives in to Job's demands...sort of. He doesn't explain himself to Job, and he doesn't answer Job's questions. What he does instead is take him on a tour of creation, asking questions along the way.
Can you do this? Did you do that? Have you made this and that and the other thing? Tell you what, Job...if you can't do the simplest thing like fixing limits for the sea (38:8-11), then you have no business questioning me. When you have that part figured out, come back and see me and we'll talk.
It's a humbling response for Job, and it's meant to be. Job has overstepped his bounds—not in questioning God, but in demanding God explain himself. Questioning God is, it seems, part of human nature. And God can take the questions. What God will not put up with is when we demand his place. We think we know so much. We believe we could run the universe better than God seems to be doing. And God says, "Okay, sure, when you get the 'making a blade of grass' part figured out, let me know and I'll show you the next thing."
God is not trying to put Job down, but he is reminding Job of his place. It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw a few years ago: "There are two things I am certain of: (1) There is a God. (2) You're not him." I would only add to that, "And neither am I."
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