I'm Not God

"Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?"

--Job 40:8

I mentioned in the blog today a news story about a Nebraska state senator who has filed a lawsuit against God. It's a publicity stunt, sure, but I couldn't help but think of the book of Job. It contains one of the most bone-chilling moments in all of the Bible. After Job and his four "friends" spend most of the book making long speeches about the issues of human sin and suffering and God's justice, God Himself shows up to answer them.

I imagine similar conversations about God being held all over the world. College students talking in dorm rooms late into the night. Flippant political conversations full of snide comments about faith. The earnest complaints of heart-broken wives and mothers and husbands and sons who have lost their loved ones to tragedy. "How could God . . .?" "Where was God when . . .?" "Why didn't He . . .?"

Maybe someone has hit you in the face with one of those ancient questions: "If God is really loving and good and powerful, how could He possibly have allowed THIS to happen?" You can fill in the THIS with natural disasters, terrorist attacks, terminal childhood diseases, sexual abuse, or even your parents' divorce. The list of THISes includes all the horror we try not to think about most of the time. "How could God . . .?"

I have heard meaningful and satisfying answers to these questions from great Bible teachers. They include the idea that humans make choices to rebel against God -- and the natural consequence is human pain and suffering for all. They mention that God proved His love and power and goodness by sending Jesus to suffer and die for us to ultimately free us from the consequence of sin. They also point out that suffering is built into these short lives we're given. Everyone suffers here. Even the person who lives 80 healthy years and dies quietly in his sleep experiences far more pain and far less life than we're meant for. The real living starts in the next life. What matters in this one is that we learn to trust God through Jesus.

I agree with all those big ideas. But it's interesting to me that God doesn't offer them when He shows up to answer Job and His friends. Instead, He seems to make just one big point: "I am God. You are not."

He does it by asking a series of seemingly sarcastic questions intended to overwhelm Job's small group with how incredibly immense God is -- and how incredibly small we are. By the time He gets to chapter 40, Job has already admitted he has no answers. But God keeps making the point:

Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

Do you have an arm like God's,
and can your voice thunder like his?

Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look at every proud man and bring him low,

look at every proud man and humble him,
crush the wicked where they stand.

Bury them all in the dust together;
shroud their faces in the grave.

Then I myself will admit to you
that your own right hand can save you.

God says, "Show me that you have all the wisdom and power of God, and I'll acknowledge you're ability to save your own life." His endlessly demanding (and beautifully poetic) questions overwhelm us with the realization that we don't. know. anything. We can't. do. anything. He is GOD. We exist because of Him. We continue because of Him. And we will answer to Him for our actions. He owes us exactly nothing. And he gives us exactly everything.

Why does God allow . . .? Why doesn't He . . .? I don't know. I can't know. He is God, and He can do as He sees best. I will trust His love, His power, and His plan to my last painful breath and wait to know even as I am known. What will you do?