Prayer 8: God is not a man that He should lie or repent

One of the most enduring lessons of my recent study on Job, in my sub-site is that Job did a lot of things right, yet stumbled on a vital, life-defining principle.

He met the first two trials, which related to his material wellbeing versus the value of principle and truth, as in “not by bread alone”, and his position relative to God above, as in the way that the Yarmulke reminds every Jew that God is above them.

In seeing out the first two challenges, the persistent wearing down of his enemy exploited a subtle flaw in his thinking.

He so defiantly defended his position in his closing arguments, that his detractors bowed out, only to be replaced by the astute council of the younger Elihu, whose credentials lay in his spirit not his life experience, intellect, religious background or human qualifications.

The bottom line of Elihu’s argument was that in compensating for the first two trials, Job had over-corrected and stumbled at the final trial, by questioning the integrity of God.

God is not a man. He doesn’t think like us.

The right understanding of that is not to see God as some mean, spiteful monolith who cannot take criticism or who slaps us down if we get too precocious.

I once got familiar with a superior officer in the army, so he cautioned me never to get chummy again, especially in front of his peers. That is not what happened to Job.

Job was corrected for his own good, not because God is an insular, over-sensitive dragon in his lofty mountain retreat. That view of God is as wrong as Job’s own misperception. Indeed, views like “I am not worthy” or “if it is your will Lord” are as fallacious.

God actually hates such fawning and James dismisses it as double mindedness. The Lord is far happier with a persistent soul that pushes through and breaks into His presence. That was a consistent theme for us in church yesterday.

He made a way

Hebrews 8 to 10, also speaks of all the legal provisions made to give us access to His presence, as in a torn veil, a new covenant that purges us from a conscience-based faith to a grace-based faith, a seat of mercy stained with blood to give us a secure place of petition, and an advocate who carries the wounds that resist divine anger and guarantee our right to be there.

So never doubt that God made adequate provision for your access to Him and as such He is as offended as someone who has, say, offered you financial help that you don’t take up. He expects you to fully avail yourself of all that He has done. He hates it when you don’t.

Hebrews 10:38 makes it clear that if you come thus far and pull back and withdraw, you will anger Him far more than the unguided missile that puts his foot in it.

God cannot steer an immobile, over-sentimental believer whose faith won’t grab hold of His promises, any better than you and I can steer a stationery vehicle.

Stand on solid ground and win. Never street fight on the Devil’s turf.

Job stumbled on a fundamental proviso of our faith. It was ratified through every painstaking step taken to give our faith a watertight assurance. No stone was left unturned.

Suffice to say that the cry of Jesus, “my God, why have you forsaken me”, showed that God was so resolute about ensuring the integrity of the cross, His essential contribution to its efficacy, that He refused to accept it because it was His son down there.

For Job to so defend his own position that his words implied a less than just God and an act of subjective and unjust whim on the part of God, was a complete affront to a cornerstone proviso of everything God is and has ever been.

At some stage the common view of the world was geocentric, meaning that men, notably the church, insisted that the earth was the center of the universe and that the sun went around us. That error failed multiple tests when they tried to align it to general observations.

It would not fit the facts until they accepted a heliocentric world that orbits the sun. Then a cascade of ideas flowed that all added up.

No use doing what you have always done and expecting a different outcome

When the point of departure in any dealing with God is that God is unrighteous, unprincipled and unjust, nothing about our religion or our belief system will work or fit the facts.

A wife in bible times would not engage a man until the fundamental Ketubah or contract was settled, nor does God expect us to engage Him with less than a secure covenant.

Thus, when we bring our struggles to Him on the assumption that He has cast trouble over us or done us in or meant us harm, we miss the most fundamental provisos of our faith and reduce it to just a theoretical or philosophical idea.

I cannot bear a philosophical faith, an intellectual deadness that can never reach the depths that a quickened spirit, alive to God, always does – as with Elihu.

So, let me put your wheels back on the track. No matter what you are going through, even if you cannot understand it, do not start by assuming that God is capriciously and unjustly stomping on you the way an ignorant brat stomps on ants.

We are part of a cosmic struggle that often has to run  its course so we can grow up, learn His ways and escape self-indulgent ideas of God, but never, ever, ever will God dump suffering on you to see if you can float. Never. I want to use an expletive – rather you fill in the gap.

Sometimes we just miss God, by degrees. Sometimes we are wired correctly, but not properly, resulting in a lot of sparks and smoke and shaking, but no lights come on. We must rewire and ensure a full, pure connection, or none of this faith will make sense to us. 

(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com