I try to read my Bible through each year, or at least once every two years. That means I read through Job each time. I started that in the 1980s. That means I have read through Job many times.
Listening to Job and his friends debate about God—who God is and what God does—can be trying, until that wonderful moment when God Himself steps into the debate in Job 38. When I read that first verse, I want to shout “Finally!”
“Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind.” [HCSB]
And I love how God enters the conversation. “Where were you when I established the earth?” [38:4 HCSB]
He follows that with a series of questions that reminds His listeners that He is the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God, and they are not. The question I love most comes at the beginning of Chapter 40. “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?” [40:2 HCSB]
Who are we to attempt to counsel or correct God? And yet we try. I have on occasion argued with God. I have tried to bend His will in a different direction. I have tried to convince Him to do things a different way. I have stubbornly refused to listen because I wanted to hear something different than what He was speaking.
Arguing with God (for whatever reason) is a fruitless endeavor. We will not change God, but we will make ourselves – and everyone around us – miserable.
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?” Nope – We may try but thankfully we won’t win.
