“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?”
- May 25th, 2007
- By Michael
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Then [Pooh] began to think of all the things Christopher Robin would want to tell him when he came back from wherever he was going to, and how muddling it would be for a Bear of Very Little Brain to try and get them right in his mind. “So perhaps,” he said sadly to himself, “Christopher Robin won’t tell me any more,”and he wondered if being a Faithful Knight meant that you just went on being faithful without being told things. -A. A. Milne
How often do we as mankind have the attitude of Pooh. What injustice we feel at not being told something by God. How quick we can be to point the finger at God and accuse him of deception. But as God said to Job, “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” (job 40:7-9)
I had a discussion on a message board that i frequent about creation. A member hinted that if the earth was young and created with the appearance of age that it would be deceptive of God. He said, “My problem is that it would seem deceptive on God’s part to intentionally produce evidence that pointed to to false conclusion. What we know of God does not allow for that.” I see several issues with this statement
1 .) Who said God did what He did in order to “intentionally produce evidence that pointed to to false conclusion?” Maybe, instead, those who come to theses false assumptions are at fault for improperly assuming. Not to mention that they already start with a false presupposition.
2.)“it would seem deceptive on God’s part…” Here is another issue. Who are we to know the mind or intentions of God. Who are we to accuse God of deception. Perhaps the appearance of agehad more to do with having a worn in and working ecosystem than about deceiving scientist that are already deceived.
3.) “…pointed to a false conclusion…” Actually the evidence points to the right conclusion if one has the eyes and the presuppositions to see it.
I close with some words of Jehovah as He confronts Job.
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action[a] like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements–surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed”“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.
From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is broken.And the LORD said to Job:
“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer it.”“Dress for action[a] like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
Have you an arm like God,
and can you thunder with a voice like his?“Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;
clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low
and tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them all in the dust together;
bind their faces in the world below.
Then will I also acknowledge to you
that your own right hand can save you.(Job 38:1-15; 40:1-2,7-14)
I would definitely encourage any Christian to remember that all of scripture is profitable for teaching, correction, and application. We don’t need to camp out in one area of Scripture, but we need all of what Scripture tells us to teach about who we are and who God is. Sometimes encouraging the church in truth, as we are to worship in truth, means to expose not only my sin but your sin as well. This is so we might all repent and come to Jesus. Even as believers we still need to come to Jesus. We need to come to Him with our idols and our imperfections and the wreck that we make of our lives and the way that we love each other and the way that we live. We need to stop hiding our sin from each other, pretending to be people that we’re not. We need to stop pretending to be righteous and holy people when really we are a wreck. The church is a total wreck…all of us corporately and individually are a wreck and we need Jesus desperately. I’ve been a believer for twelve years and I am more desperate for Jesus than I was even twelve years ago when He saved me because I have that much greater of an awareness of my sin and my need for Him. I think that we’re not really encouraging each other as a church. In truth, we’re not really doing that if we’re flattering each other, hiding our sin from each other, and allowing our sin to be hidden from one another. We need to call each other out of our hiding places. We need to model repentance with each other. I should come to you and say, “You know what, I’m not this great and righteous perfect person that you might think I am. Please don’t think I am and let me confess to you my sin, let me show you all the ways that I am a total wreck, that we might see Jesus instead of seeing me.” That, in turn, by design, should draw the same type of repentance out of you and for you to say, “Well here are my sins…” The truth is, regardless of how mature of a Christian that we are, and as we mature in our Christian faith, we shouldn’t find ourselves as less and less sinful, more and more righteous, and better and better about ourselves. We should be realizing the further depth of our sin, that we might more fully repent and fall more heavily upon Jesus because even in glory, when we’re free of our sin completely, when we’re not sinning against each other any more, even then, we’ll only have Jesus, even then we’ll have no claim on God’s favor because we’ll still be a redeemed people. So I personally think anything we can do to rightly encourage each other in Jesus is very important. Part of the Gospel is to show the cross to each other, to show Jesus and Him crucified. That’s the Gospel and that’s offensive…but there’s nothing you can do about it. If it’s not offensive than you’re not telling it right. To look at Jesus on the cross is, in fact, offensive to who we are and how we live. I am offended by some of the language on my record…and rightly so. We should all be rightly offended, as James tells us, that we might corporately despair, lament, and weep over our sins that we might come to Jesus with nothing else because we don’t have anything else. The illusion is that we do have more to come to Jesus with, and the American church unfortunately doesn’t do a lot to break those paradigms down.