Thursday, June 23: Job 36- God's ways are greater.

My heart grows faint reading the relentless pounding inflicted upon Job by his “friends.” In their eyes Job is nothing more than scum of the earth. And yet even in the midst of this chapter Elihu breaks into a marvelous description of God. A description that penetrated deeply into my being…

Verses 22 through chapter’s end laud the wonders of our Lord.

"God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed his ways for him, or said to him, 'You have done wrong'? Remember to extol his work, which men have praised in song. All mankind has seen it; men gaze on it from afar. How great is God--beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out… (22-26).

How great is God--beyond our understanding! I am remaindered of Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 55: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (8-9).

God’s ways are higher and greater.  What is there to do but submit to Him? What is there to do but to attend to His Word?  Read, listen, study and live His Word!

God’s Word is like water to a parched garden.  It offers life giving water and nutrients.  His Word is life. Isaiah continues, As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

On this Elihu is right, How great is God--beyond our understanding! Even so, God takes his vast understanding and packages it in His Word in such a way that we can learn enough of Him that we might fall down upon our knees in awe and wonder and devotion and praise of whom God is and what God has done for us and all humankind.

O, God, thank You and Bless You that You have revealed Yourself in Your Word… that You came to earth in Jesus and lived among us for a while… that You sent the Holy Spirit –Your presence among Your people- for all time until we can know You in Your fullness in glory. Thanks be to You, O God, for being a connecting, saving, loving God. In and through Jesus, Your Son and my Lord, I pray. Amen.