With New Eyes

Image by Gerhard Gellinger, from Pixabay

Puttering around the house today, dealing with the inevitable clutter that piles up, I saw a plaque with a worn, plastic sleeve over it.  It was a memorial plaque, made in honor of my husband's brother, who died in 2015.  For the past 3+ years, it had been sitting in a spot I pass by several times a day.  Initially, with the best of intentions, the sleeve was left in place to protect the plaque.  Now, though, as I looked at it, I saw it with new eyes, and ... it just looked ridiculous to me.
It's best not to "assume" about such, however; so, I asked The Hubs if he minded if we got rid of the plastic sleeve.  He had no objections.  Into the trash the plastic cover went.  Now, there was nothing obscuring the beautiful plaque beneath...

Job had a similar experience.  The episode is revealed in Job 38 and 39.  He had been viewing God a certain way for years.  Repeatedly, in earlier chapters, Job described his God as he believed Him to be.  At the end of his book, though, he saw God "with new eyes".

We can get a lot of information about the character of God by studying His words and actions in the Bible.  But, at the end of the book of Job, God gave a lot of information about Himself at once, in an effort to describe The Indescribable to a mere human.  He did so in the form of questions, peppered with asides to Job like, "Can you do that?"  "Have you ever done that?"

We find God describing himself in Job 38 and 39, because Job had been busy justifying his life before God, telling God how righteous a man he was, and how he really didn't deserve all the calamity that had befallen him.  Essentially, Job was questioning God's actions in his life.  This is how God so aptly put Job's actions and attitudes in Job 40:8 (NIV) - - -

Would you discredit my justice?

Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

Here are the things God listed (not in question form, though, but in statements)

• He laid the foundation of the Earth.
• He measured the Earth and marked off its dimensions.
• He laid the Earth's cornerstone, while stars sang and angels shouted for joy.
• He brought the seas under control, setting their "doors and bars" in place.
• He gave orders to the morning and showed the dawn its place.
• He knows the location of the "springs" of the sea and walks in the recesses of its deepest parts.
• He knows the location of the gates of death.
• He also knows the way to the abode of light, where light lives, and where darkness resides.
• He binds up the snow and hail in storehouses, held waiting for when He calls on them to fall.
• He knows the point from where lightning is dispersed and where east winds originate.
• He designs the paths for torrents of rain and decides the path of the thunderstorms.
• He fathers the rain and the drops of dew.  He births frost and frozen waters.
• He brought forth the constellations of the heavens and controls them to this day, displaying His dominion over heavens and Earth.
• He counts the clouds and sends lightning bolts on their way.
• He provides food for the lioness, the raven and all living things.
• He knows where the mountain goats give birth and the does bear their fawns.
• He created and easily controls the wild donkey and the wild ox.
• He created the silly ostrich who, although created with little sense (she tends to kill her young), can run faster than horse and rider.
• He created the wild mustang, giving him his strength and spirit of fearlessness.
• He created the hawk and eagle and knows their ways as well.
• As He sees fit, He endows human hearts with wisdom and gives understanding to the mind.

After hearing this list, Job's response was much like Isaiah's when he "saw the Lord, high and lifted up" (Isaiah 6:5 NIV).  Isaiah said, "Woe to me! ... I am ruined!"  In Job 40:4 Job answered the Lord saying, "I am unworthy...how can I reply to you?  I put my hand over my mouth."

Then, God goes for round two.  

In Job 40:9-41 He continues to describe His marvelous character, attributes and deeds.
After that list, Job confessed that he despised himself, and he repented of his actions, in dust and ashes (42:6).  Humility and repentance, in the presence of One Job could not begin to fully comprehend.

Now, remember, Job was "the finest of the fine".  I don't think any of us, even those who love the Lord the most (not me, by the way), can truly see him for who He is.  The apostle Paul confessed that he saw "through a glass darkly"(1 Corinthians 13:12).  Ever look through a glass window pane into the abject darkness?  That window is clear as glass, but it is of no use.....  Darkness is still all you can see.  None of us can fully appreciate our God, because we can't approach a full understanding of His character.

Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we do as Job did - - construct a God of our own making.  It may be we go beyond what God reveals in Scripture to do that.  Other times, we may do so out of an ignorance of what the Scriptures say.  I take comfort in this verse, though:

                       Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

James 4:8a

This is a call to shut out the clamoring voices of the world and to spend time in prayer and Bible study with the Lover of our Souls, to "draw near".  

...that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving...

Ezra 9:8