I have been struck all summer with how small and finite mankind really is. Conversely, I have also been struck with the infinite grandeur and magnificence of who God is. I love the story of Job on this account. Job is most famous for getting thoroughly destroyed by life and it is in this context that he is most often referred to. He is the patron saint of all those going through a rough season in life for good reason. But the part of Job's story I love the most is the last five chapters. For almost the entire book Job's friends, who really fall under the "with friends like these who needs enemies" category, have been accusing him of wrong doing. Job continually, throughout the book, pleads his case and demands a hearing before God that he may prove his innocence. And in the last five chapters, beginning in chapter 38, God shows up, and it is because of these last five chapters that I love the story of Job.
Beginning in chapter 38 of Job, God unleashes for four chapters on who He is and what He has done. He demands that Job answer Him like a man as God asks Job where Job was when He laid the foundation of the earth. From the stars to the mountains, from beasts of the field to fishes in the ocean, from weather patterns to seasons, for four chapters we read of the might and majesty of God. It both humbles and excites my heart at the same time to read these chapters. The vastness of God. The power of God. His beauty, His character, His nature, all on magnificent display. I resonate with Job's response in chapter 42 every time I read these chapters. For when God is done, Job is undone. Job's response in 42:1-6 is beautiful, but I love verse 5-6, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job, just two verses later, is referred to by God as "My servant" and instructed to make sacrifices for his friends who have angered God. Yet Job is the one who is repenting. He is not repenting because of a specific sin, but because of his sin nature, a nature that is in essence set in opposition to God, and he saw the beauty and perfection of the holy God and there was no other course to take but to repent.
Do we have an appropriately small view of ourselves? Do we understand that God is God and is not someone to be trifled with? He is the ultimate good, the supreme being, that which is to be desired above all other things and people. He is infinitely beautiful. He is more than our hearts can imagine or grasp. Just a glimpse of Him is enough to make the hardest heart melt and weep over its wickedness. Let us be people who seek the Lord's face and ask Him to enlarge our hearts for Him and our capacity to enjoy His presence. For we are all but a mist, here and gone in the blink of an eye. Yet He remains unchanged, and the heart that belongs to Him yearns for the day that it gets to spend eternity in the presence of He who is the Great I AM.
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