Job’s sufferings were not fully understood by Job partly because the benefits of his trials were not limited to himself. God had a bigger eternal plan in mind.
God recorded Job’s sufferings in the Bible for our benefit. Just as my football coach disciplined me, I learned later that that training was for something greater. At the time I didn’t fully understand the value of discipline. In spite of my ignorance, I obeyed the coach. His endurance training built up my stamina for a future challenge—three hours of intense blocking and tackling on the field of play.
Divine wisdom comes from above.
God doesn’t explain why we face adversity and he doesn’t have to. There’s no promise in Scripture that God will explain why he does what he does. We should remember that God isn’t like us and we are not equal to him. He answers only to his own sovereign will and his ways are incomprehensible (Jer 10:7).
God’s purposes are beyond human understanding. This was one of the lessons, if not the main lesson, Job learned through his pain (Job 28:12-21). Divine wisdom isn’t found among humans. It can’t be bought and sold like a commodity. The animal world can’t teach it to us. Eternal wisdom, godly wisdom, is hidden from those living on earth. Why? Because with finite minds we are incapable of grasping eternal plans.
As finite beings, the future, the full consequences of our actions, and eternity itself are things impossible to grasp. But not for God. God is infinite and eternal in his wisdom. God fully understands everything (vs 23). He sees every action and knows every thought on earth and under heaven at the same time. Only God can offer an eternal perspective on our situations. This is why it’s so important that we depend on and place our faith in his revelation of himself in the Bible. As limited beings, the only way we can know divine wisdom is if the LORD chooses to reveal it and his purposes to us.
Don’t fear the future.
Fear is an underlying emotion that characterizes much of what we hear and read about the future. Whether its political unrest, global warming, local random shootings, or the pervasiveness of evil in general. These concerns are often discussed without considering God’s wisdom. When I was a child the fear of a nuclear war was believed to be an imminent danger. We all feared that the world would end with a nuclear war. Fear is a horrible way to live each day and a truly bad way to feel about the future.
Fearmongering even infects Christian literature. It isn’t healthy or a biblical way of thinking to believe we might be left behind when Jesus comes or that evil is uncontrollably rampant. Such thoughts aren’t productive or advantageous to the growth of faith. These thoughts don’t produce reliance on God or hope in the future.
Rather, fear that God might lose control in some way causes us to seek to become more self-reliant, introspective, worrisome, and independent of God. The fear that we might be left alone to fend for ourselves discourages faith. And yet, nothing could be more unhealthy or incorrect than to think adversities are events outside of God’s concerns or control.
Fear doesn’t have to invade our feelings about the future or rob us of hope. When we suffer unjustly or are afflicted and don’t know why our circumstances are so difficult, we need to trust in God’s wisdom. The Psalmist saw God’s hand in his afflictions. He recognized that God himself brought on the afflictions for a purpose (Ps 119:71). If the Psalmist would walk through suffering and allow God’s Word to guide him, he would arise through that experience wiser and more loving and insightful (vs 72-75).
God created the universe by his wisdom.
God created the universe by the power of his infinite wisdom and understanding (Ps 104:24; 136:5, Jer 10:12). Furthermore, God’s plan of redemption is based on the same power he used to create the worlds. Wisdom is the ground upon which God executes his creative and redemptive purposes. God’s ways are unfathomable (Rom 11:34). He needs no other counsel than his own because he already knows all things. This means we don’t have to interpret what he does (as though we had the mental capacity to fully understand his ways) as much as we need to learn and grow in our faith and dependence on him.
The belief that God’s wisdom directs his actions brings great comfort to a person facing tragedy. We may not understand why things happen, but our faith can still be grounded in solid content. A wise person knows that in suffering and pain God is not at a loss as to what to do. His counsel may be obscured from our view but it’s none the less what guides our circumstances.
King David learned that the LORD doesn’t value a proud or arrogant attitude. He was not to demand of God a response to questions the LORD never promised to answer. Even Jesus, in his earthly body, didn’t know the answer to exactly when the Father planned his return (Mt 24:36). Yet, they both continued to trust in God.
It’s comforting to know that God is not only smarter than us, he’s also more intelligent than those who wish to do us harm. Others might scheme to treat us unfairly or to act unjustly, but there is no wisdom or plan that can succeed against the LORD’s wisdom and plans. If God’s interests are for our best then no one can act against us. Nothing can happen to us that God does not approve of (Rom 8:31-34).
The world is never out of God’s control.
Sometimes we think the world is out of control. But it can’t be. God never loses control. He has never handed the affairs of this world over to another because there is no one (except Jesus) who can manage creation as lovingly and caringly as he does (Col 1:15-20). Therefore, we can rest on solid evidence and biblical substance that God is in control. He is the one true God who manages and cares for his creation. The responsibility of providence has been functionally given to Jesus, which means there is nothing outside of his control (Heb 2:8).
So, we can rest peacefully tonight. Our souls can experience quiet security as we walk through trials and temptations. We have no need to worry about or fear the future. A wise and powerful God oversees everything we experience. Anyone who attempts to cause us to fear future events isn’t trusting in God or God’s Word. We are not to follow or even listen to those who try to motivate us using fear. Fear is not what pleases God. Rather, Faith is what God hopes to find on earth (Lk 18:8).
God is directing every grand human plan and every minute natural event by his infinite wisdom. He holds the King’s heart in his hand and knows of the falling of a single tiny sparrow. Therefore, we can entrust all things into the merciful hands of God. He promises to never relinquish his sovereignty or to ignore our cries for help. He will never leave us to our own destruction. We mean so much to him that he will never abandon us to chance. “Fear not,” Jesus told his followers, “you are of more value than many sparrows” (Mt 10:31).
This study on the wisdom of God has been partly inspired by chapter eight in Jerry Bridges book Trusting God. Click on the book cover to order it. Click on the book title to read a review of it.
Photo of the stars by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash.
Photo of book and coffee mug by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.
