GOD IS GOD, AND I AM NOT

"The Lord answered Job:

'Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct [Him]?

Let him who argues with God give an answer.'

Then Job answered the Lord:

'I am so insignificant. How can I answer You?

I place my hand over my mouth.' " (Job 40:1-4 HCSB)

There is an unforgettable scene in the movie, "Rudy." Rudy is a physically limited athlete, with the heart of a lion, who wants more than anything in life to be a Notre Dame football player. For that to happen, he needs a miracle. So we find him, in the chapel, seeking one. Rudy looks for reinforcement and answers from Father Cavanaugh. The old priest tells Rudy, "Son, in thirty five years of religious studies, I've come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts: there is a God...and I'm not Him."

I would argue there are more certainties than those two, but those are definitely two indisputable truths--and indispensable ones. As the Book of Job reaches its climax, the suffering saint is confronted with this reality. God is God, and Job is not.

The tables turn. Job has been full of questions. He has begged for an audience with God. He has pent up within him a torrent of arguments, swollen by the emotions of indignation, pushing against the dike of his mouth, about to burst forth in a flood before God.

So, God shows up.

Does Job have questions? God has more! Does Job want God to stand before him? Job is summoned to appear before God! Does Job have so much to say to God? After God speaks to him, Job claps his hand over his mouth! He is reminded of what we all must admit, "There is a God...and I'm not Him."

Can we rest in that?

There are more insights from Scripture which will help us know the nature of God. We see His presence and power in the world He has created. We see His plan and principles in the Word He has inspired. We sense His purpose and peace in the wellspring of our conscience He has fashioned. A reading of Psalm 19 reminds us of that. There is much of God--His works and words, His will and His ways--that we may know, because He is a God who has revealed Himself in the stars, the Scriptures and in our soul.

Still, there are answers that remain elusive.

If we are honest, we must admit that God transcends our finite thinking. Another man--so brilliant, with such dramatic experiences with God, which furnished him with a breath-taking breadth of knowledge--even had to admit there are these limitations. Here is what he wrote:

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!

How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been His counselor?

Or who has ever first given to Him,

and has to be repaid?

For from Him and through Him

and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:33-36 HCSB)

That's what the Apostle Paul concluded.

God is God, and I am not.

Well, shut my mouth!