READING: Job 8-10
How much time have you spent thinking about the “bigness” of God? We talk and sing about His majesty, but do we really consider just who He is? I confess that I don’t give enough time to such meditation. I know for certain that I can’t describe God’s vastness as powerfully as Job does in today’s reading.
We know that Job was a righteous man under great affliction. His friends blamed him for his troubles: “Surely this tragedy wouldn’t have happened to you unless you have sin in your life,” they said. Job in turn desperately wanted to defend Himself before God, but he realized that no mere mortal could ever dispute with Him. What Job knew for certain is that God is much bigger than he, as his words indicate:
His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. (Job 9:4-10)
God moves mountains, shakes the earth, turns off the sun and the stars, and moves the waves. He performs miracles we would never consider, and He does so many that we can’t count them. That’s an amazing God.
It’s quite possible, however, that Job’s words weren’t entirely praise, as he also saw God as invisible and inaccessible — out of reach even if Job could have possibly defended himself (Job 9:11). Indeed, Job longed for someone to mediate between him and God so he could speak to God without fear (Job 9:33-34). We know, of course, that God would send a mediator for us, but Job was not yet convinced there is one. Today, though, this all-powerful Creator who moves the mountains and speaks to the sun is hardly distant from us; in fact, He indwells us through His Holy Spirit.
He is bigger than the universe, yet He is as near to us as our soul.
I will say it again: He is bigger than the universe, yet He is as near to us as our soul.
I can hardly fathom that truth.
ACTION STEPS:
- Meditate on the bigness and the nearness of God today. Be amazed all day long that He lives in you.
- Be ever aware of God’s living in you when temptation comes today. We don’t have to fail when God is with us.
PRAYER: “God, sometimes I’ve probably felt like Job did — thinking You were inaccessible. Forgive me. Help me to live in the glory of Your nearness today.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Job 11-13