“Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
    and spread its wings toward the south?”
Job 39:26 (NIV)

Jesus occasionally and famously answered questions with questions. When His enemies were trying to trap Him into saying something they could use against Him, He turned the tables and asked them whether his cousin, John the Baptist, baptized people with divine authority or if he was a crackpot who should be ignored. It was a lose-lose question for the powerful religious leaders. If they said John baptized with divine authority the crowds would ask why it was that they were so critical and dismissive of the John. If they said the popular desert preacher was a crackpot they would take a huge hit in their public approval ratings. Jesus’ enemies refused to answer His question, so He refused to answer theirs.

God has two discourses in which He speaks. to Job out of the storm. In each, God answers Job with rhetorical questions that Job could never answer. He begins with questions of the universe, the spirit realm, and the cosmology of the earth then switches to questions about the animal kingdom. With each question, Job’s ignorance and lack of knowledge is apparent, as is God’s power and sovereignty.

Like Jesus with His accusers, God refuses to answer Job’s questions unless Job can answer His. Job’s suffering is never mentioned. There is not even an acknowledgment of Job’s circumstances, his mock trial, his prosecutorial examination. or his “signed defense.”

As I pondered this in the quiet this morning, I heard the echo of God’s words through the prophet Isaiah:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

A few chapters back, I posited that when it comes to others lives and troubles “we don’t know what we don’t know.” Now God takes that reality to the highest level. I am ignorant of God’s designs and purposes. My finite mind can’t fully grasp the infinity of God’s power. Yet, as a disciple of Jesus I am assured in the Great Story that, ultimately and eternally, all things work together for good.

I can have faith in God and His promise that there is a plan and purpose into which my life and my troubles are woven.

Like Jesus’ enemies, I can also choose to walk away.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.