Read Job 14:1-6
1 “How frail is humanity!
How short is life,how full of trouble!
2 We blossom like a flower and then wither.
Like a passing shadow,we quickly disappear.
3 Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature
and demand an accounting from me?
4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person?
No one!
5 You have decided the length of our lives.
You know how many months we will live,
and we are not given a minute longer.
6 So leave us alone and let us rest!
We are like hired hands,so let us finish our work in peace. (NLT)
These are the words of someone pretty fed up with life. Why bother talking to God when he holds all the advantages? Why bother pleading with him if he has already made up his mind? Faced with such an all-powerful deity,why not just forget all about him and just get on with life and live as those at the hands of impersonal fate?
Very understandable,and perhaps a description of how we feel at times. And yet,there is another perspective-and Job himself discovers it much later. We are certainly in the hands of God,but this God has a human face: Jesus. He is not some omnipotent tyrant who unfeelingly runs the universe from on high. We are not ultimately in control of our life,but this is not a setback once we realise we are creatures of a good Creator.
Also,the Bible repeatedly urges us to act and speak and think as responsible individuals. We are not helpless victims of fate or puppets at the end of a cosmic string. Our God oversees us,but we yet remain capable of choice. No use trying to resolve such a tension: we simply live boldly and trustfully within it.
Our utter dependence on God is not meant to push us towards fatalism or passivity. It is meant to free us to be the people he means us to be.
Blessings
David Reay
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