Job 40:1-2
The LORD said to Job: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Job’s friends had failed of convincing his mind. And no wonder; for they adopted not any line of argument fitted to that end. Job was faulty, exceeding faulty, before God—though not in the way that his friends imagined. He had complained of God in very irreverent and unhallowed terms. He had complained of God as “multiplying his wounds without cause, Job 9:17.” He had even condemned God as an oppressor, “I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me why you contend with me. Is it good unto you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? You inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin. You know I am not wicked, Job 10:2-3; Job 10:6-7.”
He even challenges God to a dispute respecting the equity of his own proceedings, not doubting but that if God will only give him permission to plead his own cause, without oppressing him by his power, he shall prove God himself to be in error concerning him, “Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply. How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin! Job 13:21-23.” In reply to all this, God takes up the cause; and, with an immediate reference to such expressions as I have already cited, he says, “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Now, as it may be thought that there are none at this day so presumptuous as to “accuse God,” I will inquire,
I. Who are those who are liable to this charge?
As impious as such conduct is, there are multitudes who are guilty of it!
1. Those who dispute God’s Word.
None but the truly humble either do or will receive the Word of God without challenging Him.
To some God’s Word is too sublime, containing doctrines which human reason cannot comprehend.
To others it is too simple, offering salvation by faith alone, without any deeds of the Law.
To others, again, its precepts are too strict, requiring more than man would like to obey.
To others, on the other hand, its promises are too free, seeing that a man has nothing to do but to rest upon them, and they shall all be fulfilled to him.
But, of all people under Heaven, there are none who so systematically and openly blaspheme the Word of God as the Papists do.
They deny its sufficiency for the instruction of men in the way of life, and put on a footing of equality with it their own unwritten traditions.
And even its suitableness, also, do they deny; affirming that, if indiscriminately read by the laity, “it will do more harm than good.” If the Scriptures are in any translation of the Protestants, they denounce it as “a deadly pasture, that will destroy the flock;” and as “the devil’s gospel,” which, whoever has “the presumption to read without the permission of the priest—he shall never receive absolution from the priest; and, as far as the priest can prevail, he shall perish forever under the guilt of all his sins! All this is affirmed by the present Pope, in his charge to all the Popish Bishops and Clergy throughout the world, given in 1824.
What is all this, but to “reprove God,” and to say to him, “You have revealed your Word in away unsuitable to the necessities of your people, and unfit for their perusal?” This the priests declare, even respecting their own translations of the Bible; and they accordingly take the Bible out of the hands of the laity, and allow none to read it without their special permission. I marvel that there can be found upon the face of the whole earth people that will submit to such impious, such deadly, tyranny as this! But this whole Church shall answer for it, before long.
2. Those who arraign God’s providence. Here again, will every man be found guilty before God.
It is a common thing to hear even people who bear the Christian name speaking of luck, and fortune, and chance—exactly as if there were no God in Heaven, or as if there were things beyond God’s reach and control.
Just so, when afflictions are multiplied upon us, how commonly do we repine and murmur against God, instead of saying, as we ought, “The cup which my Father has given me—shall I not drink it?”
Perhaps it will be said, that our complaints are not so much made against God, as against those who are the immediate instruments of our affliction. But the creature, whoever he may be, is only a “rod,” a “staff,” a “sword,” in Jehovah’s hands! Though God leaves men to the unrestrained operation of their own corrupt hearts, he overrules everything they do for the accomplishment of his own sovereign will. Even the crucifixion of our blessed Lord was in accordance with God’s determinate counsel and will!
“This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, Acts 2:23.”
“They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen, Acts 4:28.”
As Moses, when the people murmured against him and Aaron, told them that their murmurings were in reality against God himself, Exodus 16:7-8, so must I say, that murmuring of every kind, against whoever or whatever it is directed, is,” in fact, a reproving of God himself, without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, nor does so much as a hair fall from our heads.
3. Those who condemn God’s saving grace.
The sovereignty of God, in the disposal of his saving grace, is more especially offensive to the proud heart of man. We arrogate to ourselves a right to dispense our favors to whoever we will; but we deny that right to God. Paul places this in a very striking point of view. God had said by the Prophet, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” Paul, then, arguing with a proud objector, replies, “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?'” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:13-21.”
Here is the very point both stated and answered. Man’s proneness to call in question the saving grace of God is here affirmed, and is plainly declared to be a reproving of God himself.
Seeing, then, that so many are liable to the charge here exhibited, I will show,
II. What is meant by the warning here given them.
I have before noticed Job’s challenge to Jehovah to answer him. Now God, in reply, bids the offender, if he can, to answer him. But there are only two ways in which any answer can be given; it must either be in a way of self-approving vindication, or in a way of self-abasing humiliation. Let the answer, then, be heard,
1. We must not answer God in a way of self-approving vindication.
To return such an answer as this, a man must maintain these three points:
1. God is bound to consult me in what he does.
2. I am competent to sit in judgment on God’s proceedings.
3. I know, better than God himself does, what befits him to do.
But who can maintain these points, and make them good against God? Who is puny man, to question that God from whom he derived his very existence, and who keeps him in existence every breath he draws!
As to judging of God’s ways, as well might an ignorant peasant sit in judgment on the works of the greatest statesman or philosopher. Who among us would submit to have all his views and ways criticized by a child that has just learned to speak? Yet, that would be wise and commendable, in comparison with our presuming to sit in judgment upon God. When a candle can add to the light of the meridian sun—then may we hope to counsel God, how best to govern the world, and how most effectually to advance his own glory.
If, then, we cannot make good our own cause against God, then:
2. We must answer God in a way of self-abasing humiliation.
It was in this way that Job replied. “Then Job answered the Lord, and said: Behold, I am vile! What shall I answer you? I will lay my hand upon my mouth! Job 40 3, 4.” So again, afterwards, “You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes! Job 42:3; Job 42:6.”
O brethren! this is the answer for every one of us to give; for “God will assuredly be justified in all that he has done, and will be clear when he is judged! Psalm 51:4.” He will vindicate his own honor, and put to silence every proud objector.
Instead of questioning God, therefore, in the future, let this be the habit of our minds: let us, under all circumstances, maintain a humble trust in his goodness, and a meek submission to his will. This is our duty, our interest, our happiness. We expect as much as this from our own children; and shall we manifest less regard for God, than we, poor fallible creatures, exact from our own children? Let us lie as clay in the hands of our all-wise, all-gracious Potter, and leave him to perfect his work in his own way; having no concern in our minds, but to fulfill God’s will and to glorify his name.
It was by a very circuitous route that God brought the Israelites to Canaan; but we are told, “He led them by the right way.” And we, whatever trials we may meet with in this wilderness, shall, in the end, have the same reason to glorify our God as Job himself had, James 5:11, and as all the saints have had from the beginning of the world!
Charles Simeon