Standing Before God

September 2, 2026

8 “Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
9 Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
10 Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
11 Unleash the fury of your wrath,
    look at all who are proud and bring them low,
12 look at all who are proud and humble them,
    crush the wicked where they stand.
13 Bury them all in the dust together;
    shroud their faces in the grave.
14 Then I myself will admit to you
    that your own right hand can save you.
-Job 40:7-14 (NIV)

In this imperfect world with imperfect people, I believe we all want a sense of love, mercy, justice and fairness.  Recently I had a talk with someone, and I was asked about how I came to Christian faith.  I gave a condensed version at the time and my story involved a lot of questioning, but ultimately God came to me and granted me the gift of faith (Eph 2:8).  At the time and in my quest searching for deeper meaning in life, I told the person, “I refused to believe there is no meaning for all the pain, suffering, loss and hardships in life.”  If there were no meaning for such tragic moments in everyone’s life, then life itself would be meaningless – and I refuse to believe that!

I’m glad every answer that we need (not every answer that we want) is found in the God-Man in Jesus Christ!  There is nobody more loving, more merciful, more just and fairer!  Whatever sense of justice, fairness and even equality was met and surpassed with his self-sacrificial love as displayed by his work on the cross! But still and when we go through the loss of a loved one, when we see someone suffer, when we get struck with financial hardships, etc., they’re difficult to go through.

In the case of Job and when Job went through tremendous hardships, his friends turned their backs on him, he lost his children, his wife strongly opposed his views, he lost financial worth, he lost his health and, in my opinion, it was all for God’s glory!  And when given the opportunity God revealed to Job just who God really is!  In our text today God asked Job several questions that Job couldn’t answer at all.  Sometimes we’re fooled to believe we have all the answers in the world, and we’re misguided at best if we ever believe we have a higher sense of morality, justice, love, equality, equity, etc., than God.

I tell you - I thank God that I’m not God!  I wouldn’t want that massive responsibility of ultimate power, ultimate holiness combined with ultimate grace, ultimate justice, etc., and let’s not forget ultimate sovereignty!  And the other thing I want to share is this:  Thank God Jesus was brought to earth to take my tremendous rebellion, pride, wickedness, arrogance, selfishness, etc., with him to the cross and out of his even more tremendous love!  Furthermore, I’ve come to realize I have the privilege of sitting at the foot of God’s throne, rather than try to usurp myself above it.

….in case you’re wondering what happened to Job?  Let’s also not forget that in the end, all that Job had was multiplied exponentially (Job 42:12-17), not because Job earned it, but because God is faithful, sovereign, holy, just and merciful!

___________________________