Job’s lamentations sometimes sound so familiar. Everything is futile. Everything is headed for disaster. Just listen to our anxious cries: overpopulation… climate change… growing poverty… diseases being created in laboratories… artificial intelligence beginning to replace humanity. Do I need to go on? It is only those who live with their heads in the sand who deny these things! God has left us to ourselves. That is, if there ever was a God? However, this is where Job differs from us; he never doubted God’s existence. He did, however, lash out sharply at God and threw around all sorts of accusations, such as: “The earth is handed over to the wicked… If it is not He, then who is it?” (Job 9:24 – 2020 translation). Indeed, for the earth, there is no hope! Is this not the cry of despair of the 21st century? But let us not too quickly pass over God’s response to Job’s (and our) accusations! God’s sovereignty is described in poetic language. Do we so quickly forget that only God is “far above all rule and authority, all power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (according to Eph 1:21)? God alone planned the creation in the finest details, measuring its dimensions with a measuring line, while we still cannot fathom its greatness today (Job 39:5-6). Nothing exists by chance; every element of nature is governed by God (v22-30). God has a plan, even concerning the “laws of the heavens, and their influence on the earth” (v32). Nothing escapes God’s attention. This creation and everything in it belongs to God. God plans its course. From beginning to end. Do you understand, Job? Do you understand?
PRAYER: Great are You. You alone!
MUSIC:
We watch the music video of The Gesualdo Six’s performance of “Sub tuum praesidium” by Brumel.