Every Raindrop

“God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.” (Job 28:23 AV)

Job is starting to get it.  Chapter 28 reflects the sovereignty of God in creation.  The concluding verse to this chapter is God’s statement to man that the fear of Him is the beginning of wisdom and that our duty is to obey His commandments.  Under duress, Job answers his own question with realizing what he had just said.  If he would have realized the wisdom in the last verse of the chapter, he would have ceased from his unnecessary fretting.  He would have quieted himself like a weaned child and allowed God to be God.  The concluding verse above is a statement of assurance in the omnipotence and omniscience of God.  Job testifies that God knows everything.  Even to the smallest details of His creation, there is nothing God does not know.  Knowing everything, He also controls everything.  Perhaps Job didn’t understand the purpose or cause for his situation, but at least he was confident God did.  Even though the LORD did not show Job the purpose or cause, Job still believed God knew and was in control.  This is essential as we navigate life’s troubled waters.  Hanging on to the person of God is all we can do sometimes.  But it should be sufficient.

The immediate context of the statement is the fluid nature of creation.  In particular, Job is referencing the wind and waters of the earth.  They are constantly moving.  They are never still.  God understands how they work, where they were and where than are going, and the reason for it all.  Knowing the place thereof is particularly important to me this morning.  The place of something speaks to its purpose and function.  When we think of water, we do not think of a specific place it must be.  We think of natural forces like gravity working on water and the resistance of the earth and the means of water’s path.  What we do not consider is the design of it all and it does, indeed, function with purpose.  Life is impossible without water.  All living things need it to survive.  The LORD, in His wisdom, provided water for life.  The water He provided is designed to behave in a certain way.  There is a pattern to the cycle of water distribution throughout the whole earth.  These cycles are predictive.  Otherwise, life would be nomadic.  All living things would travel to find water and nothing would be established.  God places water, and plenty of it, on earth and gave it properties that act in predictable ways, so that life could adjust and thrive.  God knows where water comes from, where it is going, and the purpose for it behaving as it does.

The same could be said of every and all events of life.  God knows why our lives are the way they are.  He knows what causes those events.  He knows where those events are headed.  He knows what purpose those events have.  God knows it all, and He controls it all.  Just like water cannot exist on the sun or moon because that is not its place, our life’s circumstances cannot exist outside of our individual lives.  These circumstances are for us.  They are for the glory of God and our spiritual maturity.  The troubles we face will ultimately testify of the person of God and His attributes.  They will speak of God’s work with mankind.  Job had a hard row to hoe.  That is for sure.  But it wasn’t without cause or purpose.  Job faces a problem.  He had a hard time divorcing himself from the emotion of it all and rest in the person of God.  One might say the entire book was Job’s PTSD experience.  He had to work it out.  He had to deal with the shock these troubles caused.  Nothing wrong with that!  In the end, Job could internalize God’s sovereignty and trust Him more than he ever had before.  God knows everything.  He knows the past, present, and future.  He controls it all.  Therefore, we must rest in this reality of God.  Nothing changes other than our response to it.  God is who and what He is.  He will never change.  We must submit to this truth and seek the peace that only comes from faith.  That is the lesson of Job.