By Pastor William Y. K. Brown Ph.D
(Resident Pastor)
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Osu-Bethel.
Tel: 0244165628/0243310773.
wykbrown@gmail.com
GEMS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAYER
THEME FOR THE WEEK: QUESTIONS GOD ASKS: PART II
SUNDAY
THEME: “WHERE WERE YOU WHEN . . .?”
SCRIPTURE: Job 38:4-5
[4]“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. [5]Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?”
REFLECTIONS
Job is one of the Bible books with many questions God poses. Incidentally, that is where you will find some of the most difficult questions ever asked. When Job had suffered enough at the hands of Satan, God stepped in to honor and reward him for his fortitude, steadfastness, faith, and trust in the Lord. But God first confronted Job with a barrage of difficult questions. The questions exposed our human limitations and extolled God’s infinite wisdom and power. Who are you to challenge or doubt God if you are so deficient in knowledge? What authority do you have to criticize God’s actions? In coming up with the series of questions, He dismantled all the human impressions, false understandings, and the reigning human philosophies they had about God, espoused by Job and his three friends.
Having waited patiently and allowing them to exhaust the extent and depth of their knowledge, God revealed a bit of His omnipotence to Job. God asked, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.” – Job 38:4. Certainly, it is a tough question because even “you and I were not there.” He further asked in verse 12, “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, And caused the dawn to know its place,” – this is humanly impossible. Sometimes, we go through the night and do not even meet the next morning. The lessons from nature (Job 38) are so profound that human beings lack understanding. For instance, when He asked: “Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion?” – Job 38:28,31. Where were you when God created the universe? So-called science cannot answer these fundamental questions.
Based on these numerous questions, what did God intend to achieve? He only wanted to address the issue of His omnipotence versus humans’ gross ignorance. No human being can fathom His power, but we must appreciate it to give us the courage to walk with Him. The positive side is to make us aware of the nature of the God who has called us and made us His children. No human being can boast of any achievement compared to what He has done for the human race. Thus, when you walk with Him, you should know and understand that He created all things – delicate, animate, inanimate, the constellations, the planets, movements in the sea, etc. That is our Father – so big, so strong and mighty, and as the children sing, “there is nothing my God cannot do.”
God does not show us His power to scare us but to give us confidence and hope in Him to fight our battles for us. He demonstrates His omnipotence so we can look up to Him in our distress, confusion, suffering, anguish, and ill health and seek help. He also uses the opportunity to assure us that He is always there for us to bear us up in His arms. So, Proverbs 30:4-5 states, “[4]Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know? [5]Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”
MY SONG OF COMMITMENT
SDAH 88 – “I Sing The Mighty Power of God”
LET US PRAY
– Praise and thank God for using His power to save you; thank God for giving you hope and a basis to trust Him even unto death; pray for a daily search to appreciate God’s power and its benefit.
– Pray for atheists and all other non-believers; pray for people who are studying the Bible day and night to catch a glimpse of God’s omnipotence; pray for those who trust God to continue in faith;
– Pray for youth who have known Christ but are defecting to the enemy’s camp; pray for those with drug and betting addiction, alcoholics, and occults; pray to support young people who intercede for their peers;
– Pray for the power of God to protect and keep the nation from wicked people; pray for a spiritual revival across the country; pray for victims of war, disasters, terrorism, suppression, and persecution.
