Can you find out the deep things of God? (Job 11:7 ESV)

 “Can you find out the deep things of God?” (Job 11:7 ESV)

Zophar is the name of one of Job’s friends who comes to comfort him, or correct him, or disprove him - whatever it was that these three were trying to do. I’m not sure they know.

But’s that the point of this text. Who knows? Who really understands? Who gets to explain God? Who gets to speak for Him?

Zophar assumes that he is able, as we ourselves tend to do. We assume that we are in a position to critique the positions of others, to point out their errors, and to set them straight. Zophar is not worse than us. He is just like us.

We have lived out lives listening to space explorers tell us their findings. Telescopes improve, and we see farther, hoping to understand just a little bit more. Hypotheses are altered due to incoming information. We are not right about everything; what we think we know has to be corrected. All of this is true of physical matter in space and time. How much more things related to God, who is not just beyond our gaze, but outside and above the created order.

Consider our brains; our minds. They are created by God. He made us, including all our parts. And He is responsible for every one of us, however billion of us there now are. He knows our thoughts, every one of them, in every one of us. Billions of thoughts every moment made possible because He made us. He holds all these in His hand, as in a cup. They are small to Him. But His thoughts to us, so far above and beyond. “Can you find out the deep things of God?” No. Our brains are not big enough; our minds too small and simple.

We should be careful, then, what claims we make about God. At best, we can say confidently only what He has told us, and even then, these various things must be held together, not separately. He has said, “I am God, and there is no other.”He has said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He has said, “Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.” Yes, He has told us some things about Himself, a great many things. We can confidently say these things, at the right time, in the right context.

Now if we could just figure out the right time, the right way, the right tone to say these things. And to do so, we need Jesus’ help, and we need the Holy Spirit’s help. Because God is not defined by our words, but rather by His.