Removing God’s Armor (Job 40:2)

Removing God’s Armor

“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (Job 40:2 ESV)

We are familiar with atheists who preach against the idea of God. But it is not atheists most in view in this verse. Those in view are those who have some acquaintance of God, who know who He is and of what He is capable - and they resent it. They would be people who would begin to deconstruct God so as to remake Him according to a more comfortable model.

But what we know is that God is not comfortable for us. The finite is not comfortable with the infinite. The one who measures a lifetime as up to about 100 years is not comfortable with the eternal God. We who are keen to exercise our wills are not very open to the idea that the script has been known long before we were born. Once we really begin to think about the One, True, Living God, we become uncomfortable.

Sometimes, we begin our deconstruction unknowingly. We are quite sure that God fully appreciates our democratic principles, even though we know full well that there will be no “election day” in heaven. We expect that God will respect our carefully laid plans, only to find that the train tracks have been twisted to uselessness even before they are laid out. We study and we discuss and come up with theories and systems of theology, only to find that God does not read the same books that we do. 

And so we, like Job, are brought up short. We have to stop making declarations about the Almighty, and just pause - be quiet - wonder - and be lost in wonder - at this God who is greater than we imagined.

Now this talk about God being uncomfortable does not mean that God is not able to comfort. Quite the opposite. Because He is sovereign, and eternal, and all-knowing - because of these things He is able to comfort us. He can tell us for sure that He’s got it handled; that our enemies are not so great as we imagined (bigger than us, for sure, but not near so big as God). He can point to life beyond pain and sanctification without a shred of sin. A lesser being could not offer such great comfort, since He would be in lesser control.

In Job 40, God goes on to speak of Behemoth and Leviathan, great creatures of land and sea who are armored so as to make them invincible. God challenges to have our best go at deconstructing this armor. But to break down the armor of God, the solidity and immensity of His being, that’s way beyond us.