Biblical Advocacy for Depends

What would your first thoughts be if God said this to you?

"Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me."

(Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the fact that you had just spent a while monologuing about the many injustices

you had suffered under His hand.)

I'd like to say I would strike a pose of confidence and say "Do your worst!" .... Okay that isn't true at all. Truthfully my "bracing myself like a man" before the Almighty would look more like me needing a change of pants and a really good hiding spot.

Thankfully I don't think I can remember a time when I heard God say this to me. Job did. (Really... look it up in Job 38). And that was only the beginning of the response God unleashed verbally on Job. God goes onto to basically say Who do you think you are? Did you put the heavens in place? Can you make it rain, snow, thunder or lightning? No! (At this point I think I would have once again lost all control of bodily functions, including consciousness.) I am the One who put the stars in place! I am the One who causes day to become night and night become day! (And so on... I think you get the point)

This passage does several things to me:

• Makes me laugh (mainly because it wasn't me sitting there)
• Scares the dadgum bodiddly out of me (those are real terms I promise)
• Humbles me before the amazing power and grace of the Creator

Whoa, whoa, whoa!! Back up the train bro! The GRACE of God!!?? How in the name of all that is good in Switzerland do you see God's grace in that!?

(Haha... okay maybe your reaction wasn't as intense as that, but I like think in theatrics.)

I see God's grace in His response because of how the book of Job doesn't end. God didn't end the story right there for Job because he chose to speak up against what in all honesty was a pretty poopy situation. God heard Job out (along with all of Job's wonderfully insensitive friends). Maybe God's response here seems like a verbal butt kicking, but it wasn't an existence squishing one. Though the story of Job makes many people (myself included) theologically uncomfortable, it does show how God is all powerful and yet all gracious and compassionate at the same time. God could have easily just let Job die or flicked him like a booger after Job goes all whiny--but He didn't. God doesn't back down, but He also doesn't say "Game Over" either. That is how I see grace in this story.

So anyway... let's just be glad we don't have daily moments with God like Job had here. And let's be thankful that God doesn't tire of us easily.