Job CCLV

 Job 24:1-8, “Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know Him see not His days? Some remove landmarks; they seize flocks violently and feed on them; they drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox as a pledge. They push the needy off the road; all the poor of the land are forced to hide. Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work searching for food. The wilderness yields food for them and for their children. They gather their fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked. They spend the night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. They are wet in the showers of the mountains, and huddle around the rock for want of shelter.”

Job continues his discourse with a question that has wide-ranging and thought-provoking implications. Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know Him see not His days? The first thing that stands out is Job’s acknowledgement of God’s omniscience. Nothing catches God by surprise. He is never blindsided, nor has He ever thought to Himself, “I didn’t see that coming.”

Times are not hidden from the Almighty. He is not reactionary, nor is there the constant push and pull of action, reaction, for He knows the entirety of human history, from beginning to end, and nothing is hidden from His sight. As wanderers and travelers on this earth, we operate with limited understanding. Not so with God.

He tells Jeremiah that even before He formed him in the womb, He knew him. If this was the case with Jeremiah, it was the case with Job, Paul, Peter, you, and me. There are no accidents, no coincidences, and no mistakes when it comes to the order of the universe, or the course of human history. God is not solely concerned about big events that shape and reshape the world, but is aware of how many hairs you currently have sprouting on your head. Each one, to the last, is numbered.

Yes, some of us try to make it easier on the Almighty and shave our heads so He doesn’t have to count every morning, but even if I had a glorious mane of lustrous hair, it would not bother God in the least to keep count. The one unanswered question I have, which will go in the rolodex of unanswered questions I’ve amassed over the years, is: Does God count transplanted hair? Does the hair someone had removed from their back and reattached to their scalp count as the hair on one’s head? Try unraveling that mystery! You’re welcome.

All kidding aside, if the very hairs of your head are all numbered, does anyone honestly believe that God would have made such a glaring mistake as to place someone in the wrong body, or assign them the wrong gender in the womb? It is and always has been about rebellion, about Satan trying to prove God wrong, or insisting that He made a mistake. Given that He is incapable of making mistakes, it’s a reach, but just because he failed every other time he tried, it doesn’t mean the devil will give up trying.

The second part of the question is another one of those gut checks that Job is fond of delivering, whether intentionally or otherwise, because it turns the spotlight on the children of God, those who know Him, and simply asks: why do those who know Him not see His days? Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why are those who know Him unable to discern them? Why are we groping about in the darkness as those of the world, terrified at whispers and rumors, reacting to everything when we possess a clear roadmap of where the world is headed?

If, as those who know Him, we are as ignorant as those of the world regarding the times and seasons we are living in, what does that say about us and the manner in which we spend our days? Knowing God gives us access to understanding tomorrow just as clearly as today, and in knowing that He knows what tomorrow will bring, we are at peace, fully assured that He has made a way for His own.

That God would number every hair on your head yet be indifferent toward your survival, protection, and provision is incongruent with His nature. A God so meticulous as to know something so trivial would not accidentally lump in His children with the wicked when He pours out His judgment. It’s inconceivable and ludicrous on its face to insist that this is even a possibility.

The other day, I was picking my daughters up from school, and it was raining. It wasn’t anything cataclysmic, just a sheet of rain coming down steadily. While all the kids were running helter-skelter trying to avoid the rain and get to their parents’ cars as quickly as possible, one little girl was taking her time, walking slowly because her mother had brought an umbrella, walked into the school, and was holding it over her head.

The little girl was not bothered by the rain, nor did she do what all the other children whose parents hadn’t brought umbrellas were doing, because she knew she wouldn’t get wet. She was safe, and her mother would keep pace, holding the umbrella over her head. God’s got the umbrella; He knew the storm was coming, and He will be faithful to hold it over the heads of those who are His own.

We may only see in part, but we see enough to be fully assured that God is good, He is just, He is loving, and He is faithful. We may not know the ins and outs of every event from now until the return of Jesus, but we know that He is returning. We also know that when He returns, He will send His angels and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Is it not wisdom itself to focus on being one of those elect who will be gathered rather than endlessly ruminating on the power plays and machinations of the power-hungry? Am I His in word and in deed? Do I know His voice well enough to pick it out from a sea of other voices? Is my focus on the things above rather than the things of this earth? These are the questions we must contend with before anything else, because they are the questions that matter. The answers to these all-important questions set us apart, single us out, mark us, and on that day of days when He appears, we will be gathered unto Him.

There will be no squatters in God’s kingdom. No one will be able to sneak in, bribe their way in, or trick their way in. His elect will be gathered, and since He said narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it, it would behoove us to know clearly and unequivocally that we number among them.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.