I am using the One-Year Tract Bible Reading Plan to help me read through the Bible this year.
For March 9, there was this stunning, breathtaking reality right next to each other in the readings from Luke 23 and Job 38:
Luke 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Job 38: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.”
We are as nothing before God. How did we ever conceive of the idea that we could question God or his motives or his authority? We were not there when he created all things, and we didn’t (and don’t) have the power to do what God can do.
But Jesus was there.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Father gave us Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin so that his righteousness could be given to us. And that Jesus, knowing what he would experience in obedience to the Father, shouted at the most critical moment of all, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Jesus knew he could trust his Father.
This is overwhelming.
We cannot compare to God on any level. ‘I do not do the good I want’ (Romans 7:19), while God “has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever” (2 Corinthians 9:9).
And this God with that power to create out of nothing who grants us a savior we don’t deserve and a righteousness we could never, ever earn – this is the God we are ready to judge because he creates some who will live with a disability?
The One who has infinite knowledge, wisdom, power, authority, righteousness, holiness and justice should somehow subordinate himself to us because our puny, finite, limited sense of fairness says that God should only behave a certain way regarding disability?
We think we have that right to judge this God? Based exactly on what?
good preaching, brother.
We all have disabilities in one way or another. He created us to work together lifting each other up where they needed to be lifted up and accepting the rreas where they excell. He knitted us together in Love. Our God is great and his thoughts and ways are higher than ours wilth our minds we would have try to equipped everyone completely but by the Lord equipping some with one thing and equipping another with others abilities he made it so we need to depend eachg other creating an unbreakable bond of love for each other. This is just the way i understand things at the moment, it may not be the same way others see it and maybe the Lord will increase my knowledge taking me further in depth with this as I develop or maybe he will send me someone who will see things in a new and different way. The beauty of the Lord is how he loves us enough to create the circumstance for us to see him in each other learn to love each other through those circunstances. Thanks for the Blog
This so reminds me of a quote posted as one of my friends facebook statuses, that I have used as my own status this morning.
Faith reposes on the character of God & if we believe that God is perfect we must conclude that His ways are perfect also. A.W.Tozer
It seems to me that it all goes back to trusting in God and in His word. If we believe what God says about Himself and His character, how can we question why He does anything?
Hi John,
I read the same passages on Tuesday following Carson’s For the Love of God devotional book. Thanks for the rich additional insights.
It was great meeting you at the DGMPC and I am glad to find this blog via a John Piper tweet today!
My husband and I have 2 wheelchair-bound children.
[…] 23, 2010 by John Knight First posted on March 11, 2010. Lord willing, our vacation is coming to an end and we’re on our way home as this is […]