Unpredictable: No One Can Calculate God (Job 23:8-17)

“Help me see that I'm small, that I can't know it all 'cause You're so unpredictable.” – Francesca Battistelli 🤯

Dear wanderer for the Father’s wisdom,

You can read all the books on earth, and you can even travel back to its birth, but you can’t know it all. Compared to God, it’s an overstatement to say our mind is small.

Let’s see in the passage below how wherever Job went, the mind of God he couldn’t know.

Job 23:8-17 (NASB)

⁸ “Behold, I go forward but He is not there,

And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;

⁹ When He acts on the left, I cannot see Him;

He turns to the right, but I cannot see Him.

¹⁰ But He knows the way I take;

When He has put me to the test, I will come out as gold.

¹¹ My foot has held on to His path;

I have kept His way and not turned aside.

¹² I have not failed the command of His lips;

I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³ But He is unique, and who can make Him turn?

Whatever His soul desires, He does it.

¹⁴ For He carries out what is destined for me,

And many such destinies are with Him.

¹⁵ Therefore, I would be terrified at His presence;

When I consider this, I am frightened of Him.

¹⁶ It is God who has made my heart faint,

And the Almighty who has terrified me,

¹⁷ But I am not destroyed by darkness,

Nor by deep gloom which covers me.

Let me give the context first. If you haven’t been following my posts, click the link below to find the summary of chapters 1 through 7:

https://therhymingepistles.blogspot.com/2021/06/hold-my-heart-letting-it-all-out-to-god.html

Chapters 8 through 22 is the continuation of the dialogue between Job and his three friends. They accuse him and his children of committing sin. In Job 9:21, Job says he is blameless and despises his life. Because his friends say he must have done something wrong, he then thinks God must have wronged him, for he didn’t do anything to cause his calamity. He wants God to tell him why this is happening to him.

Chapter 23 is Job’s wish to present his case to God. He wants to find Him, reason with Him, and be delivered from his unfair punishment. In verses 8-9, Job says he has thought every possible idea in figuring out God’s justice, but “he is not able to comprehend his judgments on what side or whatever part he turns himself (Coverdale & Knox, 1560).” Job’s defense was verses 10-12. There he says he is pure. In verses 13-14, he says that God can do anything He desires. That’s why in verses 15-16, Job is terrified. However, he is not destroyed as he says in the final verse.

We see in this passage that God is unpredictable. You may think because you’ve done good deeds, you’ll be rewarded with prosperity. Well, you’re wrong. Look what happened to Job. Look at the lives of wicked people. In Job 21:7-15, they grow old and stay powerful. They prosper and rejoice even though they have no regard for God. This is life on earth.

Yes, it seems unjust, but our existence doesn’t end here. There is justice for both righteous and rebellious in the afterlife. By righteous, I mean those who believe in Jesus and live for Him. We will live a happy everlasting life in heaven. Those who reject the Way, the Truth, and the Life and live in sin with no regrets will die an eternal death in hell. This is no prediction. This is in the Bible.

This epistle is not about the afterlife though. It’s about life on earth. It’s about how we cannot predict what will happen to us. We don’t know what trials we’ll face. We don’t know what earthly trophies will receive by God’s grace. We can’t know what God has in store for us. Like Job, we can’t understand the mind of God at times. The bridge of the song I quoted above says that we can’t wrap our minds around Him, we can’t put Him in a box, and we can’t keep Him safely contained. No one can know what God knows. No one can exactly know what God can do in the future. No one can measure up to Him. No one can even measure His greatness. No one can calculate God.

I hope this message humbles us. The quote on top says, “Help me see that I’m small…” At the end of the passage, Job says he’s frightened of God. If there is one thing we must fear, it’s God. What this means is to revere for His blood. His Son bled and died for you and I. The truth of God He testified, so His Lordship we must not deny, or worse, defy. To His altar call, whatever you reply determines where you'll go when you bid the world bye-bye.

Though God is unpredictable, it doesn’t mean He changes. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Francesca Battistelli even sings that He is her “Constant” for He will never fail us. Though we can’t know what will happen to us, we have Jesus. Let us remain faithful no matter what life throws at us.

With love,

Celina <3

(Edited on Jan. 19, 2022)

References

Coverdale, M., & Knox, J. (1560). Job 23 Commentary - The Geneva Study Bible. Retrieved from Truthaccordingtoscripture.com: https://www.truthaccordingtoscripture.com/commentaries/gsb/job-23.php#.YNqVyugza02

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