Where Were You?

The book of Job is not just about why bad things happen to good people, but about how to trust God in a world where all kinds of things happen that we don’t understand. By asking Job dozens of questions, God presses Job to recognize the natural limits of his own understanding and the necessity of trusting him. Yet instead of making Job smaller, this dependence actually expands his dignity and his capacity to engage in God’s world. The paradox of Job is just one example of the paradox of the Gospel: We are utterly incapable of saving ourselves – not by knowing things and not by doing things, but when we recognize that and trust in Jesus, he actually expands our capacity to know and participate in his rule over the world. In Jesus, the last become first, and the humble are exalted.