Job 12:15 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 12:15

Comments

This is God’s world and though he has given us a certain amount of power, and allowed us to a limited extent to understand the mechanics of its operation, we should not allow this knowledge to go to our heads. We should not think that we can by this slender knowledge control the events of our lives with any certainty, whereas all that God does is certain and produces exactly the result he intends. He has never failed in any purpose; he has never met with an obstacle, for ultimately there is no agent other than himself who is working anything. When Satan thinks to overturn the plan of God, is he really a separate agent? Yes, but what can the creature do against the Creator. He is surrounded and enveloped by the purposes of God, so that Psalm 139 is true of all his attempts to harm the Lord.God withholds the waters in drought and the rivers and lakes dry up; life fails and hopelessness prevails. Has rain stopped falling because God has lost the ability to send it forth? Is he in as much difficulty as his creatures because of the lack of rain? No. He sends forth the waters again and the earth is overwhelmed. There is never any obstacle to God. There are no problems too hard for him to solve. He is never oppressed or limited by circumstances. He is master of every situation. Therefore let us never cease to look to him for help and call upon his name. Let us never turn away from his commandments for if we forsake him he will be deaf to our prayers.

Application

Calvin observes that although all that happens – the rising of the sun and the sending forth of the rain – are in God’s hands, Job selects those acts of God which strike us as more remarkable, and more obviously from his hand. ‘Job’s meaning is this: when things happen in such a way that it seems that the order of nature is about to change, and there are such excessive droughts that everything is going to be burnt up, we must be aware that God has not loosened the bridle of fortune’s neck, but that it is he himself who works in this way. Also when any great rain falls as is likely to wreak havoc, let us assure ourselves that it is the work of God’ (Calvin – English updated). He goes on to say that there are times when men perceive that this is God’s vengeance on them, just as he threatens in his law to shut up the heavens as brass. God rightly threatens in his law that he will punish us for our sins. At other times we cannot discern why God works as he does, but we must still humble ourselves, whether we see the earth drowned with water or burned up with drought.

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Job 12:15 Commentary and Bible Study