To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. – Job 12:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 23, 2012): Job 12

Maybe one of the worst things that has happened to us as the “race of man” is that we began to understand. I am not really advocating that we should go back to the dark ages of our knowledge. But there was a time when the answer for us was simple. We understood that things worked the way they did for no other reason than that God had ordained them to work that way – the answer to every question that we had was God.

The downside of a lack of understanding is that we began to act superstitiously. We responded, not out of understanding, but because we hoped that our actions would somehow mysteriously affect the outcome. So we didn’t walk under ladders, not because something might fall off the ladder and hit us on the head, but because walking under ladders was considered to be bad luck. And so were black cats and crossing of their paths.

But, slowly, we began to gain some understanding about how the world around us works. And that understanding brought the idea that we could, if not control at least influence, events through that understanding. And every generation has had their own version of understanding and control. As we stand early in the twenty-first century have greater understanding about our lives than any that have gone before. And yet sometimes it is hard to remember that others have felt the same way about their understanding and now we consider them to be backward and ignorant. And as great as our understanding is today, the time will come when our descendants will consider our understanding to be backward as well. Because the truth is this – we don’t understand this world half as well as we think we do. And the more that we learn about it, the less we really understand.

Job’s friends struggled to find meaning in the events that had happened in the life of their friend. And at best their beliefs were based on superstition. And that is exactly what Job wants to remind his friends of – that the ultimate wisdom and understanding belongs to God. And while our understanding changes from generation to generation – God’s doesn’t. His understanding remains firm throughout all of the events of our lives. And it is his understanding that we can rely on during all of those events.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 13