I’m As Good As You Are – And God Is Better Than All of Us

Job fires back. “I’m as good as you are, better even” (vv 1-2). But that doesn’t seem to do Job any good at all. He is still in deep trouble. People have nothing but contempt for him.

We rarely get ourselves out of trouble by claiming that we are better than others - or even by being better than others.

But there’s more to Job than personal pique. He has some profound theological understandings about the sovereignty of God. If it were possible, he says, you could even ask the animals, birds, plants and fish - they know that God is in charge (v 7). They know that it is God’s hand that has brought Job to this place of desolation.

Then follows a magnificent speech, a powerful poem about God’s authority, his wisdom and strength. From the personal to the cosmic, God manages - indeed, controls - all things. But it is with his wisdom and strength that he rules, not with caprice or temper or vengeance.

God will not allow rivals. He “leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges.” (vv 17-21). He puts people in their place. The high and the mighty, political and religious leaders, royalty and the kings of commerce, all are reduced to their base humanity by the God who rules over all, who overthrows his rivals.

How can a single man, broken and beaten by what we might call the vicissitudes of life, by sickness and poverty, write such a stunning declaration of faith? How can Job understand divine sovereignty and still accept his fate and fortune? Isn’t he the victim of that same sovereignty that he champions in his speech?

That is surely the enigma of the man and the irony of the chapter.

Respond in Prayer

Father God, this is a strange and alarming world, full of wars and uprisings, terrors and nightmares. How we long for you to reveal yourself as the One who raises and puts down, the One whose wisdom and strength subdue the violent and evil. Grant us faith to believe in your sovereign purpose for all humankind.

Michael Pountney