The Futility of Unscrewing the Inscrutable │ Msg 13/22

0:01 If you're new with us today, you wouldn't know that we're in the midst of a study in Job, and we have come all the way to the 25th chapter of this book, which means we only have two years and four months left to get through it. Not really. I want to read a few verses from both of these chapters, and then we'll spend a few minutes reflecting on our Father before we prepare for this offering today. Job 25 verse 1, then Bildad the Shuhite answered, dominion and all belong to him who establishes peace in his heights. Is there any number to his troops and upon whom does his light not rise? How then can a man be just with God or how can he be clean who is born a woman? Even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in his sight.

1:03 How much less man, that maggot, and the son of man, that worm. Job responded, what a help you are to the weak. You got it. It is sarcasm. How you have saved the arm without strength. What counsel you have given to one without wisdom. What helpful insight you have abundantly provided. To whom have you uttered words and whose spirit was expressed through you.

1:41 And then Job describes the departed spirits as well as the whole world about us, all the way to the heights of the universe. Verse 13. By his breath, the heavens are cleared. His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are the fringes of his ways. And how faint a word we hear from him. But his mighty thunder. who can understand?

2:14 Just leave your Bible open there in your lap for a moment and just bow your heads. I met a man just before our service began this morning whose entire world has collapsed on him. You may be sitting next to that person. Now the couple said that their lives had been completely reversed from what they had ever expected, never dreamed they'd be in this place at this time. God must be up to something remarkable. It's true, Father, we are all somewhere along the way. in this remarkable plan you have put together and you will be able someday to make sense of. And we pause with Job looking up.

3:20 We admit our lack of strength. The truth of our weakness is notorious. Our inability to explain many of the events of life occurs often. Somewhere between here and our ultimate destination, this pilgrimage takes us a circuitous course that at times is just impossible to grasp. and we pause on the edge of this time and ask that our our ears would be especially keen to hear what you have to say today from a book as ancient as a stone with the wisdom of yourself pouring out of it I pray that you would silence the words of our culture coming from lives that have lost their way.

4:30 Though often celebrities and though often listened to by many, we would prefer our Father to hear from you and if necessary to call anyone else a liar. When you speak, you have the words of eternal life. and so our father i pray you would make us sensitive to your mind and give us your thoughts and direct us in your ways and though we cannot understand them we certainly would defend your right to rule for you are the master and we are the servant you are the potter and we are the clay We tend to forget that in our self-absorbed world that is so fixed on our rights and our privileges and our preferences. Remind us again that we are helpless, though thankfully not as sickly as Job.

5:41 Oh, watch over those who watch over us. Give protection and guidance to the troops, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to those careful-thinking military strategists who plan during a time of war for what is best. May their plans be led of you. protect those who are in difficult and dangerous places this very day, some on the high seas, some in dens and caves of the earth, some in busy cities far removed from Afghanistan, Pakistan.

6:31 We pray, Lord, that you will have your way as you guide this nation through our commander-in-chief, that you would guard us from self-destruction. Forgive us, our Father, for the selfishness that often oozes from the very pores of our skin. free us from this contagion of getting and keeping and hoarding. Show us the joy and the absolute delight of releasing and giving, even now. As we give to you what really is already yours, teach us the blessing of doing so. As we continue our worship through Christ, our Lord, the one who's never failed us, we pray.

7:31 And everyone said. A study of Job is essentially a study of God. For after all, God is the one who struck the deal with the adversary. When he came and pointed out Job, claiming that if somehow God would remove the hedge from around this servant of his, Job would ultimately curse his name. So it was God who released the enemy to Job. And it was God who set the boundaries saying, but don't touch him, don't touch his life. And later it was God who permitted the adversary to come back and to touch him and bring upon him all manner of pain and suffering.

8:26 it was God's permissive will strange as it is for all of us to understand that it was his permissive will that allowed the enemy to do what he did with Job and then it is God who steps behind the shadows and hides for 35 chapters he doesn't speak he doesn't give visions he doesn't provide relief he doesn't offer comfort not only is he absent he is silent and it's tough for us we who were reared in sunday school were taught that the god we love is the god who is good and merciful and gracious and kind full of love and could never do anything cruel.

9:23 And then we happen upon an intelligent and careful study of Job. And we're confused. And the longer we stay in the book, the more we realize either we weren't taught correctly the full story about God, or we're not understanding the full story about Job. I think the former. Paul wrote to the Romans and said, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

10:01 How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. So even as far back as the first century, as Paul penned his letter to the Romans, he informed the reader, ultimately us, that God is unfathomable and unsearchable. Doesn't mean he isn't good, and it doesn't mean he stops being loving and merciful. It just means he is also incomprehensible. we're getting in deep. And before we know it, we realize there is a whole lot about God we were never taught.

10:49 And now, in the midst of our study of Job, we are forced to dig deeper and find out what it is that we were missing. Theologians call him inscrutable. one of the first times I remember that word making a dent in my brain I was graduating from seminary and the president of the school at the time Dr. John Walvard made the comment that he would hope that all of us would continue to remember that our God is unfathomable which means we are unable to fathom his ways and our God is unscrutable then he said with a wry smile so don't try to unscrew the inscrutable first time I'd put the two words together but we so want to everything within us screams to explain and interpret and define fully the workings of God for after all we're intelligent God made us like this he tells us that we are to know him and we long to do that so we continue to pursue him and the deeper we dig the more unfathomable he becomes and that's the way it's to be but we're not comfortable with that we like things fathomable we like things scrutable we like to we like to be able to explain and interpret and correctly analyze so that we understand the whole story. Impossible with God.

12:30 Impossible. You see, we think of God when no one is around as being maybe the oldest man we've ever known. He has a long beard and stands in the north of the old maps going, and he's blowing this wind across to move the sailing ships across the seas. Not so. He is not a little bit like us. He is nothing like us. As Isaiah wrote, my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. We are not alike. Now we need an illustration that helps us understand the vastness of God. Astronomy will help. If it were possible to travel the speed of light on a straight trajectory, we would arrive at the moon in one and one-third seconds.

13:31 Continuing at that same speed, do you know how long it would take us to reach the first star? Four years. That's only the first star in this galaxy. bear with me. Some of you have been to New York City and you have visited the Hayden Planetarium. It has a miniature replica of our solar system showing the speeds and the sizes of our planets. What is interesting is that the three outer planets are not even included. You see, there wasn't room for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Uranus would have to be in the planetarium's outer corridor. Neptune would be around 8th Avenue and Pluto, another three long avenues away at 5th Avenue. Oh, by the way, no stars are included for obvious reasons. Can you imagine on the same scale where the nearest star would be located? Cleveland, Ohio.

14:45 vast. And remember, that's just our local galaxy and the nearest star. There's more. A scientist once suggested another interesting analogy. To grasp this scene, imagine a perfectly smooth glass pavement on which the finest speck can be seen. then shrink our sun from 865,000 miles in diameter to only two feet and place an orange ball on the pavement to represent the sun. step off 82 paces, two feet per pace, and to represent proportionately the first planet, Mercury, put down a tiny mustard seed.

15:45 Take 60 more steps for Venus and put down an ordinary BB. Mark off 78 more steps, Put down a green pea. That's us. Earth. Step off another 108 paces from there, and for Mars, put down a pinhead.

16:14 Sprinkle around some fine dust for the asteroids, then take another 788 steps more and place an orange on the glass for Jupiter. After 934 more steps, put down a golf ball for Saturn. Now it gets really involved. Mark 2,086 steps more for Uranus, a marble. Another 2,322 steps. From there, you arrive at Neptune. Let's let a cherry represent Neptune. This will take two and a half miles, and we haven't even discussed Pluto. we have a smooth glass surface, five miles in diameter, yet just a tiny fraction of the heavens, excluding Pluto.

17:16 Now guess how far we'd have to go on the same scale before we could put down another two-foot ball to represent the nearest star. 6,720 miles. Miles, not paces. And that's just the first star.

17:40 Among millions, maybe billions, in this galaxy, which is one among thousands, maybe millions, David in the 139th Psalm made the comment, it is high, I cannot attain to it. I think it's his way of saying this blows my mind.

18:11 And so it should. But we are uncomfortable with blown minds. After all, we're Americans. We know how to run things. until we get to God.

18:31 Not only do we not know how we cannot control him, nor should we try. A.W. Tozer, on this very subject of God's inscrutability, writes, Left to ourselves, we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get him where we can use him, or at least know where he is when we need him. We want a God we can in some measure control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like, And what he is like is, of course, a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, all the best people we have known or heard about, and all the sublime ideas we have entertained. If all this sounds strange to modern ears, it is only because we have for a full half century taken God for granted. The glory of God has not been revealed to this generation.

19:31 the god of contemporary christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of greece and rome if indeed he is not actually inferior to them in that he is weak and helpless while they at least had power if nothing else the study of job reveals to us we do not know his ways we cannot explain the inexplicable we cannot fathom the unfathomable so we cannot unscrew the inscrutable and let's stop trying if only these foolish men who saw themselves as job's friends had simply acknowledged that it would have been so much more comforting to this man in such enormous pain as he sat longing for at least an arm around his shoulder that said, we're here, but we don't understand any more than you do, man.

20:49 But we're here. God is up to something phenomenal, and it's high. We cannot attain to it. It is vast. We cannot measure it. May I go this far? He doesn't have a wonderful plan for everybody's life. For some lives, his plan is Lou Gehrig's disease. For some lives, his plan is a life of pain and heartbreak and brokenness. For some, his plan is no to the prayers for healing. but we don't like that.

21:44 We won't accept that. In fact, we'll go so far as to say if you believe that, you lack faith. I say if you believe that, you believe the Bible. Because the God of the Bible includes the lives of people who do not get well, who do not quickly get over the problems, who do not easily move through the illnesses. This book pictures its heroes, warts and all. They fail, they fall, they hurt, and sometime on occasion, amazingly, they succeed. but we don't like that.

22:37 We are Americans, and we can't stand the thought of failing or falling or losing or not getting what we want. And so we should not be surprised when we turn again to the book of Job and we wade through Bildad's nonsense of chapter 25, we hear more of the same garbage that has been going on since chapter 4,

23:04 chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 8, chapter 10, chapter 12, chapter 15, chapter 18, chapter 23, chapter 25. Bildad the Shuhite answered, Dominion and all belong to him who establishes peace in the heights. That's true. That is true, Bildad. Doesn't help Job, but that's true. Is there any number to his troops and upon whom does his light not rise? True. Absolutely. Doesn't help Job, but got a point. How then can a man be just with God? Oh, that's comforting. I mean, how can he be clean who is born of a woman? Understand that's good theology. We are not clean having been born of a sinful person. Romans 5, 12. Wherefore, through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world and death through sin. So death passed upon all men and women, for all have sinned.

24:00 We are sinners by nature. We are sinners by choice. We are sinners from Adam. It's called the Adamic nature in theological writing. He's right. We are not pure, having been born of impure parents. Not wicked, necessarily. Not immoral, necessarily. But at heart, sinful. And so he says how can anybody be just before god? How can he be clean who was born of a woman? Even the moon lives with borrowed light doesn't have light of its own even the stars that shine have light generated from their creator How much less man that maggot? And the son of man that worm Wow, thanks a lot boy. It's helpful build that Hadn't thought about that lately, but it's true Let me say three or four things by way of general observation. First, this is Bildad's third and last presentation.

24:59 Thank the Lord. We will not miss him. Second, this is the shortest chapter in the entire book. Six verses. Third, Zophar, the third friend, doesn't bother to speak during this third cycle. Remember, he spoke in the first cycle. He spoke in the second cycle, spoke third each time. And when you get to this third round, he doesn't speak at all. I think the discussion has pretty much run out of fuel. I think they really thought by now Job just isn't teachable. and number four, having run out of arguments, Bildad doesn't attempt to prove Job wrong. Now he simply lectures. He just unfolds, sharing with him a piece of his mind he can't afford to lose, and so out comes Bildad's last shot at it.

25:58 He speaks first of God's power and greatness, verses 1 to 3, and then of God's justice and man's sinfulness, verses 4 through 6. Remember, Job, that God is all light and you are all darkness. That's why you're suffering. Matter of fact, Job, maggot and worm pretty much says it best. There are times my heart truly goes out to Job. This is one of those times. I doubt that anyone has ever called you a maggot or a worm. Well, maybe your wife or maybe your husband behind closed doors when things were really, really thin. But I think the difference is I think Bildad really meant it. I think Bildad had absolutely no use, no use for Job.

26:56 get out of my life. His final speech ends with this kind of major put down. There are a lot of sideline lessons to learn from our studies, and one of them is whenever you have the opportunity to minister to whomever, putting them down, never. helps. Never. But that's what these men seem to be so good at. So is it any wonder that Job begins with a series of sarcastic verbal slams in return? what a help you are to the weak, how you have saved the arm without strength. Seems like the Hebrew is saying how you have saved with your arm the one without strength.

27:53 That seems to be the idea. The way it appears doesn't make good sense in the English. I believe that's what the original text says. How have you saved with your arm the one without strength, namely me? What counsel you have given to one without wisdom? What helpful insight, what helpful insight you have abundantly provided my my my to whom have you uttered words and whose spirit was expressed through you oh you have really got the corner on truth build eugene peterson's paraphrase well you've certainly been a great help to a helpless man you came to the rescue just in the nick of time what wonderful advice you've given to a mixed up man, what amazing insight you've provided. Where in the world did you learn all this? How did you become so inspired? by the way, the Hebrew pronouns in verses two, three, and four are all singular.

28:54 So they're directed only to build that only to build it. When you get over to chapter 27, the plural begins verse five of chapter 27, far be it from me that I should declare to y'all, right. It's plural there. It's y'all through the chapter 27, but it's you when you're here in chapter 26. What Job lacked in tact he made up for in total honesty. By the way, sores will do that to you. Ask any nurse. Any nurse will tell you, especially those who work at the bedside, there's something about pain and the continuation of it that finally removes most of the tact and just gets down to the red raw facts of life. Someone wrote, pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart.

29:53 even those who were stubborn and rebellious when they have a lot of pain there's then a lot of reality there's no tact here with Job when you're covered with sores and you're running a high fever and you haven't gotten the sleep you need and you haven't gotten the food you should have and your body is emaciated, you're candid. A lot of help you've been, Bildad. You know, I'm just going to be painfully honest here and say sometimes we who give wrong counsel need that kind of response. We who have these pious words for those who are going through something that we can't even imagine, we who have those big answers and long drawn out, sometimes put downs and shame based comments for things they're going through, we need to be told off.

30:48 Bill Dad deserved that kind of response. Remember that little prayer I gave you a couple of times ago? Lord, help me today not to add to anybody's burden. Remember that? I hope you wrote that down. I've got that on my desk, and I read it now every morning. Lord, help me not to add to anybody's burden. Help me to speak truth. And where I can, help me to comfort. And where I don't know, help me to say it. And where I feel badly for someone, help me to say that. But help me not to add to their burden. If they're going to hell and back through their experience, I don't need to assist them along the way in any put down. I need to be a comfort to them.

31:37 Bildad didn't learn that principle. Now what's interesting is that Job becomes the teacher. instead of Bildad teaching Job Job decides since you don't have any answers let me tell you about this God who hasn't revealed all the all the whys and wherefores in his activities beginning at verse five over to verse 13 Job takes Bildad through the paces and here is what we would call a fascinating cosmological explanation he starts with the departed spirits of the dead and he goes all the way to the top of the universe. And in a simple, general manner, Job says to Bildad, God is in control of every bit of it. He knows about it, he understands it, and he is responsible in the midst of all of it. None of it is a surprise to the living God. He begins with verse five, the departed spirits. He uses three words to describe their location, waters, shield and abaddon. The departed spirits tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. Naked is shield before him shield is the place of the departed dead. And abaddon has no covering. It's a synonym for shield.

32:58 this is a resplendent mosaic of the living god's superiority over all he's sovereign he is sovereign even over the departed spirits covered by the waters in the place of shield and abaddon now look at where he moves he stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing is this amazing this is an ancient piece of literature but it's pure truth he He hasn't been contaminated by the evolutionary thinking of the scholars of the 20th century or 21st century. He just believes by faith that when God put it together, he stretched it out over empty space and he hangs the earth on nothing. Right? That's no problem with God. He made stuff out of nothing. He made nothing.

33:50 I mean, it's all his. He put it all together. but reshith bara elohim is the way they say it in the Hebrew as you began in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth I mean the theories today that we're told about creation takes more faith to believe them than the fiat word of God God simply states it let it be and it becomes and he hangs it on nothing this is beautiful Job is beginning to teach Bildad whether Bildad's listening or not who knows but the beautiful thing is that Job has a relationship with God that Bildad never heard of and in that relationship he relies on God for whatever he needs sometime ago a teacher sent me a very interesting piece written by a 21st century teacher to the school administration to describe the dilemma of being a teacher in this world in which we live let me see if i've got this right you want me to go into that room with all those kids and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning. Not only that, I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, behaviorally modify disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and t-shirt messages.

35:17 I'm to fight the war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for guns, and raise their self-esteem. I am to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, and sportsmanship and fair play, how and where to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, how to apply for a job. I'm to check their heads occasionally for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of potential antisocial behavior, offer advice, write letters of recommendation for student employment and scholarships, encourage respect for the cultural diversity of others, and, oh yeah, always make sure that I give the girls of my class 50% of my attention. I'm required by my contract to be working on my own time, summer and evenings, at my own expense toward advanced certification and a master's degree and after school. I am to attend committee and faculty meetings and participate in staff development training to maintain my employment status.

36:16 I am to be a paragon of virtue, larger than life, such that my very presence will awe my students into being obedient and respectful of authority. I'm to pledge allegiance to supporting family values, a return to the basics, and to my current administration. I'm to incorporate technology into the learning and monitor all websites while providing a personal relationship with each student. I am to decide who might be potentially dangerous and are liable to commit crimes in school or who is possibly being abused, and I can be sent to jail for not mentioning these suspicions. I am to make sure all students pass the state and federally mandated testing in all classes, whether or not they attend school on a regular basis or complete any of the work assigned. Plus, I am expected to make sure that all of the students with handicaps are guaranteed a free and equal education, regardless of their mental or physical handicap.

37:11 I am to communicate frequently with each student's parent by letter, phone, newsletter, and grade card. I'm to do all of this with just a piece of chalk a computer a few books a bulletin board a 45 minute More or less plan time and a big smile all on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps in many states

37:33 Is that all and you want me to do all of this and expect me not to pray? You want me build that to do all of these things and you don't even help me turn again to the living God Let me tell you about this. God. Let me tell you about the reason I can keep going and not give up and not take my own life talk to me about him and talk truth and don't be afraid to say those tough words I don't know so since you won't say them let me explain to you the vastness the incredible incomprehensibility of his nature the inscrutable power of his person controlling those who have gone beyond to death as well as still being involved from the creation of this earth, verse 7, wrapping the waters in his clouds and the cloud does not burst under them.

38:42 He obscures the face of the full moon and spreads his cloud over it. He's inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters. Perhaps that has a reference to the rainbow. Perhaps it has a reference to the curvature of the earth and the vastness of the seas. Maybe it was an ancient reference to the creation of this canopy about this earth. at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble and are amazed at his rebuke. He quieted the seas with his power. Only he can do that. By his understanding, he shattered Rahab. He mentions later the piercing of the fleeing serpent. Those are pictures of poetic pictures of evil. He is in charge of all of that. He has all of that under his control. By his breath, the heavens are cleared. Behold, says Job when he gets to verse 14. I love this 14th verse as magnificent as all of these things are what I have shared represents only the fringes isn't that a great word?

39:39 the fringes the edges of his ways they are merely quiet whispers of his voice they're just the hushed tones of what he's revealed how faint a word we hear of him but his mighty thunder who can understand another way of saying is that who can withstand we who live in texas hear a little of thunder every once in a while there come a real frog strangler and just before that rain comes there is a lightning through the sky. Man, it's worth staying up for late.

40:27 You know, the whole neighborhood lights up. Wow, look at that. And then you go, you're ready for this. That's the thunder you can hear. But that's just his whisper. If he ever let it loose. We'd all be deaf. We'd fall flat. That's Job's concept of the living God. Bildad, tell me that I mean when you put the vastness of this universe in this kind of setting in the stellar spaces in the natural elements in the life below on and above the seas and on the earth with the reptiles and the fish and the fowls and the natural elements about us and to think that he in all of the galaxies around all of this universe, he comes and finds that little green pea called Earth and locates us and knows even the hairs on our head.

41:34 It is high. I cannot attain to it. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you visit him? I need that when the sores on my body are running with pus and the fever won't go down. Job ends where Bildad should have begun. Who can understand? which reminds me of the three most unusual English words you will ever hear adults say. I don't know. Do it again. I don't know. Tomorrow morning, before you shave, guys.

42:29 as you look at what we have to look at every day, practice the words. I don't know. So that when someone at the office brings up an issue that is beyond you, say, I don't know. When they talk about how God is a good God, and they've listened to the televangelist who told them how everything works out great, just in the next 30 minutes, if you give enough, it'll work out great. And it's amazing how all of it's going to be downhill slide. Just trust him. After all, he's got this wonderful plan and you'll be able to enjoy it. Just give to us 1-800. Just call the number. You remind them you don't know. Say it, say it again, say it again, say it again. You know the living God by faith, but you don't know his ways. His ways are higher than your ways. His These thoughts are greater than your thoughts.

43:25 You don't have to know. If you say you know, you're phony. Most brilliant men you can study under. I've had the privilege in theology to study under, and every one of them knew how to say those words. I don't know. Which began to teach me. how incredibly vast is my heavenly father and that he is trustworthy. And I can believe in him without being able to explain his ways. and I can put my hand on the arm of the friend I'm with at the hospital and say, not only do I not know,

44:20 no one knows. how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable are his ways doesn't mean he's not in control it just means he isn't obligated to explain himself Why did my dog die? Why did my dog get hit in the street when my neighbor's dog is 20 years old? Why is it that this tragedy happened at this time when in fact these countries, a tragedy would wake them up maybe?

45:00 What is it about our family that goes through when that family, I don't know. in the final analysis he knows and he does all things well i am the clay he is the potter i am the disciple he is the lord i am the sheep he is the shepherd that means i am to be humble and trusting and available not making demands willing to adjust to be submissive to listen to learn to adapt to his leading wherever it may go whether i'm comfortable happy or not But that is obedience. Job by now is beginning to see it and even at the end of his brief explanations is who can understand It's a good time to return to my opening statement. The study of Job is essentially the study of God.

46:01 It's essentially a study of God. I return again to Tozer. Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God. And the weightiest word in any language is its word for God. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology, but to practical Christian living as well. The Christian conception of God current in these years is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to moral calamity.

46:50 The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God. The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God in all her prayers and labors this should have first place. We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by passing on to them undimmed and undiminished that noble concept of God which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past. This will prove of greater value to them than anything that art or science can divide. Thanks. Train yourself to think theologically. Make it a determined purpose. to think God's thoughts as you practice, I don't know.

47:59 That's where faith steps in. What I cannot prove, and his word states, I believe. even if I cannot explain it or in human terms defend it I believe it Let's bow our heads together. you've been very gracious to sit and to listen. Not an easy sermon to preach and an even harder one to hear. From the profound life of a remarkable suffering man, there emerges a story of life today. a life that includes tragedies, heartaches, heartbreaks, the permissive will of God allowing events of evil to transpire as evil men and women plan against good things and even innocent lives like children.

49:17 You don't have to understand. But having come to an end of your own ability to explain, you must accept at that point, faith somewhere fits into this equation. and I trust him whose ways are higher than mine.

49:46 Though mysterious, I still believe he is good. Though inscrutable, I still believe God has integrity. Though the story doesn't end happily ever after, I still believe he is a God of grace. The cross looms large on the horizon as you look toward the future.

50:17 And you must, each one of us must come to terms with it. Its message is a message of obedience, where the Son of God took the sins of the world and own them. who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, the sacred text says.

50:47 Your way to God, not understanding all about him, but having a relationship with him, must take you through the cross, where you acknowledge that your sins were paid for as well, and you trust him to take you where you cannot go on your own. to a place of forgiveness in this life and to eternal heaven in the next one. Believe today. Trust Him now. behold our father we have touched only the fringes of your ways we have heard only a faint word were you to reveal it all who could possibly take it in who could survive we hold you in awesome adoration we sit before you in silent respect.

51:58 Forgive us for filling spaces with meaningless words and attempting to justify your hand when you need no defender. I pray that you will help us as our paths cross the jobs of our lives or as we endure them ourselves to be more gracious and less dogmatic to be quicker to say we're here, but we can't explain all the whys. may we remember Lord that you are the father we are the children you are the Lord we are the servants as we're dismissed today our father from this time of worship give us comfort in knowing that he who is inexplicable and inscrutable and unfathomable loves us cares for us and of all things has provided a way to know him thank you for christ who loved us and gave himself for us and becoming a man he identified with our ways.

53:25 thank you for the path you have opened to heaven by faith. We walk it confident in Christ and not of ourselves. In his matchless name we pray. Everyone said amen.

53:49 The preceding message, the futility of unscrewing.