Job 38:4–18; Psalm 18:1-16; Rom. 10:5–17; Matt. 14:22–33
(When you click on the above link you will be taken to a simple text version of all our weekend readings. There are two different translations so you can see some differences in the two versions I usually preach from. You are obviously more than welcome to get in a little Bible workout and use your first language translation or preferred version..)
We see question after question asked of Job by God. Each question should probably make us feel a little smaller and each question will drive us in one of two directions. The first direction is separation and disassociation. Where we stand back and look at the facts related to the situation. We read and observe and say, “Ah yes, God is like this and that and does this and that“. This would be the wrong conclusion to draw from this reading. Sure you can step back and do that later but on the first reading and the purpose of the passage is to keep you silent. God is calling all of us to task and forcing us to understand that He is not one that we will fully understand or for that matter control.
God is clearly knowable. He gave us his word. He spoke directly at/to Job. He want us to know who he is. However, he may not be knowable in the way we like for him to be. Like so many things in life we believe that once we have learned something we can have a touch of control over it. That is not our God.
Job responds in chapter forty, "I'm speechless, in awe - words fail me. I should never have opened my mouth! I've talked too much, way too much. I'm ready to shut up and listen.“ (The Message, Job 40.4-5)
The Psalm reading drops us into a song of thankfulness for God’s action on David’s behalf. David may not know every in-and-out of God’s actions in the world but he does know that God meets us in Salvation. He may not know why God chooses to save but he is faithful to his promises. And for David each and every time that he is saved in this way, which happens to be many for a man who is always finding himself with enemies and in much danger, he is reminded of the final salvation he will have on account of God and his work of Salvation.
The language at the end of our reading creates a call back to the Job passage. David describes his salvation as being pulled up out of the deep waters. God asked Job, “Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?“ David knows that depth only because he understands God’s Salvation. He knows what God desires him to know.
Before we touch on Romans lets make the obvious obvious. Jesus has control over the waters. Who has that power. Only the one who created them. Only the one who can also save from their depths. Jesus is the only one who could saved David and he is certainly the only one who could save Peter from falling to the depths.
Job called upon the name of the Lord. David called upon the name of the Lord. Peter called upon the name of the Lord. Paul tells us that everyone who does that is saved. They will not be put to shame.
Yet some are missing the point. Some are trying to understand and thus control the work of Christ, bringing him up or down to their understanding. And if you are attempting to rationalise Jesus or trying to spiritualise him you are missing the point that Jesus saves. And in the context of Paul’s argument in Romans 10, it does not matter whether you are from God’s first people or his collective people, “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ'“.
Jesus has the authority and power to pull anyone from the depths. The electing power of God is heard through His Word preached. That Word being the Good News of the Person and Work of Jesus. We cannot turn away from this because this is the way God has chosen to save.