Friday, July 03, 2009

The lesson of Job

"God in his wisdom has done things in the way that he has. We cannot stand in judgment of that, and we cannot expect to understand it all. We can still explore the what and the how questions, but the why will always lie beyond our understanding and beyond our models. Relative to God, as humans we are by definition simplistic. We must also remember some of the key lessons of Scripture. In our weakness he is strong. He can use suffering to strengthen our character. He can use evil to accomplish good (precisely the nature of the discussion in the book of Habakkuk). God's sovereignty is demonstrated in that whatever personal or nonpersonal agents do, God takes it and turns it to his purpose."—The Lost World of Genesis One, page 134 (italics his).

<idle musing>
This is not a cop-out; it is a statement of fact. We are created, finite beings. God is infinite and uncreated. All of our models are missing something, simply because we are finite. Why then, are we surprised when our models fail? We can't even predict the weather accurately an hour in advance; how can we expect to explain creation?
</idle musing>

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