Acts 17:24-28
God Made the World and Everything in It
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Colossians 1:16
God Made Everything in the World
16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
John 1:3
God Made All Things
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Romans 11:35-36
God Made All Things
35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Job 9:1-35
How Does Man Prove His Innocence Before God
1 Then Job replied:
2
“Indeed, I know that this is true.
But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?
3
Though they wished to dispute with him,
they could not answer him one time out of a thousand.
4
His wisdom is profound, his power is vast.
Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?
5
He moves mountains without their knowing it
and overturns them in his anger.
6
He shakes the earth from its place
and makes its pillars tremble.
7
He speaks to the sun and it does not shine;
he seals off the light of the stars.
8
He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.
9
He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
10
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
11
When he passes me, I cannot see him;
when he goes by, I cannot perceive him.
12
If he snatches away, who can stop him?
Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13
God does not restrain his anger;
even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet.
14
“How then can I dispute with him?
How can I find words to argue with him?
15
Though I were innocent, I could not answer him;
I could only plead with my Judge for mercy.
16
Even if I summoned him and he responded,
I do not believe he would give me a hearing.
17
He would crush me with a storm
and multiply my wounds for no reason.
18
He would not let me catch my breath
but would overwhelm me with misery.
19
If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty!
And if it is a matter of justice, who can challenge him?
20
Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty.
21
“Although I am blameless,
I have no concern for myself;
I despise my own life.
22
It is all the same; that is why I say,
‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23
When a scourge brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24
When a land falls into the hands of the wicked,
he blindfolds its judges.
If it is not he, then who is it?
25
“My days are swifter than a runner;
they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
26
They skim past like boats of papyrus,
like eagles swooping down on their prey.
27
If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will change my expression, and smile,’
28
I still dread all my sufferings,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29
Since I am already found guilty,
why should I struggle in vain?
30
Even if I washed myself with soap
and my hands with cleansing powder,
31
you would plunge me into a slime pit
so that even my clothes would detest me.
32
“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,
that we might confront each other in court.
33
If only there were someone to mediate between us,
someone to bring us together,
34
someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so that his terror would frighten me no more.
35
Then I would speak up without fear of him,
but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
Job 41:1-34
God Finishes Talking with Job
1 "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he keep begging you for mercy?
Will he speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will he make an agreement with you
for you to take him as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on him,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing him is false;
the mere sight of him is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 "I will not fail to speak of his limbs,
his strength and his graceful form.
13 Who can strip off his outer coat?
Who would approach him with a bridle?
14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth,
ringed about with his fearsome teeth?
15 His back has rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 His snorting throws out flashes of light;
his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Firebrands stream from his mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from his mouth.
22 Strength resides in his neck;
dismay goes before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 His chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before his thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches him has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron he treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make him flee;
slingstones are like chaff to him.
29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw;
he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 His undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is his equal—
a creature without fear.
34 He looks down on all that are haughty;
he is king over all that are proud."
Job 42:1-6
Job Replies to God's Questions
Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
G. K. Chesterton was once asked by a London newspaper to join other authors and thinkers to address the weighty and important question of "what's wrong with the world."...His response: back was Dear Sirs, I am...Sincerely, G. K. Chesterton...
God made the world and everything in it...And we know that God is LOVE...And these two things are sometimes hard to reconcile, when we hear the comments or questions of "I cannot accept a God who allows children to suffer", "The God of the Old Testament is harsh, cruel, and very tough", "If there is a God He would step in and stop all the suffering and injustice", "It is clear to me that the universe is the product of random processes-of time plus chance-nothing more."...Or the only thing in the universe and man is a product of random evolution...
Is God's will and what He is doing unfair?...After all, those who believe in God and that He created and made everything in the world, believes that His will does in fact get done...
Job, although he wasn't a child, he suffered very much and he was a good man...He was a man of God, and believed in God...And Job is an important book in the Bible and is still relevant today, because all of suffer from problems or grief at one point or time in our lives...Job has said he has been innocent of things...Job asks, "How can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?"...Job says "Though I were innocent, I could not answer Him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy...And when God comes to Job, He does not answer one of Job's questions...What our LORD does is ask Job many questions...And Job cannot think of one answer to any of His many questions...Job has professed his innocence from the start, and Job has his chance to prove his innocence if he can just answer some of the questions from God...Maybe if he can answer just one question, God will grant him his innocence...God has given Job the forum he has ask for...And he doesn't even give God a partial answer...Earlier Job had wanted to know why God does not answer him...Job in a sense has put God on trial in his long dialogue...When God comes, Job sees who the Creator is, and who is Almighty...He knows he has no answers before God...Because God is God...Job in his earlier dialogue may have been showing some pride, with his talk of being innocent...Job has never lost this much in his life...Job has never suffered physically so much...And now Job has learned a great lesson...The problem Job has is not God, it is not those around him, the problem is Job...The problem with the world is not those and those things around us, it is us...His friend's cannot solve this problem...Other people cannot solve this problem...Even Job cannot solve his problem...Only a Father and His Son can solve this issue...And when Job gives up defending himself and realizes that he cannot answer one question or do any of the things (in all that God has ask him), he turns completely to God...Job repents in his dust and ashes...Now God can start healing Job...