Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

I am on a trip. Reading trip. Through the Bible in a year - using a plan from the good folks at:

BibleGateway.com

I have been reading in the book of Job for some time now, and it can be agonizing to read the interactions between Job and his 'friends.'

But it really gets rolling when God begins to speak. Wow - I love the imagery that is used. God basically leaves no room for response - His opening question would silence most of us: ""Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?"

We have all had to use versions of this approach in our conversations with each other, but of course, we have to soften it a bit if we expect the conversation to continue... God gets to lay it out cold like that. And if God came along and asked that question, directed at you or me, what would be our response?

God has a history of not pulling punches. Even when the communication is non-verbal. For example, think of what God was saying when He sent Jesus to die on the cross. It can be boiled down to this:
"You are cut off from me because of your sins. But I want you badly enough that I will pay the biggest price ever paid to bring you back to me."

So many people tune out at any suggestion that they are less than perfect, and here is God, basically typing in all caps, that we are sinners. Wow - what an old-fashioned word that is. But it's power cannot be denied: we are dead without God. Lifeless. Cut off. Separated, useless, worthless to all but Him. And yet the value He places in us drove Him to offer a sacrifice which none of us could ever come close to offering.

Thanks Father God, for caring, loving, and buying us back.