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The First Law of the Universe mobile index

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: The First Law of the Universe ------------------- Date: 9/5/2002
Keywords: "God" "submit"
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Passage: Job 38:4-7* mobile index

4. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding

5. Who set its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched the line on it?

6. "On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone

7. When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Question mobile index

These verses from the book of Job quote God! He is asking Job some pointed questions about Job’s working knowledge of the universe? What do you think is God’s "point" in asking these questions?

 

Practical help mobile index

When God spoke to Job, we read that He spoke "out of the whirlwind." His pulpit was a tornado. We know — either from reports or from the terror of first hand experience — how loud tornadoes are. Well, God’s voice drowned out the sound of the tornado!

In this speech, God is impressing on Job the first law of the universe, which is: THERE IS A GOD, AND JOB, YOU ARE NOT "IT."

The lessons God seeks to impress on Job concern His right to rule the earth as He sees fit. God isn’t trying to change Job’s mind. He is explaining to him how the universe works. God’s rulership is not subject to majority vote, and He is never up for re-election. He is the supreme potentate and sovereign of the universe He has created.

What is striking is that the evidence God brings to the table to convince Job of this fact is His awesome majesty as seen in the wonders of the natural world.

This sense of awe and worship comes when we thoughtfully look at majestic mountains, or gaze at desolate wastelands, look at the endless waves of the ocean, or view the delicate beauty of flower. That awe can overwhelm us when we consider the creativity that formed the human body, the Divine playfulness that made the majestic elk and the comical squirrel, the power involved in the creation of our sun, and the attention to detail reflected in the infinite variety of snowflakes.

Job’s lesson in "theology" is not over, though. In Job chapters 38-40, God calls to mind a variety of animals with which Job would have been familiar. These animals defy human understanding or taming. God names the wild donkey and the wild ox, the ostrich and the horse, the hawk.

Then, in even more detail He describes the hippopotamus (Behemoth) and the crocodile (Leviathan). God says that the hippo "is the first of the ways of God." (Job 40:19). And, of the croc, God remarks that no one dares to stand before him and fight — so who would even think about opposing God, the Creator of the crocodile!?

The first of the ways of God is His power, His strength, His sovereignty, His uncompromising authority, His transcendence.

Something good for those who struggle with porn to reckon with — God is not to trifled with! He rules and has set standards of purity to which we, His people, are to conform.

There is a God — and we are not "it." This God has said that we are to pursue purity. So, as my friends in the military say, our job is to "salute smartly" — and then do whatever it takes to obey God’s command.

For you that might involve getting help, enlisting prayer support, hiring a "Net Nanny" or moving the computer into the family room.

(This God who rules, by the way, is also the God who loves you with a passion that won’t let go. His will for your purity is BEST for you!)

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."