ARRIVING AT THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
A. K. Turner
Job 42: 2, 8 (to “accept”); Ephesians 3: 20, 21
I am thinking of the way Job spoke of God, as having come to know Him, “I know that thou canst do everything”. He had arrived at that knowledge of God through deep experience. It is remarkable that we have this book of Job, quite a long book, a long record in regard to the history of one man, and particularly his soul history. So we have details of the calamities that came upon him, we have the record of his words as he went through that period of chastening under the hand of God, when God allowed him to be under the hand of Satan, but for his own instruction, that he might come to know God. What I believe to be, too, of very great interest is the way that God Himself spoke to him after Elihu’s faithful preaching, so that we have those chapters, 38 to 41, where God Himself is speaking to Job. God Himself speaking to one man in all these verses, because of His deep interest in him. His desire that Job might come to the end of himself, but see the end of the Lord.
I believe the end of the Lord was that he came to know God in this remarkable way, so that he can speak in this way, “I know that thou canst do everything”. What confidence he now had in God, that God could do everything—simple, complete confidence in God, “and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”. We use that in a hymn of worship—
‘We worship still, while gladdened hearts exclaim—
“Thou canst be hindered in no thought of Thine!”‘ (Hymn 406) God brought Job to that through this experimental process, of which we have such detail, and through speaking to Job of His greatness. We have no similar record in Holy Scripture to the way God spoke to Job as to His greatness in creation. How great our Creator is, dear brethren; how wonderful He is! God spoke to Job in detail as to some of the wonders of His creation, and He brought Job to know Himself in a way he had not known Him before. Job says, “Now mine eye seeth thee”. He came to know God, and he was a priest as having gone through this experimental process. In coming to know God he became a priest. God says, “for him will I accept”, a priest that God would accept. He had come to a knowledge of himself, and he had come to a knowledge of God. He not only knew that he was a sinner, but he had come to a knowledge of his sinful state, and he abhorred himself; but in coming to that, he came to know God. That is what I want to stress, that he came to know God, that God can do everything, and now he was a man who could pray, as knowing God.
I believe it is a time when we need to pray. There is much to pray for, beloved brethren, and I believe the blessed God would encourage us in prayer to Himself, as knowing Him, and in liberty before Him, taken into favour in the Beloved.
Paul was a very great man in his knowledge of God, and he says these words, “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think”. What words they are, beloved brethren! God is still able to do far exceedingly above all that we ask or think. So Paul knew his God. He knew the purposes of God, the love of God as revealed in Christ, and His power to work in us by His Spirit, “according to the power which works in us”. How wonderful that God is working in us! May His work go on in us in view of the end, and He is able for it.
But I think Paul would encourage us on the line of prayers, and I must say how feeble my prayers seem as I think of the prayers of the beloved apostle, the height of them, you might say, the depth of them, the depth of his feelings as he bows his knees to the Father. But the God he knew, and in whom he believed. Paul had confidence was “able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think”. May we have more confidence in Him, and may we be encouraged as to prayer. Some of us maybe have more time for prayer than others, but may we be engaged in it the more as we consider what God is able to do, the way He is able to complete
matters in spite of the mountains that appear as obstacles. God is able to complete things for His own glory, and He is working in us to that end. May the work go on, for His own glory, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Word in meeting for ministry, Redbridge
1 January 1985