Part 1 - What exactly is God doing?

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called What God is Doing?.

Can we say what God is doing or, must we remain clueless?

Looking at the world around us, it’s difficult to believe that God is doing anything? After all, human society seems to be quite busy in doing what it wants—killing, stealing, dealing drugs, waging war, abusing, raping, using profanity, kidnapping, lying, tyrannizing citizens, and so on. Wherever we turn, evil is before us!

Where is God? Is He “on vacation?” If so, is it temporary—or permanent? Does He even exist at all?

These inquires exasperate millions of poor souls. Some are genuinely seeking the truth; however, the majority, seem to be thoroughly content in ignorance. It’s ever so easy to get intertwined with the affairs of this life in the world. Therefore, in 2 Timothy 2, the Paul exhorts Timothy;

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; (so) that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier(2Timothy: 2:3,4).

Distractions abound, for Christian and non-Christian alike. Additionally, most are quite captivated in what we are doing—what we want, what we like, what we have, and so on. In all our hustle and bustle, do we ever bother to consider God’s desires? Have we contemplated what He would have us do? It is quite unlikely that most people have spent even five seconds asking these questions.

The Holy Bible is not an accident; it came by ‘special delivery,’ for a special reason. If we truly desire to know what God is doing (and yes, contrary to what we see in our circumstances, He does exist!), then we can open His Book and read to see what He is doing. Rather than being content sitting in ignorance, we must we endeavor to see what God is doing and what He would have us to do as well.

The Biblical Book of Job is one of the most well-known pieces of ancient world literature. Its protagonist, Job, although a righteous man, experiences disturbing troubles after God grants Satan permission to afflict Job (1:1-12; 2:1-6). Basically, wealthy Job then loses his oxen, his asses (donkeys), his sheep, his camels, his sons, his daughters, and his servants (1:13-22). His health fails as he suffers a plague of boils or sores (2:7-10). Remarkably, after these ordeals, Job is still faithful to God (1:22; 2:10).

Such bad news would send the ordinary person to abandon his faith in God, but Job will neither accuse God foolishly nor sin with his lips. He worships and declares; 

“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15)

“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.” (Job 2:11)

Most unfortunately, these three “friends” are, in Job’s own words, nothing but “miserable comforters” (16:2). They accuse him of all sorts of wrongdoing, that he is responsible for his troubles, and so on. Much of the Book of Job is he and his friends, along with a fourth man (Elihu), engaging in many, lengthy, theological squabbles. Zophar is the speaker in today’s Scripture. He essentially tells Job that he cannot know what God is doing—it is just too high, simply too deep, just too long, and simply too broad. My, oh my, what comfort indeed (NO!). Thank Almighty God we can understand (and in great detail!) what He is doing.

Early man knew only a fragment of what Almighty God was working to accomplish. We today, with the completed Bible canon in hand, can now see just how tiny their peak of knowledge was. This is because now, the entire Divine counsel has been disclosed, exposed for all to see if they want to see it. It has been proclaimed by Paul, “the Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13) for all to hear if they want to hear it, and available for all to read and believe if they want to read it and believe it!