Job 11:7 Can you by searching find out God? can you find out the Almighty to perfection? Job, in the foregoing chapter, carried the justification of his integrity so far that he seemed to entrench somewhat rudely on the justice of providence. Zophar, therefore, to repress this insolence, and vindicate the Divine honour, lays before him the incomprehensibleness and majesty of God. I. ASSERT AND ILLUSTRATE THE DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT. That God is incomprehensible. If in the Godhead we gaze and pry too boldly into eternal generation and procession, and the ineffable unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it will but dazzle and confound our weak faculties. All the attributes of God are infinite in their perfection, and whosoever goes about to fathom what is infinite, is guilty of the folly of that countryman, in the poem, who sitting on the bank side, expects to see the stream run quite away, and leave its channel dry; but that runs on, and will do so to all ages. We cannot comprehend the whole extent of God's moral attributes. Though God were so far discoverable by the light of reason, as served to render the idolatry and wickedness of the pagan world inexcusable (Romans 1), yet God being infinite, and His perfections a vast abyss, there are therefore mysteries in the Godhead which human reason cannot penetrate, heights which we cannot soar. II. REFLECTIONS UPON THIS PROPOSITION. Use it — 1. To let out the tumour of self-conceit. 2. To justify our belief of mysteries. 3. To vindicate the doctrine of providence. The incomprehensibleness of God solves all the difficulties that clog the doctrine of providence. (Richard Lucas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?WEB: "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? |
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