PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Job 38:4-70 Who do you think you are?

Time to reflect: This is a part of a long speech by God putting Job in his place: Job, so self-righteous about disagreeing with God about how he had been treated had been second guessing God. God points out that the creator of the universe might have a different perspective and agenda than a mere mortal.

Moving through the day: How often do you second-guess God? How often is it based and particular and personal issues that might be at odds with the greater scheme of things?

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
       Tell me, if you understand.

 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
       Who stretched a measuring line across it?

  On what were its footings set,
       or who laid its cornerstone-

  while the morning stars sang together
       and all the angels shouted for joy?

 "Who shut up the sea behind doors
       when it burst forth from the womb,

  when I made the clouds its garment
       and wrapped it in thick darkness,

  when I fixed limits for it
       and set its doors and bars in place,

when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
       here is where your proud waves halt'?

  "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
       or shown the dawn its place,

  that it might take the earth by the edges
       and shake the wicked out of it?

 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
       its features stand out like those of a garment.

  The wicked are denied their light,
       and their upraised arm is broken.

  "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
       or walked in the recesses of the deep?

  Have the gates of death been shown to you?
       Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death ?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
       Tell me, if you know all this.

  "What is the way to the abode of light?
       And where does darkness reside?

 Can you take them to their places?
       Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

  Surely you know, for you were already born!
       You have lived so many years!

  "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
       or seen the storehouses of the hail,

  which I reserve for times of trouble,
       for days of war and battle?

 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
       or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

  Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
       and a path for the thunderstorm,

  to water a land where no man lives,
       a desert with no one in it,

  to satisfy a desolate wasteland
       and make it sprout with grass?

  Does the rain have a father?
       Who fathers the drops of dew?

  From whose womb comes the ice?
       Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

  when the waters become hard as stone,
       when the surface of the deep is frozen?

  "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
       Can you loose the cords of Orion?

  Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
       or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
       Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?

  "Can you raise your voice to the clouds
       and cover yourself with a flood of water?

  Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
       Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?

 Who endowed the heart with wisdom
       or gave understanding to the mind ?

 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
       Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

when the dust becomes hard
       and the clods of earth stick together?

"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
       and satisfy the hunger of the lions

when they crouch in their dens
       or lie in wait in a thicket?

Who provides food for the raven
       when its young cry out to God
       and wander about for lack of food?