God’s Role in the Cosmos (RJS)

Last updated on: January 8, 2013 at 5:57 am by RJS

God’s Role in the Cosmos (RJS) 2013-01-08T05:51:39-06:00 RJS

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We’ve taken a bit of a break from the series on the book of Job – but today we return and begin to dig into the debate between Job and his friends. The new commentaries by John Walton (Job (The NIV Application Commentary)) and Tremper Longman III (Job (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms)), both their agreements and their differences, help us explore the ways that the book of Job challenges our comfortable presuppositions.

There are a number of different points that could be raised from Job 4-14, the first of three cycles of speeches in the debate between Job and his friends. But I would like to concentrate on just two and look at them in separate posts. At many places in Job 4-14 (not to mention the rest of the book) Job or one of Job’s friends describes or assumes something about the role of God in the cosmos. Both Job and his friends see God as active, powerful, and wise. This is simply foundational to their view of the world. In Ch. 9:4-10 Job recounts part of his view of God in the cosmos (Translation from Longman pp. 163-4, 169):

He is wise of heart and strong in power;
    Who can press him and come out whole?
He can move mountains without them knowing,
    overturning them in his anger.
He causes the land to shake from its place
    and its pillars to shudder.
He speaks to the sun, and it does not rise;
    he seals up the stars.
He alone stretched out the heavens
    and trod on the high places of the sea.
He is the maker of the Bear and Orion,
    and the Pleiades and the chambers of the south.
He is the maker of great things that are beyond understanding
    and marvelous things that are without count.

Job’s use of cosmic geography here is grounded in his ancient Near Eastern (ANE) understanding of the earth and the skies. God controls the earth on its pillars. He controls the rising of the sun, he seals up the stars, shutting them out if he wishes, he stretched out the heavens and he tamed the seas. John Walton suggests that this hymn in 9:5-9 elaborates on God’s superiority and on the way that God “uses all the cosmos as a weapon against those who oppose him” (p. 170). Longman has a slightly different take on the passage, but sees the references as an expression of God’s sovereignty and control over all of creation from the heavens to the earth to the chaos of the sea. Here and elsewhere in Ch. 4-14 there are (or may be) references or allusions to a variety of different ANE gods and stories and God is supreme over all of these other powers.

In Ch. 10 Job describes humans in general (v. 3), and himself in particular (8-11), as the work of God’s hand. It is not simply Adam who was formed from the clay and dust – according to Job’s ANE view of the world the same is true of himself and every other human. (Longman p. 166, p. 178)

Your hands shaped and made me,
    but now you turn and swallow me up.
Please remember that you made me like clay;
    will you return me to dust?
Do you not pour me out like milk,
    curdle me like cheese?
You clothed me in skin and flesh;
    you knit me together with bones and sinews.

In his third response Ch. 12: 7-10 Job calls the natural world as witness to his view of the universe, the way things should be and the way they are. (Longman p. 194, p. 201)

Only ask the beasts, and they will teach you,
    the birds in the sky, and they will inform you.
Or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
    the fish of the sea will recount to you.
Who does not know all these things,
    that the hand of Yahweh has done this?
The breath of all living things is in his hand,
    the spirit of all human flesh.

Again this accords with an ANE view of the world and of the divine. It is interesting that this passage is the only use of the divine name YHWH in the poetical bulk of Job (it occurs as well in the prose prologue and epilogue), although neither Walton not Longman attach any significance to this.

God’s Active Role in the Cosmos. Walton looks at these passages and especially the poetic hymn in 9:5-14 and notes that we see “a theological understanding of God’s pervasive role in the universe” in the way the book of Job refers to God and to creation.

In the ancient (and biblical) worldview, there was no divide between natural and supernatural. One could not speak of “natural laws”; what we identify as natural laws only take on their “lawlike” quality because God acts so consistently in the operations of the cosmos. He has made the cosmos intelligible and has given us minds that can penetrate some of its mysteries.

…

In the minds of the ancients, the gods did not “intervene” because such thinking would assume a realm of activity apart from them, which they could step into and out of. The Israelites, along with everyone else in the ancient world, believed instead that every event was the act of the deity; every plant that grew, every baby born, every drop of rain, and every climatic disaster was an act of God. No “natural” laws governed the cosmos; the deity ran the cosmos or was inherent in it. There were no “miracles” (in the sense of events deviating from that which was “natural”), only signs of the deity’s activity (sometimes favorable, sometimes not). There is nothing “natural” about the world. Our theology needs to adjust to this alternative way of thinking in order for us to recover an appreciation of an active God. (Walton p. 191-192)

The view that Job and his friends have of the universe, and of the active and sovereign role that God plays in the cosmos, runs deep throughout the book of Job. It shapes the response to suffering and to the deep conviction they all have that the retribution principle ought to be active at all times. Everything that happens, good or evil, pleasure or suffering, comes from the hand of God. In order to understand the book of Job we need to understand this mindset. Walton suggests, and I agree, that our theology needs to adjust itself back to this frame of reference. Our description of the world and of the processes active in the world should not be divided into two categories, either an act of God or a natural process. Rather, God is active in every natural process (including, for example, the course of evolution). There are specific signs of God’s activity as he relates to his people. The miracles of Jesus reported in the Gospels, for example, are demonstrations of God’s activity through Jesus. But God is active in everything, not just these apparent “interventions” and we misunderstand the miracles if we misunderstand this point.

Should we separate natural process from divine action?

Is this separation an advance of modern science or a flaw in our theology?

If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail[at]att.net.

If interested you can subscribe to a full text feed of my posts at Musings on Science and Theology.

Creation

Job

Previous Post

January 8, 2013

Divine Weapons

Next Post

January 8, 2013 Paradoxes for Women

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Philippians, what does Paul say he has learned in any and every situation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

To give thanks To be content To pray without ceasing To trust God