One of the most pressing issues in the book of Job the whole question of “Why”. Why is Job hauled through such a harrowing experience? Why is this upright man of integrity and faithfulness suffering so desperately? Why is God allowing this to happen? Why….?

And yet this question is not directly answered. At least not in a neat and clearly satisfying way. For many readers of this book, the questions remain- even multiply.

As Job begins to recount the works of God in Job 26, the chapter ends with this admission concerning God’s activity:

"And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (Job 26:14).

Job reminds us that there are mysteries of God that none of us can fathom. Even when we have understood something of the greatness of the Lord's wisdom and majesty, this still does not explain all of His ways.

Ray Stedman points us to a poem by Robert Browning called "Bishop Blougram's Apology". This poem speaks of an arrogant young man who feels as though he has God all figured out. He feels he has all the answers and decides that there is no place for God in his life. He is sure that can handle it all himself. He visits old bishop and tells him he does not need God any longer; he is committed to his unbelief. The old bishop warns him:

"Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch,
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death,
A chorus-ending from Euripides,—
And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears...
The Grand Perhaps."

Stedman writes:

What he means is that just when you think you have God all worked out, something happens that you can't handle—it doesn't fit your box. You see a sunset that is so moving that it awakens depths in you that you can't explain. Someone dies, and you don't know how to handle it. You see a flower, and you are touched by it. You listen to a chorus-ending from Euripides, and it moves you in such a strange way, it doesn't fit the facts. And in all these ways God is breaking through into our lives—the grand perhaps, and that's enough for fifty hopes and fears—the great mystery of God.

For some, God's mysteries become a stumbling block and a convenient reason to push truth away. And yet when we realise that we cannot put God in a box- he is far too glorious and beyond our measure for that- we are recognising the awesome incomprehensibility of our God who graciously makes himself known as the awesome Creator. He is our merciful Saviour, our safe refuge, our Heavenly Father, our Sovereign Lord. 

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever" (Deut 29:29)