Today Elihu speaks and begins by rebuking Job’s friends and Job (ch.32, 33), then starts to lay out the case for God always being just and right. He then asks this question,
Who gave him charge over the earth,
and who laid on him the whole world?Job 34.13
I don’t know about you, but I like to watch travel programmes on tv, or cooking programmes that involve the host going off to some interesting place. Often this ends up in a country where the main religion is not Christianity, and there are often many little gods on show and being talked about. For me, when I see this I often wonder, ‘Who decided that he/she should be a god, who is the main god, what do they do, who made that god a god, you know, where did that god come from?‘
The difference with the God of the Bible, the God we worship as Christians is that nobody caused Him to be, He just is (Exodus 3.14). Without taking a deep dive, there is no story of how He came into being, He simply is, He is being itself, He is pure reality without which we would not be (if you want a deep dive, email me for a paper I wrote).
Friends, our God is not a shallow creation of man to satisfy the deep longing we have for something higher and greater. Nobody gave Him charge over the earth, nobody laid on Him the whole world. It all belongs to Him (Psalm 24.1), He made it all simply by declaring it into existence (Genesis 1). Nobody gave Him charge because He is already in charge, He is in control of all He made (Psalm 46.1, Philippians 4.6-7, Luke 12.22-26, Revelation 1.17), rest easy in this truth today.
James Travis 