Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Oh, how I wish that God would speak,
    that he would open his lips against you
and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom,
    for true wisdom has two sides.
    Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
    Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
    They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
Their measure is longer than the earth
    and wider than the sea.

• Job 11:5-9

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
    or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
    or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature
    and the breath of all mankind.
Does not the ear test words
    as the tongue tastes food?
Is not wisdom found among the aged?
    Does not long life bring understanding?

• Job 12:7-12

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

• 2 Timothy 2:23

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

• 1 Peter 2:15

The Boilerplate

My wife started to write her thoughts down at one point in her life.  Some hints point to 2018 and 2019, after she had her open-heart surgery.  In spite of her trials and the atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) that required her to take blood thinners, this was before her major health decline.

Sometimes, she wrote a thought.  Other times, she wrote a Bible verse, and maybe her idea on that day.  Other times, it is a prayer, but I am going to take one entry at a time and try to write about it

Her comment

“Job declares, ‘Ask the animals and they will teach you, or birds in the sky and they will tell you.  Animals testify to this: that God designed, cares for, and controls His creation.  In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

In her notebook, my wife had Job 11:5-9 written, followed by the quote, which is a paraphrase of Job 12:7-12.

Job 11:5-9 is part of Zophar’s argument about what we do not know and can never know.

Understand that Job is a hard book to read.  Job is suffering.  We learn from the first two chapters that Job is “blameless.”  This does not mean sinless, but no one can find any blame in Job.  This suffering is a test of faith.

But his three friends arrive: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  All three torment Job with questioning what sin caused this suffering.  The pop psychology of the day, today as well as when this book was written, is that you suffer, thus, there is sin you need to confess.  Each ‘friend’ takes turns accusing Job, just coming at the accusation from a variety of angles.

My wife was accosted by someone who came well after polite society knows to not visit, and she was accused of not being a Christian, not going to heaven, and being eternally damned simply because she suffered.  The accuser should read the book of Job and at the end, God chastises Job’s friends for not being friendly and not supporting Job.

But I had to hold her and comfort her and pray her off her spiritual ledge.  She kept asking if the “spawn of Satan” in our midst that night might be right.  Satan is the accuser.  Satan is a liar.  When God has forgiven our sins, He no longer sees them.  But God tests our faith, just as God allowed Satan to afflict Job to test his faith.

But what prompted my wife to write Zophar’s argument (at least a piece of it) and Job’s response?  We had family members that attacked our faith.  She had friends with whom she tried to witness, and they attacked the Bible, her faith, and the existence of Jesus in general – yet they were members of the church.

In this little note, my wife was saying, “The animals understand.  Why can’t these non-believers understand?”

Over those two groups, my wife talked a great deal, and their arrows shot in her direction piercing her heart.

I can see her having fought the battle, blindsided by non-believer attacks, picking at straws.  She studied and researched the answer to the question or accusation, but I am sure that the next time she got with them, they would never return to the old argument.  They would know that she was well-armed for that argument.  They would have something new.

That is why Paul told Timothy not to enter into foolish arguments.  But my wife’s love for these people superseded Paul’s wise counsel.  And when we go against wise counsel, do we lose the protection that Peter talked about?

But from where does the modern foolish argument stem?  Just because you have a PhD, it does not mean that you cannot be foolish.  And when a special interest group badgers you for an answer or a politician demands that their preconceived notion be validated, with promise of a large college grant…

I have heard each of those “reasons” for some of the present insanity, but I have no proof.  Of course not.  Evil knows how to cover its tracks.

But that leaves people like my wife, dying a little each day, trying to answer foolish questions that are offered by fools who would never understand her answer anyway.

But God can penetrate the fog of secular progressivism and the other skeptical arguments.

And sometimes the answer is that you pray your hardest and you weep your bitterest tears in vain.  It is as if they want God to say, “Depart from me.  I never knew you.”

Sometimes, we love people unconditionally, and we must understand that they have not the capacity to reciprocate.

But now, with my wife at the feet of Jesus, she understands.  All her tears are wiped away, and she has no more pain, including the pain of people she loved not understanding the mysteries of God.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory