Job 37:23
"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict," Job 37:23. Lord willing, today we will learn that God is Omnipotent. In Job:37:23, "the Almighty" is a masculine noun and name for God meaning Shaddai, Almighty. The word occurs only forty eight times in the Hebrew Bible, thirty one times in the book of Job. This is a name for the Lord- the O.T. people of faith referring to Him as El Shaddai, God Almighty. The term is found in the passages that report God's promises of fertility, land, and abundance to them, indicating that He, the Almighty, could fulfill His promises. The Lord appeared to Abraham when he was ninety nine years old and identified Himself as El Shaddai, God Almighty. All three patriarchs knew Him by this name; as did Joseph; Ezekiel the prophet knew the tradition of Shaddai as well. Balaam, Naomi, the psalmist, Joel, and Isaiah employed the term Shaddai, Almighty. But it is especially Job who uses the term appropriately as a non-Israelite, since it is a universal term for God. The God of the Bible is Omnipotent; He is All-Powerful.
Like all of God's other attributes, if He were not Omnipotent, He would cease to be God. If God was not Omnipotent, He would not be able to perform that which He promises, and that which He has decreed would not come to pass. We would have reason to be fearful with every step we take. But God is Omnipotent, which means He is able to perform that which He promises, and all that He has decreed will come to pass. As with His other attributes, God did not become all-powerful, He has always been all-powerful. His Omnipotence is Eternal. His Omnipotence is also Immutable. God is never more powerful at some times, and less powerful at other times; no, God is eternally Omnipotent. There is nothing and no one that adds to or takes away from Gods Omnipotence. God is all-powerful in and of Himself. God's power is like Himself, self-existent, self-sustained. "The mightiest of men cannot add to much as a shadow of increased power to the Omnipotent One. He sits on no buttressed throne and leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by His couriers, not does it borrow its splendor form His creatures. He is Himself the great central source and Originator of all power." C.H. Spurgeon.
In Job 37:23, the word "excellent" means mighty, and the words "in power" means force. Our God is excellent in power. How mighty in power is He? Job 37:23 says this, "touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out." Starting in Job 38, God speaks to Job and we find the Infinite giving examples to the finite. How mighty and powerful is our God? Here are a few Scriptures to look at. "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" Job 38:8-11. "O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? Or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them," Psalm 89:8-9. "The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever," Psalm 93.
Even though we cannot find out God, He has given us plenty of examples in the Scriptures of His Omnipotence. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," Genesis 1:1. "God of His own free will and by His absolute power called the universe into being, creating it out of nothing." Key Word Study Bible. We know that God spoke and it was so. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light," Genesis 1:3. This was not a suggestion, but a command by God. "Let there be" is a verb that is used to describe something that comes into being. There was nothing then there came into being whatever God commanded to come into being. God could have created everything at once, but instead He created everything in six days. "And God saw every thing that he had made, and , behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day," Genesis 1:31. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast," Psalm 33:6-9. Truly, we cannot fully understand the power of God.
How impotent is mankind? What have you created from nothing just by speaking? The answer is nothing. What can you create from nothing just by speaking? Again, the answer is nothing. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Daniel 4:35. "Well may all tremble before such a God! To treat with impudence one who can crush us more easily than we can a moth, is a suicidal policy. To openly defy Him who is clothed with omnipotence, who can rend us in pieces or cast us into Hell any moment He pleases, is the very height of insanity. To put it on its lowest ground, it is but the part of wisdom to heed His command, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little," Psalm 2:12." A.W. Pink.
For the Christian to gain understanding of the Omnipotent God is great comfort. We rest in God's Omnipotence when we read Scriptures like John 10:27-30, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." "The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid," Psalm 27:1. Our God takes care of us according to the pleasure of His will. When we better understand these truths, we worship Him and trust Him to provide for us. I want to encourage you to read Ephesians 3. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen," Ephesians 3:20-21.
The Christian rejoices in the Omnipotence of God, but the lost person should tremble. If you are not a Christian according to the Bible, I beg you to look to Jesus Christ's atoning death on the cross for forgiveness of your sins. Thank God for His grace. Send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com. Soli Deo Gloria.
