Job 35

Poor Elihu. Every time he opens his mouth, he proves yet again how much he doesn’t know about God. In this chapter, he picked up on one of the previous arguments made by Job’s friends and carries it a bit further: “Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you. If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.” (vs 5-8)

I think this is what Satan would like us to believe about God—that He is distant, that He is unaffected, that He doesn’t care. But that picture of God does not stand up to the rest of the Bible. God has a heart, and it bleeds all over the pages of Scripture:

“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” (Gen 6:5-6)

“‘Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I, [Solomon], am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.” (1 Kgs 3:7-10)

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zeph 3:17)

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart recoils within me; all my compassion is aroused.” (Hos 11:8)

God, unaffected? Hardly! Everything we do affects Him! This is one of the reasons I believe God made us to be creators of little people in our own image. When we have children, we immediately understand that God could never be distant or standoffish with His creatures. He is deeply concerned about us, about everything we do and everything we go through. Our wickedness as well as our righteousness affects Him in a major way.

Several years ago, one of our local high school vice principals lost his 2-year-old daughter to cancer. At the time, I was a new mom, and even now as an old mom, I can’t imagine the awfulness of losing a child! I don’t even want to think about what it would be like. But I think that anybody who loses a child in this world has a special insight into the heart of God. They know what it’s like to be forced to say goodbye—even when it’s not what they want. They know what it’s like to be willing to do anything—even give up their own life—in order to help their child, but to no avail.

And they will be able to sympathize with God one day as He is forced to give up and let go of all of His children who don’t want to have any part of eternity. Parents who have gone through the grief of losing a child will be able to comfort God in a special way as He mourns the loss of His own children. What a heart-wrenching experience that is going to be!

So, you may say a lot of things about God, but don’t ever say that God doesn’t have a heart. He does, and it beats for you.

Every. Single. Day.