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He is against me; seeking grounds of strife,

That He may count me as His enemy;

My feet He setteth fast within the stocks,

And taketh observation of my ways'.

`Behold, thou art not just: I answer thee:

HOW GREAT IS GOD COMPARED WITH MORTAL MAN?

Why, then, 'gainst Him didst thou dare make complaint,

That by no word of His He answ'reth thee?'

(Job. 33:8-13, Metrical Version of The Companion Bible).

Job, afflicted by a discipline the causes of which were hidden from his eyes, contends with God, and when the

Lord does speak to him, He says to Job:

`Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it' (Job 40:2).

What a title for Job, `He that REPROVETH God'! His only answer is, `Behold I am vile'.

`Then answered Job, and to Jehovah said: -

"I know, I know, that THOU canst all things do:

No purposes of THINE can be withstood.

[Thou askedst (38:3; 40:2)] -

`Who is this that counsel hides,

And darkens all, because of knowledge void?'

`tis I! I uttered things I could not know;

Things far too wonderful, beyond my ken.

Hear now, I pray thee: let me speak this once.

[Thou saidst (40:2)]: -

`'tis I who ask thee: Answer me.'

I heard of Thee with by hearing of the ear,

But now mine eye hath seen Thee, I abhor

[Myself]. In dust and ashes I repent"'.

(Job. 42:1-6. Metrical Version of The Companion Bible.)

A modern example of this sceptical criticism, the product of failure to discern the plan of the ages, is that

expressed in a poem of T. Hardy:

`I have finished another year', said God,

`In grey, green, white and brown;

I have strewn the leaf upon the sod,

Sealed up the work within the clod

And let the last sun down'.

`AND WHAT'S THE GOOD OF IT?' I said.

While the age is set in the heart of man, and he is prevented from knowing what God doeth from the beginning

unto the end, he only hears with the ear; he knows in part. To jump to conclusions, to construct theories, to attempt

to pass the limits of revelation, is to be made ashamed of our words when we `see Him'.  Far better to heed the

teaching of Koheleth, and fill our humble sphere with contentment. Does not the apostle, when writing to the

Thessalonians, take the same line? They had been shaken in mind concerning the Day of the Lord. Paul instructs

them concerning such deep things as the manifestation of the Man of Sin, but does not leave them until, like

Koheleth, he comes down to everyday life, and says:

`We command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with

they work, and

their own bread'

(2 Thess. 3:12).