13 “With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. 14 “Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 15 “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth. 16 “With Him are strength and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader belong to Him.” (Job 12:13–16, NASB 95)
This passage gives us a vision of God we don’t normally think of. Don’t get me wrong. He’s the same God. I’m simply saying this picture of God may present itself as harsher than we’re used to.
But this is still God.
This is no impotent grandfather. This is the Almighty potentate of the universe. Whatever He puts His mind to will materialize just as He imagines it.
Howso, you may ask?
We find two ways presented in this passage in which God acts as the sovereign Ruler of the universe: He knows everything and He can do anything.
God is all-knowing.
As this passage explains, He has “wisdom,” “counsel” and “understanding.” What does that means?
It means God knows everything that is knowable. He doesn’t have to look down the corridor of time to see what’s going to happen. He already knows in His sovereign wisdom how everything will unfold. The future doesn’t exist outside of God. Our future is incubated in the mind of God.
Not only this, but God knows what is best. If you notice, every one of these actions could be viewed in positive or negative ways. If something is torn down, God knows in His wisdom that is best. A person could be jailed. God is able to rightly determine his fate. Whether draught or flood, God knows what is best.
Which brings us to our second thought…
God is all-powerful.
Our misconceptions of God are bludgeoned into submission when we realize how powerful, both potentially and actually, God is. He is able to do whatever He wants and whatever needs done. And He never makes a mistake.
Take the scenarios in this verse that we’ve already looked at. Regardless of the situation, the wisdom of God is perfect in allowing things to happen. Take the “misled” and the “misleader,” for example. They are His. That means he could strike manipulating people out of existence. Instead, He sometimes allows bad people to be bad.
Why?
This is a difficult question to answer. However, we can easily put it in perspective by asking a simple question.
Have you ever done something wrong? Have you ever hurt someone, even accidently? Can you imagine if God held that against you and struck you out of existence as soon as you committed that hurtful act?
We can’t know for sure what goes on in the mind of God. After all, He is the one with “all wisdom.” We can say for sure that He acts out of mercy and, at the same time, justice. Many times He pours out His grace to sinners. At some point He in His wisdom will punish those who need punishing.
The point is God sovereignly brings about situations that His wisdom deems necessary for that moment. Even difficult situations come about because God in His wisdom decides they are necessary.
Once again, don’t get me wrong. He doesn’t author evil. He wouldn’t be just if He did that. There’s plenty of evil in this world without God making it up. He simply works everything into His plan to bring about our best good and His greatest glory.
So What?
In our limited human wisdom, we may wonder why God allows certain things to happen within the context of His sovereign plan. What we must keep in mind is that God is always wise and is always able to do what must be done.
We must simply trust that He is wise enough and powerful enough to deal with the situation in a way that will bring about our best good and His greatest glory.
After all, wasn’t it God who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to die on a cruel cross on behalf of sinners? God in His wisdom by His power orchestrated a situation that looked like failure and through it saved those who believe.
Only a wise, powerful, just and yet merciful God could do that. Have you believed in that powerful and wise God?
Journeys of a Former Firebrand 
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