Sometimes, as I make my way through my reading plan in the morning, two of the passages on my list may seem to compliment each other . . . and sometimes they just seem to “collide.” This morning, I encountered a collision . . .

I’m continuing to work my way through Job’s great debate. Job, a righteous man like no other of his time . . . a man who, by God’s own testimony within His heavenly “inner circle”, is declared to be “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8, 2:3). And Job’s debate is waged on two fronts. On the one front, Job goes back and forth with a trio of less-than-comforting comforters who insist that Job must deserve the devastation he has encountered. On the other front, and much more frustrating for Job, is the debate he wages with a God who remains silent. Job desires, and often demands, an audience with the One who has “closed His net about me . . . has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass . . . has set darkness upon my paths . . . has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head . . . has kindled His wrath against me and counts me as His adversary” (Job 19:6-11). But for all of Job’s “why’s?” and “how come’s?”, heaven remains silent . . . nothing . . . zilch . . . nada . . . “Behold I cry out . . . but I am not answered” (19:7).

So, here’s a blameless righteous man bearing unimaginable affliction with absolutely no clue as to why . . . with no communication (yet) from the One who knows why . . . dealing with the valley’s of life as a mystery . . . not knowing why or for what purpose. Next reading . . . bring on “the collision” . . .

The book of Daniel presents another guy . . . not so righteous . . . in fact a barbaric, violent, ruthless, self-absorbed, megalomaniac king who is his own god. And for this guy, there seems to be a direct hotline set up from heaven itself. The “guy” is King Nebuchadnezzar . . . the “hotline” is Daniel . . . and the reasons for his “ups and downs” are clear “that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4:17, 25, 32). Like Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar goes through the ringer, too. Driven from among men . . . reduced to life as a beast . . . eating grass like an ox . . . his body wet with dew . . . his hair growing as long as eagle’s feathers . . his nails as long as bird’s claws . . . off his throne . . . and off his rocker! (4:33). But he was given advance notice as to the reasons why.

You read Daniel and you see God’s determination to reveal Himself to this pagan king. God shows Himself as the God who “reveals mysteries” (2:29, 47) when Daniel accurately relays to the king the details of the kings first dream and its meaning. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to the king’s idol, God “visibly” shows up as the fourth man in the fire, making known that He is the God who delivers, . . . the king correctly concluding, “there is other god who is able to rescue in this way” (3:29). And this morning, in Daniel 4, the king is informed beforehand of what will befall him and for what purpose . . . that he would know that ‘the Most High rules.”

And I sit back and ask, “How come?” How come Job, the righteous man, is put through the ringer and doesn’t hear a peep from heaven (yet)? How come Nebuchadnezzar, the creep, who deserves everything coming to him, is given a personal tutor to spell it all out for him and lead him, almost hand-in-hand, to the very footstool of the throne of the Most High God?

And in this “collision” between the stories of these two men, there is one Sovereign God who works His purposes in His way. The degree and the timing as to when and how He reveals the mysteries of life are at His discretion. Ultimately, however, it all serves to make Him known . . . to reveal His glory . . . and to declare His amazing grace.

And I shouldn’t be “more amazed” at the grace shown to “the creep” than I am to the “blameless and upright” man. Both are sons of Adam . . . both in need of God getting their attention . . . both needing to come to a place where, before the throne of Mighty God, they bow their knees and adoringly submit themselves to the God Most High. Hmmm . . . maybe not such a collision after all . . .