“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a person’s hope.”
--- Job’s prayer to God in Job 14:18-19 (NIV)
When scientists study how things change, two ideas dominate: how quickly things change (rate) and the final state when changing stops (equilibrium). It is common to misunderstand and confuse the rate of change with the final, equilibrium state. For example, if the rate of change is very slow, the current state might be mistaken for the final, equilibrium state. One example of slow and steady change on a very large scale is erosion; the wearing away of solid rock by a combination of gravity, rain, ocean waves, ice, flowing water, and wind. Erosion is almost imperceptibly slow, but wind, streams, and rivers relentlessly wash away mountains to create spectacular valleys, gorges, and ravines, for example in the Grand Canyon.
All of us are tempted to find some security in our friendships, health, savings & investments, physical distance from unsafe areas, and other stuff that will ultimately disappoint us. These blessings can make us feel independent of God. Job reminds us that God graciously and persistently destroys our idols and reveals our empty hopes and false dreams. Job compares God’s ways to the progressive erosion of mountains to rocks to stones to soil. Throughout our lives, God slowly undermines our self-sufficiency to show our need for Him. His pace may be slow, but He is relentless, and His goal is certain. He wants us to know that wherever we seek hope and security beside Jesus is destined for destruction. Our final, eternal state depends on who we are we increasingly trusting and placing our faith in.
For all of us, there are at least a few areas in our lives where we continue to resist His calling. But God loves us too much to allow us to cling to undependable things that will break our heart and crush our soul. Sometimes mountains fall through the violence of earthquakes. At other times the slow trickle of a stream or the blowing wind wash away a mountain to merely more dust of the earth. The circumstances of our lives can be brutal or merely irritating, but God sovereignly orders His creation to redeem His people from sin for an eternity in heaven. Those who continue to resist His calling are heading toward a final, equilibrium state of hell. In the end, those are the only two final destinies for any one of us: heaven with God or eternally separated from Him in hell. With so much at stake, how much longer will we resist His calling on our lives when the final outcome is so clear? May God graciously continue to turn our minds and hearts toward what matters eternally, loving Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.