Our Daily Bread 30 January 2019 Devotional – Algae and Diatoms

Bible in a Year: Exodus 23–24; Matthew 20:1–16

Key Verse: Stop and consider God’s wonders. – Job 37:14

Today’s Scripture: Job 37:14–24 (NIV)

Message: “What’s a diatom?” I asked my friend. I was leaning over her shoulder looking at pictures on her cell phone she had taken through a microscope. “Oh, it’s like algae, but it’s harder to see. Sometimes you need a drop of oil on the lens or they have to be dead to see them,” she explained. I sat amazed as she scrolled through the pictures. I couldn’t stop thinking about the intricate detail God put into life that we can only see with a microscope!

God’s creation and works are endless. In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends, Elihu, points this out to Job as he struggles through his loss. Elihu challenges his friend, “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders. Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?” (Job 37:14–16). We, as humans, can’t begin to understand the complexity of God and His creation.

Our Daily Bread 30 January 2019 Devotional – Algae and Diatoms

Even the parts of creation we can’t see reflect God’s glory and power. His glory surrounds us. No matter what we’re going through, God is working, even when we can’t see it and don’t understand. Let’s praise Him today, for “He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted” (Job 5:9).

By Julie Schwab

Today’s Reflection
Lord, thank You for the detail You put into creation and for being at work even when we can’t see it.

Today’s Insight
After three rounds of heated discussion, Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Job 2:11) are at an impasse in their debate of theodicy—the question of why a good God permits evil. Elihu, being a much younger man, had waited for his turn to speak and now gives his insights (chs. 32–37). Elihu was a Buzite (32:2). Buz was a son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 22:20–21), which makes Elihu a descendant of one of Abraham’s nephews. Concluding his rebuke in this fourth and final speech, Elihu highlights God’s power and majesty (chs. 36–37). He asks Job to “consider God’s wonders” (37:14) in controlling His creation, challenging Job to explain how God sovereignly controls the meteorological elements—the clouds, lightning, winds, skies, and sun (vv. 15–24). Elihu tells Job to fear and revere such a great God (v. 24).

Insight By: K. T. Sim

Our Daily Bread 30 January 2019 Devotional – Algae and Diatoms was written by Julie Schwab