God has been defined. He's been tamed. He has become innocuous.

In the early chapters of the institutes of the Christian religion written by John Calvin,

Calvin makes a statement that goes something like this,

in a sense that dread and terror by which holy men of all trembled before God

comma as scripture uniformly relates. What Calvin was saying is this,

that there is a pattern to human responses to the presence of God in the scripture.

And it seems that the more righteous the person is described,

the more he trembles when he enters the immediate presence of God.

There is nothing cavalier or casual about the response of a backache

when he meets the holy God. Do you remember her backache's complaint where he saw

all of the degradation and injustices that were sweeping across the landscape in his own land?

And he was so offended by this that he went up into his watch tower and he complained against God

and he said, God, you are so holy that you can't even behold aiquity.

How can you stand by and let all of these things come to pass?

And he said, I'm going to sit up here and I'm going to wait until God answers my question.

And you remember what happened?

And when God appeared to her backache, he said,

my lips quivered, my belly trembled and rottenness entered into my bones.

What happened to Job?

When he waited for the voice of God and when God showed himself to Job,

Job said, I abhor myself, I repent, indust and ashes,

I have spoken once, I'll speak no more, I will take my hand and put it upon my mouth.

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