by Horatius Bonar
They say to God, "Leave us alone! We have no desire to know Your ways." Job 21:14
The men who speak thus are not atheists. They do not say there is no God. They may be scoffers, blasphemers, ungodly; but they are not atheists.
They whom Job describes are worldly men. God seems to them as a dark shadow overclouding all their joy.
The world, with its riches, its possessions, its pleasures, its friendships, is their all.
They have nothing beyond it, and they do not wish anything beyond it. They are satisfied. They love the world, and are resolved to make the best of it that they can. When anything comes in between it and them, or threatens to prevent their enjoying it, such as pain, or sickness, or death, they thrust it away.
Fallen man has no liking for God or His ways. He looks on Him as... an obstruction, an unpleasant visitor, a dark cloud, a spoiler of his pleasure.
Man has a desire to get rid of God; to thrust Him into a corner of His universe, where He will least disturb him.
At the bottom of all this feeling is the love of the world. It is this that prompts men to seek to get rid of God.
An abstraction, a creed, a system of theology, they bear with, because it does not interfere with their worldliness; but God Himself can only be tolerated as a shadowy, impalpable, far distant being.
Thus the age tries to get rid of God. It does so, because it dreads Him; it has no relish for Him; His presence is a gloomy shadow; His nearness would interfere with all worldly schemes and pleasures.
They say to God, "Leave us alone! We have no desire to know Your ways." Job 21:14