There’s a story of a rooster who crowed every night toward morning, and sure enough, it always became light after he had done so. The rooster was haughty as he proudly strutted around with puffed out chest and inflated ego. But alas, one day the rooster became deathly sick. So weak he was unable to crow, the rooster lamented, “Now It will be forever night because I’m unable to crow.” But to his amazement, the sun came up the next morning without his help. The rooster was grossly mortified!
When Job of old suffered one calamity after another, he anxiously asked God why such disaster and affliction should be his lot. Even though he had told his wife, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10), yet Job secretly hoped God would pour on the sympathy. Instead there was this poignant question, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?” (Job 38:12). That stopped Job in his tracks! Of course Job hadn’t ordered the morning, and neither have we. Like the rooster, we crow about our accomplishments-the degrees behind our name-the size and strength of our investment portfolio–the successes of our children–the number of trophies on the shelf-the real estate we’ve amassed-and yet, at the moment when our pride in all these accomplishments is swelling our head, God’s sobering question is directed at us: “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?”
The query about commanding the morning is really a question about ourselves and our complete dependence on God. We live in a world in which many think they can get along quite well without God, thank you. Their relationship with God is like ships passing in the night.
A group of people set out to sea in a small wooden boat. Then one of the men took a drill and began boring a hole in the bottom of the boat. “Stop it right now!” the others ordered. “What are you getting so upset about?” the man queried. “I’m only doing it under my own seat!”
The bottom line is that, you and I are depennt on God and interdependent on each other.Let’s be quite clear about it, No one among us has ever commanded the morning, nor WILL we!
May/June 2002