October 17
Reading: Job 26
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How you have helped him who has no power!
How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
3 How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,
and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4 With whose help have you uttered words,
and whose breath has come out from you?
5 The dead tremble
under the waters and their inhabitants.
6 Sheol is naked before God,
and Abaddon has no covering.
7 He stretches out the north over the void
and hangs the earth on nothing.
8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not split open under them.
9 He covers the face of the full moon
and spreads over it his cloud.
10 He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his rebuke.
12 By his power he stilled the sea;
by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
13 By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Job 26 is Job’s response to Bildad’s last words, that God is perfect and all powerful and no person can claim the same. The pronouns in this chapter are all singular. Job is responding to Bildad alone, his weak and inappropriate short speech in the last chapter.
Job begins with sarcastic rebuke in verses 2-4. Job is pointing out that Bildad, who has just said that, because God is all powerful, no person can be just before Him, is not helping.
vs. 2 His words are not helping Job in his weakened state.
vs. 3 He has imparted no wisdom or knowledge. His logic is faulty.
vs. 4 Does Bildad even know who is helping him speak? Is it God? Or is it something else?
What is interesting about Bildad’s words is that, after insisting that no one can know about what God does, he sure seems to think he knows a lot. It is human nature to speak with authority on topics that we do not really understand.
In verses 5-14 it is as if Job is instructing Bildad, “You have said that God is powerful. In fact, you have no idea just how powerful!” How far above us is God?
- The dead tremble before Him in the nether world. (vss. 5-6)
- He hangs the earth in space. (vs. 7)
- He controls the weather. (vss. 8-9)
- He sets boundaries for the land and sea, the night and day, and the earth and sky. (vss. 10-11)
- He quiets the sea, and shatters nations. (vs. 12)
- He makes the heavens beautiful by striking down the serpent, Satan. (vs. 13)
All of this, Job says, are “just the fringes of His ways.” (vs. 13) God tells us so little about the ways that He works. “How small a word do we hear from Him.” God’s “mighty thunder” in the final line is a reference to the calamity that He has sent upon Job.
All this truth is why “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7) To understand God a person must begin with humility. We must recognize how little we understand and are likely to understand. Then we can begin to grow.