I love Job chapter 26!

It’s our “Text” this morning.

Job is there responding to Bildad’s last remarks, which were uttered in Job chapter 25 (of course). Yesterday’s Lesson discuses that matter. There Bildad virtually asks Job, “Why do keep making yourself so just in God’s Eyes? Everyone knows you are a hypocrite!”

And the great Patriarch (justly so) gets a little bit “sarcastic” in his response, too! (“Sarcastic,” a word meaning literally “to tear some flesh!” It has a Latin background.)

Like this, Job to Bildad: “How hast thou (Bildad) helped him (Job) that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength (still Job)? How hast thou (Bildad) counselled him that hath no wisdom (Job, self deprecating)? And how hast thou (great Bildad) plentifully declared the thing as it is? To whom hast thou (Bildad) uttered (such omniscient) words? and whose spirit came from thee?” Is this in truth the Lord talking, Bildad? Or some other “spirit?” (Job 26:2-4)

Wow, pretty abrasive!

Also, as I already said, pretty deserved!

Then Job launches into one of the greatest descriptions of the Power of God (omnipotence) I’ve ever read, anywhere. Enjoy it with me, please. (In fact I have preached this awesome Text a few times during my ministry.)

“Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.” Job 26:5-13

God oversees the “underworld!” (Including “sheol,” Hell or the Grave itself!) This first line in Hebrew suggests the (wicked) dead are in Hell, in torment, this very second! A truth Jesus later confirmed beyond doubt! Plus, God can see right into Hell, into the “heart of the earth!” “Dead things are formed (from a verb meaning “to writhe in pain”) from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell (the grave included) is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

Next we see God the mighty Creator … “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” I love the “flow” of those words! He made “something” out of “nothing!”

Then we quickly meet God Almighty, the Meteorologist! In a description that closely depicts how rain actually forms and falls to earth! “He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.” Job just taught us that: water droplets (via evaporation) remain suspended in the clouds … until they (going up and down with various wind currents) pick up enough “dust particles” thereby getting so “heavy” … they fall through the clouds onto the earth! Wow! (God here “owns” the clouds, “His thick clouds!”)

God also does not reveal all of Himself to us. “He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.” (Hidden, really demanding faith as a means of “seeing” Him!)

Then furthermore: “He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.” He “holds” all the Oceans in place! And “sets the clock” for night and day to come and go!

Yes, at the first display of God’s Wrath, Job notes: “The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.” And John, in Revelation 11:19, agrees! “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an EARTHQUAKE, and great hail.” Clearly a judgment setting!

Nearing the end of Job’s great Science Poem … we learn a spiritual truth: “He (God) divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.” Often in Scripture the tempestuous, untamed Ocean is a picture of the restless wicked (proud) man! (Isaiah 57:20, for example: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” Picturesque!) So God, Who “split” the sea (at the Exodus, when drowning Pharaoh’s whole army) judged unrighteous mankind, simultaneously humbled the proud!

Mercy!

One more great thing. “By His Spirit He (God) hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.” That “serpent” being perhaps a constellation of stars! To “garnish” means “to make beautiful!” To put all the “trimmings” of a thing into place!

Beautiful, Job. We know Whose Spirit led you to write such words! Words of worship, really!

Then, one last line! All of this Might … and we still know only “parts” of His (God’s) Ways! “Lo, these are (just) parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?” In other words: “How very little” of Him do we yet realize!

What a Poem!

What a Text!

Best of all, What a God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Maybe even, Job, what a writer!