Job 26: Job’s Ninth Speech: A Response to Bildad
Then Job spoke again: “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the weak! How you have enlightened my stupidity! What wise advice you have offered! Where have you gotten all these wise sayings?”
Bildad is beginning to get on Job’s last nerve! All Bildad has succeeded in doing is to mouth warmed-over platitudes about a God whom he does not know. Job has been enjoying fellowship with God for years; that’s what makes God’s apparent withdrawal from Job’s situation so painful. Job feels as if God has removed Himself, and Job doesn’t understand why. At this point, Job is likely to respond to Bildad’s inane remarks by one simple exclamation: “DUH!”
“Whose spirit speaks through you? The dead tremble—those who live beneath the waters. The underworld is naked in God’s presence. The place of destruction is uncovered. God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds don’t burst with the weight. He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds. He created the horizon when he separated the waters; he set the boundary between day and night. The foundations of heaven tremble; they shudder at his rebuke. By his power the sea grew calm. By his skill he crushed the great sea monster. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent. These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”
Chapter 26 of Job is a short chapter, only 14 verses. But in these lines, Job gives one of the most sublime descriptions of the power of God ever spoken. Each time I read these words, I stand in awe of the God whom I serve and in awe of the man who first spoke these words millenia ago. Unlike Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Job obviously knows God personally and is speaking from experience, not from theories or from statements he has heard others make. Job’s descriptions of God constitute a first-hand report of God’s power and glory.
The passage above is from the New Living Translation. The New King James Version translates verse 14 as saying, “Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”
The Edges of His Ways is a famous devotional book authored by Amy Carmichael (1867-1955) After beginning work as a Sunday School teacher and home missionary in England, Carmichael moved to India, where she founded the Dohnavur Fellowship, a group devoted to rescuing children from traditional temple prostitution. Unlike other missionaries who would routinely go home on furlough, Carmichael remained in India for her entire career. After suffering a fractured femur that healed poorly, Carmichael remained confined to her bed or to a wheelchair; however, she penned a large number of books and pamphlets that continue to inspire serious Christians.
In The Edges of His Ways Carmichael built on Job’s descriptions of God’s power, sharing revelations that God had given her through years of hardship, ministry, and suffering. One missionary in a remote part of China stated that he could always tell when his wife was facing a crisis of faith, for it was then he would find her reading Amy Carmichael’s books.
It is amazing that this tribute to God is being spoken by a man suffering from so many different problems. Many of us begin to complain if one small thing goes wrong; yet, Job is still sitting there, scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery, sleep-deprived and fed up with gloating acquaintances, and still glorifying God. If we fail to understand these things, we have missed one of the main lessons of the Book of Job. Job doesn’t wait until everything is fine before he praises God; Job praises God even in the midst of his trials.
May God help us, so that when we are facing struggles, we will continue to praise him rather than whining!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, You are magnificent beyond all description. Help us to remember the facts of Your Nature when we are fumbling around in the muck of our circumstances. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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