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26:1–31:40 Job: The Power of God, Place of Wisdom, and Path of Integrity. Up until now, the dialogue between Job and his three friends has followed a pattern in which each speech by Job is followed by responses from the friends in a particular order: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. After two full cycles of the dialogue, it appears that Job is tired of the repetitive nature of his friends’ responses. He signals the end of the dialogue by cutting Bildad’s third response short and refusing to allow any third speech from Zophar. Job concludes with a lengthy monologue in which he takes up several themes. The friends’ presumed knowledge does not necessarily promote justice nor take into consideration the mystery of God’s ways (26:1–14). Job cannot agree that his suffering reveals wickedness, and he wishes that those who oppose him would be cut off along with the wicked (27:1–23). Job describes the value, mystery, and place of wisdom (28:1–28). He longs for the past (29:1–25), laments the present (30:1–31), and finishes with a plea that the true character of his life would be revealed and would be properly judged (31:1–40).
Job 26:2–3 How you have helped . . . saved . . . counseled . . . ! The presumed theological correctness of Bildad and the other two friends rings hollow. In their defense of God, they have not helped the poor and needy. In fact, they have wrongly accused Job, who has been the protector of the poor and needy. Nor have they understood the potentially disastrous consequences of their sound knowledge, that is, their firm belief that people are poor as a result of their own sin.
Job 26:4 Job asks his friends to examine whose help and whose breath has been behind their words, so they won’t wrongly assume that they have spoken on God’s behalf.
Job 26:5–10 The state or realm of the dead is not visible to humanity (it is under the waters), but it is naked and has no covering before God (vv. 5–6). Likewise, other things may be hidden: the heavens appear perched over the void, and the earth appears to hang on nothing (v. 7). It is God who has set the limits for all of these things (v. 10).
Job 26:11–14 The world reveals God’s power and understanding as the one who created and governs everything. How, then, can anyone who merely hears the thunder of his power claim to understand it?
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Copyright © 2012 by Crossway.
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