Bible Talks: Job 25-26:6

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WE NOW come to the last of the speeches of Job’s friends. It is Bildad who speaks and he is very brief. He speaks of the glory of God, and what he says is true, but it does not apply to Job’s case. He says, “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” Job had raised this same question long before, and with far more spiritual insight. Evidently Bildad feels that Job is trying to justify himself with God, but it was his friends that had driven Job to this, though this did not justify him in doing so. Nevertheless the Lord was going to have to say to Job about this very thing.
Bildad states a remarkable fact: “Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” Here there is an evident allusion to the created heaven having been contaminated by that being who caused the fall of man.
This is the last we hear from Job’s three friends. It is not that they were convinced they were wrong, but they had nothing more to say. Now in chapter 26 Job answers and it shows that he entered far more into God’s glory and dominion than Bildad did. He asks his friends as to the purpose of all their sayings. They had been no help to him in all his afflictions and he had been cast down and burdened by them. But how could they be of help since they knew not what God had said of man’s heart, that “the imaginations of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Neither had they taken to heart that God had spoken of acting in mercy to man at the time when Noah, coming forth from the ark, built an altar and offered sacrifices to God. (See Gen. 8:20-2220And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:20‑22).)
Job asks, “For whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?” His last question reveals a certain knowledge that man did not have control over his own spirit, and seems to imply that sometimes man uttered things while under the power of the evil one. Verses 5 and 6 refer to the unseen evil powers. They are not translated quite correctly in the Authorized Version, but should read, “The shades [the unseen evil powers] tremble beneath the water, and the inhabitants thereof. Sheol [the unseen world, including the spirits of the departed] is naked before Him, and destruction (Abaddon, see Rev. 9:1111And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. (Revelation 9:11)) hath no covering,” J.N.D. Trans.
We see in the things Job speaks of in this chapter that the knowledge of God and of the unseen world had not as yet been corrupted by man. Job had some knowledge of these things, but he was very ignorant of God’s ways with man, but not as ignorant as his friends were. His attention had to be called to this very thing later on, and God in His dealings with him was trying to teach him something of the pride of his own heart. It was then Job was forced to confess that he had been speaking of things he understood not; “things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” (Job 42:33Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. (Job 42:3).)
O God, how wide Thy glory shines,
How high Thy wonders rise!
Known thro’ the earth by thousand signs
By thousands through the skies.
Those mighty orbs proclaim Thy power
Their motions speak Thy skill;
And on the wings of every hour,
We read Thy patience still.
ML-06/05/1960