Job 26

Job 26:1-4

This is Job’s short reply to Bildad’s dissons, 1. He ridicules it as foreign to the point in dispute, ver. 2-4. 2. He professes to speak greater things of God’s power and greatness, and therefore he might have himself the trouble of pursuing what none controverted, ver. 5-13. 3. He declares this subject to be inexhaustible, ver. 14.

4. BUT Job answered and said, 2. How hast thou helped him that it without power? how favest thou the arm that hath no strength? 3. How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou pheritably declared the thing, as it is? 4. To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

Pained as Job is, in every part, he cannot help rallying Bildad on the impertinence of his pompous oration.

How hast thou helped him that it without power? how favest thou the arm that hath no strength? If this be referred to God, it is an ironical farcalm, on Bildad’s pretending to lift his feeble arm in support of the Almighty and his cause; or if it be spoken of Job, as seems most natural, it expresses his contempt of a discourse so foreign to the purpose, and so little suited to minister strength or help to him. How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? ridiculing the folly of his affecting the part of a counsellor, and regarding his opponent, as if he was destitute of understanding: And how hast thou planterly declared his thing as it is? set forth the matter in dispute in a copious and convincing manner, when in fact he had not spoken one word to the purpose, respecting the grand point in debate. To whom hast thou uttered words, To me? as if I were ignorant of such knowledge, and withal so foreign to the case. And whose spirit came from thee? in thy conceit, the spirit of wisdom and eloquence; in my apprehension, the spirit of folly and affectation. Note, (1.) When persons conceited and wedded to their own opinions, assume a superiority in dispute, without producing any just claim to it, they deserve the ridicule they provoke. (2.) It is not sufficient that what we say is true; it must be pertinent, and applicable to the case in hand, or else it is unprofitable and vain. (3.) Affected souls have need not to have displays of majesty and terror set before them, but of mercy and grace in Christ, poured in as balm into their wounds.

5. Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. 6. *Hell it naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. 7. *He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. 8. He holdeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. 9. He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. 10. *He hath compelled the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. 11. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. 12. *He dividers the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smitheth through the ground. 13. *By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. 14. Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a

portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

Job 26:5-14

The point in debate is dropped here, and from Bildad seemed to triumph in setting forth the power and greatness of God; Job, so far from disputing it, heartily joins with him, yea, exceeds him. It were happy for us, in all our religious differences, if we would wave disputes about opinions allowedly not essential to salvation, and, content to differ about the more affruful and minuter points of doctrine, unite in the great and glorious truths, which both sides heartily embrace.

1. The power and glory of God appears in hell beneath, sunk as thorns in the mighty waters, and groaning in misery; the Rephain, the giants of enormous size, swept away by the devouring deluge with all the multitude, are shut up in chains of darkness, under the great abyss, unto the judgment of the great day, v. 14. for so the words may signify. Behold, the giants green under the waters, with the inhabitants thereof, the world of the ungodly. Hell it naked before him, and destruction hath no covering; he sees each atom of the sleeping dead, wherever dispersed in earth, fire, air, or water; yea, the place of the damned is open before him, hell itself excludes not his presence; how then should the dinner be hid, when even death and hell are without covering?

2. From things beneath, he ascends to things around us, in the earth and sea. He hangs the earth upon nothing, v. 7. poised in the vast expanse, and held together by strange magnetic virtue. Shut up in the bosom of the vast abyss, the mighty waters know those bounds they cannot pass, till time shall be no more, v. 10. The stormy billows roar and lasts the echoing shore; the waves lift up their heads, as if they had forsaken the deep, and threatened to mount the faces; the pillars of heaven, the strong mountains tremble, and stand astonished at his reproof, when tempests and mighty thundering are stirred up round about them; then at his word he smitheth through the proud waves, the storm is bullied, the billows subside, and creeps in gentle murmurs to the shore, v. 11, 12.

3. From objects around us on earth, he rises to the visible glories above us, that bear the strong and legible characters of his eternal power and godhead, who fashioned them. The vast expanse of monument is stretched over us, v. 7. where four those clouds, in which, by mechanism wonderful, the waters exhaled from the sea are suspended, v. 8. nor, rent with the weight, pour down in torrents their collected stores, but with gentle flowers refresh, instead of deluging the earth, v. 8. hid by the dark veil between, the brightness of his radiant throne in the highest heavens is concealed, v. 9. garnished by his spirit, the artherial sky, bright with sun, moon, and stars, displays the wonders of his transcendent greatness, v. 13. and his hand hath formed the crushed serpent, either some bright constellation in the heavens, or that wonder of God’s works upon earth, Leviathan, &c. xxviii. 1; yet forpassing marvellous as these his works appear, is, these are parts of his tomp, but how little a portion is heard of him? how little do we know, compared with what is unseen; and even in what is visible, how small a part can we comprehend of the depths of the wisdom, knowledge, and glory of God therein manifested. But the thunder of his power, the amazing greatness of it, who can understand it infinitely transcends all human faculties, and leaves us far behind, lost in wonder and admiration.