Job 26:1-14 - Homiletics

Job to Bildad: another sermon on the foregoing text.

I. THE PREFACE TO THE SERMON ; OR , THE DISCOURSE OF BILDAD CRITICIZED . In Job's estimation it was:

1 . Wholly unserviceable. With stinging irony Job, according to our view, represents it as having been extremely helpful to him in his feebleness, as having imparted strength to his powerless arm and wisdom to his ignorant mind (verses 2, 3); meaning, of course, the opposite—that in these respects the brief but pompous harangue to which he had listened had been of no use whatever to him in the way of assisting him either to bear his own misfortunes or to understand the mysterious enigma of Divine providence. Not only should a good man by his words, and a Christian minister by his sermons, always aim at the edification of his hearers ( 1 Corinthians 14:3 ), but the same duty is incumbent upon all ( Ephesians 4:29 ). The world and the Church are full of sorrowful hearts requiring comfort, and ignorant minds in need of counsel. It is sad when neither the disconsolate can find a word of cheer nor the uninstructed hear a note of direction, to help them on in life's battle. The lips of the wise should disperse knowledge ( Proverbs 15:7 ), and the tongue of the wise should prove health to the feeble and diseased ( Proverbs 12:18 ).

2 . Extremely superficial. Bildad had plentifully declared the thing as it was (verse 3); i.e. while imagining he had dived into the heart of a great subject, he had merely skimmed along its surface. Yet superficial and shallow views of men and things are not to be despised. To the mass of mankind, who are themselves commonplace in their capacities, only commonplace ideas are of use. What is called profound or original thinking belongs to another sphere from that which they usually inhabit. Hence to the extent to which it is unfamiliar to their minds it fails to make an adequate impression on their hearts. Still, superficial views of truth cannot satisfy souls of nobler faculty than the uneducated crowd possess; neither can they fully represent the deep things of God on the subject either of religion or of providence. It is, however, doubtful whether all men's thoughts, those of a Job no less than of a Bildad, are not, in comparison with the unfathomable profundity of Divine truth, at the best superficial.

3 . Utterly irrelevant. Correct enough in themselves so far as they went, Bildad's views were inappropriate to the theme under discussion, were in truth so little pertinent to the great subject by which the thoughts of Job were engrossed, that Job felt constrained to ask to whom they had been addressed (verse 4). Bildad is not the only person against whom the charge of irrelevant talking can be advanced. Modern controversialists, lecturers, preachers, orators, writers, are as prone to commit this fault as were their brethren of antiquity. Discoursing wide of the mark, whether in the pulpit, at the bar, or on the bench, in Parliament, or in common life, usually results from ignorance, want of capacity, lack of preparation, too great fluency in speech or composition, or from deliberate design. Fitness is a higher excellence in speech or writing than eloquence or elegance ( 1 Corinthians 14:19 ). "The heart of the righteous studieth to answer" ( Proverbs 15:28 );and "a word spoken in due season, how good it is!" ( Proverbs 15:23 ). "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver ( Proverbs 25:11 ).

4 . Entirely second-hand. Whatever Job was, he was always original; whereas Bildad could only cite proverbs and quote traditionary maxims. Here Job rather wickedly asks him from whom he had borrowed his last brief oration (verse 4). Since it could not be from God—Bildad always swore by the fathers—it must have been either from him (Job) or from Eliphaz, both of whom had already twice descanted on the subject of man's insignificance as contrasted with the majesty of God. It is not wrong to borrow good thoughts or to repeat them to others, provided their authorship be carefully acknowledged. Good thoughts at second hand are distinctly better than poor thoughts at first hand. Still, ministers and. preachers should aim to set forth their own views of Divine truth rather than those of other men. A clergyman who has no ideas of his own to set forth has mistaken his calling. Much can be done by earnest study and prayer to improve the feeblest capacity, and to enable it to look at truth for itself.

II. THE BODY OF THE SERMON ; OR , THE MAJESTY OF GOD EXTOLLED . Catching up the anthem which Bildad had commenced ( Job 25:2 ), Job continues in a strain of lofty adoration to dilate upon the transcendent greatness of God as absolute and universal Ruler, tracing his governmental power and authority through every department of creation.

1 . In the realm of shades. (Verses 5, 6.) Bildad had said that God's dominion pervaded "the heights," or heavenly places ( Job 25:2 ). Job adds that it also extends to the dark underworld of departed spirits; concerning which may be noted:

2 . In the realm of creation. (Verses 7-13.) Rising from the dark underworld, Job expatiates on the great power of God as displayed in the world of light.

"The fire, and cracks

'Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune

Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,

Yea, his dread trident shake."

('Tempest,' act 1. as. 2.)

The spirit of evil (Rahab), awakened by the hurly-burly, bellows forth its indignant rage, "lifting up its voice on high, and thundering back to the thundering mountains," but is again wounded to the quick by the stroke of the tempest; for "by his understanding he breaketh Rahab in pieces"—words which are understood by many to point rather to the power of God in calming the troubled waters of the sea. At the close of the storm, he once more brightens up the sky with his breath (verse 13), dispersing the storm-clouds with his wind, and fixing the fugitive Dragon. This may perhaps be understood of the constellation of that name which seems to wind itself in like a sinuous serpent between the Greater and Lesser Bears, as if endeavouring to make its escape from its appointed orbit, where, however, God fixes it, wounding it or slaying it, so that its flight is arrested—a poetical representation of the sublime truth that it is God's hand that hath beautified the evening sky with stars, and that keeps all the stellar world moving on in harmony and order. Or the ides may be, in accordance with ancient mythology, that this gliding serpent, winding itself round the sun, socks to eclipse its light; but that God wounds it, and so liberates the sun to renew his shining on the earth. SO viewed, the poet's language suggests the thought which reappears in other parts of Scripture ( Matthew 13:39 ; Romans 8:19-23 ; Revelation 12:4 )—that, in the great conflict width is continually going on between the powers of light and darkness, victory will eventually, through God's help, incline to the side of the former.

III. THE LESSON FROM THE SERMON ; OR , THE TRUTH IT CONTAINS APPLIED . Job concludes his lofty anthem in celebration of the majesty of God by two remarks.

1 . That man ' s knowledge of the power of God is infinitesimally small The magnificent pictures which had been given of the mysterious operation of the Almighty's hand were only as the edges, fringes, or extremest end-points of the glorious garment in which the incomparable Worker was arrayed, as the faintest whisper of a voice which in the fulness of its tones is as the roaring of the thunder or the grand diapason of the sea. What Job asserts shout his own representations of the transcendent greatness of God is equally correct about the richest and most impressive that have ever yet been given. Man's understanding of God's power in nature is at best fragmentary and imperfect ( 1 Corinthians 13:9 ).

2 . That the wonder-working power of God is infinitely great. So great, in fact, that it passes human comprehension. If these stupendous phenomena he only the whispers of his almighty voice, what must be the thunder-roar of its fully uttered tones? If these be occasioned, as it were, by the mere flutterings of the extreme end of his garment, what must be power residing in his Almighty arm? If the phenomena of nature, as witnessed in this lower sphere, are sufficient to impress the human mind with exalted conceptions of the greatness of God, how much more sublime should our ideas be of the incomparable glory of him who presides over, and work, in, a universe, in which this globe on which man dwells is but as the small dust of the balance to the huge forms of the mountains, as a drop of water to the ocean, as a spark of fire to the blazing sun!

Learn:

1 . It is the duty of all men to seek, entertain, and, as opportunity offers. set forth, lofty conceptions of the supreme God.

2 . If God's power extends to the underworld of spirits, it cannot be withdrawn from the upper world of men.

3 . If the eye of the Omniscient can explore the caverns of hell and the caves of the sea, it must also be able to search the chambers of the heart.

4 . The Almighty's hand that can hold up a world, yea, a universe, will not surely fail in sustaining one who is at best but a worm.

5 . He who prepares and distributes the clouds of rain for the earth can also provide and dispense clouds of spiritual blessing for the souls of men.

6 . When God draws a cloud before his throne, it is partly for his glory and partly for man's good.

7 . He who hath set a bound to the sea is able also to restrain the wrath of man.

8 . If God has divided light from darkness in the physical world, much more will he do so in the intellectual and spiritual

9 . If things inanimate, as well as bloodless spirits, tremble at God's reproof, men possessed of reason should not be callous or indifferent to the same.

10. Those who are proud God is able to abase.

11. The power of God in nature is only an emblem and shadow of a higher power which God wields in the realm of grace,

12. The fullest knowledge of God which a saint attains to on earth is small and insignificant when compared with that which awaits him in heaven.