Job Acknowledges God's Power

11/21/2011 9:04:51 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Job acknowledges God’s Power

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                  Reference:  Job 26:1-14

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  Then Job responded, 2  "What a help you are to the weak! How you have saved the arm without strength! 3  "What counsel you have given to one without wisdom! What helpful insight you have abundantly provided! 4  "To whom have you uttered words? And whose spirit was expressed through you?

    “5 ¶  "The departed spirits tremble Under the waters and their inhabitants. 6  "Naked is Sheol before Him, And Abaddon has no covering. 7  "He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing. 8  "He wraps up the waters in His clouds, And the cloud does not burst under them. 9  "He obscures the face of the full moon And spreads His cloud over it. 10  "He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters At the boundary of light and darkness. 11  "The pillars of heaven tremble And are amazed at His rebuke. 12  "He quieted the sea with His power, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab. 13  "By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent. 14  "Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?’”  (NASB)

            “1 ¶  Job answered: 2  "Well, you’ve certainly been a great help to a helpless man! You came to the rescue just in the nick of time! 3  What wonderful advice you’ve given to a mixed-up man! What amazing insights you’ve provided! 4  Where in the world did you learn all this? How did you become so inspired?

    “5 ¶  "All the buried dead are in torment, and all who’ve been drowned in the deep, deep sea. 6  Hell is ripped open before God, graveyards dug up and exposed. 7 He spreads the skies over unformed space, hangs the earth out in empty space. 8  He pours water into cumulus cloud-bags and the bags don’t burst. 9  He makes the moon wax and wane, putting it through its phases. 10  He draws the horizon out over the ocean, sets a boundary between light and darkness. 11  Thunder crashes and rumbles in the skies. Listen! It’s God raising his voice! 12  By his power he stills sea storms, by his wisdom he tames sea monsters. 13  With one breath he clears the sky, with one finger he crushes the sea serpent. 14  And this is only the beginning, a mere whisper of his rule. Whatever would we do if he really raised his voice!’”

            Job is rebuking Bildad in the first four verses of this chapter, for Job is looking for someone to help him out but none of his friends are doing that.  In verse four Job is asking the question “where did you get you information?”  If he had gotten it from God then it would have helped job out, but since he did not get it from God it was no help to Job at all.

            In verses five and six Job is saying that God is so powerful that He can actually see what is going on in realm of the dead.  Job actually uses three different names for the place of the dead:  we see him using the “waters” (V-5), and then he uses “Sheol” (v-6), and finally he uses the word “destruction” in verse six which is translated as Abaddon in the NASB.  This word is also used in Revelations 9:11 “They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.” 

            We see in verses 7-9 Job speaking about the creation of God and the fact that not only does God see everything, and made everything, but He controls everything.  Job shows remarkable scientific accuracy in verse seven as he tells that God hung the earth on nothing.  I wonder how Job knew all of this, but perhaps it had been passed down from Adam to others and then Job heard of it too.

            Job now begins to speak about the earth in verses 10-11 and even praises God for making out the horizon where we see the sun rise and set, for by doing this God controls the day and the night, the land and the waters. 

            In his commentary on this section of Job, Dr. Wiersbe calls it a hymn of praise to God for his marvelous creation, and in the last stanza of this hymn (verses 12-13) Job speaks of the waters.  God can stir up the waters if He desires for He can cause storms to come about which will stir up the waters.  He is the One who designed the clouds to hold the water, but even when they are so heavy at times they do not drop their water.

            Job friends knew the things that Job is speaking of, but the problem is that they did not draw the correct conclusions from these things.  His friends thought because they saw God’s hand in nature that they could explain God to Job, but they could not.

            We now want to look at verse fourteen as this verse does not fit into the hymn that Job had been using in verses 5-13.  Job is saying to his friends that in nature we can only see the “fringes” of God’s power (v-14 NASB). 

            Dr. Wiersbe quotes  a 14^th century British spiritual writer, Richard Rolle in his commentary and here is his quote,”  He truly knows God perfectly that finds Him incomprehensible and unable to be known.”  We can read and study the Word of God, but in the end we will find that there are still things about God that we don’t know.  This is why one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is Deuteronomy 29:29, and I know that I have mentioned this before, but it fits into this portion of Job very well.  “GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation.”  (Message)  “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (AV)

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that as I am going through the book of Job that one of the reasons that I am struggling with it at times is because I see myself in different places of this book and do not really like what I am seeing.  One of those things is being a better counselor to those who are having troubles, to have greater compassion for the hurting.  I have been talking to the Lord about what I have been learning about myself in this book, asking Him to change me to be more like His Son (Romans 8:29), to continue to teach me contentment as I go through life, for I truly believe that this is one of the greatest things that a person can learn.  To know that God is in charge of all things, and that God has a plan for this world, and also has a plan for my life.  “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10 “Webster”).

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.      Psalm 139:23-24.

2.      Romans 12:1-2.

3.      Ephesians 6:10-18.

4.      1Cor. 10:13.

5.      Luke 22:40b & 46b.

6.      Proverbs 3:5-6.

11/21/2011 10:09:37 AM