Job 26.07-14 l THE GREATNESS OF GOD

Today’s reading: Job 25.01-29.25

Job 26.07-14 “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?””

In today’s reading, we have Bildad’s third speech (Job 25.01-10) saying that man is weak and inferior to God, and that Job needs to recognize this. Job then replies to Bildad (Job 26.01-31.40). What we see here is the shortest speech in the Book of Job (Job 25.01-10), and the longest speech in the Book of Job (Job 26.01-31.40).

Job proclaims the greatness of God and mentions things that were not understood scientifically until just the last couple hundred of years!

Job 26.07 The Suspension of the Earth

More than fifteen centuries before Christ, the Job said that God supports the earth on nothing!

Even though the prevailing thought at the time was that the earth was flat and rested securely on the back of a giant turtle that was plodding slowly through some cosmic sea.

It was not until 1687ad when Sir Isaac Newton discovered this and published his theory that gravitational forces are the explanation behind the earth’s stability.

Job 26.08 Evaporation

In the clouds in the sky God collects water, also known as evaporation.

Job 26.09 Clouds

God is control of the clouds and their movements across the sky, even having the clouds cover the moon some nights.

Job 26.10 The Earth is Round

More than fifteen centuries before Christ, Job states that the earth is round (Isaiah stated the same seven centuries before Christ in Isaiah 40.22. The common myth at the time was that the earth was flat. The common man held to this myth until the introduction of the compass and the Fifteenth Century voyages of Columbus and Magellan).

When looking at the horizon, light and dark seem to separate. The horizon is circular, which is significant because the Hebrew verb that is used for “inscribed” in Job 26.10 is gwx chuwg (pronounced as khoog) means to draw around, to make a circle (see also Proverbs 08.27).

Job 26.11 The Mountains

Job is speaking poetically about the mountains that seem to bear up the sky (Job 09.06; Psalm 104.32).

Job 26.12 God Is Over the Sea

The raging sea here is illustrated as a sea god named Rahab, whom Job said that God defeated. God is over the sea, and He is greater than all mythological representations of evil.

Centuries later, the Son of God would still the raging sea and even walk on it, thus showing that He has power over the seas (Matthew 14.22-33; Mark 04.39; Mark 06.46-51; John 06.15-21)

Job 26.13 God Controls the Wind

By the wind, illustrated as God’s breath, He clears the sky of clouds after a storm.

Job 26.14 Just the Fringe

All of these evidences of God’s power over creation are just the fringe of how powerful and great God really is! There is no way that mere mortal mankind can understand how great our God is.