Unscrewing the Inscrutable (Job 26:1-14)

Sarcasm can be defined as “a form of irony in which apparent praise conceals another, scornful meaning. For example, a sarcastic remark directed at a person who consistently arrives fifteen minutes late for appointments might be, “Oh, you’ve arrived exactly on time!” (From dictionary.com).

Sarcasm is derision and ridicule gift wrapped as a compliment. The word literally means “to strip off the flesh.”

26:1 “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?’”

Following Bildad’s appalling sermon in chapter 25, Job came to the conclusion that words needed to be said in an unvarnished way. Tossing tact aside, Job replied to Bildad with sarcasm – he “stripped the flesh off” Bildad’s arguments (and indirectly those of Eliphaz and Zophar). He spoke directly to Bildad (the “you” is singular) – he held nothing back. Job’s sores and pain have focused his thinking. The Message puts verses 2-4 this way, “Well, you’ve certainly been a great help to a helpless man! You came to the rescue just in the nick of time! What wonderful advice you’ve given to a mixed-up man! What amazing insights you’ve provided! Where in the world did you learn all this? How did you become so inspired?”

The second half of verse three from the King James Version read like this, “…you have declared the thing as it is.” Translation: "You Bildad (and you alone) have pulled back the veil separating the seen from the unseen and revealed what is truly taking place in God’s heavenly courtroom." Francis I Anderson states that “Bildad is abysmally ignorant of God and His ways….”

What follows in verses 5-14 is, as Francis I Anderson puts it, “One of the most fascinating cosmological passages in the entire Bible.” In this series of 10 verses, Job takes his audience from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven.

26:5 “The departed spirits tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. 6 Naked is Sheol before Him, and Abaddon has no covering.”

Sheol (the Netherworld, Hell, the place of no return) and Abaddon (Destruction) are the most secret and obscure of places. But not only can Jehovah see through the dark clouds (22:13), Hell/Sheol/Abaddon lie naked before His gaze.

26:7 “He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.”

There are two phrases in this chapter that I find so remarkable. The first is found here in verse 7, “…he hangs the earth upon nothing.”

Here is Job, in such physical, emotional and spiritual misery, lifting us heavenward to the enormity of God and His creation. The God that he serves, the God who seems to be so utterly absent, is the God Who “hangs the earth upon nothing.” Charles Swindoll states, “How profoundly simple the first verse of Genesis is…’In the beginning God created…’”

Design argues for a Designer (whether that "design" be on our planet or in reference to where this little blue orb is situated in the galaxy). Volumes could be written about this part of verse 7. But here are just a couple of thoughts taken from www.evidenceofdesign.com/privileged-planet/, “The book (The Privileged Planet) focuses on twenty factors about earth that make it uniquely able to sustain complex life as it does. For example, in our solar system, earth alone is in a position for complex life to exist…. The chance of each of these factors being true they guessed at 1 out of 10, a very conservative estimate. However, for all twenty to be true in one planet is 1/10 times 1/10, etc. for twenty times, or one in a trillion trillionth chance. That isn’t very great!!”

26:8 “He wraps up the waters in His clouds, and the cloud does not burst under them.”

As one stores wine in a wineskin, so God stores up enormous volumes of water in the “cloudskins.” Our planet is overflowing with a myriad of meteorological wonders.

26:9 “He obscures the face of the full moon and spreads His cloud over it.”

The sun is 400 times farther away than the moon, but it just “happens” to be 400 times the size of the moon. It is this size-to-distance ratio that makes viewing a total solar eclipse on earth possible. According to astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez (one of the authors of “Privileged Planet), in 65 other heavenly bodies that he studied, observing such an eclipse is not possible.

26:10 “He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness.”

Have you ever viewed that website/slideshow that shows the transition from day to night across our planet (I think from the point of view of the space shuttle)? It’s quite remarkable to behold. (You can check it out at http://toadhaven.com/Earth%20At%20Night.html

26:11 “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.”

The King James translates the first part of verse 13 this way, “By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens…” As a chef in a fine restaurant would garnish one of the courses of the meal, so God decorates the heavens. One commentator puts it this way, “As a palace is adorned with stately paintings, so God has ‘garnished the heavens.’”

26:14 “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”

“The fringes of His ways…” What a remarkable statement! Some of the other versions translate this verse this way:

Amplified: “Yet these are but (a small part of His doings) the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force…”
AV: “Lo, these are parts of his ways…”
Darby: “Lo, these are the borders of his ways…”
ESV: “Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways…”
NLT: “These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power…”’

“An atmosphere of wonder (is what Job creates by his speech),” says Francis I. Anderson. And what lies beyond the “fringes”? As per this same commentary, “…the remainder of God's unexplored infinity.” I like that – “God’s unexplored infinity!” What we behold in the splendor of the heavens is just the faintest whisper of His power and simply the outline of all that He can do! How can we put into words that which we cannot comprehend? One writer states, “At best a human being catches only a glimpse of God's marvelous ways.”

Romans 11:33 states, “Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” In his commentary on Job, Charles Swindoll wrote that Dr. Walvoord, then president of The Dallas Theological Seminary, referred to this verse during his commencement address to Swindoll’s graduating class. Walvoord then stated, “There will be times when you will try to unscrew the inscrutable.” Swindoll continues in his commentary, “We prefer things fathomable, or, if you will, scrutable; we can't fathom the unfathomable so let’s not try to unscrew the inscrutable.” ("Inscrutable" is defined as something not easily understood, something impenetrable, something mysterious or incapable of being investigated.)

Think about this: Job, in his pitiable condition, speaks about the enormity and majesty of God. There could not be a greater divergence between the last words of Bildad (“How much less man, that maggot, and the son of man, that worm!”) in 25:6 and these words of Job in 26:14. Each Sunday pastors have a choice: to leave their congregations feeling as deflated as though Bildad himself had just preached Job 25; or lifted heavenward as though Job had just preached to them from chapter 26.

Trying to comprehend the incomprehensible…to fathom the unfathomable…to unscrew the inscrutable. “These are just the fringes (outline) of His ways…” Grasping even a whisper of the vastness, the majesty, and the wisdom of the God of the Bible only serves to magnify God’s love for mankind demonstrated through Calvary.

“These are just the fringes of His ways!” Would that we would, in the midst of difficulties and our own ash-heap situations, be not big complainers, but big God-ders!