Today we will read both Bildad’s speech and Job’s reply in the final round of the debate.

25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “Dominion and awesome might belong to God;
he establishes peace in his heights.
3 Can his armies be numbered?
On whom does his light not rise?
4 How then can a human being be righteous before God?
How can one born of a woman be pure?
5 If even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned,
6 how much less a mortal man, who is but a maggot—
a son of man, who is only a worm!”

26:1 Then Job replied:
2 “How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the person who has no strength!
3 How you have advised the one without wisdom,
and abundantly revealed your insight!
4 To whom did you utter these words?
And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth?

5 “The dead tremble—
those beneath the waters
and all that live in them.
6 The underworld is naked before God;
the place of destruction lies uncovered.
7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth on nothing.
8 He locks the waters in his clouds,
and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.
9 He conceals the face of the full moon,
shrouding it with his clouds.
10 He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters
as a boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of the heavens tremble
and are amazed at his rebuke.
12 By his power he stills the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces.
13 By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways!
How faint is the whisper we hear of him!
But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

REFLECTIONS

Here’s a quick tip on pastoral care for beginners: If someone is suffering, perhaps don’t go for Bildad’s method of telling them they’re a maggot. Just a suggestion.

More seriously, this is where we see the debate properly break down. Bildad’s final speech is only five venom-filled verses – which will be five more verses than Zophar says! The reason it has broken down is because the friends, in their arrogance, have been blind to the truth that sometimes God’s ways are beyond our understanding, which means that sometimes the godly really do suffer.

But Job seems to be drawing slowly closer to true, deep wisdom. Today, he simply declares God’s complete sovereignty and control over all things – both things in the natural world, like rain and day and night, and the supernatural forces of the world, like the grave (or the underworld, v.6). Verses 12 & 13 describe that truth in terms of some images the people of Job’s time used to think about things like death and Satan – “Rahab the great sea monster” and the serpent. God is Lord over all those things, and God himself will use similar pictures when he finally answers Job, in chapter 41.

At any rate, I suspect Job is describing God’s control over the natural and supernatural world simply because he is in terror of God. But that fear of the holy, untamable, invincible God is also the beginning of wisdom. It will be the theme of the second half of the book. All Job needs, for it to become the beautiful biblical concept of “the fear of the Lord”, is that final, enduring, overwhelming assurance that this God is not against him. Instead, this God is fiercely and forever for him.

Jesus is that assurance for us (Romans 8:31-32)! Rejoice in that as you reflect on God’s awe-inspiring sovereignty today.