God is infinite and incomprehensible; man’s capacities to understand Him and all His ways are weak, therefore the full discovery of God’s glory is reserved for the future state. Let us meanwhile be content with His revelations to us.
Job 26
1 But Job answered and said,
2 How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?
3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
4 To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?
5 Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.
6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.
7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
8 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.
9 He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.
10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.
12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?
Job 26:1-14 – J. Vernon McGee
Job 26 – “The Outskirts of His Ways”
Job taunts Bildad with his reply as having imparted no help or thought. He then proceeds, Job 26:5-14, to give a description of God’s power as manifested in Hades, in space, in the clouds, in the ocean, and throughout the universe. The spirits of the dead tremble before Him; the grave and destruction that veil themselves in night are stripped before His gaze; the world itself is suspended in space by invisible threads (a wonderful foreshadowing of the true theory of the earth); the waters are held in the clouds, which do not burst under their weight but act as the veil of God’s throne; the sea owns His authority, hushing under His word or rising in its might; His breath brings the dawn; His hand strangles the dragon, as representing a well-known constellation, Draco. But these are only the outskirts of His ways. Great as is their acclaim as they circle His throne in thunder and splendor, they are but as a whisper compared with His divine power and Godhead. All that the scientist has known of God is, when compared with His essential nature, what the quiver of a leaf in the breeze is to the crash of the thunder-peal. This, O child of God, is thy Father, and His power is for thy defense. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Job 26:3 – We are often disappointed in the counseling of our friends for they demand what we cannot produce and we need what they cannot give. Our Comforter, the Holy Spirit, never mistakes in His operations or misses in His ends.
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14 Lo, these are __________ of his ________: but how ____________ a ______________ is __________ of him? but the ______________ of his __________ who can ____________________?
Job 26:14—How little a portion is heard of Him?
Job in thought passes through the universe. Sheol stands for the grave and the unseen world; Abaddon, for Satan, or for the great reservoirs in which the destructive agencies of creation have their home. With a marvelous anticipation of the conclusions of modern science, he speaks of the world as pendant in space. He passes to the confines of light and darkness, rides on the wings of the wind, discourses of the clouds, skims the mighty surface of the sea. All this, however, he deems as the outskirts of God’s ways. It is but a whisper compared to the mighty thunder of His glory and power. If this is a whisper, what must the thunder be! If this universe is but a flower on the meadows of God’s life, what must not God Himself be!
Perhaps we know something more of the thunder of His power than Job could, because we have stood beneath Calvary and seen Jesus die, and He is the wisdom and power of God; yea, we have witnessed the exceeding greatness of His power, according to the working of the strength of His might, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.
Who of us can fathom or understand the power of God? But what a comfort to know that it is an attribute of His heart. God is not power, but He is love, and His love. throbs through and commands His power. Be reverent when you kneel before the great and mighty God; but believe that all His power is engaged on the side of His weakest, neediest child. And more cease not to wait upon God until He endue you with His mighty power, for service and for daily living. A Nasmyth hammer can break a nutshell without crushing or touching the kernel. —Our Daily Homily