The opening here is like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books. To read why Lacy is deviating from the reading plan, go to the next paragraph. If you don’t care, skip to paragraph 3.

Yes, I realize that the scheduled reading for today is Job 24-27. I’m making an executive decision to deviate slightly from the reading plan for the next 4 days. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. I’m a librarian. I organize things for a living. And right now I’m organizing content in a blog. I could Dewey your decimal out to 6 digits of specificity.

😉🤓📚

Chapter 24 struck me as odd. Did it strike you as odd? Job is still speaking. He has just responded to Eliphaz (in chapter 23). Except for the opening line asking why God doesn’t hurry up and judge the wicked (wouldn’t we all like to know that answer), the rest of the chapter sounds like a speech from Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar. The wicked do bad things. They’re awful. They take advantage of the vulnerable. But they will die and be forgotten. Their bodies will be eaten by maggots.

🧮 “maggot” count: 5️⃣

Maybe Job is trying to find common ground with his friends. Maybe he’s trying to clarify that he doesn’t believe that the wicked are never punished. He has only been trying to point out that they aren’t always punished in this life 100% of the time.

So let’s pause here before moving on to recap some of the ideas these guys have wrestled with.

• Bad things happen to good people.
• No they don’t. Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to good people. Therefore, if something bad happens to you it means you have done something bad and are a bad person.
• God is always right though. He’s Almighty and does what He wants.
• But what about the bad people who are exceptions? The ones who live an easy life and die wealthy and comfortable?
• Nope. No. There are no exceptions.
• Darn it. Yes there are, you windbag.
• You’re the proud windbag.
• Takes one to know one.
• But God is always right though. He’s Almighty and does what He wants.
• Amen brother. We can agree on that. And wicked people are bad. We can agree on that.
• And maggots. They eat you when you die. We can agree on the maggots.

😆

Bildad responds to Job’s speech with something like agreement but he also reaches way back to chapter 4 and we have the 3rd chorus of those words from that mysterious spirit encountered by Eliphaz. Here they are side by side for comparison:

“How can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone born of a woman be pure?”
‭‭Job‬ ‭25‬:‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬ (Bildad speaking)

“Can any mortal be pure? Can anyone born of a woman be just?”
‭‭Job‬ ‭15‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬ (Eliphaz speaking)

“Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’“
‭‭Job‬ ‭4‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬ (Eliphaz speaking)

That’s kinda weird, isn’t it? When something is repeated three times I think we need to pay attention. It’s meant to make us ponder this question. We need to wrestle with it personally. How can I be innocent before God? How can I be pure?

I want to burst into the story and start preaching the Gospel to them. “Let me tell you fellas how a mere mortal can be completely innocent and pure before a holy God! God imputes His own righteousness to anyone who trusts in His Messiah, Jesus.”

And then we have the final statement from Bildad- “God is more glorious than the moon; he shines brighter than the stars. In comparison, people are maggots; we mortals are mere worms.” Job‬ ‭25‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

🧮 “maggot” count: 6️⃣

Chapter 26 – Job responds. The opening is a masterclass in sarcasm.

“How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the weak! How you have enlightened my stupidity! What wise advice you have offered! Where have you gotten all these wise sayings? Whose spirit speaks through you?” Job‬ ‭26‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The next time someone tells me something I already know, I think I’ll reply with, “How you have enlightened my stupidity!”

After “thanking” Bildad for his brilliant insight into the obvious, Job begins to talk about how powerful God is. Again. I’d like to comment on a few things. You probably already know most of this, but just in case…

v5-6, “The dead tremble— those who live beneath the waters. The underworld is naked in God’s presence. The place of destruction is uncovered.” – This is ancient worldview stuff. They believed the “underworld” (the grave, Sheol, the place of the dead) was located, well, under the world. Under the bottom of the ocean. “Beneath the waters.” Also note that this is a compound Hebrew rhyme. Underworld is naked. Destruction is uncovered. We have the rhyming of naked & uncovered. (the underworld lost its underwear)

But “underworld” here in Hebrew is Sheol, (the grave), while “destruction” is the Hebrew word Abbadon. They are distinct places. They overlap in that the dead occupy both. But there is distinction. In the OT we see references to comfort in Sheol but never in Abbadon. See Jesus’ story of The Rich Man and Lazarus for more on this.

Verses 7-11 refer to the week of creation, albeit not in chronological order.

v12-13, “By his power the sea grew calm. By his skill he crushed the great sea monster. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent.“

Leviathan, the ancient mythical sea serpent or sea monster was well known even outside biblical circles. Many ancient cultures had mythologies about a chaos dragon or chaos monster of some kind which their god or gods supposedly tamed or destroyed or locked up.

In Tolkien’s book The Silmarillion, Eru Iluvatar sings the song of creation and his Ainur join in. Melchor, one of the Ainur, rebels and sings a song of his own with discordant notes out of harmony with Eru. This is chaos. It is from these foul notes that the giant spider Ungoliant is born. Ungoliant is the chaos monster in Tolkien’s world.

It is YHWH who skillfully crushes the chaos dragon. As He spoke light into darkness and brought order to the formless void.

If God can take an empty space– Well, at first there wasn’t even space. Or matter. Or time. But if God can take that nothingness, and bring an ordered creation out of it, I’m quite sure He can comfortably handle the chaos dragons lizards in our lives.

Job ends his reply to Bildad with this lovely turn of phrase- “These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

“A whisper of His power…”

Man. That’s good. It should be a book title.

And I have an idea which is going to develop over the next few days. It’s a speculation.

I think a storm may be brewing in the distance. I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean that perhaps the “thunder” Job mentions here is real and faintly rumbling; miles away yet.

Keep an eye on the weather over the next 10 chapters.

☁️ ☁️⚡️⛈️⚡️⛈️🌪️