We return this week to our extended journey through the Book of Job. As we have noted a number of times, Job is not a book to rush through. The themes of God’s sovereignty and undeserved suffering cannot be summarised in a few dot points. As we make our way through the various speeches and responses between Job and his ‘comforters’, we realise that the road of grief and loss is a long and narrow one.

This coming Sunday we will land in Job 28- a beautifully enigmatic poem about the search for wisdom. The preceding chapters provide us with the context, as the words of the comforters come to a shuddering halt. Eliphaz crushes Job with baseless accusations (Job 22:5-11) and again demands that Job repent (Job 22:21-30). Bildad has little more to add- his final words are but six verses of the same claptrap- all but rubbishing Job’s hope for redemption (Job 24:4-6). And Zophar? Well he has given up trying to give any more counsel to his stubborn friend. In this third cycle, we don’t hear from Zophar at all.

Christopher Ash observes that this all “points up nicely the bankruptcy of the comforters. They stutter into silence, beaten by Job’s perseverance, integrity, and faith”.

And into this awkward exchange Job speaks again, pointing out the elusive nature of the wisdom of God. The worldview of the comforters is neat and tidy and has no room for such variables as mystery and grace. But Job is realising more and more that we can’t put God in a box, nor can we generalise and simplify his dealings with humanity.

Read Job 26

In this chapter we find first a sarcastic rebuke of his friends as Job ridicules their attempt to grasp wisdom (Job 26:1-4), followed by words praising the sovereign hand of God which controls all of creation (Job 26:5-10). Everything appears to be stable and ordered. But then we read Job 26:11- “The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke”- and we see that things are not as predictable as we think. God is able to shake the very pillars of creation to accomplish His purposes.

And we get glimpses of His purpose in the closing verses of the chapter (Job 26:12-13). God can use that which seems to be chaos and appears to be disaster, to ultimately defeat the enemy (here symbolised by the sea serpent Rahab).

This chapter has ranged from the realm of the dead below to the boundaries between light and darkness above. These words are massive in their scope! And yet “these are but the outer fringe of his works” (Job 26:14).

They are no more than “a whisper” of God in the fullness of his wisdom and “power.” There is something more. There is, as we have the privilege of knowing now, the wisdom and power of the cross of Christ, which is both wiser and more powerful than all human wisdom and power (see 1 Corinthians 1:18–31).