God is Powerful - To What End, However? Job 25-26

 Job 26:10 (ESV)

He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

Job 26:10 (NIV 1984)

He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters

for a boundary between light and darkness.

Starting in Chapter 26, Job is about to go a long dissertation responding to his three friends, his suffering and to God, Himself.   The last of the three friends as spoken in chapter 25.  Bildad took on Job’s earlier request of wanting a face-to-face meeting with God.   Bildad puts Job in is place by arguing that God is mighty and powerful and you, Job, are just a maggot.   These are certainly words every counselor should say to their suffering client ... how absurd.   

Job’s response now is going to be to talk about why he wants a face-to-face meeting. His argument in the above verse is that God is the ONLY one who can help him.  Whereas Bildad tells job that God is so powerful how can any man be right before God (25:4) and therefor unapproachable, Job maintains that since God is so powerful, He is the ONLY one who can be approached to solve Job’s problem.    Notice the contrast of philosophy. To some in the world, God’s power is a threat.  To others in the world, God’s power is a solution.   

Job opening talks about how God has set creation in a specific order.  God set a boundary for the seas and a boundary for the sun.   Note:

Genesis 1:4 (ESV) 

And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

Jeremiah 5:22 (ESV) 

Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.

Do you not tremble before me?

I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,

a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;

though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;

though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

Proverbs 8:29 (ESV) 

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

Jeremiah 5:22 (ESV)

Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.

Do you not tremble before me?

I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,

a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;

though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;

though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

We do not know how the three friends respond to Job’s dialogue, either the above argument or the thoughts that follow.  But we do know how God does.  After Job (and the fourth friend, Eihu) finishes their speeches, here is what God says:

Job 38:8-11 (ESV)

“Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

when I made clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed limits for it

and set bars and doors,

and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

God, Himself, declares His power to Job and the friends.   Job is not on the wrong path with his philosophy and response to Bildad (and the others).  But, Job doesn’t come to God to worship that power.  God approaches God demanding answers to his problem and suffering.   God simply highlights His power to Job, as we will eventually read.   The key thought here is that God is powerful and separates light from darkness and land from seas and puts the horizon in place.   But, God is not a holy butler being compelled to carry about out wishes and wants.   God is a holy sovereign who wants our loving worship simply because of His power, not because we want to take advantage of it.