Living Room Study

Job 26

“Then Job replied, ‘What great help you bring to the powerless!  What deliverance to the arm without strength!  Such wonderful advice for a man lacking wisdom!  So much common sense you’ve expressed!  Who helped you say these words?  Whose spirit is it, coming forth from you?  The ghosts of the dead tremble beneath the water, with its creatures.  Sh’ol is naked before him; Abbadon lies uncovered.’” Job 26:1-6

After Bildad’s scathing “How can humans be righteous with God?” rebuke, Job snaps back with a “With friends like you, who needs enemies?” response.

Speaking of “enemies”, Job pinpoints the source of Bildad’s argument as Satan. This information is not new to us. It was Elifaz who first revealed the enemy’s counsel.

“For a word was stealthily brought to me, my ear caught only a whisper of it.  In passing thoughts flashing through visions at night, when sleep lies heavy on people, a shiver of horror came over me; it made all my bones tremble.  A spirit passed in front of my face; the hair on my flesh stood on end.  It stood still, but I couldn’t make out its appearance; yet the form stayed there before my eyes.  Then I heard a subdued voice, ‘Can a human be seen by God as righteous?  Can a mortal be pure before his maker?  God doesn’t trust His own servants, He finds fault even with His angels; much more those living in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust.’” Job 4:12-19

Now that Job has established that he is aware of who is actually speaking to him, he goes on the offensive…not just against Bildad, but also against the demon counseling him. Job brings to recollection how God judged demonic influence in the days of Noah through the flood. How then, could such counsel override God’s Word? Demons had already been proven subject to God’s power. Job’s insight should remind us of the true source of the Worldly, non-Biblical counsel we are often subjected to. Not only is it demonic, but more importantly, its demonic source has already been judged and sentenced to an ultimate Hellish end.

The concept that Job brings up, that “the ghosts of the dead tremble beneath the water with its living creatures”, was the source of a superstition that was prevalent in Jesus day. Many people held that demons lived at the bottom of large bodies of water. The idea behind the superstition was that since spirits are eternal, and they must still live at the bottom of the seas…held over from when Noah’s flood subsided. This is most likely the source of the disciples’ exclamation, upon seeing Jesus walking in the water, in the midst of the storm.

“Around four o’clock in the morning, He came to them, walking on the lake!  When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified.  ‘It’s a spirit!’ they screamed with fear.  But at once, Jesus spoke to them, ‘Courage.’ He said, ‘it is I.  Stop being afraid.” Matthew 14:25-27

Blessings.

Steve Wiggins