Despite their developing hostility to each other, Job and his 'friend' Bildad find some common ground. Both come to similar conclusions about the inscrutability and absolute power of an almighty God and the utter smallness and helplessness of man in knowing and understanding God.
Says Bildad:
2 "Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven. 3 Can his forces be numbered? Upon whom does his light not rise? 4 How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? 5 If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, 6 how much less man, who is but a maggot-- a son of man, who is only a worm!"
And Job:
12 By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. 13 By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent. 14 And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"
Reading through Job is not an easy exercise, and I find myself tiring of all the 'cheong hei' (long winded) grumblings that permeate the entire Book. It's like,'"Enough already...!" In many ways some of the thoughts echo both the futility and hope that are found in other books in the Bible such as Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. That's why scholars have grouped these books together as part of the 'Wisdom literature'. The word wisdom actually appears several times (I counted 1 in 26:2, and 5 times in 28:12-28) in today's reading. Job's closing remarks are notable:
12 "But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? 13 Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living....
28 ....'The fear of the Lord-- that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'
5 comments:
Job IS hard going and we are only half way through. hmm..
So, let's have a little debate: do you think these two verses are contradictory or complimentary?
Job 28:28 And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding'.
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
hmmmm....I don't see them as contradictory, but rather representative of the complementary and yet often contrary attributes of God. For example, in this case we are to fear God, yet by virtue of our faith in Him, we can live our lives without fear.
I was asked this question before - what is your greatest fear? Some folks will says cockcroaches, or the dark, or 'my spouse'??! :P
But my greatest fear is that I don't fear God enough...
From Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
My thought is there's a delicate balance between fear and love in our relationship with God.
Haha...you're not alone, bro...
It's very nice and cozy for us to have the 'our Heavenly Father' image in our minds, and often we easily forget He is also 'the Holy God'.
The LORD God is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory.
The fear of God is not about been afraid or frightened in a negative sense.
We are to show highest degree of respect and reverence of his awesome power, glory and holiness.
A dose of real fear may not be bad for us stiff necked people least we forget that no man can see God and live.
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