Job 26:1-3
Job’s sarcasm is hilarious. Every one of these lines has a recurring pattern asking if you can really add on power/wisdom without giving any power/wisdom. Job’s accusation is that everything they said has no substance. Job is saying that Bildad and Eliphaz have given him a lot of stuff, but it hasn’t added any value. Relative to the argument within the book itself: what Job is observing about his friends and their arguments is that they really aren’t doing anything. Human wisdom has no power in this instance. The idea that Job’s statement demonstrates is that you can talk to people a lot, without helping them. This underscores the inadequacies of human wisdom.
Job 26:4
Job is asking who the source is. Job has finally peeled off layer after layer and is asking where they got their information. Their answer must be themselves. Job forced them into this corner because they couldn’t draw anything from their environment, because they didn’t understand it in totality. They couldn’t go premodern (where they could access God) because they didn’t have access to God. In the end, he narrowed down the circle of epistemology to them. Eliphaz says Job is evil because he says so. Bildad says “Job you're evil because nature is evil. Why? Because I look at it and I think it’s evil.”
The root folly of human wisdom is that it comes from humans, but not just humans, plural, but human, i.e.: yourself. The battle is about authority. Job says your authority is in yourself. The next logical question Job could have asked but doesn’t need to is, “What gives you the right to say anything?” God is self-authenticating; humans inherently can’t do that.
A lot of arguments against God/Christianity all become “because I say so.” Then you must ask, “What gives you the right to say so?” The argument then dies, and you have to say “Well, the only one who could really make an argument is the one who actually knows.” Now you are back to the need for Divine Revelation because humans can’t figure it out. This verse is what pierces the heart of human reasoning.
Job 26:5
Job explains to Bildad what creation should point him to. This verse, to the end of the chapter, is one of the most beautiful descriptions about God, nature, and His transcendence. It does this in two ways. First, looking at God’s dominion over different regions of creation. Second, God’s authority that human minds really can’t understand and capture. The positive end of human wisdom—if you are truly wise—is that you will know that you don’t know, and therefore admit you need God.
This verse reminds us of how limited we are. Job starts talking about creation in a place that we know nothing about. Departed spirits are accurate, the word in Hebrew is Rephaim. You see this in Isaiah and Proverbs. Usually, people who have died under judgment. Job’s point is that God’s dominion extends to places that we can’t see and do not know anything about. Notice: when they are there and supposed to be terrifying, they are trembling because of God.
Job 26:6
Sheol is totally uncovered. There is no covering before Him, that is the nature of God’s sovereignty. You begin to understand that God is broader and deeper in omniscience than us.
Job 26:7
The word north here can mean the direction, and at the time, this can mean the furthest extremity on the planet. In both the Old Testament and ancient new eastern myth, it is known as a place of supernatural dominion. Look at Psalm forty-eight, specifically verse two. Thinking about it as the extremity of the earth relative to God’s presence. Notice, we don’t know much about this location either. God isn’t just contained in heaven, He created heaven. From supernatural realm to natural realm, looking at the planet. God does something we can’t replicate, and we don’t know how He does it.
Job 26:8
God’s dominion is also in the sky. This points out the water cycle. One inch of rain over one square mile equals 17.4 million gallons of water. That is 143 million pounds, you would never expect something of this weight to float. The whole point is that’s a mystery and God did that. It defies your mind.
Job 26:10
Now we are at the point where the sky meets the water. Why a circle? The word “circle” here can refer to a sphere. Acknowledge that Job is moving from heaven to earth and what he is looking at is the entire way boundaries operate and he is thinking they work in a circular manner. The liberal argument of a flat earth is half thought out. They will use this to argue that Job believed in kind of a golden dome of the Earth but at the same time they will argue that he didn’t believe in a sphere. The main point is if you are looking at a sphere, a circular boundary, who set that boundary? God. What causes the boundary to be a circle? God. This is amazing because if you tried to change the coastal boundary on your own you are not going to do anything. The same thing happens in the second half of this verse with light and dark.
Job 26:11-13
The fact that the sky stays up in the sky. The whole point is that things that we don’t even think about God keeps. In fact, His might stills the waters, kills Rahab, and even pierced the serpent.
Job 26:14
God’s sovereignty goes to every layer of creation and works in mysterious ways. The word “edge” here really means the boundary line. All you see is the tip of the iceberg. We are looking at the outside border of the line, that’s all we’ve seen. This is a whisper, the faintest sound you can hear, of His word. Job’s point is if you really understood creation, it would lead you to know that you don’t know anything. You can’t explain anything and that is why God is so much greater than you.