Job Sees The Light - Twenty-sixth in a series
Hover over the Scripture references to read the verses under discussion
Job 25 is the book’s shortest chapter with only six verses. It is Bildad’s third speech and the last we hear from the three friends.
Bildad will draw comparisons between God and man to instruct Job about his puny importance in the scheme of things. He believes Job has offended God, by maintaining his innocence.
Job 25:1-2 NIV God is ruler and master over all, in control of each sphere: fearsome. And the wise fear him.
Job 25:3 NIV He is served by myriads of angelic hosts, but no matter how many or which of numberless creatures, all are under his daily watch from the rising of the sun to the evening stars and moon.
Job 25:4 NIV Considering the immense greatness of God, and considering the fall of Adam so that there is now a pall over creation, what is Job’s claim to innocence? It is a lie. What is his desire to hear from the Lord? Impertinence, pride, ignorance!
Job 25:5 NIV “Theirs is the light and purity but of creatures; His of the Creator.” (A. R. Fausset)
Job 25:6 (The NIV uses the term human being) In this verse we come to an important phrase, son of man. To the Christian, this is a term of endearment, In it we hear Jesus’ words,
For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. (Luk 11:30)
Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. (Luk 12:40)
…and so many others.
Though this is the second time in the Bible that this term appears, it perhaps antedates the first mention in Numbers spoken by Balak (Num 23:19), if we accept that the book of Job is ancient, and that Job was a compatriot of Abraham who lived about 700 years before Balak.
A first-mention of a word or phrase has special significance.
This term is used in many books of Scripture but because of its association with Christ, we may see it here as a provocation. Satan wants to rile God and to insult the Lord who is wonderful and not a worm, and of course, he is doing his utmost to discourage Job. As a first-mention, the Holy Spirit is warning us about Satan's wily ways.
Satan, through Bildad, is proposing that the ugly human who has no hope of purity, born of flesh, putrid in essence, is in a realm so far from God that he has nearly no relation. But the truth is, man was made in God's image, and Christ was born a man to raise us from sin and death to eternal life. This divine plan was in place from the beginning. We worms have hope!
God's distance from us is very great yet small, for by his mercy, we are sons of God (John 1:12; Rom 8:14, 19 et al), heirs through Christ (Gal 4:7)