Sermon Central
Job 25-27
Bildad 1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2“Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
3Can his forces be numbered? On whom does his light not rise?
4How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
5If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, 6how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot— a human being, who is only a worm!”
Job 1Then Job replied:
2“How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
3What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! And what great insight you have displayed!
4Who has helped you utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?
5“The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
6The realm of the dead is naked before God; Destruction
7He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.
8He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
9He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it.
10He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness.
11The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke.
12By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
13By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent. 14And 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?”
Job’s Final Word to His Friends 1And Job continued his discourse:
2“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
3as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,
4my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.
5I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
7“May my enemy be like the wicked, my adversary like the unjust!
8For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life?
9Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them?
10Will they find delight in the Almighty? Will they call on God at all times?
11“I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?
13“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
14However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.
15The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.
16Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,
17what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.
18The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
19He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
20Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.
21The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
22It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power. 23It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.”