25th November 2025

25th November 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 26) 


Message (Scott Woodburn)


Bildad's final speech was dripping with nastiness, insult and accusation. He believed that Job was being stubbornly sinful and nothing more than a worm. How would you respond to such a lecture? Job didn't sit quietly but instead wondered from where Bildad's words had come (v4) - he was confident that they had not come from the mouth of God.


Job knew what Bildad seemed reluctant to grasp - God's ways are beyond our knowing and sometimes in His providence the righteous will suffer. The Lord God Almighty does not fit neatly into a box made by human hands. How can we master the Lord? He fills the universe with the immensity of His glory. It was Abraham Kuyper who famously said “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” and Kuyper was in complete agreement with Job.


Job understood that God was sovereign over death and the grave (v5-6). The words "Sheol" and "Abaddon" are used here but what do they mean? Depending on the passage of Scripture, Sheol can mean the grave, Hell itself or a description of what it is to be dead, namely that body and soul are separated. Abaddon on the other hand means destruction and so Job's point is that the Lord rules over death, destruction and the grave.


Furthermore, the Lord is the God of all creation. From the heavens to the earth, from the moon to the sea, it is God who has established the earth and it's boundaries (v7-10). We know of course that all things were made in and through and for Jesus and it is Jesus who upholds the universe by the word of His power. Even so, when God wishes to shake the very "pillars of heaven" (v11) He issues a rebuke. When He commands the sea to be still, it listens to it's maker (v12a). The heavens are beautiful because He made them (v13). "Rahab" is the name given to a mythological sea monster which represents the forces of evil and chaos. Rahab is the "fleeing serpent" that God pierced (v13) and is also referred to as "Leviathan" (Isaiah 27v1). What is Job's point? The Lord has brought order to chaos - God is sovereign over every single inch.


Martin Luther famously wrote to Erasmus and told him "your thoughts of God are too human." which I suspect is a criticism that could be levelled against most of us. Job understood that we know much of God but still know next to nothing - we have heard a mere whisper of who He is (v14). Brothers and sisters, it is a good thing to sit and ponder the unknowable immensity of the Lord. He is not merely a better version of us, He is not limited in His ways and He is not blind to our suffering. The Lord is greater than we know and there isn't a single square inch of our lives where He is absent.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q28 Wherein consisteth Christ’s exaltation? Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.
​