Job 26:4

Before Job showed that he too can speak in glowing terms of the greatness of God, he indulged in the sarcasms that fill verses 2 and 3 of Job 26. To us it seems obvious that the speeches of the friends had not been helpful, or saving, or wise. But Job was human, and he did not miss the chance to hurl these taunts at them. Other translations render the opening words as "To whom," rather than "For whom." That would mean Job wanted them to remember one thing. They had addressed their words to him, but they had really been speaking in the presence of God — and not in the right spirit.

"To whom have you uttered words?" They would say they were speaking to Job, but their words were really not for him at all, but for an evil person.

"To whom have you uttered words?" He was talking in the air.

This verse may hint that Bildad was repeating the thoughts of Eliphaz — "Whose spirit, or breath, came from you?" Or it may be that Job asks whether this way of speaking comes from God. In these few sharp questions he completely disposes of his friend's argument, if it could be called that.

"And whose spirit came from you?" For Job did not consider that it was the Spirit of God who was moving Bildad.

Bildad is left with what you might almost call a few platitudes about the glorious power of God. Who doubted what he said? It is all true; but how did it apply to the case? How did it meet Job's soul? How did it justify their suspicions?

He asks Bildad, "How have you helped him who is without power?" Job freely admitted his complete weakness in the face of his sufferings. What he needed was help, not condemnation. He did not know why God was dealing with him as He did, and he said so. But his friends gave false answers to that question, so their advice was totally unsound.

All merely human efforts to comfort, apart from God and the truth, are ineffective, because they are more or less ignorant. The more bitter the trial, the more obvious the failure. The history of Job shows this. His three friends were sincere in their care for the sufferer, and eager to serve him in his hour of sorrow. But the cause of Job's affliction completely baffled them. They did not grasp God's ways with His own at all. By their false and unworthy suggestions they made Job feel how unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself. In the end he said, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5).

He declares that Bildad's words, in these circumstances, miss the mark completely. They do not touch Job's case. He then takes up his friend's theme and rises higher than Bildad did, taking a deeper and wider view of the greatness of God.