Job 12:18 Commentary and Bible Study

We see here that God expects us to read his providence, especially when it works in ways that are contrary to human expectation. Calvin observes that when all things continue to leave us in a state of ease, ‘they frisk and kick like horses that are too well fed. Those who are in authority forget themselves and despise God, and imagine that there is no longer any restraint on them’ (Calvin – English updated). It is necessary for him to send changes into the world, he says, so that we understand him to be the sovereign of all creatures. Without this, it is too easy for princes to think that that have obtained their position by their own skill, for God is nothing to them, or to think that all things happen by chance. He gives the example of Alexander overthrowing the Persian empire with a much smaller army, and yet Alexander who conquered such vast territories left nothing to his children, and died young. God does two unexpected things here. He loosens the bonds of kings, that is, the bonds by which they bind others. They impose their wills on their subjects with such force that there is no hope of escaping. They occupy the highest position in the land and their word is law, so that there is no appeal to any other. Their hearts are often cruel and the captive despairs of mercy. From where will deliverance come? The man of God knows the answer to this question, and while others give up hope he continues to pray to the God who can do anything. He binds the waists of kings and brings about unimaginable reversals so that where they hoped to exercise untrammelled power, they are made to bow down as captives before a conqueror. So God pulls down one empire and raises up another and overrides the defences of the most mighty.