Job 15:25 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 15:25

Comments

With great impudence, the rebellious dare to engage the Lord as if they were equal to such a fight. God hides his great strength and the presumptuous misinterpret this as weakness and become overconfident in their rebellion, thinking that they are a match for the Almighty. How seriously they misread the situation in their mad rush forward! God notes all their defiance and he will meet them with a force that they have never conceived of. There is something deeply shameful about overestimating our own strength and underestimating the strength of another, for a man is judged especially foolish when he does not protect what should be of most value to him – his own life, and especially his eternal welfare.Where does this fatal overconfidence come from? It is the product of a few successful engagements with his fellow man. But man is not God, and the strength of puny man is not to be compared with the invincible power of God. Such is man’s ability to deceive himself, and to totally misread his situation: in his pride he brings God down to the level of an equal with himself, and his imagination creates a God that does not exist, a God who can easily be contained and managed and is no longer a threat to the wicked. He therefore rushes at God with his strong, embossed shield, which is in reality a puny weapon, and in doing so he resembles some little Chiwawa which rushes forward to attack a great Mastiff. In all this Eliphaz accurately described human rebellion, and his description was very apt, but in applying such sentiments to Job he made an inexcusable mistake.

Application

Does this mean that men are really so foolhardy as to launch an attack directly upon God? No, but that is what they do in effect. Calvin says, ‘It is true that mortal man will be ashamed to think of making war against God … yet for all that they do not cease to do it. We do not need to sound a trumpet to God in order to defy him when we intend to make war against him; for if we trouble our neighbour or if we use deceit and extortion, then God sets himself against us. If we really though we made war against him and not against our fellow mortal creatures, would we be so mad as to overreach ourselves as we do?’ (Calvin – English updated).

Questions

Barnes questions the translation of the King James Version here which implies that it is the neck of God and the thick or embossed shield of God that is in view. He says that the translation gives this impression by rendering the preposition as ‘on’ or ‘upon’ which should be translated ‘with’. It is the neck and the shield of the rebellious that is spoken of, as he rushes upon the Lord.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 15:25 Commentary and Bible Study