A Whimper and a Whisper

A Whimper and a Whisper
Job for Everyone
Job 25: 1- 26: 14

1 Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 Rule and awe are with him;
he brings about peace in his heights.

3 Is there any numbering of his troops,
or on whom does his light not shine?

4 Or how can a mortal be right with God;
how can someone born of a woman be innocent?

5 There: even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not innocent in his eyes.
6 How much less a mortal, a worm,
or a human being, a maggot.


26:1 Job replied:

2 How you have helped a person without strength,
delivered the arm without power.

3 How you have counseled someone without understanding,
and made known insight in abundance.

4 With whom have you addressed words,
and whose breath issued from you?

5 The ghosts are made to writhe beneath the waters
and those who dwell in them.

6 Sheol is naked before him;
there is no cover for Abaddon.

7 The one who stretched out the northern sky over the waste,
suspended earth over nothingness,

8 wrapped the waters in his clouds
(the thundercloud did not break beneath them),

9 enclosed the view of his throne,
spread his thundercloud over it.

10 He marked out the horizon on the face of the waters,
at light’s boundary with darkness.

11 The pillars of the heavens quake;
they are aghast at his rebuke.

12 By his power he stilled the sea;
by his insight he crushed Rahab.

13 By his wind the heavens were clear;
his hand pierced the twisting snake.

14 There, these are the fringes of his ways,
and what a whisper is the word that we hear of him,
so who understands the thunder of his mighty acts?

Last night our Bible study group was discussing the story of Elijah’s fleeing to Mount Horeb when Jezebel was trying to kill him. There is wind, earthquake, and fire, and also a low whispering sound—the “still, small voice” of the King James Version. What’s the relationship among these things? Someone in the group wondered whether God was changing from speaking through earthquake and fire to speaking through a still, small voice, which suits our Western cultural context. We like the idea of God communicating with us through a still, small voice, but in Scripture, there doesn’t seem to be a move from one to the other...

Taken from Job for John Goldingay