Bad advice is always unhelpful. But there are worse things than going the wrong way on the interstate.
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 25, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Worse than the Wrong Way on the Interstate. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Exodus 8, Luke 11, and Job 25–26.
Please open your Bibles to Job 25.
Have you ever gotten bad advice from someone? That’s not a great feeling. But how about the other direction? Have you ever given someone bad advice? That feels even worse. I’m old enough to remember when cell phones weren’t so smart. They didn’t have maps and couldn’t give directions, so sometimes you had to give people directions. One of my first jobs was working in a sandwich shop in Northern Virginia. Some tourists came in for lunch and wanted directions to a nearby Civil War battlefield. Easy, I said! I know it well! Turn right out of the parking lot, at the third light, turn right onto the parkway and you’ll see the interstate right away, get on going east… and I explained the rest. They thanked me and left. I quietly congratulated myself on my good deed for the day until I realized—hey dummy, the battlefield is WEST on the interstate. I just sent those poor tourists towards Washington DC and into some of the worst traffic in the country. I felt terrible for my bad advice. If they had come back, I would have given them a free sandwich to try to make up for it.
In today’s Scripture for Students, we’re reading two chapters from the book of Job. This is the last speech by one of Job’s friends. They have given him really terrible advice, but they don’t seem to realize it any more than I did when I sent those tourists the wrong way on the interstate.
Follow along with me as I read Job 25:1–6.
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.
3 Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?
4 How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
I’m not sure that our guy Bildad ever finished his speech. This seems very short and he hasn’t actually made a point yet. It seems more likely that Job has simply had enough. He cuts off Bildad with a speech of his own. Job’s third friend, Zophar, never even gets to make a contribution to this third cycle of speeches.
I think we can see where Bildad was going with this and I think Job was right to react. He seems to be preparing the way for more moralistic nonsense, in verse 5 he incriminates the moon and the stars and in verse 6, he tees up all mankind as the payoff to his argument: he says “man is a maggot and the son of man a worm.” Do you see the problems in Bildad’s logic? Are humans sinners? Yes. Do we deserve God’s wrath for our many sins? Definitely. But is it right to compare man to worms and maggots? Well, bad logic is often like this. You might think to yourself: “he’s close.” But not close enough. Did Bildad forget Genesis 1:26–27, where God made man in the image and likeness of God himself, crowning man with dignity and nobility above all the rest of creation? Maybe Psalm 8 had not been written yet?
In Psalm 8, David also starts with the moon and stars. In verse 3–5 he writes,
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
It’s a very important perspective: Bildad wants to prove that Job is guilty by dragging all of humanity into the dust. Job won’t have it. Listen to the sarcasm in Job’s reply:
Job 26:1–4
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How you have helped him who has no power! How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
3 How you have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4 With whose help have you uttered words, and whose breath has come out from you?
Some people might object here that Job isn’t being patient or he should be kind. But no: false teaching needs to be put down. And it is important to note that Job is attacking the content of Bildad’s speech here, not Bildad himself. In the next few verses, Job goes on to describe some of the great things God has done in creation.
Verse 7: he hangs the earth on nothing. Job seems to understand that the Earth is floating in space, supported only by the will of God.
Verses 8–9: Job seems to understand something of meteorology: he knows that clouds are made of moisture and that God gathers them together as he wills.
Verse 10: Job even understands that the vastness of the globe and it is the turning of this globe in reference to the sun that causes day and night, producing sunrises and sunsets.
He continues in verse 12–13 with a veiled reference to the Exodus. Rahab and the serpent are both codewords for Egypt and God stilled the sea for the Israelites, allowing them to pass through it unharmed, and then used the sea to destroy the Egyptians.
Job’s argument ends with one of my favorite verses in the Bible: Job 26:14,
14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power, who can understand?”
Job’s answer to false teaching is to consider the glory of God in creation. It is important that Christians pay attention to creation. If you go outside at night and see the stars, think about this verse. In the next few weeks, as you notice trees and flowers starting to bud with spring growth, think about this verse. If you see the playfulness of a puppy or the supple movements of a cat or the sharp watchfulness of a hawk on a wire, think about this verse. In all of them, remember: these are but the outskirts of his ways. These are just whispers of what he is capable of.
A vision like this will protect us from bad advice, it will keep us from sending people the wrong way on the highway, because we will remember that in all things, God is higher, greater, and wiser than us. We never understand all he is doing, so let’s not be like Bildad, giving bad advice about that which we know not. Instead, let’s acknowledge: if God can work such marvels in creation, which are the outskirts of his ways, how much more can he do for his people, whom he loves and has set just a little lower than the angels?
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!