As Job replies to Bildad’s brief and final speech, he begins with biting sarcasm. Of course, this is not a new tactic for him (see 12:2 and 17:10, for example). But now he takes sarcasm to new heights! At the beginning of Job 26, it’s as if he says, “What a lucky man I am to have you for a friend! I can’t get over my good fortune, that I, who have no wisdom of my own and never say anything right, have been privileged to listen to your plentiful, life-giving knowledge! All I’d like to know is where you obtained such amazing insight!” (v 1-4). Beyond the sarcasm, by implication, these verses also tell us what a true comforter should be about: helping those with “no power,” saving those with “no strength,” counseling those with “no wisdom.” In other words, as the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible explains, “True comfort comes to us when we are at the end of the road, with no gas in the engine and no human possibility of gas for thousands of miles around. Grace doesn’t add to what’s already there. Grace comes to our aid when there is nothing there. This is the comforting grace that Jesus Christ embodied in His life and ministry. He is the Comforter for all who have broken down and have nothing left to run on.” In the rest of the chapter, Job lifts up a powerful and beautiful hymn of praise to God the Creator. His friends charged him with minimizing the greatness of God, reducing Him to impotence. But Job is more than ready to agree with them in regard to God’s unfathomable power. From the lowest extremes of creation (v 5-6) to the high and heavenly parts (v 7-10), the one true God is governing all things with wisdom. From the dark chaos of the sea to the clear boundaries of the sky’s horizon, Job believes that the Creator somehow maintains order and purpose. Yet after this reassuring language, the hymn speaks of “the pillars of heaven” trembling at God’s rebuke! (v 11). So the creation is orderly and purposeful, but it is not ultimate. The sovereign God can and does shake its predictability whenever He chooses to do so. And Job seems to understand how this truth has implications for the existence of evil and the problem of suffering. Every anti-God force of evil in the universe, every power that threatens to swamp the moral order of creation, is subject to God’s power and will (v 12-13). After this breathtaking overview of God’s mighty deeds, Job concludes, “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?” (v 14). For further meditation: