Job 26:14

My Notes

What Does Job 26:14 Mean?

Job concludes a magnificent hymn to God's power (chapter 26: controlling the sea, hanging the earth on nothing, binding the waters in clouds, shaking the pillars of heaven) with a statement that should stop every reader: everything I just described? That's the edge. The outline. The whisper. "Lo, these are parts of his ways" — hen eleh q'tsoth drakhav — behold, these are the edges of His ways. The Hebrew q'tsoth means extremities, borders, the farthest reach of something. What Job has just cataloged — the most powerful acts of God he can describe — are the margins.

"But how little a portion is heard of him" — umah-shemets davar nishma-bo. The Hebrew shemets means a whisper, a tiny fraction, a barely audible murmur. What we hear of God — even in the most dramatic descriptions of His power — is a whisper of the reality. The thunder of the ocean, the weight of the earth, the binding of the clouds — all of it is the barely perceptible edge of who God actually is.

"But the thunder of his power who can understand?" — v'ra'am g'vurothav mi yithbonen. If the whisper is this overwhelming, what is the thunder? If the edges are this magnificent, what is the center? Job's question has no answer because the answer exceeds human capacity. The thunder of God's full power is beyond comprehension. And everything you've ever experienced of God — every miracle, every intervention, every revelation — is the whisper, not the thunder.

Reflection Questions

• 1.If everything you've experienced of God is the whisper — the edges of His ways — what does that say about how much of God you haven't encountered yet?
• 2.The most powerful descriptions of God are the margins, not the center. How does that recalibrate the scale of your understanding of who God is?
• 3.If the whisper is this overwhelming, what is the thunder? Does that prospect excite you or terrify you?
• 4.Where have you mistaken the edge for the whole — assumed your experience of God was comprehensive when it was barely the outline?

Devotional

Everything you know about God is the whisper. The edges. The farthest margins of a reality so vast that what overwhelms you is the outline, not the substance. The parting of the Red Sea? A whisper. The resurrection of Jesus? An edge of His ways. The most powerful experience of God you've ever had — the moment that defined your faith, the intervention that saved your life, the encounter that left you on the floor — that was the shemets. The tiny fraction. The barely audible murmur of the thunder.

Job has just described God hanging the earth on nothing, binding the sea, stretching the sky. The most powerful imagery available to a human mind. And then he says: these are the edges. These are the parts. If you heard what I just described and thought "God is impressive," you've heard the whisper and mistaken it for the shout. The impression you formed from the edges bears roughly the same relationship to the reality as a footprint bears to the person who left it.

That should simultaneously humble you and electrify you. Humble because it means you have never — not once, not in your most transcendent moment — apprehended more than a fraction of who God is. Your best theology is a whisper of the thunder. Your deepest experience is an edge of the center. Electrify because it means there is immeasurably more of God than you've ever encountered. The best isn't behind you. It's ahead — deeper, louder, more overwhelming than anything the edges have shown you. If the whisper has been enough to build your faith on, imagine the thunder.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture