Job 25:5-6

5 Behold even to the moon [yareach], and it shineth ['ahal] not; yea, the stars [kowkab] are not pure [zakak] in his sight [`ayin].

6 How much less man ['enowsh], that is a worm [rimmah]? and the son [ben] of man ['adam], which is a worm [towla`]? KJV-Interlinear

5 'If even the moon has no brightness And the stars are not pure in His sight, 6 How much less man, that maggot, And the son of man, that worm!' NASB

Throughout this chapter, Bildad has been rambling a bit. Hs remarks are arbitrary and have nothing to do with Jobs situation, but despite that, we are able to learn a great deal about God, mans relationship with God and especially what people way back in that ancient time, understood about these various spiritual subjects.

For example, the moon has no brightness of its own. Its light comes from the reflection of the sun. Bildad mentions the moon and stars, but does not mention the sun in this passage. The brightness of the sun is absent. And as we will see later, mans brightness is really absent also, leaving only a light which does not belong to him, and light which is so dim that it might as well be a trillion miles away, doing man absolutely no good.

Bildad is making a comparison of mans brightness with that of God, and he is using the moon and stars in his comparison.

The moon is the brightest object in the night sky, and yet its light is not its own. The stars possess their own light, because they are also sun type objects, yet they are so far away, their light is not so bright. They, the stars, can be viewed only in the darkness (the lies of life) of night and are totally obliterated when the morning light (truth) arrives.

When compared to God, both are extremely dim. Gods light is bright enough to reach beyond the entire universe if He so chose, and yet God has the power to limit and control the exposure of His own glory.

And that leaves man. Who is he and why does he think so highly of himself?

We are about to enter into a new election season next year, but one would think that the elections are nearly upon us now, given all of the very early campaign activity of this year. All of the candidates will have egos and opinions of themselves and others, and of issues. In fact everyone on the planet has a ego of some sort. We all have opinions of our self and of others, and of what we believe to be the issues of the day.

But what is man described as? Man is a maggot and a worm. And this is put in the reverse of mans life. During life, man is nothing more than a living worm crawling in the dust from which he came. And in death, his physical body is consumed by maggots.

Where then is mans shining light?

Nowhere!

Bildad's whole point here is that Job is no shining saint. No human being is. So how can Job possibly hope to gain a hearing from the Almighty?

And again, we note that Bildad did not listen to Jobs comments, which we studied long ago, wherein Job repeatedly stated that he was certainly a sinner as all of humanity is, but he looked to a redeemer who was both God and man, and the one and the same who will be his advocate, who is still both God and man, and of whom representation of Job would be made to the Father, who is God.

Bildad did not pay attention, but then most of humanity doesn't pay attention to divine words anyway.

People already have preconceived ideas about God or gods, life or their chosen lifestyle, about what is important to them in life, and especially about what is not important to them. And a legitimate spiritual life is not generally considered important.

People have their own ideas about spirituality and such things, and they are generally related to their emotional feelings, or standards of living which they have adopted from a wide variety of beliefs which did not come by the Word of God.

And here is Bildad's point in all of this. Man thinks highly of himself and yet man is no better than the maggot that consumes him. And, just as the maggot consumes a dead thing, so too, man is self-consumed by his own false beliefs, which too are dead things.

That is the glory of man, self invented, self imagined, and totally detached from reality.

If you stick with this Bible study, then you can transform your thoughts into living thoughts.

And of course, if you are not impressed with this study, or any other legitimate study for that matter, then you can continue with your dead thoughts and those creepy little things crawling around inside your head.

Now is the time to post a prayer.