Page 37 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

All of the characteristics are bound up together. All together make up his majesty and glory. Certainty in
the mind of a human about one characteristic should bring certainty about all. Doubt about one brings
doubt to all. “The love of God and the holiness of God may be thought to conflict or compete with one
another. Actually, however, the love of God must be seen as holy love and the holiness of God as loving
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holiness.”
So as Yahweh speaks of himself in his power and wisdom, he is also speaking about his justice and
righteousness. “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify [make righteous]
yourself (40:8)?” The glory of God is displayed as he with wisdom directs his almighty power to work his
justice and his righteousness. How else might the proud be brought low? How else might the wicked
ever be crushed? How else might Job himself ever hope for help and salvation (50:10-14)?

For the faith of one person, the stakes are high. When we deny one characteristic of God, we imagine
him to exist in a deformed way and call into question our relationship with him. Do we actually know
him?

We must accept by faith the fact that God is holy [or any of his characteristics], even
when trying circumstances make it appear otherwise. To complain against God is in
effect to deny His holiness and to say He is not fair. In the seventeenth century Stephen
Charnock said, “It is less injury to Him to deny His being, than to deny the purity of it;
the one makes Him no God. The other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable God…. He
that saith God is not holy speaks much worse than he that saith there is no God at all.
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The last verses of revelation by God are extended
descriptions of two creatures, usually called Behemoth
and Leviathan. Commentators are divided as to their
identification. Some suggest a hippopotamus and
crocodile, familiar animals in the Mideast. The language is
highly poetical, making use of exaggeration. While
picturing the strength of Behemoth, poetic license plays
with the tail that “sways like a cedar” (40:17). Other
commentators find such exaggeration unacceptable. They
speculate instead about some ancient dinosaur that lived
in the rivers. The human author might have knowledge of Figure 22: Behemoth?
extinct animals through skeletal remains in the area.

52 Millard J. Erickson, God the Father Almighty (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998), 230.
53 Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1989), 28.
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