Commentary on the Book of Job part eighteen

                                   Job 12:1-25

In Job 12:1-3, Job chided his comforters for their shallow wisdom. Job thought they were just empty people who did not think very deeply, and who would die in their ignorance. Job informed them that everybody already knew all that they said.

In Job 12:4-5, Job admitted that he talked with God, and he boasted that God answered him. He also resigned himself to the fact that he would be mocked and scorned for it.

In Job 12:6, Job informed his mockers that he knew God to be merciful because God allowed prosperity even to the wicked and to those who provoke Him.

In Job 12:7-10, Job instructed his mockers to look at God's creations to teach themselves about the nature of God. Every life that God has created belongs to Him, and He takes good care of it. God firmly grasps His image that He has put into every man in His almighty hand, and who can break God's hold on His creations? Ecclesiastes 3:14.

In John 10:28-29, Jesus affirmed that He and His Father held His sheep saved by grace in His omnipotent hand which no power could possibly break. But in Job 12:10, God put the truth into Job's mouth that He holds every living thing He has ever created in His almighty hand, including the breath of all mankind which means His image in every person. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:7. Certainly, this fact means that God can never lose anything He has ever created. For this reason, God must provide a lesser salvation for all living humans not saved by grace. God has given us a record of this future salvation in Revelation 5:13; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5, and Luke 20:38 as well as other scriptures. Revelation 20:11-15 records that God does not cast living humans into the lake of fire. He will cast only the spiritual dead who are totally evil into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12. God will raise His good image that He put into every man back to life in a general resurrection in the end of the world. John 5:28-29.

In Job 12:11-13, Job affirmed God's omniscience. God possesses all the ancient wisdom and understanding, and one must listen to Him in order to learn.