`Bildad's wonderful speech had, of course, disposed of the whole question. Yet, on the subject of God's

dominion, he (Job) would add that that dominion extends from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven ... all

this, however, only partially reveals God's greatness'.

Job's Ninth Discourse, chapters 29 to 31:

(1) His former happy condition - `At that time when he appeared in public, he was received with dignity ...

judging from appearances he had then fondly hoped that his prosperity was secure.

(2) His present miserable state - `Now, however, he was the laughing-stock of young fellows, whose fathers had

been a set of half-starved vagabonds, the dregs of society, and the most disreputable of men'.

Job then runs over his past life, his moral rectitude, his treatment of servants, his care for the poor, and brings his

protestation to a close with the words:

`Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended' (Job 31:40).

After all this display of wisdom, this wrong-headed judgment, and equally wrong-headed defence, all, both Job and

his three friends come to an end of speaking, without arriving at any conclusion. The word `ceased' in Job 32:1 is

sabbath, translated `rest' in Genesis 2:2, showing the meaning of the word was established before Moses used it. It

is only when the curtain is drawn aside as it is in chapters 1 and 2, that the key to the enigma is discovered. This is

also true of the problem of the ages, of the problem of the individual, in all ages, and of much that is perplexing in

the history of Israel.

We must give attention to the opening and closing chapters of Job in our next article.

The place that the book of Job occupies in its relation to the rest of Scripture, may be illustrated by two passages

in the epistle to the Hebrews. When the apostle arrived at the close of chapter 7, and before he advanced from the

subject of the Priest to the subject of the Offering, he paused to give a summary: `Now of the things which we have

spoken, this is the sum' (Heb. 8:1), and the word translated `sum' is the Greek kephalaion. Coverdale translated this

`the pith', and Moffatt renders the passage `the point is this'. Parkhurst gives as one of the meanings of kephalaion

`a sum, summary or recapitulation of a discourse' and points out that the ancients literally added up, as they used to

put the sum total at the head and not at the foot of an account. Further, by referring to Ezekiel 2:9,10, where the

LXX uses the word kephalis, we learn that the volume spread out before the prophet was written `within and

without', or as in The Revelation `a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals'. The writing

on the back being a summary of what was written within. Upon reaching Hebrews 10 the apostle there indicates

another `summary': `In the volume of the book it is written of Me' (Heb. 10:7), where the word `volume' is a

translation of the Greek kephalis. The book of Job stands at the forefront of Revealed truth in the form of a kephalis

or summary, and indicates to the reader that in the enmity exhibited by Satan to one of the `perfect' or true seed is

set forth in dramatic summary the conflict and purpose of the ages. If we want a key to the sacred Volume we need

seek no further, the key hangs at the door, we cannot step over the threshold of divine truth without passing it, let us

no longer ignore it but use it again and again in our quest for truth.

Our studies in the book of Job thus far have been mainly to do with the material and form of the book; the

problem with which the book is concerned has hardly been touched upon. We are conscious, as we hear Job's

agonized remonstrances and mark the blind groping of his three friends, that if they had known what we know, if

they had had revealed to them the contents of the first two chapters, how different would have been their approach to

the problem of Job's sufferings, and how different the solution at which they arrived. We now turn to these two

revealing chapters, conscious that they are an unveiling, revealing motives and movements in the spiritual world