Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Job 8:1-2 and following. Indeed, let us now listen to what Bildad is going to say. Not yet daring to openly assert that Job’s misfortunes result from his own sins, he begins by talking about his sons. For him the question is simple: the death of Job’s children is the consequence of their transgression (v. 4). They sinned and God struck them. Cruel word for this pious man whose happy habit we know: he rose early to offer holocausts for his sons (Jb 1:4-5). It is as if his friend was telling him: Your prayers were useless; God did not listen to you and did not want to save your children.
The three friends know God only as a righteous judge. Certainly, the righteousness of the Almighty (v. 3) is one side of the truth. It is even so perfect that when His own Son took charge of our sins, God was compelled to strike At Him with His wrath. But the cross, where this supreme proof of his righteousness was given, at the same time brings us the most wonderful proof of his love. By speaking to men only of justice without love, they are led to discouragement or to justify themselves. This is the double effect that the reasoning of his friends will have on Job.
The first attempt to meet Job was made by someone who draws on his own experience and takes pleasure in recounting the things he has seen. Bildad of Shuach, on the other hand, is a man who sticks to the wisdom of fathers and supports himself at all times with their answers to life’s questions. Vain for him is the reasoning of the one who sees everything as through colored glass, everything of this or that hue, according to his state or his notions of the moment. Personal printing doesn’t count for anything at Bildad. He finds no authority there. We have in him the theologian opposed to individualism. Unfortunately, it does not have the most necessary power, that of distinguishing straw from grain. Back to antiquity, back to the fathers, some say; but, although they profess the excellent temperament of reverence, there is no guarantee that they will not choose the follies of the past instead of his wisdom to admire.
It all depends on the man, on the individual after all, if he has an open mind, a preference if not a passion for big ideas. There are those who return to the apostles and find only dogmatism, instead of the glorious expanse of divine poetry and hope. Yes, some go to the Light of the World and report as a discovery a pragmatic scheme, a weak arrangement of details, slavery or futility. Bildad is not one of them. He is intelligent and well informed, a capable man, as they say; but he has no sympathy for the new ideas that shatter the old excesses of tradition, no sympathy for the bold words that cast doubt on the old orthodoxies. You can imagine his pious horror when Job’s coarse hand seemed to tear the sacred garments of the established truth. It would have been like him to turn away and leave such an adventurous man to fate and judgment.
With the instinct of the highest and noblest thought, completely removed from all impiety, the writer showed his inspiration by leading Job to a culminating point of passionate investigation like the one who struggles in the swellings of the Jordan with Jehovah’s angel. Now he introduces Bildad by uttering cold words from a mind quite incapable of understanding the crisis. He was a man who believed himself firmly endowed with authority and insight. When Job added supplication to supplication, ask to demand, Bildad felt that his ears were deceiving him, for what he heard seemed to be an unholy assault on the righteousness of the Most High, an attempt to convince the Infinitely Righteous of injustice. He burns to speak; and Job has not sooner sunk exhausted, let him begin: “How long are you going to say these things?
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Bildad’s intervention: faults are paid sooner or later:
- Useless, condemned words
Jb 11:2 Will this multitude of words find no answer, and will it be enough to be a discoureur to be right? Pr 14:23 All work provides abundance, but empty words only lead to scarcity. Ez 36:3 Prophesies and says: Thus speaks the Lord, the Lord: Yes, because they have wanted on all sides to devastate and engulf you, that you may be the property of other nations, Because you have been the object of the speeches and words of the peoples, 1:10 There are, in fact, especially among the circumcised, many rebellious people, vain speechers and seducers,
- Justice divine
Dt 32:4 He is the rock; his works are perfect, for all his ways are just; He is a faithful God without iniquity, He is just and upright. Zep 3:5 The Lord is right in her midst, He does not commit iniquity; Every morning he produces in the light his judgments, without ever lacking in them; But he who is iniquitous does not know shame. Jn 5:30 I cannot do anything with myself: according to what I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my will, but the will of the one who sent me. Rom 2:2 We know, in fact, that God’s judgment against those who commit such things is according to the truth.
- Lowering of the proud, predicted
Jb 40:12 It bends its tail as firm as a cedar; The nerves in her thighs are intertwined; Isaiah 2:12 For there is a day for the Lord of hosts against every proud and haughty man, against whoever rises, that he may be lowered; Jer 50:32 The proud woman will stagger and fall, and no one will raise her up; I will set fire to his cities, and he will devour all the surroundings. Lk 1:52 He overthrew the powerful from their thrones, and He lifted up the humble.
- Joy restored
-At the restoration of divine grace Ps 30:12 And you have changed my lamentations into joy, You have untied my bag, and you have girded me with joy,
-To those who are in mourning Isa 61:3 To grant the afflicted of Zion, To give them a tiara instead of ashes, An oil of joy instead of mourning, A garment of praise instead of a dejected spirit, To be called terebinths of righteousness, A plantation of the Lord, to serve for his glory.
-At the deliverance of the nation Jr 30:19 From the midst of them will rise thanksgiving and cries of rejoicing; I will multiply them, and they will not decrease; I will honor them, and they will not be despised. Jer 31:13 Then the young women will rejoice in the dance, the young men and the old men will also rejoice; I will change their mourning into joy, and I will console them; I will give them joy after their sorrows.
-When the door of hope is opened, Hos 2:17 There, I will give her her vineyards and the valley of Acor, as a door of hope, and there she will sing as in the time of her youth, and as on the day she ascended from the land of Egypt.
-Thanks to the Savior’s vision of ascension Jn 16:20 Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice: you will be in sorrow, but your sorrow will change into joy.
From all the above, we note that thenipping Bildad the Shukhite succeeds Eliphaz, but speaks with much more severity, which provokes from Job a more acerbic reply. In taking job over, Bildad is not afraid to speculate that his children had attracted the just retribution of their actions, and that Job himself may not be what he seemed. He speaks only of righteousness and thinks only of that, while committing Job to repent, which would certainly be followed by greater blessings than the previous ones. The greenest and sap-filled plant will be the first to dry out, and the hope of the hypocrite and the ungodly will be nothing but a spider’s web, and its place will refuse to recognize it, while the man of integrity will be filled with joy. The catastrophe that struck them might have seemed to be one of the arrows of the judgment directed against the father. Job himself could have great perplexity as well as great distress whenever he thought of his sons and daughters. Today, Bildad blames them for the guilt he believes has been so terribly punished, to the end of an irremediable death. But there is no clarification in the suggestion. Rather, does this add to the difficulties of the matter: were thesons and daughters whom Job loved, over whom he watched with such religious care for fear that they would renounce God in their hearts, condemned by the Most High? An old-world man, accustomed to seeing himself as standing in God’s place in his home, Job cannot receive this. Thought having once been moved in its depths, he now has resentment against a doctrine that may never have been questioned before. Is there then no paternity in the Almighty, no magnanimity as Job himself would have shown? If this were the case, then the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls He made (Isaiah 57:16). Theywho try to explain God’s ways of edification and comfort must be very simple and authentic in their feeling with men, their effort on behalf of God. Anyone who believes and thinks of something in their spiritual experience that deserves to be told and can help a grieving brother by tracing their own story. The aspect it takes on to litigants will often surprise the most sensible comforter. One point is emphasized by the sharp mind of sorrow, and, like elijah’s cloud, it soon sweeps the entire sky, a storm of doubt and dismay. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom as I walk in your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Job’s response to Bildad. (Jb 9)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Lord of Hosts.