Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Job 25:1 and following. Indeed, Bildad means “son of contestation“. It’s a name he deserves indeed! But what does the Word recommend? “The Lord’s slave must not contest, but be gentle towards all, able to teach, enduring wickedness, gently straightening opponents…” (2 Tim 2.22-26). None of the three friends manifested these characters. They knew how to ask questions, they were unable to provide answers; They could hurt but not heal, overthrow but not edify. After a brief speech by Bildad, they are definitely silent. The harshest words failed to produce in Job a true conviction of sin. The more he was accused, the more he felt the need to justify himself. This conviction of sin, only the Spirit of God can produce it in a conscience. Did he do it in yours? Nor was Job’s heart touched by a true word of consolation.
We think of this exclamation of the greatest of the afflicted: “I waited for a gesture of compassion, but there was none, and comforters, but I did not find any” (Ps 69:21). Far from appeasing Job, helping him with wise counsel (Jb 26:2-3), the words of his friends excited him to an extreme extent. And he is now embarking on a long and sad monologue. Then comes Bildad who is reduced to what we could almost call some commonplaces about the glorious power of God. Who questioned these truths? Everything he said was right, but how did it apply to Job’s case? How could the soul of the latter receive good and the suspicions of his friends be justified by such arguments?
The argument in the last chapter focused entirely on the general aspect of whether the wicked are punished in proportion to their crimes. Job met his friends to the point of putting them in great difficulty. They cannot attack him now as some kind of infidel. And yet, what he has granted does not give way. They cannot deny his contrast between the two classes of evildoers or refuse to admit that the powerful oppressor has a different fate from adultery or the wicked thief. Bildad therefore limits himself to two general principles, that God is the supreme administrator of justice and that no man is pure. He will not now claim that Job was a tyrant for the poor, He does not dare to call him a murderer or a burglar. A trap was set for the one who talked a lot about traps, and seeing him he is on guard.
Domination and fear are with Him; He makes peace in his high places. Are there a number of His armies? And on whom does his light not shine? The brief ode has a certain dignity raising it above the level of Bildad’s previous statements. He wants to show that Job was too bold in his critique of providence. God has exclusive dominion and claims universal worship. Where he dwells in the high place of unattainable glory, his presence and rule create peace. He is the Lord of countless armies (the stars and their inhabitants perhaps), and His light fills the expanse of endless space, revealing and illuminating all life. On this affirmation of God’s majesty is founded the idea of his holiness: Before such a great and glorious being, how can man be just? The universality of its power and the brilliance of its presence contrast with the narrow range of human energy and the darkness of the human spirit. Behold, says Bildad, the moon is overshadowed by a gaze of the great Creator and the stars are cast into the shadows by its brilliance; and how will the man whose body is of the earthly earth claim any purity of soul? He is like the worm; its kinship is with corruption; its place is in the dust like the reptiles of which it becomes the prey.
The depiction of God in his exaltation and glory has an impressive tone of piety that redeems Bildad from any hint of insolence at this point. He includes himself and his friends among those whose lives seem impure in the eyes of Heaven. It shows that if Job succeeds in rejecting the accusations against him, there is in any case a general condemnation in which he must allow himself to be dragged along with all men. Is he not a weak ignorant whose will, being finite, must be imperfect? On the one hand is the pious exaltation of God, on the other the pious lowering of man.
It is easy to see, however, that Bildad is still bound to a superficial creed without moral depth or spiritual strength. The ideas are those of a religion of nature in which the one God is a Baal or Supreme Master, monopolizing all splendor, His purity that of fire or light. We are shown the Lord of the visible universe whose dwelling place is in the high heavens, whose representative is the bright sun in the light of which nothing is hidden.
It’s easy to point to this splendid apparition and, contrasting man with the great force of fire, the eternal fountain of light, to say: How dark, puny, imperfect man is! The brilliance of an Arab sky through which the sun walks in clear glory seems in complete contrast to the darkness of human life. Yet, is he fair, is he competent to argue in this way? Is there anything established about the moral quality of man because he cannot shine like the sun or even with the slightest light from the moon or the stars? One can allow a hint of strong thought in the suggestion that unlimited majesty and power are necessary to perfect virtue, that only the Almighty can be entirely pure. But it cannot be said that Bildad grasps this idea. If he shines before his mind, the faint flash goes unnoticed. He does not have enough wisdom to elaborate such a thought. And it’s nature that, according to his argument, really condemns man. Job is invited to look at the sun, moon and stars and to know himself infinitely less pure than they are.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Bildad’s intervention: we do not discuss with the Mighty:
- Fear of God, commanded
Joshs 24:14 Now fear the Lord, and serve Him with integrity and faithfulness. Make the gods served by your fathers on the other side of the river and in Egypt disappear, and serve the Lord. Isaiah 8:3 I had approached the prophetess; she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me: Give him the name Maher Schalal Chasch Baz. Mt 10:28 Fear not those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can cause the soul and body to perish in Gehenna. 1 Pet 2:17 Honor everyone; love the brethren; fear God; honor the king.
- Divine royalty, general references
Ex 15:18 Jehovah will reign eternally and forever. Ps 24:10 Who then is this king of glory? -The Lord of hosts: This is the king of glory! -Pause. 1 Tim 1:17 To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory, in the ages of the ages! Amen! Rev 19:6 And I heard as a voice of a large crowd, as a sound of great waters, and as a sound of loud thunders, saying: Hallelujah! For the Lord our Almighty God has entered into His kingdom.
- Chariots of God
Ps 68:18 The chariots of the Lord are numbering in twenty thousand, thousands, and thousands; The Lord is in their midst, Sinai is in the sanctuary. Ps 104.3 He forms with the waters the summit of his abode; He takes the clouds for his chariot, He advances on the wings of the wind. Isaiah 66:15 For behold, the Lord arrives in a fire, And his chariots are like a whirlwind; He converts his anger into a blaze, and his threats into flames of fire. Ha 3:8 Is Jehovah angry with the rivers? Is it against the rivers that your anger is ignited, Against the sea that your fury spreads, So that you may be mounted on your horses, On your chariot of victory?
- Universal sin
Gen 6:5 Jehovah saw that the wickedness of men was great on earth, and that all thoughts of their hearts were directed every day only toward evil. Psalm 53:4 All are misguided, all are perverted; There is none that does good, not even one. Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God; 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
From all of the above, we note that the truth remains intact the man whose body is doomed to corruption, the man who works according to the law, with the warmth of moral energy in his heart, moves on a much higher plane as a servant of God than any orb of fire that spreads its light through unlimited space. We find the ignorance of man and therefore of his Creator in Bildad’s speech. He does not understand the dignity of the human spirit in his quest for justice. “With unlimited duration, unlimited space and endless numbers, Nature is at least doing what it can to translate the richness of the creative formula into visible form. By the immensity of the abysses where it penetrates into the effort, the unsuccessful effort, to shelter and contain the eternal thought, we can measure the greatness of the divine spirit. For as soon as this spirit comes out of itself and seeks to explain itself, the effort of enunciation piles up universe upon universe for myriads of centuries, and yet it is not expressed and the great prayer must continue forever and ever. “The majestic inanimate universe, governed by eternal law, cannot represent the moral qualities of the divine spirit, and the attempt to convince a thinking man, whose soul is attached to truth and purity, by the splendor of that light that dazzles his eye, The commonplaces of pious thought fall flat in a controversy such as the present Bildad does not realize what the right of man in the universe consists of. He tries in vain to instruct one who sees that moral desire and struggle are the conditions of human greatness, which will not be dominated by material splendours or convinced by the chance of death. 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 acknowledge that I have 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 my personal Lord and Savior. I acknowledge that you died at 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 26)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.