Reflections on Job 8

 Job 08 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Bildad from Shuah said:
2. How long will you talk and keep saying nothing?
3. Does God All-Powerful stand in the way of justice?
4. He made your children pay for their sins.
5. So why don't you turn to him
6. and start living right? Then he will decide to rescue and restore you to your place of honor.
7. Your future will be brighter by far than your past.
8. Our ancestors were wise, so learn from them.
9. Our own time has been short, like a fading shadow, and we know very little.
10. But they will instruct you with great understanding.
11. Papyrus reeds grow healthy only in a swamp,
12. and if the water dries up, they die sooner than grass.
13. Such is the hopeless future of all who turn from God
14. and trust in something as frail as a spider's web--
15. they take hold and fall because it's so flimsy.
16. Sinful people are like plants with spreading roots and plenty of sun and water.
17. They wrap their roots tightly around rocks.
18. But once they are pulled up, they have no more place;
19. their life slips away, and other plants grow there.
20. We know God doesn't reject an innocent person or help a sinner.
21. And so, he will make you happy and give you something to smile about.
22. But your evil enemies will be put to shame and disappear forever.

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Job's second friend, Bildad, now enters the discussion. Bildad held the same viewpoint as Eliphaz but was harsher in his assertions. He was characteristic of one who is insecure in his faith, needing a system that is black and white with no gray areas in which lie questions for which answers are not forthcoming. For him it is simple: there is only one reason for suffering and it is sin on the part of the sufferer. To have someone challenge his black and white system angers him for it represents a threat to his system and thus to his faith. But his faith is built more on his system than on God. Thus he is unable to leave the unanswered questions to God's sovereignty. He must have an answer or his system crumbles along with his faith.

So, by the time Job finished his speech in chapters 6 and 7, Bildad was indignant. How dare Job, who was obviously a sinner, speak out against God's justice! Therefore, Bildad opened his speech by characterizing Job's words as a "blast of wind." They had force but lacked substance. Bildad then seems to say, "Let's not mince words," as he goes on to say (in affect), "Your children got what they deserved. They sinned and God 'gave them over to their rebellion.'" (8:4)

At least Bildad offered hope to Job saying that things could still be turned around. God, in His mercy, would restore what Job had lost if he would "earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy." (8:5) To lend authority to his words, Bildad referenced the previous generation. If Job were to ask them, they would supposedly verify what Bildad was saying. However, Bildad did not point to any specific source or words of wisdom. It was merely a suggestion that his advise was based in well-established wisdom.

Next, Bildad drew upon nature to illustrate his cause-and-effect thinking. As papyrus dies without water, so sin leads to suffering. Job's source of confidence in thinking there is another cause for his suffering was like trying to lean upon a spider's web for stability. It does not hold up. And then he brought his point home, "God does not reject a person of integrity, and He will not support evildoers." In other words, "You, Job, are not a person of integrity but rather an evildoer." God is not unjust so Job's suffering had to be his own fault.

It is true. God is not unjust. But it is misguided to cling to assumed explanations simply because we otherwise don't understand what is happening. It is okay to lean on God's sovereignty and trust that He is just and His reasons are good even though we don't understand. We don't have to have an explanation. We merely need to trust God. It is as we persevere through the times of testing in which we have no answers that we eventually come to understand God's reasons for our circumstances. We are not helped by the manufactured explanations, for they will eventually fall apart, tearing down rather than building up our faith.