Job 8:1














The supposed attack of Job' by implication, upon the justice of God gives an opening for renewed admonitions and rebukes on the part of his friends. Bildad now comes forward and delivers a discourse full of noble faith, however its principles may be in this case misapplied. Rebuking the grievous complaints of Job as a wind, full of noise and emptiness (ver. 2), he proceeds -

I. TO INSIST ON THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. This is an axiom of his faith. God cannot do unrighteousness. It, is impious to admit the thought for a single moment into the mind. He insists on the inflexibility of God's rectitude. He will not bend right and duty (ver. 3). There can be no twisting, deviation, compromise, with God. His path is ever a straight line. Bildad will therefore rather draw an unfavorable conclusion about his friend than allow the slightest shadow to be cast on the splendour of the Supreme. Job may be guilty, nay, probably is so; but there can be no probability of any failure of right in God. The principle may appear somewhat harshly and rigidly stated; and yet from the sincere, even if narrow and limited, point of view of Bildad no doubt he is in the right. Rather seek any explanation of suffering, or leave it in mystery, than bring a charge against the unbending righteousness of God.

1. Application to the past and present. Following out this reasoning, the fate of Job's sons would seem to point to the fact that they had committed a deadly sin. And so, too, Job's present sufferings lead to the inference that he is very far from pure. The terrible example of his sons should be his warning. Yet this is expressed with some kindliness and forbearance. It is put hypothetically: "if thy sons" (ver. 4). Bildad, though rigid in doctrine, is not untender at heart - a kind of character we often see exemplified in life. But we have the lesson again and again from the conduct of these friends that friendship demands intelligence as well as heart. There is a missing link in Bildad's reasoning, which destroys its power in the present case.

2. Application to the future. There is hope for the sufferer if he will but betake himself in humility and repentance to God.

(1) There must be the seeking, striving, straining, agonizing effort of the whole soul to recover its lost treasure - peace with him.

(2) There must be prayer, the sincere expression of this desire (ver. 5). In life and in thought there must be conversion from evil and towards him, the Good and the Holy, the Gracious, and the Forgiving. The result will be the recovery of the lost happiness.

(a) Innocence will be restored (ver. 6); grand hope and promise of the eternal gospel - the crimson stain may be removed from the heart and the hand, past sins and iniquities may be remembered no more. The possibility of a renovation of which men are tempted in themselves to despair.

(b) Divine protection will be felt. God will watch over him (ver. 6) or "awake for him." The Shepherd of Israel, who slumbers not, will guard him from evil by night and by day, in his going out and his coming in.

(c) Peace will be in his homestead - the peace which dwells with right and innocence. Over garden and orchard, on fields and barns, and around the hearth, will be felt brooding the nameless presence of the favour of God.

(d) There will be increase of prosperity (ver. 7). The little one will become a thousand. The seed of right, germinating and producing, will grow to waving harvests of internal joy. of external good. Such are the cheering deductions from Bildad's high principles, the suggestions of his profound faith. The righteous God will be true to the righteous man. Sin is the only root of sorrow, virtue and godliness the only secret of abiding and eternal bliss.

II. APPEAL TO ANCIENT TRADITION.

1. The wisdom of the primeval fathers the guide of to-day. Bildad founds this upon the fact that:

(1) They lived to a greater age' according to the accepted tradition, than present men. They therefore knew better the abiding laws of life than we of lesser insight, who are of yesterday and brief-lived like shadows (vers. 8, 9).

(2) Their wisdom was that of ripe conviction (ver. 10). They did not speak at second-hand nor repeat by rote what they had learnt. Theirs was the wisdom of the heart. Contempt is expressed in several places in this book for mere lip-wisdom, the froth of the mouth as opposed to the genuine utterances of the mind (Job 11:2; Job 15:3; Job 18:2).

(3) There was therefore the stamp of sincerity on their wisdom. It came from men who had seen through life's illusions and cheats, and who had touched the foundation of things.

2. Specimens of ancient wisdom. (Ver, 11, seq.) Here Bildad passes into citation of some old sayings, which condense the truths of life.

(1) The papyrus and the grass of the Nile (vers. 11, 12 ). They cannot live without their proper element and nutriment of water; they quickly wither in its absence. So must it be with man where he is devoid of Divine grace (ver. 13). A new figure is introduced in the "paths" of the forgetters of God - they are lost like a wind-swept tract in the desert (comp. Psalm 1.); and the hope of the unholy "goes under," disappears like the sun below the horizon's verge, to be seen no more.

(2) The spider's web (ver. 14). He who trusts in his own strength or resources, without God, will have his confidence rent from him as the spider's web gives way at a slight touch or at the breath of the wind. The habitation which he thinks secure is but a gossamer thing; it cannot stand (ver. 15).

(3) The creeping plant in its pride (vers. 16, 17). Before the burning glow of the sun, full of sap, it spreads over the garden, fixing itself firmly among the stones, and proudly lording it, as it were, over them. But when God withdraws the water, it perishes, unpitied by the home which it adorned. The wicked is thus denied and forsaken by his own connections, when he would rely upon them. Such is the pleasure of his way, turned into the deepest misery. Others spring from his remains, like suckers from the overthrown tree; let them take warning by his fate (vers. 18, 19). What powerful images of the nonentity of evil! It never really was - and, its semblance passing away, not a trace is left behind.

III. RECAPITULATION. (Vers. 20-22.)

1. In the way of solace. God does not despise the innocent. This is a meiosis' a saying leas than is meant. He regards, he tends, he loves them, feeds them with water in the desert, keeps them as the apple of his eye. His will is to make them happy - to bring smiles to the dejected lines of the mouth, and to fill it with the fruits of praise.

2. In the way of warning. He holds not fast the evil-doers' hand," and therefore when they stumble they are helpless. The enemies of the good man will see with shame that he is raised up from every fall (ver. 22); and once more, in final reverberation of the thunder of menace, the tent of the wicked shall vanish and be no more! LESSONS.

1. The distinction between seeming and real prosperity - that which is for a time and that which is for ever.

2. Life by Divine grace, and recovery from seeming ruin. Death without Divine grace, and overthrow of seeming prosperity. - J.

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite.
Bildad grasps at once, as we say, the nettle. He is quite sure that he has the key to the secret of the distribution among mankind of misery and happiness. It is a very simple solution. It is the doctrine that untimely death, sickness, adversity in every form, are alike signs of God's anger; that they visit mankind with unerring discrimination; are all what we call "judgments"; are penalties, i.e., or chastisements, meant either simply to vindicate the broken law, or else to warn and reclaim the sinner. And so, in what we feel to be harsh and unfeeling terms, he applies at once this principle, like unsparing cautery, to the wounds of his friend. Bildad tries to overwhelm the restless and presumptuous audacity of Job with a hoard of maxims and metaphors drawn from the storehouse of the "wisdom of the ancients." He puts them forward in a form that may remind us for a moment of the Book of Proverbs. "As the tall bulrush or the soaring reed grass dies down faster than it shot up, when water is withdrawn, so falls and withers the short-lived prosperity of the forgetters of God. The spider's web, frailest of tenements, is the world-old type of the hopes which the ungodly builds." The second friend is emphasising what the first had hinted. "There are no mysteries at all, no puzzles in human life," the friends say. "Suffering is, in each and every case, the consequence of ill-doing. God's righteousness is absolute. It is to be seen at every turn in the experience of life. All this impatient, fretful, writhing under, or at the sight of pain and loss, is a sign of something morally wrong, of want of faith in Divine justice. Believe this, Job; act on it, and all thy troubles will be over; God will be once more thy friend — till then He cannot be."

(Dean Bradley.)

Homilist.
I. A REPROOF THAT IS SEVERE. "How long wilt thou speak these things?" Job had poured forth language that seemed as wild and tempestuous as the language of a man in a passion. But such language ought to have been considered in relation to his physical anguish and mental distress. Great suffering destroys the mental equilibrium.

II. A DOCTRINE WHAT IS UNQUESTIONABLE. "Doth God pervert judgment?" The interrogatory is a strong way of putting the affirmative; namely, that God is absolutely just, and that He never deviates from the right.

III. AN IMPLICATION THAT IS UNKIND. "If thy children have sinned against Him, and He have cast them away for their transgression." Surely it was excessively heartless even to hint such things to the broken-hearted father.

IV. A POLICY THAT IS DIVINE. "If thou wouldst seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication unto the Almighty." Bildad recommends that this policy should be attended to at once, and in a proper spirit. He affirms that if this policy be thus attended to, the Almighty would mercifully interpose.

V. AN AUTHORITY NOT TO BE TRUSTED. "Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers." He appeals to antiquity to confirm what he has advanced. Two things should be considered.

1. There is nothing in past times infallible but the Divinely-inspired.

2. There is always more of the inspired in the present than in the past.

VI. A CONSIDERATION THAT IS SOLEMN. "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." This fact, which is introduced parenthetically, is of solemn moment to us all.

(Homilist.)

People
Bildad, Job
Places
Uz
Topics
Answereth, Bildad, Replied, Shuhite
Outline
1. Bildad shows God's justice in dealing with men according to their works.
8. He alleges antiquity to prove the certain destruction of the hypocrite.
20. He applies God's just dealing to Job.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Job 8:1-2

     5822   criticism, against believers

Library
Two Kinds of Hope
'Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.'--JOB viii. 14. 'And hope maketh not ashamed.'--ROMANS v. 5. These two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of Job's friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with partial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the ungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the splendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which the well-worn platitude is draped.
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Beginning, Increase, and End of the Divine Life
Now, the utterances of Bildad, and of the other two men who came to comfort Job, but who made his wounds tingle, are not to be accepted as being inspired. They spake as men--as mere men. They reasoned no doubt in their own esteem logically enough; but the Spirit of God was not with hem in their speech, therefore with regard to any sentiment which we find uttered by these men, we must use our own judgment; and if it be not in consonance with the rest of Holy Scriptures, it will be our bounden duty
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 6: 1860

Whether all Merits and Demerits, One's Own as Well as those of Others, Will be Seen by Anyone at a Single Glance?
Objection 1: It would seem that not all merits and demerits, one's own as well as those of others, will be seen by anyone at a single glance. For things considered singly are not seen at one glance. Now the damned will consider their sins singly and will bewail them, wherefore they say (Wis. 5:8): "What hath pride profited us?" Therefore they will not see them all at a glance. Objection 2: Further, the Philosopher says (Topic. ii) that "we do not arrive at understanding several things at the same
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Hebrew Sages and their Proverbs
[Sidenote: Role of the sages in Israel's life] In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer. xviii. 18; Ezek. vii. 26) three distinct classes of religious teachers were recognized by the people: the prophets, the priests, and the wise men or sages. From their lips and pens have come practically all the writings of the Old Testament. Of these three classes the wise men or sages are far less prominent or well known. They wrote no history of Israel, they preached no public sermons, nor do they appear
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

The Eternity and Unchangeableness of God.
Exod. iii. 14.--"I AM THAT I AM."--Psal. xc. 2.--"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."--Job xi. 7-9.--"Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." This is the chief point of saving knowledge,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Instruction for the Ignorant:
BEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH REIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD. PREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED TO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST. 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique. It was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been republished in every collection of the author's works; and recently in a separate tract.
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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