Job 8

“You may be as orthodox as the devil, and as wicked.” —J W As the discussion continues, Bildad presents three logical arguments to prove Job is guilty; and Job counters with three painful questions to help his friends understand how perplexed and tormented he really is.

“Your words are a blustering wind!” (Job 8: niv). Can you imagine a counselor saying that to a suffering individual who wanted to die? Bildad did; in fact, he used the same approach in his next speech (18:2). Job had poured out his grief and was waiting to hear a sympathetic word, but his friend said that Job’s speech was just so much hot air.

There is a reason for Bildad’s approach: he was so concerned about defending the justice of God that he forgot the needs of his friend. “Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice?” (8: nkjv). Bildad preached a sermon on God’s justice, and his text was taken from the “vision” of Eliphaz: “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” (4:17). In defending God’s justice, Bildad presented three logical arguments.

The character of God (Job 8:1–7). It angered Bildad that Job even thought that God would do anything wrong. Had Job forgotten what God did to sinners at the flood, or what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah? Isn’t He the holy God, and doesn’t His very nature demand that He do what is right? Job was blaspheming God by questioning Him and accusing Him of wrongdoing.

While Bildad’s theology was correct—God is just— his application of that theology was wrong. Bildad was looking at only one aspect of God’s nature—His holiness and justice—and had forgotten His love, mercy, and goodness. Yes, “God is light” (1 John 1:5); but don’t forget that “God is love” (4:8, 16). His love is a holy love, and His holiness is exercised in love, even when He judges sin.

How are these two attributes of God reconciled? At the cross. When Jesus died for the sins of the world, the righteousness of God was vindicated, for sin was judged; but the love of God was demonstrated, for a Savior was provided. At Calvary, God is both “just and the justifier” (Rom. 3:24–26). God’s law said, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4, 20 nkjv); and God obeyed His own law in the sacrificing of His Son. In Christ’s resurrection, the grace of God triumphed over sin and death; and all who repent and trust Jesus Christ will be saved.

In Old Testament times, believers looked forward to the cross and were saved by faith in a Savior yet to come (John 8:56; Rom. 3:25; Heb. 11). Job was a believer; therefore, his sins had been dealt with by God. Even if Job had sinned against God in some great way, God would deal with His child on the basis of grace and mercy and not justice. When we confess our sins, God forgives us because He is faithful to His promise and just toward His Son who died for those sins (1 John 1:9).

It must have pained Job deeply when Bildad said that Job’s children had died because they had sinned (Job 8:4). Bildad probably thought he was encouraging Job: “Perhaps they were not killed because of your sins but because of their own sins. They can’t change anything now, but you can; so don’t wait too long!”

Bildad’s appeal in verses 5–7 is another echo of Satan’s philosophy. “You say you have not sinned. Then plead with God to restore your prosperity. If you were right before God, He would do great things for you. Isn’t prosperity better than pain?” Little did Bildad realize that his words would come true and Job’s latter end would be greater than his beginning. However, in the end Job’s prayer would be for Bildad and the others because they were the ones not right with God (42:7–13).

The wisdom of the past (Job 8:8–10). Eliphaz based his thinking on observation and experience, but Bildad was a traditionalist who looked for wisdom in the past. “What do the ancients say about it?” was his key question. To be sure, we today can learn from the past. “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it,” wrote George Santayana. But the past must be a rudder to guide us and not an anchor to hold us back. “How the past perishes is how the future becomes,” said philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.

The fact that something was said or written years ago is no guarantee it is right. As one who enjoys reading the classics, I am impressed with the fact that they contain as much folly as wisdom; and they often contradict each other. Dr. Robert Hutchins, editor of The Great Books of the Western World, wrote in his preface: “In a conversation that has gone on for twenty-five centuries, all dogmas and points of view appear. Here are the great errors as well as the great truths.”

“Tradition” and “traditionalism” are two different things. Historian Jeroslav Pelikan expresses this difference accurately when he says, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” To Bildad, the past was a parking lot; but God wants the past to be a launching pad. We stand with the ancients so that we can walk with them and move toward the goals that they were seeking. This includes our knowledge of God as well as our knowledge of man and the world. As John Robinson said to the Pilgrim Fathers when they left for the New World, “The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word.”

Bildad did not quote from the ancients; he knew that Job was as familiar with the past as he was. But Bildad made it clear that he respected the wisdom of the ancients more than the teachings of his contemporaries. The accumulated wisdom of the ages was bound to be worth more than the words of people who were “born only yesterday.” Life is too brief for us to learn all they can teach us. We are fleeting shadows, so we had better learn wisdom while we have opportunity.

The evidence in nature (Job 8:11–22). In this “wisdom poem,” Bildad may have summarized some of the sayings of the ancients as he argued from the law of cause and effect. If this law applies in nature, why not in human life as well?

Take the papyrus plant as an example: If it doesn’t have water, it withers and dies (vv. 11–13). Job was withering and dying, so there had to be a cause: He was a hypocrite, and his hope was perishing.

Bildad then moved from plants to spiders (vv. 14–15). Can you lean on a spider’s web and be held up securely? Of course not! No matter how confident you may be, the web will break. Job’s confidence was like that: In due time, it would break, and he would fall.

The third example came from the garden: If you pull up a plant, no matter how luxuriant it may be, it will eventually die (vv. 16–22). Something had happened to Job’s “root system,” and he was fading away; thus, sin was the cause. Nobody pulls up a good plant and destroys it, so there had to be something wrong with Job for God to so uproot him. God doesn’t cultivate weeds and cast away the good plants! Bildad reaffirmed his earlier promise that God would restore Job’s fortunes if he would only admit his sins and get right with God. It was the devil’s invitation all over again!