Job 18-19 Bildad’s Turn Again
Job’s friends are still trying to offer ‘help’ in the form of confronting his sin. It’s Bildad’s turn again to speak his mind.
As I was thinking about Job’s friends just now, I realized something. They are actually trying to help him. They think they know the cause of his trouble and are trying to get him to see it their way. To them, sin = trouble, and trouble = sin. “If Job will just admit his sin and repent of it, all will be well again.”
They really are trying to help. Job isn’t buying their explanation. “I haven’t sinned, so this trouble has to have another origin.” And Job also believes that EVERYTHING that happens in his life is from God’s hand. “For some unknown reason, God is doing this to me.”
Neither is convincing the other of their position. Let’s rejoin the debate as the two sides pour their hearts out. Holy Spirit, guide this journey. Show me what you would have me learn and help me put the words in Your story into language people today understand and can relate to.
♥ ♦ ♥
Bildad shakes his head in frustration as Job concludes his response to Eliphaz. This is NOT the answer any of them were seeking. Job is still protesting his innocence and saying the God is doing this to him for no good reason. Surely, he doesn’t really believe that!
“You keep trying to talk your way out of this. Do you think we are dumb as an ox? We see what is going on and understand it as well. You cry out in anger for relief. Should the very foundations of the earth, and of the methods God operates through, tumble at your words?”
Bildad pleads with his eyes and his words to Job.
“Yes. The wicked surely see darkness. He goes about with his eyes shut to the truth. His actions are like snares for him and he falls prey to them repeatedly. He struggles with his own failures so often that he has no strength left. He goes from one calamity to another for God does not bless the steps of an unrighteous and godless man.”
Bildad starts ticking off on his fingers the things that go awry for the sinful man.
“He house holds no safety for him. His property is lost or taken from his hands. His strength fades. His health fails him and disease takes hold. His fears consume him. He has no rest. He has no security. He has no future. Even his children suffer for his ways. And when he dies, the memory of him fades away, except maybe as an example of what NOT to do.”
Bildad is hoping that Job hears his own calamity in the list he provided. Surely, Job fits MANY of those very examples.
Job hears Bildad’s list and recognizes that it was most likely constructed from examples of his own life. But Job isn’t a godless man. He is righteous in all his ways. If only his friends would listen to him and believe him. He takes a deep breath, holds it, then releases it before speaking.
“How long will you keep accusing me? You are not a comfort but a torment to me. You have accused wrongly each and every time! And if I did sin, what is that to you? It is between me and God.”
Job shakes his head in disgust again.
“You make yourselves look so righteous by calling out my circumstances and condemning me because of them. Did it ever occur to you that there might be another reason for all the disaster the God has brought upon me? GOD has brought this upon me; not my own hand. And He is preventing me from escaping.”
Job’s head sinks on his shoulders as he bears the weight of all that has happened so far.
I cry out, ‘Violence’ but no one pays me any attention. No one, not even God, comes to my aid. I have lost everything, and the Lord does nothing to restore it or to vindicate me. He has stripped me of my glory. He has taken from my hand that all that He had blessed me with. He attacks me from every side, like a city under siege. He treats me as His enemy, and I know not why.”
Job looks at his friends sitting around him and shakes his head.
“He has even taken my friends from me. They accuse me and pull away. My family won’t come near me for fear of becoming diseased. Guests, who used to visit my home frequently, find excuses to be elsewhere. My own servants refuse to answer my call. My wife won’t come within breathing distance. And even young children hate me. I have become a living skeleton and an object of horror.”
Job’s eyes plead with his friends.
“Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?” (Job 19:21-22).
Job loses focus on the world around him as he cries out.
“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:23-27).
Job focuses again on his friends sitting before him.
“If you keep pursuing me in order to find and fix blame on me, you WILL receive your ‘reward’ also. The sword of the Lord will bring judgment on you. His sword will devour you who are accusing me.”
(to be continued)
Neither camp is giving way and the debate is rising in its intensity. I know that I could NEVER argue like Job did. I don’t have huge sins, but I KNOW I am not completely righteous. Jesus gives me His righteousness. That is the ONLY reason I can stand before God.
I was surprised to see Job speaking a prophecy of his Redeemer coming. I shouldn’t be surprised because God told Adam and Eve when they first sinned that He would send one to crush Satan’s head. I wonder if Job’s reference was for Jesus’ first appearance on earth or His final one. Job would not see Him face to face in his lifetime, yet He is still Job’s Redeemer.
Father God, I haven’t met Jesus face to face, yet. But I have met You heart to heart. And that is only possible through the work of Your Son. I don’t know how to answer Job. “Bad things happen to good people” sounds so empty as he cries out. I don’t know how I would comfort him. Maybe, being on this side of the promise, makes it easier to see that. His society believed that only the wicked are ‘punished’. It wasn’t that long ago that it was, or maybe to some small degree, believed.
My mom saw my vision defects as punishment for not wanting a child so close in age to my sister; 13 months apart. I have learned, over the years, that my vision challenges are what has made me sensitive to other’s challenges. You love and strengthen me, without ‘fixing’ my eyes. I still, at times, want vision like others have. But I have learned to be content and grateful for what You have given me; Your grace.
I’m looking forward to that day when we stand face to face; just like Job was. It’s coming!
