Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
“How long will you say such things?
    Your words are a blustering wind.
Does God pervert justice?
    Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
When your children sinned against him,
    he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
But if you will seek God earnestly
    and plead with the Almighty,
if you are pure and upright,
    even now he will rouse himself on your behalf
    and restore you to your prosperous state.
Your beginnings will seem humble,
    so prosperous will your future be.
“Ask the former generation
    and find out what their ancestors learned,
for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,
    and our days on earth are but a shadow.
Will they not instruct you and tell you?
    Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?
    Can reeds thrive without water?
While still growing and uncut,
    they wither more quickly than grass.
Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
    so perishes the hope of the godless.
What they trust in is fragile;
    what they rely on is a spider’s web.
They lean on the web, but it gives way;
    they cling to it, but it does not hold.
They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine,
    spreading its shoots over the garden;
it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks
    and looks for a place among the stones.
But when it is torn from its spot,
    that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
Surely its life withers away,
    and from the soil other plants grow.
“Surely God does not reject one who is blameless
    or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
    and your lips with shouts of joy.
Your enemies will be clothed in shame,
    and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”

• Job 8:1-22

Job 8:4, 6, 8  ”Job’s second friend, Bildad the Shuhite, discards all pretense at offering comfort (ch. 8). Bildad’s whole purpose is to defend the traditional wisdom teachings that had been passed from generation to generation. Job’s own experience of injustice is unimportant to Bildad, compared with the time-honored teachings of ‘the former age’ and ‘the things discovered by their fathers’ (8:8).

Bildad takes one step beyond the wisdom teaching that the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. “Turning the teaching around, Bildad concludes that Job’s children must have been wicked since they died (8:4). Indeed, if Job were really pure, he would not be suffering either (8.6). This reformulation of the teaching might appear logical, but it is unjustified. While biblical wisdom writings, such as appear in Proverbs, do teach that the wicked will suffer, they never permit the reverse reasoning that everyone who suffers is being punished for wickedness.”

• Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible

The Message

Bildad is a Shuhite.  This is the only reference to Shuhite in the Bible.  Shuhite is in the Bible five times, all referring to Bildad in the book of Job.

While Eliphaz danced around the idea of Job’s sin, Bildad goes straight for the common secular view of sin equals punishment.  Job is being punished.  Therefore, Job sinned.

But the corollary is true, according to Bildad’s thinking.  Job is reasonably upright.  Job could confess and repent.  God will hear such prayers from reasonably upright people.  Job will be restored.

The only thing that “softens” this blow is that he says Job is lying about not sinning.  He even claims that the children sinned and that was why they were killed.  Not very soft, but the only thing that is not a direct accusation of Job’s guilt.

In modern rules of law, we would claim there is no evidence, but in the eyes of Bildad, Job’s trouble equates to punishment.  God is not unjust.  Thus, there must be unconfessed sin.

We know better, having read the first two chapters of the book.

Bildad goes on to call upon past “knowledge.”  But when you have a preconceived notion and you can claim past unconfessed sin without proof, then you are guilty until proven innocent.  The rule of law in the USA is innocent until proven guilty.  This was expressly put into the law to not have a Bildad condemn someone without cause.  So, it was probably the norm in the time of Job.

Bildad ends by returning to two statements at the beginning.  God does not punish the blameless, and with confession, God can restore Job.  There will again be laughter in his household.

In a way, Bildad is correct.  Job is restored, but not for the reason Bildad states.

None of us is sinless.  Yet many live a blameless life, driving the speed limit, waiting at least three seconds at every stop sign.  Never getting upset when someone cuts you off in traffic.  And of course, I am using just the driving analogy.  Doing the things just mentioned might qualify someone for sainthood, at least on the highway, but can anyone state that?  If you have never driven, that does not count.

So, in knowing that God often punishes sinners, it is not a stretch of the imagination to reach Bildad’s conclusion.  We know that to not be the case, but Bildad is not aware.

But when you go to the bedside of a very sick friend, demanding that he or she confesses is not being supportive or encouraging.  You have just added to that person’s burden.

But I have seen people next to a person who loved Jesus and was on their deathbed.  They read Scriptures and prayed with them because they did not “accept Jesus the right way, in their opinion.”  What is “the right way”?  Saying the salvation prayer does not save you.  Baptism, using any of the methods, does not save you.  So, why talk to someone in this manner, someone who read their Bible every day and prayed for others for hours every day?  Not walking down the aisle for altar call and not getting immersed in baptism does not send you to Hell.  Besides, both of those things are works, and we are saved by grace through faith, not of works at all.

And now let us sing.

The following song is You Know my Pain.  This is sung by Lauren Daigle.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, we suffer.  We have a sin nature.  We are not perfect, but we are made perfect by Your Grace.  By the definition, we do not deserve it.  You may test our faith for Your Heavenly purposes, but we deserve worse.  And even in the testing, You make us stronger.  Afterward, we have more faith in You, and we depend on You even more.  It boggles my mind how that works.  But then again, You made us.  You loved us since before we were in the womb.  So, You should know better than anyone how all this works.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.