Job 8:1-22 – Consider our limited perspective

Job’s second friend, Bildad, then responded to Job’s words. The first friend, Eliphaz, who spoke out, cited some revelations he had and tried to be as religious as he could. Bildad was not so. He used moral tradition of ancient wisdom to support his argument that Job’s calamity was caused by some grievous sin he had committed. He began by expressing shock that Job could speak like he did, about God. To him Job was accusing God of injustice. He felt offended by Job’s words. He felt that anyone could be unjust but never God. Insensitively he recalled the death of Job’s children, insinuating that they got what they deserved. What happened to them was because of their sin. His argument seemed to be that suffering was a punishment for sin. Remember Jesus telling his disciple in John 9:2-3 that sometimes calamity does happen so that God could be glorified.

To make what he said worst, he concluded that Job also had sinned, though not as much as his children. His conclusion came from the fact of his children’s death, whereas his life was spared. He insisted that the pain Job was experiencing was to correct him. And even now if he turned and chose to make himself pure and upright, God would hear his prayer and remove his affliction. His prosperity and dwelling place would be restored to him. Then they would make all his past experience pale in comparison.

To substantiate his argument, Bildad cited ancient wisdom. The experience of the people of the past could be refreshing lessons for him if only he would listen. Like papyrus plant that were harvested while they were still green so also would the grace of godless man be removed from their lives. All who chose to forget God would be weak. They would be leaning on flimsy spider web that could not provide any support. Bildad also illustrated with another example of a lush and flourishing plant, that would suddenly wither and die, leaving no trace of its existence. He was suggesting that like the result of that plant, so would the life of one who rebelled against God.  

What was Bildad’s point? That God will not reject a perfect man. And God certainly would not help an evildoer. While he was confident that God could restore Job to his former fortune and wished him well, he like Eliphaz maintained that Job had committed a grievous sin against God. Bildad’s rhetoric underscores for us how insensitivity looks like. If we are to be an effective counsellor, we must consider the feeling of hurting people. We must admit that our own insight is limited. In due time everything will be brought to light. Meanwhile, we must surely know that our knowledge is limited. We can only conclude and base on what we can see so far. So, we must never be dogmatic and predictable.