Wind It Up, Job–Bildad’s Reply

“His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.  He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world…Surely such are the dwelling of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.”  Job 18:16-17,21

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Job’s three visitors, had sat through seemingly hours of Job’s constant complaining and “woe is me” statements until they were, I suppose, ready to pull out their hair, or leave, but apparently, they didn’t leave, thus, we must give them credit for sticking it out all of these days that they stayed with Job in his misery.  I will admit that it does get tiresome hearing someone constantly complain, and who doesn’t seem to listen to reason, not that Job’s friends had a creditable reason for his suffering.  Referring back to the common belief of that day, a righteous man always prospered while a wicked man always suffered in this life.  They apparently left no wiggle room in their dogmatic belief.  We know, because we have seen it time and time again, that sometimes the righteous suffer, and the wicked seem to get away with their evil, sometimes all of their earthly lives, so we know that Job’s three friends had the wrong perspective, were judgmental, and not willing to change their minds.  We also have to remember that none of the four of them were aware of Satan’s challenge to God in asserting that Job would curse Him for his misery.

Job’s friends only became angrier at his words.  Bildad did not hold back.  He wanted to know how stupid Job thought his friends were.  Job was accused of treating his friends like dumb animals.  His friends considered his words as personal insults but look what they had said to him.  There was enough blame to go around.  Bildad asked him if he thought that he was the only person in the world who had ever suffered loss?  Did he think that heaven and earth would move because of Him?  Were his complaints and groaning going to cause an earthquake?  Did the whole world have to stop and pay attention to him?  Was God going to alter the course of the world to suit Job?  Bildad and the other two visitors all had one-track minds.  However, prior to Job’s horrible experience, he likely had the same view as to the righteous and the wicked as they did, but his calamity definitely gave him a different view of life.  Experience really is the best teacher.  Someone can tell you about how he or she feels emotionally pertaining to a specific event that occurred in his or her life, but until you have the same or similar experience, you won’t be able to fully understand.  It’s the same with being born again.  One can’t understand the new birth until he or she experiences it for himself or herself.

Bildad continued to berate Job with a long litany of what the wicked, that is, Job, endures because he is wicked.  He will leave the light of life, the light of the sun, and enter a black hole where there is no light.  The world as he knew it would vanish from him, and utter darkness would be his home.  None of his family would be left.  Bildad may have been referring to Job’s ten children who were killed.  Apparently, that was automatically a dead giveaway that Job was one of the worst sinners ever.  Bildad continued to pile on.  Job’s steps would grow shorter as he became weaker and weaker because of his sins.  He tried to follow his own counsel rather than that of God.  If one trap he tried to avoid didn’t get him, the next one would.  Fear would become his constant companion.  He is like a dead man walking, breathing, and thinking, but miserable.  Death will overtake him, and then he is nothing.  His soul will become the property of the devil.

Those who witnessed the results of the sinner’s fate would become afraid while those who heard about it later would be astonished.  A great impression would be made upon all.  Bildad then make the absolute worse charge against Job.  All of these calamities had happened to Job, according to Bildad by implication, because Job did not really know God.  How would Job respond to Bildad’s accusations and judgments of him?  My guess is, very harshly.

Next week:  Job Lets Loose