Job 8 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin
Like Eliphaz before him, Bildad’s limited understanding of God’s providence and justice causes him to wrongly accuse Job of some egregious sin. Both of these men assume that God will always bring justice to the wicked and mercy to the righteous in this life and that right quickly. They both infer that Job’s children must have done something evil justly incurring God’s wrath and that Job himself must be blinded from seeing the sin that has led to his own suffering.
Without any other written revelation to turn to at this time, Bildad encourages Job to look to the fathers who lived for hundreds of years under the good providence of God and see whether any supposed innocent man ever suffered in such as way as he. It is quite possible that some great-grandfather is still alive at this time who has entered into his second or even third century of life and that Job might speak with him directly. Bildad’s overall assumption, though, is that Job has forgotten God, and that must be the reason for his lack of hope and confidence in God in the midst of his suffering. So he continues to plead with Job to seek God and to beg him for mercy.
Obviously, Bildad didn’t read the first and second chapters of this book so he is unaware of what God is really up to. Nevertheless he still gives Job and us some wisdom to chew on. For instance, in vv.14ff, Bildad compares the foolish hope of the godless to a man who trusts in a spider’s web or leans against an unsteady house. All that he puts his confidence in is utterly weak and unstable no matter how strong it might seem to him. How many times have we played the fool in this way and trusted in spiders’ webs rather than in the promises of God? Sometimes our trust in worldly things has gone on so long that like the lush plant, we have sent out shoots everywhere wrapping them around earthly stones for our comfort and security, but eventually these too will be taken from us and our hope will be shattered.
Our only confidence should be in the truly “blameless man” that Bildad mentions in v.20 whom God promises to never reject. There may always be some blemish or hidden sin in us rightly deserving God’s rejection, but we do not put our confidence in our own righteousness and innocence but in the righteousness of Christ as our firm foundation. For, as Bildad says, God will not “take the hand of evildoers.” He will only take the hand of one who is pure and righteous in his sight, so it must be through our faith in Christ Jesus and our union with him in his life, death and resurrection that enables us to walk with confidence in the fellowship with God. Jesus is the only one who can fill our mouths with laughter even in the midst of trouble and suffering, not because we no longer feel our suffering but because we know that he feels it with us and ministers to us in mercy even as we wait for His appointed day to bring us our rest and relief.