Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Job+008
CHAPTER 8 (ESV)
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4 If your children have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
5 If you will seek God
and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore your rightful habitation.
7 And though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.
8 “For inquire, please, of bygone ages,
and consider what the fathers have searched out.
9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?
REFLECTION:
Bildad was very disappointed because Job still claimed innocence while questioning God’s righteousness. Bildad’s understanding of God’s righteousness was correct – God rewards good and punishes bad. However, his deduction based on the reasoning was wrong. Bildad’s view was: God could not be unrighteous so He would not punish righteous people, therefore Job must be unrighteous. However, Job’s suffering was not because of God’s punishment. Like Eliphaz, Bildad also wrongly assumed that people suffered because they had sinned. Bildad was even less sympathetic than Eliphaz. He said Job’s children died because of the evil they had done. We live in this world of injustice today. We must be careful to avoid the mistakes of Bildad, not to judge others by the righteousness of God, but to show compassion to those who suffer, regardless of the reason for their suffering.
PRAYER:
God, please help me not to judge others by Your righteousness, but to care for those who suffer with compassion. Help me understand that Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and Your ways higher than my ways. You are a God of justice and mercy; teach me to treat those around me with the same justice and mercy.
HYMN:
God of This City – www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5rbA2k4JwM
