1.6.25 – Job 8

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Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.

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Today we are in Job chapter 8. Another friend, Bildad, speaks to Job. Let’s listen in to Faith Comes by Hearing’s reading of Job 8. Job 8

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Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, “‘How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice, or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against Him, He has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy—’ If you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing. For our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. Such are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless shall perish. His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider’s web. He leans against his house, but it does not stand. He lays hold of it, but it does not endure. He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden. His roots entwine the stone heap. He looks upon a house of stones. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I have never seen you. Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring. Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.

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In 1984, at 29 years old, the second journal I ever wrote, I read Job chapters 8 through 10 on the same day, and I wrote about chapter 8. Bildad says God rewards good. Thirteen years later, in 1997 at 42 years old, I was reading the Old Testament only that year, and I read Job chapters 6 through 11 on the same day, and I had no reference to chapter 8. 18 years later, I again read Job in 2015 when I was 60 years old. And I read chapters 8 and 9 on the same day. And that day I wrote in my personal Bible reading journal, Bildad says, God is just. He would not, cannot protect evil or punish righteousness. So let’s take a look at Bildad’s argument here in chapter 8. Bildad begins with verse 2 saying, How long will you say these things? And the words of your mouth be a great wind. What is he referring to? What things did Job just finish with in chapter 7? Let’s go back to the end of chapter 7, verse 20. Job is saying, If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? Bildad is now responding to those questions. It’s hard to know by reading these chapters whether these are interruptions in Job’s speaking or if they’re conversational. in other words did job finish his argument and now bildad is speaking or did bildad just jump right in the middle of what job was saying and say how long do you say these things and the words of your mouth be like a great wind it may be a lesson for all of us an application out of this to listen to people before we interrupt them Stephen Covey wrote that great book called Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and the first principle, I believe, was seek first to understand, then be understood. I’m not sure that that’s the order of events here in the book of Job, but let’s tune in to what Bildad responds to Job. Verse 3, he says, does God pervert justice, or does the Almighty pervert the right? In other words, God is just. He is fair. And verse 4 then says, if your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. So in other words, something’s gone wrong and God has judged. Then in verse 5 he says to Job, if you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. I think Job understands that argument. I think Job is seeking the Lord. I think he is pleading for mercy. He is depending on a God who is just because he knows his own innocence. And Bildad concludes his discussion in verse 20 by saying, Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hands of evildoers. So again, he’s appealing to Job. If you’re blameless, you’ll be okay. But you must have sin or some transgression that has caused all this to happen. Before we summarize and conclude Job chapter 8, I’d like to focus on verse 9. for inquire please of bygone ages and consider what the fathers have searched out for we are but of yesterday and know nothing for our days on earth are a shadow will they not teach you and tell you in other words out of their understanding build at us saying look back things have happened before there is wisdom by looking back to our track record to our history and yet in today’s age so many are trying to rewrite history It’s also important that Bildad is reminding us all that we know nothing and our days on earth are but a shadow. Yes, our time is short. So how does God see you? Are you blameless before him or is your life filled with transgressions? Or are you in Job’s category, simply being tested by Satan to see if your faith will stand the test of time? Job will answer these considerations, these allegations, in the next two chapters. We know from earlier chapters that Job is innocent. His friends are not privy to that information. Job does not even know why he’s going through this trial of fire. It was a deal made in the heavenlies. You may not know the origin of your trial either right now. You may be innocent, but you also may be guilty. By a selection of poor choices, you may be where you are. So the advice from Bildad is good. Seek God. Plead with the Almighty for mercy. And if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. Praise God. We serve a God of justice and we also serve a God of mercy and forgiveness. So the application to our lives out of Job chapter 8 is, if you think your fiery trial is based on your own actions, plead with God. Go to him for forgiveness. If in your mind and in your heart you believe you’re innocent and you’re still being in a fiery trial, then go to the Lord. Plead with him. For he is a God who will not pervert justice. Let’s pray. Father, in Job chapter 8, we learn that you are a God who will not pervert justice. We also learn that God will not reject a blameless man. Yet we also know that we are all guilty of iniquity, transgression, and sin. So we thank you that we can plead with you, that we can come to you for grace and mercy, and that you are a God who forgives. Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you for restoring us to our rightful habitation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.