Bildad speaks to Job - Job 8

Job 8:6 "If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous."

I could say a lot about that. Bildad is, first of all, being a judge. He has told Job that if he were a better person, he would be heard in his prayers. Let's remember the meeting between the Lord and Satan. Job was the subject and it was Satan who said Job would cave in if he lost everything. The Lord had faith in Job that he could be true even in adversity.

Bildad is obviously a believer in what has been called The Prosperity Gospel. It means if you try real hard to do right and give of your substance to the one who is preaching, you will be overwhelmed with a nice home and new cars. Your bank account will swell, etc. That is just not right. Jesus was the most upright and perfect person who ever walked the earth and he himself said that he had no place to lay his head. Paul (after he was converted) was always in trouble.

Righteousness does not equate to wealth and sin does not equate to poverty and trials. Sometimes the best Christians have the worst of times and those who live a life of sin seemingly have all the good stuff. Christians are not citizens of this planet but of heaven, so our treasure is there.

What else did Bildad have to say:

v13-14 "So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web."

Again assumptions are dangerous. Bildad assumes Job has forgotten God and that he is a hypocrite. Then he purports to know what God will do:

v20 "Behold God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers:"

I guess I am to blunt concerning the babblings of Job's friends. I know their talk is to enhance the point of the story. We would not know how Job was feeling and what he was thinking without this conversation. I would say that these two friends, so far, are not acting and talking like real friends. Anyone can criticize another when they themselves are not going through the fire.

Jesus said it best: Matthew 7:3 "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in tine own eye? v4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold a beam is in thine own eye?"

Proverbs 8:13 "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."

Bildad speaks to Job.

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