Job 8:1-7

Job’s just responded to the unhelpful accusations of Eliphaz, and now it was friend #2’s turn, Bildad. In the previous chapter, Job shared his tremendous grief and seeking clarify and comfort during his most painful season of his life.  But Bildad, approaches Job and his situation, not with grace, not with compassion, not with mercy, but with a wrong theology of God and what was happening to Job.
 
Like Bildad, we mean well when we try to explain God’s purposes and what he might be doing in our midst, but these things must align with who God is and what the Scriptures say about God and not based on our own assumptions and thoughts. Unfortunately, this is what Bildad and Job’s friens were doing.
 
These verses show that Bildad's did not have a favorable opinion of Job's character. If God is a God of justice and cannot pervert justice Job and his children must have done something that was deserving of everything he was going through. But of course, we know, or should know that extraordinary afflictions, pain, and trials are not always the punishment or consequence of extraordinary sins, sometimes they are the trials of extraordinary graces.
 
In giving counsel and trying to comfort those that might be in similar situations as Job and his family, we must not approach people in the seat of a judge making declarations and judgments, but instead, we should extend God’s grace and mercy because in the end that is what all of us need. Job’s account teaches us that yes, even the upright will experience sorrow.
 
While Bildad’s theology was correct, God is just, his application of that theology was wrong. Bildad was looking at only one aspect of God’s nature and had forgotten His love, mercy, and goodness. Yes, God is light but don’t forget that God is love as well. His love is a holy love, and His holiness is exercised in love, even when He judges sin.
 
Prayer: Father God, thank you for being a God of justice, but also a God of love and grace as well. May we appreciate both without minimizing the other. Grant us wisdom to know you more fully and to share of your love more completely to others as well. In Jesus’ name, amen.