I. BILDAD BEING THE SECOND ONE TO REBUT JOB
In the first round of the debates between Job and his friends, the second one to rebut Job was Bildad, who complained that Job’s speaking was too long, like a mighty wind (8:1-2). Bildad’s speaking was a rebuttal to Job’s vindication of himself.
II. CLAIMING THAT ALL THE DISASTERS
AND THE PLAGUE ON JOB
WERE NOT GOD’S PERVERTING OF JUSTICE
Bildad claimed that all the disasters and the plague on Job were not God’s perverting of justice or the Almighty’s perverting of righteousness (v. 3). Bildad implied that Job had condemned God, claiming that God had perverted justice concerning him. Bildad told Job that God would never do such a thing.
III. THINKING THAT JOB’S CHILDREN
MIGHT HAVE SINNED AGAINST GOD
Bildad thought that Job’s children might have sinned against God and that God delivered them into the hand of their transgression (v. 4). To be fair, Bildad might have had some ground to say this, since Job’s children were killed while they were feasting and drinking wine.
IV. BELIEVING THAT IF JOB SOUGHT GOD EARNESTLY
AND MADE SUPPLICATION UNTO THE ALMIGHTY,
AND IF JOB WAS PURE AND UPRIGHT,
GOD WOULD ROUSE HIMSELF FOR HIM
Bildad believed that if Job sought God earnestly and made supplication unto the Almighty, and if Job was pure and upright, then surely God would rouse Himself for him and restore well-being to his righteous habitation, including his family. Though his beginning was small, his end would be very great (vv. 5-7). It is hard to say what was Bildad’s standard of purity and uprightness. His speaking was according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While Bildad was speaking, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was growing.
V. TEACHING JOB
TO INQUIRE OF THE FORMER GENERATIONS
Bildad went on to teach Job to inquire of the former generations and to attend to what their fathers had sought out, that they might teach him (vv. 8-10). Bildad’s word was full of disrespect and despising.
(Life-Study of Job, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
