VI. WARNING JOB
THAT ALL WHO FORGET GOD
WITHER LIKE PAPYRUS AND REEDS
Bildad warned Job that all who forget God wither like papyrus and reeds. He said that the hope of the profane perishes, whose confidence is cut off and whose trust is a spider’s web. He leans upon his house, but it will not stand. He holds fast to it, but it will not endure (vv. 11-19). This was the speaking not of a learned person but of one who was childish, foolish, and in darkness.
VII. DECLARING TO JOB
THAT GOD WILL NOT REJECT A PERFECT MAN
Bildad continued by declaring to Job that God will not reject a perfect man, nor will He support evildoers. God, Bildad said, would fill Job’s mouth with laughter and his lips with shouting. Those who hated Job would be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked would be no more (vv. 20-22). Once again, Bildad spoke vain words.
VIII. BILDAD’S LOGIC
CONCERNING MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
BEING ABSOLUTELY IN
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE TREE
OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
Bildad’s logic concerning man’s relationship with God was even the more built upon good and evil, right and wrong, absolutely in the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, altogether according to the human, ethical concept of fallen man. In his rebuttal there was no flavor of being enlightened in the divine revelation and no taste of being spiritual in the divine life. He was altogether in darkness and in the vanity of man’s ethics. His rebuttal was utterly powerless to convince Job, who was higher in things concerning God than his contemporaries.
Even though Job was higher in such things than he was, Bildad presumed to rebuke him, to warn him, to teach him, to educate him, and to give him instructions. Bildad could do this because he was in darkness. Job was also in darkness, daring to challenge God, and this opened the way for his friends to speak in darkness. Thus, both Job and his friends were in darkness.
(Life-Study of Job, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
