Job’s Reply to Bildad
May 5, 2022
Commentary
This chapter records one of Job’s lowest and highest points, emotionally and spiritually.
He bemoans the animosity of his accusers (vv. 1-6).He complains about God’s judgment on him (vv. 7-12).He thinks his relatives and friends are against him (vv. 13-22).He rises to a new level of spiritual confidence (vv. 23-29).Job maintains that if he had sinned, it was his problem and not theirs (vv. 1-6). He says that God is treating him very harshly and that there must be an explanation for it (vv. 7-8). The purpose of God must be different from the explanation that his friends give to him, but Job confesses he doesn’t know what that purpose is. However, he again openly lays the responsibility for his condition at God’s feet. He is frustrated by God’s silence and seeming indifference to justice (vv. 9-12). Job fails to even consider that Satan may have a part in all of this. He does not mention Satan once, either directly or indirectly.
He talks about the negative effect his situation has had on his personal relationship with his friends, relatives, wife, and even his servants and neighbors (vv.13-18). He states that “God has turned relatives and friends against me, and I am forgotten. My guests and my servants consider me a stranger, and when I call my servants, they pay no attention. My breath disgusts my wife; everyone in my family turns away. Young children can’t stand me, and when I come near, they make fun.”
Application
Bildad thought he knew how the universe should be run and he saw Job as an illustration of the consequences of sin. He refused to accept Job’s side of the story because it did not fit in with his outlook on life. It is easy to condemn Bildad because his errors are obvious; unfortunately, however, I often act the same way when my ideas are threatened. I simply need to accept the responsibility for my own sin and be careful about accusing others.
Job 19:1– 18 (NET)
1 Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
3 These ten times you have been reproaching me; you are not ashamed to attack me.
4 But even if it were true that I have erred, my error remains solely my concern!
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and plead my disgrace against me,
6 know then that God has wronged me and encircled me with his net.
7 “If I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass, and has set darkness over my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my honor and has taken the crown off my head.
10 He tears me down on every side until I perish; he uproots my hope like an uprooted tree.
11 Thus his anger burns against me, and he considers me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent.
13 “He has put my relatives far from me; my acquaintances only turn away from me.
14 My kinsmen have failed me; my friends have forgotten me.
15 My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not respond, even though I implore him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers.
18 Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me.
Illustration: The Whole World Stinks
One evening several college students spread Limburger cheese on the mustache of a sleeping fraternity brother. Upon awakening the young man sniffed, looked around, and said, “This room stinks!” He then walked into the hall and said, “This hall stinks!” Leaving the dormitory he exclaimed, “The whole world stinks!” (Today in the Word, May, 1990, MBI, p. 8).