Do you know a Bildad?

 

Job 8:8-23

 

I’ve never had a friend like Bildad, but I have known a few people that remind me of him.  In verses 8-9 it seems as if he is telling Job that life is short, much like a vanishing shadow, and I wonder why did Bildad shared that with a man that is in such bad health that his friends did not recognize him?  Bildad gives an example of the papyrus and how it dies without water, does he believe that a man like Job would not know that?   Then he shares with Job that the godless will also perish without God.

 

Bildad keeps giving examples as in verses 16-19, “He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.   His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.   If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’   Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.”

Do you recall Jesus telling the people in Matthew 12:3-6, to make sure they were planted in good soil.  These were His words, “Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.   As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.   But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.”  Bildad is also using such an example but in his account the plant grows and does well and he is referring to the godless but being in the rock and not good soil it is easily pulled up and leaves no trace of it being there.

 

Now the chapter closes with verses 20-23, “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.   He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.  Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,  and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”  Bildad, seems to be saying Job, if you are a righteous man you have no worries, but Job righteous men do not find themselves in the place you are so God is dealing with you as you deserve.  

 

Let me close with this statement; God loves you and He is not getting even with you for your sins, Jesus God’s only Son took His Fathers full wrath for your sins and mine.  I am not saying that your bad habits may not have brought on your sickness, but that was your choice and not Gods.  So, if someone is telling you God is causing your sickness, I would put distance between you and them.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice