0163. Bildad the Shuhite

Bildad the Shuhite

"Then answered Bildad the Shuhite" (Job_8:1).

Bildad the Shuhite is what we would call today a "big talker." He is one who says much, but conveys little. He can talk with rapidity, and with seeming rush of words, but there is no solid bottom to his sayings. He speaks in borrowed sentences, and revels in petty platitudes.

The sum of his contention is thus expressed:

"Doth God pervert judgment?

Or doth the Almighty pervert justice?

If thy children have sinned,

And He hath cast them away for their transgressions: * *

If thou wert pure and upright:

Surely now He would awake for thee. * *

The hypocrite’s hope shall perish. * *

God will not cast away a perfect man."

Poor Bildad. He too had truth, but not all the truth. He knew somewhat of the justice of God, but he knew nothing of His mercy. With Bildad there was no place for God to manifest pure grace.

Bildad did not seek to go deeply into the sorrows of Job. Like Eliphaz, he took it for granted that Job had sinned, and was under wrath.

Bildad reminds one of the Pharisees, who dragged a woman taken in sin before the Lord. They supposed that He must bid that she be stoned, even as Moses commanded. Christ requested that the man among them, who was without sin, should cast the first stone at her; and then He stooped and wrote upon the ground. When Jesus lifted His face, they were all gone, being convicted in their own consciences.

Bildad could easily see Job’s sin, but he saw not his own sin; even though God had placed Job far above Bildad. It was of Job and not of Bildad that God had said, "There is none like him in the earth, a perfect man and just, one that feareth God and escheweth evil."

How often do we condemn the just. How often do we condemn others, and justify ourselves. Should the kettle call the pot black?

Instead of calling Job a hypocrite and an evil doer, why did he not confess his own sin?

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR