Due to copyright restrictions, we are linking the text rather than quoting it directly. Job 6-7 ESV.
Before delving into the propositions of these two chapters, I wanted to briefly examine the structure of the book so far. As we’ve already discussed, the first two chapters of Job function as a bit of a prologue. The prologue itself can be broken down as follows:
A. Job is righteous.
B. Satan says Job will fall if his property and family is destroyed; God permits this.
A. Job remains righteous.
B. Satan says Job will fall if his personal health is destroyed; God permits this.
A. Job remains righteous.
Now, after the prologue, we are seeing a similar type of interaction develop. Thus far, it goes like this:
C. Job issues a lament and wishes he was dead.
D. Eliphaz critiques Job.
C. Job denies the critique and wishes he was dead.
More specifically, Job first wishes he had been born dead; now he wishes his disease would kill him (incidentally, he is wishing for the very thing that God has constrained Satan from doing at that point). While there is nothing mystical or magical about this type of point/counter-point, the structure can help us to keep track of the narrative. Let us now move on to our three questions.
Question 1: What are the propositions of the passage?
1) Job answers Eliphaz.
2) Job wishes all his troubles were able to be weighed in a balance.
3) Job says that if his troubles could be weighed, they’d be heavier than the “sand of the sea.”
4) Job concludes that his earlier words were rash.
5) Job says that it is the arrows of God (the Almighty) that are in him.
6) Job says his spirit drinks the poison of God’s arrows.
7) Job says it is the terrors of God that are against him.
8) Job points out that animals do not complain when they have food.
9) Job points out that you can’t eat something tasteless without salt.
10) Job points out he has no appetite for such loathsome food.
11) Job requests that God crush him completely.
12) Job wishes he were cut off from God.
13) Job says this would be comfort for him.
14) He claims he has not denied the words of God.
15) Job indicates he is at the end of his strength.
16) Job questions why he should be patient at all.
17) Job rhetorically asks if he has the strength of stones or bronze (indicating that the burden he is under is obviously too heavy).
18) Job indicates all resources have been driven from him.
19) Job says his friends are withholding kindness, forsaking the fear of God.
20) He compares his brothers to torrential rivers, dark with ice and snow.
21) He indicates his brothers have abandoned him out of shame.
22) He says they came in confidence and are now disappointed.
23) He says they have become nothing.
24) Job says they see calamity and have only fear.
25) Job points out that he has asked for neither gift nor bribe, nor has he asked for them to rescue him.
26) Job indicates that if they would teach him, he would be silent.
27) Job wants to understand where he has sinned.
28) Job points out Eliphaz’s words were forceful, but “upright”.
29) Job points out that Eliphaz’s reproof does not apply to him.
30) Job points out that the speech of a despairing man is insubstantial.
31) Job questions Eliphaz’s character, claiming Eliphaz would “cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over [his] friend.”
32) Job asks Eliphaz to look at him.
33) Job says he will not lie to Eliphaz’s face.
34) Job asks for no injustice to be done.
35) He indicates his vindication is at stake.
36) Job asks if he has spoken anything unjustly (with an indication that it is negative).
37) Job rhetorically asks if he is incapable of discerning the cause of calamity (indicating that he is certainly able to do so).
38) Job points out that man’s days are hard service.
39) Job laments his allotted months of emptiness.
40) He says nights of misery “are apportioned” to him.
41) Job’s nights are long.
42) He tosses and turns restlessly.
43) His flesh is full of dirt, covered in worms, and it hardens and breaks apart.
44) His days end without hope.
45) Job points out that his life is fleeting, like a breath.
46) He says he will never again see any good.
47) Job also says no one will behold him anymore.
48) Job will head to the grave and be no more.
49) As a result, Job says he will not restrain his mouth.
50) Job says he will speak and complain about what has happened to him.
51) He points out that when he tries to sleep, God torments him with bad dreams and visions.
52) Job says he would rather strangle and die than live.
53) He says he loathes his life and does not want to live forever.
54) Job asks to be left alone.
55) He asks for the purpose for why God tests him.
56) He asks how long God will persist in looking upon Job.
57) He asks how his sins affect God, the “watcher of mankind.”
58) He asks why God has chosen Job for this treatment.
59) He asks how he has become a burden to God.
60) He asks why God has not pardoned his sins.
61) Job says he will die.
Question 2: What does this passage teach about God?
Just as the last passage we examined taught us what Eliphaz believed about God, this shows us what Job believes about God. However, we also know that this passage is tempered by the fact that Job has said he will no longer be patient and will not be silent. In that sense, therefore, this passage more accurately reflects a distortion of the view Job would have had of God were Job not in pain.
Regardless of Job’s view, however, we do know from the rest of the passage that God is the kind of God who would bring Job to this very position. Job is left longing for death and wishing God would crush him completely, to utterly destroy him. The fact that Job is not crushed or destroyed—indeed, we know that God has made it impossible for Satan to take Job’s life—shows us that God does not want Job to die, despite Job’s wishes.
This passage also shows that God has not informed Job of why any of these events are occurring. We, having the full narrative, know that God and Satan have been holding discussions, but Job is unaware of this. Job believes that God is the ultimate cause of the suffering he is going through, and appears to be saying that he could accept this suffering if he just knew what the purpose for it was. Nevertheless, God does not give him that information. Whether this is because Job is incorrect in his assessment that he would be able to accept it, or because God doesn’t want Job to be in a position to accept it, He does not move to give Job any further data.
Question 3: What does this passage teach about man?
The first thing we can see is that Eliphaz’s help was not very helpful to Job. This often happens when we try to comfort someone who is in pain or who has been suffering. Naturally, some of what Eliphaz said was incorrect, and other portions lacked tact—still, his statements seemed genuine, yet they were ultimately unhelpful. Job rightfully points out that much of what Eliphaz reproves, while being formally correct, simply does not apply to Job.
We can easily be sympathetic to Job’s position, for we know that he is innocent and does not deserve the atrocities that he is going through—at least on a human scale. Yet we can equally be sympathetic toward the views of Eliphaz, who is only trying to help a friend who is in torment.
Job’s responses to Eliphaz are actually quite defensive, and he seems to take it to a bit of an extreme (as we all have tendencies toward). Job ends up insulting his friend, saying that his friend would gamble away the fatherless and bargain his friends (of note, the name “Job” may be related to the term “fatherless”, although it more likely is related to the term “one who suffers” instead). In short, Job questions whether his friend is truly a friend at all. Yet it does not stop there. By chapter 7, Job has gone so far as to shift his focus from Eliphaz to God, and has transferred his defensiveness from his friend to the Divine. This type of escalation is seen quite often in mankind, and I must confess it is often found in my life as well. Job’s lament that he does not understand why these events are occurring also resonates with me on a personal level, and I think I’m not alone on this.
One key point remaining to be examined is the fact that by the end of the passage, Job asks of God: “Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?” If we remember, however, Job was said to be blameless and upright. How, then, could he ask God to pardon his transgression? Does this expose a contradiction?
The most obvious explanation, of course, is that the nature of a “pardon” is such that one who is pardoned is at that point declared to be blameless. If one’s iniquities are taken away, then one is by definition blameless. As such, Job is righteous because he is pardoned from his sins. There is no contradiction, therefore, between Job acknowledging that he has sinned and Job being described as blameless and righteous. The fact that Job was seen as offering vicarious atonement for his children earlier also helps demonstrate that he is well aware of the need to be pardoned for sinful behavior. The same is true of us as well. Though we are all sinners, if we are forgiven we are simultaneously blameless too.
Job 8
Bildad’s response to Job stands in stark contrast to Eliphaz’s earlier response in chapters 4-5. Eliphaz had adopted a somewhat gentle tone, although he also said some things that were a bit careless by the end of his speech. Bildad’s rejoinder, however, lacks any sense of compassion for the plight of Job. Indeed, Bildad implies Job is to blame for what has occurred.
Question 1: What are the propositions of the passage?
1) Bildad responds to Job.
2) Bildad asks how long Job will run his mouth.
3) Bildad asks if God perverts justice, implying a negative answer.
4) Bildad says that Job’s children died due to their sins.
5) Bildad says Job should plead for mercy.
6) He says that if Job is pure and righteous, then God will restore him to even greater position.
7) Bildad says that Job’s original position was small.
8) Bildad tells Job to consider what the traditions of their forefathers have said.
9) He points out that our lives are short and “a shadow.”
10) He says that the forefathers will teach Job.
11) Bildad compares those who forget God to withered plants.
12) Bildad says that the hopes of godless people perish, and they have no confidence.
13) He compares the trust of a godless man to a spider’s web.
14) He says the godless lean against their house and it falls, presumably because it has no foundation.
15) Bildad says when the godless are destroyed, no one remembers them.
16) Bildad points out that that is “the joy of his way”, indicating that there is no joy for the godless.
17) Bildad claims God will never reject a blameless man.
18) Bildad claims God will never accept an evildoer.
19) Bildad says God will bring joy back to Job.
20) Bildad says those who hate Job will be shamed.
21) He finishes by saying the tents of the wicked will be destroyed.
Question 2: What does this passage teach about God?
This gives us Bildad’s view of God. In Bildad’s view, God is nice to those who are righteous and He destroys those who are wicked. The implication of this is that Job obviously deserves what is happening to him, since God would never do such things to a righteous man. Bildad’s ultimate concept of God can be found in the clause: “if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you”.
However, we know that Bildad’s view is incorrect, for the narrative itself has explained that Job is blameless. Therefore, this view of God is not true.
Question 3: What does this passage teach about man?
The most striking aspect of Bildad’s speech is that he roots it in the teaching of the forefathers: “For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.” If you recall, Eliphaz claimed to have seen a form, which he assumed was God. Eliphaz therefore gave advice based on what he believed to have been revelation. In contrast, Bildad appeals to traditions.
And the traditions truly are not that different from what we see around us today. Aside from Christianity, virtually every religion has some kind of salvation-by-works concept, where if we do what is right then we earn favor from God. Thus, Bildad’s conclusions fit right in with what the vast majority of mankind thinks. If we see someone who is suffering torments, our first assumption is that they have done something to deserve it. This is our human nature. Yet clearly Bildad was in the wrong on that point, and we too must take care under such circumstances. Simply because a person is suffering trials does not mean that that person is a sinner. Indeed, that person could be suffering precisely because he is righteous, as happened to Job.
Another thing we learn from Bildad is how not to try to offer compassion to someone who is suffering. This is not as hard and fast a rule, given that sometimes harsh language is necessary to “snap” someone out of a negative mode of thinking. Nevertheless, in the previous chapters Job has lamented that none has shown him compassion in spite of his suffering. Bildad’s response is to ignore Job’s request, and indeed proclaim two harsh falsehoods: 1) that Job’s children deserved to die for being sinners; 2) that Job himself deserves his predicaments for some kind of sinful behavior. Bildad therefore shows no tact at all in dealing with someone who is suffering, and indeed may be seen as someone who is fully convinced of an error and who will storm ahead with that error, no matter who he hurts in the process. (Yet even if he were speaking truth instead of error, Bildad’s methods are more likely to cause harm than to heal.)
Ultimately, Bildad’s vehement speech here teaches us that even if we are fully convinced of something because everyone thinks it’s true (i.e., appealing to the traditions they grew up with), you can still be in grievous error.