Bildad Says God Rewards the Good
8 Then Bildad the Shuhite [a]answered,
2 “How long will you say these things,
And the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
3 “Does God pervert justice?
Or does [b]the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 “If your sons sinned against Him,
Then He delivered them into the [c]power of their transgression.
5 “If you would seek God
And implore the compassion of [d]the Almighty,
6 If you are pure and upright,
Surely now He would rouse Himself for you
And restore your righteous [e]estate.
7 “Though your beginning was insignificant,
Yet your end will increase greatly.8 “Please inquire of past generations,
And consider the things searched out by their fathers.
9 “For we are only of yesterday and know nothing,
Because our days on earth are as a shadow.
10 “Will they not teach you and tell you,
And bring forth words from their minds?11 “Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?
Can the rushes grow without water?
12 “While it is still green and not cut down,
Yet it withers before any other [f]plant.
13 “So are the paths of all who forget God;
And the hope of the godless will perish,
14 Whose confidence is fragile,
And whose trust a spider’s [g]web.
15 “He [h]trusts in his house, but it does not stand;
He holds fast to it, but it does not endure.
16 “He [i]thrives before the sun,
And his shoots spread out over his garden.
17 “His roots wrap around a rock pile,
He [j]grasps a house of stones.
18 “If he is [k]removed from his place,
Then it will deny him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
19 “Behold, this is the joy of His way;
And out of the dust others will spring.
20 “Lo, God will not reject a man of integrity,
Nor will He [l]support the evildoers.
21 “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
And your lips with shouting.
22 “Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
And the tent of the wicked will be no longer.”
Bildad picks up where Eliphaz left off, but is a bit more direct in verses 6 and 22. He tells Job if he was truly “pure and upright” then God would restore his estate, and then he contends later that the “tent of the wicked” will be destroyed. This was probably a common belief back then, and it isn’t foreign today either. Many claim that if we just believe that God will bless us, and confess it, then it will happen.
Any suffering then, is just a lack of faith, or caused by sin in our lives (according to this false teaching). Even in the first century AD, this belief was held and taught by the religious leaders. But what about the lame man Jesus healed? They asked Jesus who sinned to cause such a thing, and his response turned their beliefs upside down. Jesus stated emphatically that his physical ailment was not caused by sin, but was so that God might be glorified.
Once more, we find out that “bad” things happen because God wants them to, and what are we to do with that? What of the suffering this man endured for decades, just so God could be glorified? Yet what of the profound miracle that God did in this man’s life, displaying His unmistakable power and glory. This man’s life was changed forever, and what would have happened had he been born healthy and remained so all his life? No one knows the answer to that question except God.
I think it likely he may have missed Jesus like so many other people in Israel at that time. That would be a fate far worse than the temporary (though long in the material world) suffering he endured to see God face to face. This brings us full circle to what I want to draw out here, which is the emphasis so many put on the material blessings of God.
Does God bless some with material riches? Sure, but He will not give anyone who trusts in Him more than they can handle. Sure, I’d like to make a million dollars a year, but could I handle that? I don’t know, but God does, and that’s probably why I don’t make a million dollars a year! As the Bible says elsewhere, God’s ways are higher than ours, and while we get stuck on the physical and material things we have (or don’t), God wants us to focus on the end game, which is the spiritual blessings.
What God has done for all of us already far surpasses in value anything that anyone will ever see in this physical world, and He wants to bless us more. Seek Him first, seek His will, pray for God’s will to be done, and for Him to be glorified. Do your best to be faithful with what God has given you, and let Him worry about the rest.