08. Friend Bildad
Friend Bildad
Now, friend Bildad takes his stroke at the wedge, to drive it a little farther home. ’Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water? Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God. Andthe hypocrite’s hope shall perish’ etc. (Job 8:1-22). This is all true of the stony-ground hearers; but not true of Job — and not true of the soul that sincerely trusts in Christ. The water that is in him is a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. ’The hypocrite’s hope shall perish’, but the feeblest sheep of Christ shall never perish. But if he looks at his own fancied greenness — at his own boasted goodness, this will fade away; and thus Satan gets the advantage. There may be much freshness of soul at conversion — like the green flag; but beware of trusting in this; for very often the reaction is in proportion to the exuberance of joy, when the real character of the flesh is found out.
Then showers of darts are sent — such as ’Have I deceived myself?’ ’I do not feel as I did’. ’Perhaps I have no root in Christ’. ’The hypocrite’s hope shall perish’. Then, oh, what darkness of soul — what perplexity! The eye is off Christ: the heart is listening to Satan. The very first question, even that of justification, is found to be unsettled. It was just so with Job at the close of Bildad’s speech. Beware, then, of Bildad’s stroke on the wedge!
Job 9:1-35. This chapter brings out the state of Job’s mind. He says, ’I know it is so of a truth.But how should man be just with God?’ He gets before God as Judge; and his perplexity is very great. He cannot answer God one in a thousand. ’I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent’.
Poor Job! He does not know now which way to turn. And is not this the case with every believer the moment he gets before God as Judge? How can he or you be just before God? Would not one sin of a thousand utterly condemn you?
Yet this is the desperate struggle of Job, and every human heart to be just before God. ’If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me’. How does God know that you are innocent? Very far from that. But at conversion you hoped you would then be innocent. Has it been so? Can you look up in the face of God as Judge, and say you have been innocent since your conversion? Impossible. Then, does not the thought of standing before God as Judge make you afraid? Certainly.
Job felt it was utterly impossible to stand before God as Judge and be found just! and hence he felt his deep sense of a mediator or daysman. ’For (God) is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.Neither is there any daysman between us that might lay his hand upon us both.Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me’.
Job 10:1-22. The thought of God as Judge fills Job with confusion. He gets to feel as if God were against him like a fierce lion. There is also breaking and humbling before God. But all is still darkness — the very shadow of death. Whatever was the cause of all this? And much more, may I ask, whatever is the cause that many a dear child of God should he in this same darkness and uncertainty? Let us peruse the book, and we shall yet find out the cause.