01.2. Job's Second Question, "How can man be just with

Job’s Second Question, "How can man be just with God?" The oldest of Job’s three friends had answered the first argument. Eliphaz was a wise, eloquent, and pious man, and his first speech is perhaps, the best of the speeches of the friends, (none of the speeches were equal to Job’s either in form or contents, not to mention those of Elihu and Jehovah’s own). In this speech Eliphaz takes trouble to show Job that everyone on the earth reaps what he sows. "Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity and sow mischief reap the same" (Job 4:8). All he says is true in principle but in Job’s case false. Although right in itself it is wrong in its connection, for often the wicked become old in sin, and the good in the strength of their youth are cut off. The ungodly often live in plenty while the god-fearing have to do without the common necessities of life. Eliphaz and his two friends drew false conclusions, just as it often happens nowadays. According to his opinion, Job’s sufferings proved that his former righteousness was only malicious hypocrisy. He describes with great eloquence a dream, in which a spirit was revealed to him, in order to show Job that the reason of his suffering was to be found in his own folly. Job had expected, and rightly too, more understanding for, and deeper sympathy with, his sufferings. He says "For him that is fainting kindness is meet from his friend," and soon after "Return, I pray you, let there be no wrong; yea, return again, my righteousness shall be in it" (Job 6:14; Job 6:29). He cannot admit that he deserved such a trial. The words of his friends are now harder to bear than the sufferings of his tortured body. The death of his children and the loss of his goods were terrible blows; the sickness with which Satan had visited him was of the most trying and horrible kind, but both the silence and the speeches of his friends were as the innumerable poisonous arrows which pierced his soul. In these three men Satan had found unconscious but all the more efficient tools. Instead of really comforting Job they brought him to despair. Instead of reminding him that the goodness of God endureth for ever, and that the reason of his ways although hidden for a time, would in the end be revealed as glorious, they accused the poor man, first in their hearts, then openly, of the grossest crimes, simply because they could not account for his sufferings in any other way. Who then can still be surprised that Job became vexed and wished that God might destroy him? (Job 6:9). He saw deeper than his friends and recognised the dealings of God clearer than they did. For this reason they received at the end a sharper rebuke from God than he did. His mistake consisted in taking for granted it was God who tormented him, and in his presumption in calling God to account. And yet in his bitterest speeches we find gleams of light which break out as rays of hope in the darkest night, and cause him to see from afar God’s salvation out of all his troubles. Thus his sad speech ends with a request to God Himself and not to his friends, and he already admits that he needs forgiveness for his transgressions, and pardon for his misdeeds (Job 7:20-21).

Bildad the Shuhite answers Job’s second question. He is more personal than Eliphaz and calls Job’s words a "strong wind." At the same time he declares that Job and his children are only receiving the due reward of their deeds. The story of Job’s friends should be a solemn warning to us. There is nothing so dangerous as a truth falsely applied. One can do the greatest harm with a word of Scripture in a wrong place. This is one of the devil’s methods, and only unbroken communion with God can keep us from it. How important then is the exhortation "be slow to speak," especially in spiritual matters. Conclusions too quickly drawn and hasty judgments are often bitterly repented of, just as Job’s friends were surely ashamed of their mistakes when it was too late. At the end of his speech Bildad points out that God will not forsake the perfect man but assuredly fill him with joy and gladness, whereas he could hardly know that this would in Job’s case be fulfilled to the letter.

Bildad’s speech is poetical and picturesque, as are all the other speeches, but he does not bring out anything new. His words do not help to a better understanding of the question which troubles poor Job. Therefore the latter begins his third speech with the words "Of a truth I know it is so, but how can man be just with God?" And the words about God which follow are words of insight which are becoming for the creature towards the Creator. Job’s question shows that all Bildad’s statements were worthless and comfortless for him. Morally it is the vital question of man’s being on earth since the fall. Peace for the heart of man is dependent on the answer. Here lies the mystery of a conscience brought to rest. The believers of the O.T. from Adam onwards, sought to solve this problem. Both before and after the flood, before and after the Law, every sincere soul puzzled over this question. What does the expression "be just with God" mean? First of all we must remember that in God’s vocabulary there are no words of uncertain meaning. Any comparison or diminution of adjectives is here not admissible. That which is good in His eyes does not require any improvement, and to be just before Him implies to think, to speak, and to do what is right; and to be as is meet to be before the eyes of a thrice holy God. With Him alone is the standard of measure Think a little over this, dear reader, and you will agree that so it must be. Whoever has understood this, does not need to be told that "There is none righteous, no not one." He who does not deceive himself must admit that the thoughts of his heart are often impure and corrupted, that his words are frequently wrong and irresponsible, and his actions again and again unjust and wicked. In short, that he in his innermost being (and the question here is about this) is anything but "just with God." And now perhaps someone will say: "Although that is man’s condition it does not necessarily follow that he must remain so. What is not can be. Have not the sages and teachers of religion from ancient times onward been working for the moral betterment of mankind? Is there no progress visible in the development of the human spirit? Do not thinkers and poets of all generations teach us that we should further our powers for good? Is there no remedy? Is there no hope of recovery? Has man neither strength nor gift nor invention to fight against unrighteousness, that greatest of all evils, and cast it out of the world?"

All these questions can only be answered by a decisive "No." Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Who can bring a clean man out of the unclean? Not one. Can a slave whose whole time is spent in weary working for a hard taskmaster earn his ransom? Can man escape the bondage of sin? Will Satan allow him to go? Can man outwit the devil? or is he able, after having-been captured by him, to fight and overcome him? Can prisoners put the hosts of the enemy to flight? Has that "murderer from the beginning" left any weapons for his victims with which they could fight for their freedom? These questions are all to be answered in the negative. There is no hope of salvation to be looked for from the side of fallen man. The exertion of all his strength, the display of all his learning cannot make him "just with God." There is no remedy from within. There is no improvement to be hoped for on the part of man, neither from the individual or from mankind in general. The talk of a progress towards goodness, towards human virtue, is a phantom, a deception, a lie of Satan’s, that "liar from the beginning." What then? Is the fall of man quite hopeless? Is there none capable and willing to redeem the slaves of Satan? Can no strong hero be found in the whole universe who is able to wrest the spoil from the strong man? Is there nowhere a physician capable of healing the death wound of the human race? God be praised! Job already received satisfactory answers to these questions although not so clear and detailed as we find them developed in the N.T. First the Spirit of God leads him to give utterance to the words, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," and later Elihu speaks to him of a messenger "an interpreter, one among a thousand" (Job 19:25; Job 33:24) so that God can have mercy on him and (to the messenger) say "Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom." We do not know to what extent the believers of the old covenant understood these words, for the Scripture says that they, for the most part, ministered not unto themselves but unto us the things which are now reported unto us (comp. Job 33:23, with 1 Peter 1:12). But doubtless Job heard in spirit the words "I have found a ransom" as he in shame and repentance threw himself at his Judge’s feet. And that is the only way to be "just with God." Hebrews 11:1-40 shows clearly that all the saints of the O.T. were only justified through faith, and only so could they be well-pleasing to God. What, however, was the ground of their faith? For faith must have a person whom it can trust, a staff on which it can lean, an object to which it can look. Was it not the seed of the woman, whose heel the serpent bruised, that should destroy death and bring life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel? Yes, the object of Job’s faith was no other than the one we have, although it could not then be told him in so many words that God is now just when He justifies him whose faith is in Jesus. See Romans 3:26.

Now it goes without saying that the man who is justified by faith should henceforth walk in righteousness. That is indeed another part of the truth which is explained in Romans 6:1, and elsewhere in the N.T. But before we turn to the third and last question of Job I would entreat the reader who has not yet found a satisfactory answer to the question, "How can man be just with God ?" prayerfully to look for the same in the word of God and that without delay.