JOB 8
Theology (1–7). Eliphaz emphasized the sinfulness of man, and Bildad majored on the justice of God. Both men were right in their doctrine but wrong in their conclusion. They locked God into a formula and refused to let Him exercise His freedom to do what He wants to do. Before the book ends, Job and his friends will discover that God is much greater than the words they used in speaking about Him. Have you limited God? Do you know the living God or only theological words?
History (8–10). Bildad was a devoted traditionalist who called his witnesses from the past. There is nothing wrong with our learning from the past, provided it does not turn the present into a museum and the future into a cemetery. Someone has said, “Tradition is the living face of dead people, while traditionalism is the dead face of living people.” Is the past encouraging you or embalming you?
Science (11–22). Bildad argues from nature: for every effect, there is a cause. If Job is suffering, there must be a cause, and since God is just, that cause has to be Job’s sin. But God’s dealings with His people cannot be studied in a laboratory. Science has its place, but it cannot explain God. He is too great for man’s feeble instruments.