The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 141

HOMILETICS. Vera. 1-7.-Bildad to Job: 1. .A bundl,e of mistaka. I. UNJUSTIFIABLE BEBUKB. "Then answered ·m1dad the Shuhite, and said." Even if on Job's part wholly deserved the admonition of Bildad was in itself worthy of censure, as being: 1. Impatient. "How long wilt thou speak these things?" It is due to every man who speaks in his defence, as Job did, t.o hear him patiently (Acts xxvi. 3); much more if he speaks in affliction. Nay, patience t.owards all men is an eminent token of sincere religion (1 Thess. v. 14; 1 'l'im. vi. 11 ; 2 Tim. ii. 24; Titus iii. 2). Besides, they who rebuke others for impatience should not themselves be guilty of the same (Rom. il 21). 2. Unsympa- thetic. Throughout its entire length not a word indicates that Bildad cherished kindly feeling towards Job or pity for his deep distress. On the contrary, there is an amount of brutal plainness of speech that is hard to account for in a good man. Into whatever faults men may fall by their words or acts, their sufferings and sorrows should never fail to elicit our compaasion (eh. vi. 14; Rom. xiL 15; Heb. xiii. 3). Least of all should those rebuke others' sins who cannot feel for others' woes (Gal. vi. 1; 'l'itus iii. 2, 3). 3. Undiaritabl,e. Bildad made no allowance for the anguish of spirit which had impelled Job to speak, but, like Eliphaz (eh. vi. 26), putting the worst possible construction on his words, contemptuously designated them as " these things," and characterized them as boisterous winds, vehement nothings, meaningless, but tem.: pestuous, defying aU restraints, overleaping all barriers, destroying all law and order in their course. "U sound speech that cannot be condemned" (Titus ii. 8) be excellent in all, "speech always with grace, seasoned with salt" (Col. iv. 6), is a special ornament of Christi.ans ; and "if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body" (Jae. iil 2); yet1 equally on the other hand, a charity that never faileth. that is not easily provoked, that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Cor. x.iii. 4--8), becometh them that he.ar. IL DoUBTFUL THEOLOGY. "Doth God (El) pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty ( Shaddai) pervert justice? " 1. ~bsolukly, no I It is impossible to conceive that the Di vine Being, in his moral government of the universe, could even by a hair's breadth transgress the bounds of rectitude. (1) If he did, he could not be El-Shaddai, the All-powerful and All-sufficient Deity; since sin is essentially weakness and imperfec- tion, and Omnipotence inconceivable except in alliance with immaculate purity and absolute integrity. Hence (2) because of being El-Shaddai, not only has he no tempta- tion to resort to inequitable dealings with his creatures, but the bare idea of" perverting justice" is impossible, is wholly unthinka.ble in connection with him, and even the faintest insinuation thereof infinitely false. (In this sense it is not clear that Job, as Bildad suggests, had charged God with perversion.) Only the equity of God's dealiogs is not always discernible by man. Though. the Judge of all the earth cannot do other- wise than right (Gen. xviii. 25), the judged do not always perceive the justness of his decisions. Hereafter the entire course of the Divine procedure on earth will be vindicated in the presence of an assembled universe. Meantime that it is in perfect harmony with the eternal principles of truth and right is an article of faith and a funr,amental axiom of reasoo. 2. Seemingly, yu. AB understood by Bildad, it is doubtful if justice can be claimed for all God's dealings with his intelligent creatures on earth. By justice Bildad meant the principle of rewarding good men with good, OJI, TIU, 1-22,] THE BOOK OF JOB. 143