Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: “How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice?
Job 8:1-3
Bildad (Some say that he was shortest man in the Bible, i.e., shoe height — but I digress, maybe he was just small-minded) argued that to complain against God meant that Job was accusing Him of injustice. Since God never does pervert (“distort,”) justice, He certainly would not be punishing Job for nothing. If Job had not sinned, then his suffering would mean that God had perverted His ways. And to Bildad that was unthinkable! Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment (or just): a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” And the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 89:14, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” So, obviously, then, as far as Bildad was concerned, Job had sinned.
Anyone who has sinned against God suffers the consequences, Bildad said. Job’s children illustrated that fact. They died because they sinned, and now Job was dying because he sinned. Why else would Job be suffering? Bildad and his cohorts were blinded to other purposes in suffering besides retribution. Surely this cruel, heartless remark hurt Job deeply. After all, he had offered sacrifices to cover his children’s sins.
Why did Satan get his way?
So, since Job was “was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil,” why did he have to suffer? Why was Satan allowed to afflict him as he did? Could it be that Satan had to learn a lesson, a lesson that there are those who will not bow even though they are tested to the limit. For example, there were the three Hebrew boys who would bow to the king’s image; Daniel who would obey the kings decree even though it meant that he would be thrown into a den of hungry lions; and the apostles who all, but John, who suffered martyrdom for their faith; most of all, Jesus who would not worship Satan because He had an appointment with the cross.
We don’t always know why we suffer in this life but we can always know that God is watching over us and that we can “cast all of our cares on Him because He cares for us.” Just trust the mercies of God and never allow doubt to creep into the way you think. Amen and amen.
