Morning Repost- Job 8: Bildad the Traditionalist
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 “How long will you speak these things,and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? 3 Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice? 4 If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression. 5 If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, 6 if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and prosper your rightful dwelling place. 7 Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly. 8 For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers; 9 for we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. 10 Will they not teach you and tell you, and utter words from their heart?
“Some have observed, that Job's friends were like the messengers that brought him the tidings of his losses, before one had done speaking another came.” (John Gill) As Job closed his reply to Eliphaz, he made the request to God to reveal his sins so that he could repent. But rather than listening and joining his brother's prayer, he pushes for repentance, which is impossible, saying in essence, "Come on Job, you know all about the sins, which had caused these circumstances.” Your "general asseverations of innocence are of no avail.” (Joseph Benson)
And Bildad knows the Scriptures- the stories of oral tradition that had been the basis of true religion on the earth. Bildad agreed with Eliphaz that God was paying Job back for sin, believing the false assumption “that God would deal with people in this life according to their character.” (Barnes) "However, Bildad built his conclusions on a slightly different foundation. Eliphaz argued from his own personal experience and observations (Job 4:8; 4:12-21). Bildad cited a more reliable authority: the experience of past generations that had come down through years of tradition (Job 8:8-10). He was a traditionalist whereas Eliphaz was an existentialist.” (Dr Thomas B. Constable) There is danger when we look for doctrine or application to traditional interpretations alone.
“‘Then Bildad the Shuhite — Supposed to be a descendant of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham, by Keturah...— “answered saying, ‘How long will you speak these things?’ The flyings of murmuring and complaint, such as he had uttered in the previous chapters.— ‘And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?’ His language of complaint and murmuring was like a tempest. It swept over all barriers, and disregarded all restraint.” (Albert Barnes) “‘Does God’— Hebrew, אל, Eel, God— Judge unrighteously?— ‘Or does the Almighty’— Hebrew, שׁדי, Shaddai.— ‘pervert justice?’ No: this is inconsistent with God’s nature, which is essentially and necessarily just, and with his office of governor of the world.” (Joseph Benson) “Neither did Job ever say such a thing; only he had pathetically set forth the greatness of his pain, and the unkindness of his friends, and wished to die rather than to endure it.” (John Trapp)
Bildad assumes absolutely that sin was the cause. He presumes “to know what could be known only to the Searcher of hearts.” (Pulpit Commentary) He judges without one witness, much less two or three, as required by the law of Moses. “‘If your sons have sinned against Him,’— As what man is he that liveth and sinneth not? But Bildad meant that Job’s children had heinously sinned, had been grievous sinners against their own souls (as afterwards were Korah and his accomplices), had not sinned common sins, and therefore died not common deaths; indeed, they died early and suddenly, and eating and drinking....” (John Trapp) with no concern for eternity.— "'He has cast them away for their transgression.’ The Hebrew is, ‘by the hand of their transgression;’ By means of their transgression; it became their destruction.” (C.J. Ellicott)
“This must have been a bitter stroke at Job, since he had [as head, led instruction and] so regularly offered sacrifice on their behalf.” (F. B Hole) “Job, however," says the traditionalist, "has not been wiped out of existence as a hopeless sinner, but God is calling him to repentance.” (Arthur Peake) So seek forgiveness. "He has his ‘ifs.’ ‘if thou wouldest seek unto God’--and--‘If thou wert pure and upright.’” (Arno Gaebelein) — “‘surely now He would awake for you.’ LXX reads “hearken unto thee.”
Job hoped for rewards in glory after sleep in the grave, but Bildad represented his “rightful dwelling place” as upon this earth.’ (6b) God "would restore to Job the home and the possession which he had had as a righteous man.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.” “‘For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers.’ etc. (8-10) He wishes to be very orthodox in his assertions, and to base his statements upon authority, and he appeals to the experience of former ages long gone by, and calls them to attest the truth of what he says.” (C. J. Ellicott) “Job cannot, on the basis of his short experience, question what all the wisest people of previous ages have believed (8-10).” (Bridgeway Bible Commentary) But, Bildad, without spiritual insight, you cannot apply the examples in the Bible to cases to individual cases. Beware: “Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, sometimes they are the trials of extraordinary graces.” (Matthew Henry) Job was seeking God and was pure and upright of heart.