Bildad the Unrighteous Judge

[00:00:00] Father, we ask that you would open our hearts and minds to your Word. [00:00:05] For you have been so gracious to speak to us, to speak to us in such a very tangible way that we can understand. [00:00:16] And yet, Father, we confess that we do not fully comprehend everything that is in your Word, and that we rely upon your Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds to the things that are there. That we would see them and that we might apply them to our lives in a very practical way. [00:00:37] That we would see your purposes, not our purposes. That we would walk in your ways, not our ways. [00:00:47] And so we ask that you would illumine us as we read your most holy word. [00:00:56] In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:01:02] Job 8 we've been going along in the Book of Job and something I wanted to make clear here at the onset, and that is that not everything that Job's friends say is wrong and not everything that Job says is right. [00:01:36] Just because it's in the Bible, it doesn't make it right. You have to take it in the context. There are many things we're warned against and there are other things that are taught positively. [00:01:46] But we're looking here at Bildad's response to Job. [00:01:53] When Job had expressed that he wanted God to snuff out his life. [00:02:03] Then Bildad the shuhite answered and said, how long will you say these things and the words of your mouth be a great wind? [00:02:13] Does God pervert justice or does the Almighty pervert the right? [00:02:18] If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. [00:02:38] And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. [00:02:45] For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out for. We are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? [00:03:02] Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water while yet in flower and not cut down? They wither before any other plant. Such are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the Godless shall perish. His confidence is severed and his trust is a spider's web. He leans against his house, but it does not stand. He lays hold of it, but it does not endure. He is a lush plant before the sun and his shoots spread over his garden. His roots entwine the stone heap. He looks upon a house of stones. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I have never seen you. [00:03:53] Behold, this is the joy of his way. And out of the soil others will spring. [00:04:00] Behold, God will not reject a blameless man nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more. [00:04:19] Thus ends the reading of God's word. Please be seated. [00:04:30] Bildad the Shuhite. [00:04:34] That name mean anything to you? [00:04:37] It does to me. When I was a little boy, there was the question asked, who is the shortest man in the Bible? [00:04:45] And the answer was, some people think it's Nehemiah, others think it's Bildad the Shoehite. [00:04:58] But the correct answer is, the tiniest man in the Bible is the man who slept on his watch. [00:05:06] King James Version. Look it up. It's there. [00:05:18] We need to always keep the comments in here in context, and that is that God in the end of the book, and I hope you've read the book before, and if you haven't, do read it. But in the end of the book, God says to Job's friends that they need to get together and make a sacrifice, and that Job would be their priest, their intercessor, and if they would do that, that God would forgive them for the unrighteous things that they said. [00:05:59] And again, I'm not saying that everything that he says here is wrong or unrighteous. [00:06:06] Verse 20. There. Behold, God will not reject a blameless man nor take the hand of Evildo. [00:06:18] But the problem with Bildad is that he is an unrighteous judge. [00:06:25] He has not judged according to God's standard because Bildad does not know of anything wicked that Job has done. [00:06:40] It'd be a little bit different if Bildad could point to something and say, job, I know that you're guilty of committing adultery, and here is the witness. [00:06:54] I know that you're guilty of stealing from someone, and here are the witnesses. [00:07:00] I know that you have told lies, and here are the witnesses to those lies. There's nothing of that sort. [00:07:08] As a matter of fact, Bildad is rather heartless in his attack, really, upon Job, because did you notice in the text here what he says in verse 4? [00:07:22] If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. [00:07:29] This is a man who's lost all of his Children, seven sons and three daughters, if my math is correct. [00:07:40] Do you tell someone whose child has died that that child must have done something terrible and it's a judgment on him? [00:07:59] How dare Bildad judge Job's children? [00:08:07] I shared when I began this series, and someday I'm going to find that tract and show it to people. It was a tract I picked up when I was back in Ohio a long, long time ago. [00:08:17] And that tract took the book of Job and turned it on its head. [00:08:22] The tract said that all of Job's problems were. He brought them on himself. [00:08:27] Because he did say. And earlier we noted that he said, I was afraid something like this would happen. [00:08:35] And it's this notion that if you say it, you get it. [00:08:41] That can be both positive and negative, can't it? You know, say something nice, you get that. Say something bad, you get that There are those who teach that sort of thing. And that's what this tract was teaching. And one of the things the tract was teaching was that Job's children were going from one house to another, eating and drinking. They were obviously drunks and gluttons, an accusation that was made against our Lord in the New Testament because he went to parties. Did you know that? [00:09:12] John the Baptist didn't. [00:09:15] John stayed out there in the desert area along the Jordan river baptizing people, and they said of him that he has a demon. [00:09:25] But they accused Jesus of being a glutton and a drunk because he would go to these parties that people would throw. [00:09:38] Bildad is judging Job's children, and he suggests here that God will restore your fortunes if you'll just plead for mercy. [00:10:00] Bildad doesn't know that God is ultimately going to restore Job's fortunes. We know that because we've read the end of the story. [00:10:12] But Bildad has that notion that bad things happen to bad people and only good things happen to good people. [00:10:24] There was a man who wrote a book, and the title of his book was, why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? [00:10:33] Well, as good Calvinists, we all know there aren't no good people, not in a pure, righteous sense, that whatever we receive in this life of God's mercy is by grace. We don't earn it. [00:10:55] And the difficulties that come into our life, we should take the attitude that Job did. [00:11:01] Job's wife suggested to him that he finish it all off by cursing God and dying. [00:11:08] And Job said, should we accept good from the Lord and not evil? And evil there doesn't mean sin. It's not something about that. It's talking about the bad things that happen in life. [00:11:25] How do we deal with these things? Job is struggling with this. [00:11:30] But this friend of his, Bildad, is willing to judge and decide that he knows just how everything should go. [00:11:45] He even tells him in verse seven there that though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. [00:11:53] Beginning was small. You read what Job had at the beginning of the story now? Sure. See, Bildad doesn't know how the story ends. He ends up with twice everything. [00:12:05] And since I may never get before this congregation and preach the very end of the book, I want to point something out that I learned. And that is when you look at the twice that he has, he has twice the number of animals, all the livestock and everything, but he gets the same number of children. [00:12:21] And someone said, well, I thought he was promised twice. [00:12:26] Well, he has twice. [00:12:30] This may come as bad news to some of you, but when your animals die, that's it. Sorry, there's no resurrection for animals. [00:12:41] I'm not saying there are no animals in God's kingdom. Because one young lady after church came up to me and asked me, she said, pastor, do you think there'll be horses in heaven? And I said, there have to be. [00:12:52] And she said, how do you figure that? In Isaiah, he talks about the bells on the horses are righteous. [00:13:04] So I know there's at least horses in heaven and others, but these are not resurrected from this life. [00:13:12] Only human beings will be resurrected. [00:13:17] And so Job indeed does get twice the children. Because what the passage is telling us very clearly is all of his children went to be with the Lord, and so they count. [00:13:39] Bildad's one of those wonderful people that likes to refer to the good old days and all the wisdom that the fathers have. [00:13:49] And there is a certain amount of wisdom with age. [00:13:54] I trust that I'm a little bit wiser than I was as a teenager. [00:14:03] But wisdom doesn't automatically come with age. [00:14:14] If we consider the past, will we really gain the wisdom we need? [00:14:21] Or can we say with the psalmist, because we know this book, that I know more of God's wisdom than my teachers or the old. [00:14:39] Not because I'm smarter than they, but because God has taught me. [00:14:55] He has an interesting illustration that he uses here. And you know, I like illustrations. [00:15:01] I've never seen papyrus growing. [00:15:06] Somehow it grows in a marsh. We're told here reeds flourish in the water. [00:15:14] Even back in Kansas, there are places where there are reeds. [00:15:19] One of the things that will draw your attention to the reed is a Particular bird's song. The red winged blackbird lives in those reeds in those marshes. [00:15:32] But when you have a marsh like that, where there is no water, the plants wither. [00:15:41] And Bildad said, such are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless shall perish. His confidence is severed and his trust is a spider's web. [00:15:59] Bildad thinks that Job is not trusting in God. [00:16:06] Where's his evidence for that? And really, when you get down to that, brothers and sisters in Christ, the reality is we can judge a man's actions. [00:16:23] I'm not suggesting that when the New Testament tells us, judge not lest you be judged, that is suggesting that we should never judge anything and say, well, I can't say that that's wrong for that couple to live together, though they're not married. I can't say that it's wrong for someone to abuse drugs. [00:16:48] But we can't judge a man's heart. [00:16:54] Only God can do that. [00:17:00] Bildad cannot possibly know Job's heart, and yet he seems to have a great deal of confidence to go on in his story. Talking about the lush plant before the sun and how it's destroyed from its place, Bildad closes with these comments. Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more. [00:17:55] And he could have added, if you'll just repent. And the problem with Job was he did not have some terrible, wicked sin to repent of. [00:18:12] My desire would be that none of you would have some terrible wicked sin to repent of. We have sins to repent of. [00:18:23] We need to deal with sin in our lives. [00:18:32] But should you get caught up in a sin and come to repentance of that sin? [00:18:48] It is true that God can take terrible experiences and turn them into a true appreciation of his grace. [00:19:12] I want to look at a couple of passages in the New Testament. [00:19:16] The first one is in John 7, John 7 and beginning with verse 14, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. [00:19:32] The Jews, therefore marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied, hadn't been to college or seminary? [00:19:43] So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. [00:19:50] If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. [00:20:01] The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory. But the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true. And in him there is no falsehood. [00:20:14] Has not Moses given you the law, yet none of you keeps the law. [00:20:19] Why do you seek to kill me? [00:20:23] The crowd answered, you have a demon who's seeking to kill you. Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marveled at it. Moses gave you circumcision. [00:20:37] Not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcised a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man received circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken. Are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body? Well, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. [00:21:08] There it is simply. [00:21:11] It is so tempting for us to judge by appearances. [00:21:17] Jesus own disciples often did that. [00:21:21] They saw that man who was born blind. And they asked the question, did this man sin or did his parents sin that he was born blind? And Jesus said, no, neither. [00:21:35] It was so that he might be healed to the glory of God. There may be something in your life that is terrible. Cancer. [00:21:47] That's a terrible thing to have. [00:21:51] But do you know that God can use that to his glory? [00:22:05] One more passage. [00:22:12] Acts 17. [00:22:24] Paul addressing the men of Athens. [00:22:28] This great gathering of philosophers. [00:22:35] And he tells them, beginning in verse 29, being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone. An image formed by the art and imagination of man. [00:22:52] The times of ignorance, God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. [00:23:10] And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. [00:23:22] The resurrection of Jesus Christ. The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have to say that because there are those who imagine that he sort of appeared as a spirit or something. The very same body, not a different body, was raised from the dead, never to die again. [00:23:42] And this confirms that he indeed is the one who will judge all of mankind. [00:23:53] Some of you who are old enough, remember there was a song where it talked about the throne, the judgment throne. And it said, it ain't going to be Buddha on that throne, or Hare Krishna. There was a whole list that they went through. I don't remember all of them, the words to that song. But it's going to be Jesus. [00:24:16] That's an amazing thought. To me that the One who was willing to suffer and die in my place is the one that I will face on Judgment Day. [00:24:34] The very same one. [00:24:40] And on that day I will be declared righteous. Not because of the life that I've lived here, but because of the faith that I have placed in the one who paid for all my sins. [00:25:03] And Job started out a very rich man and ended up an even more rich man. [00:25:11] I started out this life as a sinner, condemned. [00:25:20] But I will end this life as a son, a child, a child of my heavenly Father, one whom he loves. [00:25:34] And the same is true of each and every one of you who are willing to put your faith and trust in him. [00:25:47] Don't listen to Bill, Dad. [00:25:55] Being good, appearing good on the outside saves no one. [00:26:04] Having the righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only hope. [00:26:17] Let's look to God in prayer, Father, as we consider what a terrible trial Job was put through. [00:26:31] And we know from your word that it was ultimately for your glory and the praise of your grace and your love. [00:26:45] Father, when we consider all of that, we think of ourselves and the ways that we have in many occasions failed you. [00:27:05] And yet you go on loving us. [00:27:08] That we, like Job, have complained about our state. [00:27:16] And yet, Father, we know from the Psalms in particular that you encourage us to complain. [00:27:24] Not to one another, not to those around us in our families, but to you, to bring our complaints to you, recognizing that you ultimately are the only one who can do something about what's going on in this life, in our individual lives, and in this world as a whole. And we rejoice in knowing that you are sovereign in the world and that you are sovereign in our hearts as we trust in Jesus Christ. [00:28:06] And so, Father, help us to be careful, very careful, how we judge others. [00:28:15] That we not be guilty, as Bildad was, of assuming because of poor outcomes in others lives, that they must have done something terrible. [00:28:25] Or assuming because our lives at times seem easy, that we must be on the right track, but rather recognize, help us to recognize that your rain falls upon the just and the unjust. [00:28:47] That blessings in this life, physical blessings, can come to the good and to the wicked, and that you have a purpose in all these things. And that difficulties are not something strange and unexpected in the life of a believer, but help us to see that these things that you place in our lives are for our learning. [00:29:15] That we might learn what it truly means to persevere. Just as Job persevered through all of the things that he experienced and was able ultimately, indeed, to rejoice when he more fully came to know your character, your person, the beauty of the Lord. [00:29:46] We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.