Bildad and Job, Round 2

Job 18-19

Bildad’s second monologue begins with the usual irritation toward Job, but then Bildad settles into a pretty coherent theme for the remainder of the 18th chapter:  the wicked’s lives are wrecked by their own doing.  Bildad paints a detailed picture of the thorough destruction that the wicked will experience and leaves no doubt that their destruction is their own fault.  Traps, snares, pits, red tape, nets, and schemes – all of their own devices – precipitate the total devastation of those who do not know God.

Although the picture is grim, the fact that Bildad can pick a topic and stay on it feels like some sort of relief.  And maybe it does to Job, too, because Job has a relatively coherent response.  It’s in total disagreement with Bildad’s argument, of course, but the line of thought feels easier to follow, and that’s a welcome change to my ears.

After making it clear that he doesn’t appreciate his friends’ words and efforts (19:1-3) and then making an unusual allowance that he might not be perfect (19:4), Job details how his life has been ruined.  The stark difference, though, is that Bildad describes a destruction that is clearly self-inflicted; Job attributes the cause of his ruin to God and God alone.  Here’s a sample of the things Job says God has done to him:

19: 6:  God has put me in the wrong and closed his net around me. 

19:8: He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.

19:9: He has stripped my glory from me and taken the crown from my head.

19:10:  He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, he has uprooted my hope like a tree.

19:11: He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.

Bildad puts the blame on the human; Job puts the blame on God.  Job continues to be obsessed with reputation and how others perceive him.  He lists all the people who loathe him: his family, his wife, his close friends, his servants, even young children. 

But wait.  Hold up.  Didn’t all those people die?  Maybe that “one day” that Satan caused the sores was actually quite a long time after the first “one day” when Satan took away all Job’s possessions and people. 

But wait, hold up again.  How can Job say that his close friends hate him when three of them are sitting right there with him, perhaps argumentative but at least not giving up on him?  In the first volley of monologues, they all included some encouragement that his latter days would be even better than his early days.  Don’t these three friends count for something?  This is probably the point where a Bible study would be helpful.  Oh, well.

What happens next is an interesting turn.  Job wishes that his words could be recorded.  Written down.  No, written in a book.  No, written with an iron pen.  No, engraved on a rock!  For forever!  You know, like in a sacred text that would be remembered and studied or wondered on for thousands of years.  Yeah, like that. 

And then his tone takes an abrupt shift.  It seems like once Job realizes this call could be recorded, he starts to speak differently, more reverentially toward God.  “I know my Redeemer lives.”  Do you, though?  Is it the same one you just said ruined every aspect of your life for no apparent (or admitted) reason?  This shift feels like Job just realized one of his friends had his phone out and was recording him.  Job ends his tirade by reminding the friends that they should be afraid because God is going to judge them for their sins.  He is extra, isn’t he?