(Continued from page 241.)

Bildad's address and Job's reply

(chaps. 8-10.)

The first of the friends has spoken and been answered by Job. Bildad now takes up what is fast becoming a controversy. There is perhaps less of. the courtesy and dignity which marked the speech of Eliphaz, together with some harshness toward Job, caused apparently by the bitter charge of the latter against God. With all his ignorance of divine principles, Bildad is jealous of the honor of God, and cannot allow Him to be accused. In this he is surely right, but he fails to convince Job because of the root error in the thoughts, indeed, of them all:God must punish sin, and Job must be a sinner for he is being punished.

To establish this, Bildad refers not merely to his own experience as had Eliphaz, but calls upon all the gathered wisdom of the past for confirmation. What is God's way with the wicked ? And does He not recompense the way of the righteous unto him ?

In reply Job is more subdued, and practically acknowledges the truth of Bildad's contention as to God's ways, but gives a twist to the whole by saying that God's justice is nothing but His power in another form. No one can maintain his cause before Him, because He is almighty, and can not be reached. His judgments are arbitrary, but no one can question them, nor is there a daysman, an advocate, to plead the cause of the wretched. This brings Job back to his original complaint and longing for death. We will now briefly examine the details of each of these speeches.

Bildad's Address.

This may be divided into five parts, suggesting the righteousness of God's judgments and the certainty of His recompense, both upon the wicked and the just.

(1) He reproaches Job (vers. i, 2).

(2) Is God unjust ? (vers. 3-7).

(3) The light of the past (vers. 8-10).

(4) The way of the wicked (vers. 11-19).

(5) Divine recompense for the righteous (vers. 20-22).

(1) Job's words are like a strong wind, a blast of bitter complaint, and still more bitter charge against God. How long is he going to utter such things ? This is a harsh, but, we may well say, just, correction of the irreverent and extreme rashness of Job's words. Perhaps sympathy might have pursued a gentler course, but when a man begins to charge God it is well to rebuke him sharply.
(2) Bildad asks Job a plain question, "Doth God pervert judgment ? " Is He unrighteous ? For anyone who knows Him there can be but one answer. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " He would not be God, if He were not perfectly righteous. This shows the dreadful precipice to which Job was approaching, goaded on by this false principle that God always punishes for sin. Job was not a sinner; therefore God was unjust ! Fearful reasoning this, in which both the premise and the statement of fact are wrong and in which the conclusion is blasphemous. Why did not Job, and Bildad also, pause and ask if there was not something wrong in the premise:Does God always punish for sin alone ? Why does not Job consider the statement of facts; is he sinless ? But this will come out in due time. We will follow Bildad.

He proposes two proofs of God's justice, the first of which is, to say the least, most arbitrary and unkind. We may read verse 4, "When thy children sinned against Him, He gave them over to the hand of their wickedness." In other words Bildad assumes that Job's children had reaped the due reward of their wickedness, and had been cut off; " Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." This is indeed most lacerating to a parent's feelings, who had found no evidence of such wickedness in his children, and who had carefully watched over their spiritual state. Bildad is driven to this by his wrong theory of God's ways.

Next, he proves the justice of those ways by telling Job there is restoring mercy for him, if he will but turn in prayer to God-" If thou art pure and upright"-there is a strong suggestion of suspicion here-God will restore all, and bless Job's latter end. This indeed was fulfilled, but in a vastly different way from what Bildad expected; Job is blessed not for his purity, nor because of confession of suspected evil.

(3) Bildad here seeks confirmation of his contention from the wisdom of past ages. He goes beyond Eliphaz, " For we are but as children of yesterday." While this is true, what does the garnered wisdom of all the past give us when it is a question of God's truth ? It is not to the past that we are to turn, but to God and His word. How immeasurably superior is the position of those who have the "sure word of prophecy," "the oracles of God."

(4) In this portion Bildad traces the way of the wicked; and there is much truth in what he says, though it is not all the truth. Can the water-reed, or papyrus, nourish without moisture ? It grows luxuriantly when water is about its roots; as soon as that is exhausted, it withers more quickly than all other herbs. So is the prosperity of the wicked, who for a time spreads himself as a green bay tree. The hope of the ungodly-not merely the hypocrite-perisheth. Changing his figure, Bildad likens the confidence of the wicked to one leaning upon a spider's web; how pitiable is the plight of one vainly clinging to so frail a thing ! Once more in the exuberance of his metaphors, he likens this passing prosperity to a luxuriant vine covering a heap of stones in the garden, filled with sap and vigor in the bright sunshine. Soon God cuts him off, and " the place that once knew him shall know him no more." Others shall take his place.

(5) Lastly Bildad reminds Job of the sure recompense for the righteous. God will not join hands with evil doers by punishing the righteous ; He will fill Job's mouth with laughter and his tongue with singing, and all iniquity shall stop its mouth, if-

Job's reply to Bildad.
Job's reply, beginning in quietness, passing on to bitter charges of God, and ending in a wail, may be divided into seven parts; he sounds all the heights and depths of misery in this complete survey of his case.

(1) God supreme; who can contend with Him ? (vers. 1-4).

(2)His resistless power (vers. 5-10).

(3)His inaccessibility, and arbitrary dealing (vers. 11-24).

(4) Job's utter weakness (vers. 25-28).

(5)Longing for a daysman (vers. 29-35).

(6) The complaint against God (ch. 10:1-17).

(7) Longing for death (vers. 18-22).

(1) Although he speaks quietly, there is an intense bitterness in what Job says here. Apparently agreeing with Bildad that God is just, Job says, "Of course He is just, for there is no appeal from whatever He does. He has both wisdom and power, and can overwhelm any vain attempt to reason with Him." This is terrible. It is not one presuming in all lowliness to ask God for a reason, as Jeremiah under similar circumstances does (Jer. 12:1-4), but rather the hardness of despair-might is right; and God has might on His side.

(2) In this part Job enlarges upon the power and greatness of God. The language is noble, the description true, but underneath lies the awful doubt of this great and powerful Being's goodness. God overturns the unconscious mountains in His wrath; He makes the earth to tremble. Passing from earth to heaven, He causes the sun and stars to cease their shining. Returning to earth He walks upon the raging waves of the sea. He is the creator of those distant glorious constellations- Arcturus in the north; Orion "sloping downward toward the west;" Pleiades in the east, and the unknown "chambers of the south," toward the horizon and beyond view. These are marvelous sweeps of language, taking in the whole heavens; but, alas, it is not,"The heavens declare the glory of God," but rather a declaration of absolute, resistless Power.

(3) Coming to the heart of his trouble, Job declares, in language whose poetic beauty is only exceeded by the misery of his plaint, that he can have no access to this great and mighty Being who hides Himself, and gives no account to any of His ways. He passes by, viewless as the winds; He deals in anger, but none can ask a reason, not even the "proud helpers "-the " helpers of Rahab" (Egypt), they can only bow under Him. How much less can poor Job address Him, even though he knew the righteousness of his cause, save as a cringing suppliant before his Judge! He would scarcely believe it if God did answer him, but would expect rather to be crushed in a tempest and further wounded without cause-beaten down into bitter helplessness, and not suffered to take a breath ! Yes, if it is strength you speak of, "He is strong;" if justice, "Who will plead with' Him? " Job adds, even if he were right, his own mouth would be forced to condemn him; and if he were perfect Gcd would declare him guilty! Even if he knew himself innocent, he is all at sea and despairs of his life. God is a destroyer alike of guilty and' innocent, at whose passing away He mocks. The earth is in the hands of the wicked:is it not so ? Who else has done this unrighteousness ? Oh Job, for these words thou shalt yet abhor thyself, and repent in dust and ashes.

(4) Identifying himself with the innocent sufferers at whose passing away God laughs, Job describes his own utter weakness, and the brevity of his life. He has forgotten all his former prosperity, and draws similes of the evanescence of life from earth and sea and sky. His days are like the swift postman who runs with his message ; like the ships, passing along the horizon; or like an eagle swiftly dashing out of sight in pursuit of prey. At the suggestion that he forget his troubles and try to look bravely forward, as Bildad had urged, he can but shudder at his sorrows, his pains, for he knows God will not hold him innocent. So he is held in his misery as in a vise.

(5) Continuing, Job hints that there is no use in his making any effort to clear himself:if he is already pronounced wicked, he labors in vain to convince God that he is not; he may wash his hands in innocency, in snow water, only to be taken by this resistless Power and plunged into the ditch! Vain are all efforts to alter the judgment, and oh -where is there a daysman, a mediator who could enter into judgment, laying his hands upon God and Job alike ? Consumed with terror, Job cannot speak. Thank God, we know, as Job later knew in part, that there is such a Daysman.

(6) Words fail to describe the misery of Job which would lead him to speak thus against God. It is not the bodily suffering which has wrung this bitter cry from him, but he has lost, or is in danger of losing, faith in God's goodness. There is scarcely a gleam of light in his whole speech, and in the closing part (chap. 10) he lets himself loose in the dark despair which has settled down upon his soul. He is weary of life, and might as well pour out all his thoughts against God. He does not stand, as the poet has described a despairing man,

"Deep into that darkness peering,
Long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."

but rather pours out all those thoughts before the eye of God. May not this very abandonment of misery suggest the root of faith in his heart ? He will at least tell God to His face that he doubts Him:"though He slay me." He will ask God why He thus contends with him – is it any pleasure to Him to despise the work of His own hands, and allow the wicked to go unpunished ? Does God judge according to the flesh, failing to see the inward parts ? Are His days so brief that He must punish evil before' it is manifested-nay, when He knows a man is innocent? "Wilt Thou pursue a worm to death ?" Will He take the frail being whom His hands have fashioned with such skill, as the delicate clots of milk-as the "curiously wrought" substance of skin and flesh, bones and sinews (see Ps. 139:15, 16), and bring them back to their parent dust ? God has given him breath and life, and yet has hidden enmity in His heart against His own handiwork!

"Thou madest death ;and lo, Thy foot
Is on the skull that Thou hast made."

If he sins, God would note it and woe be to him; if he is innocent he dare not lift his head, for God would quickly hunt him as a fierce lion seeking his prey. God would display His wondrous power, and bring up witnesses against him like a countless host of invaders. In other words Job declares he is at the mercy of an almighty, arbitrary enemy!

(7) And so this awful plaint goes on to its close. The wailing passes from blaming God for His injustice to lamenting his birth. Pitifully, Job asks a brief respite, a surcease of sorrow before he goes hence and is no more. It is the lament again of chapter 3. S. R.

(To be continued.)