Job 8:8-18, Job’s Friends Had No Authority (2)

·       Bildad: Job’s second friend draws upon “tradition” or the wisdom of the ancients (8:8-10).  His assumptions are clear: young people know very little, older people, perhaps especially those who have already died, know a lot.  Part of Job’s problem is that he hasn’t lived, and won’t live, as long a life as the fathers. 

o   What does that mean?  Well, let’s see.  Abraham lived 175 years (Gen. 25:7); Isaac lived 180 years (Gen. 35:28); Jacob lived 147 years (Gen. 47:28); and Joseph lived 110 years (Gen. 50:26).  After the flood the longevity of life dropped from generation to generation.  Shem lived 600 years (Gen. 11:10-11).  So, I suppose that could have been Bildad’s thinking.  “We don’t live very long these days, maybe 170 years.  But in the old days they lived longer and thus could amass a better catalogue of wisdom.”

o   But, of course, Bildad isn’t really concerned about ages.  By relying on the “ancients,” he is basing his argument in people who are already dead.  Further, he bases his argument in ancients that he agrees with.  The fact is, to this day, you can find classic philosophers with a variety of ideas.  When studying the OT I sometimes wonder what the “Rabbi’s” had to say about something.  Turns out, there are enough Rabbi’s that you can find the whole gamut of viewpoints on any question.  So, how do you know who’s right?  As soon as you ask that question you are saying that the “ancients” are a satisfactory source of authority for truth.  You have to have some other source by which to evaluate them. 

o   In the case of Job, Bildad uses a typical trick of philosophy: talk about the natural world around you.  “Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh” (8:11)?  Well, of course not.  But what does that have to do with Job?  Bildad uses it to make a point: “So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish” (8:13).  I have always loved Bildad’s illustration in 8:14, where a false hope is compared to trusting in a spider’s web (another appeal to the natural world).  That’s a great picture.  The problem is, his principle is irrelevant.  Of course, the hope of the hypocrite will perish; even Job knows that (9:2).  But Job is not a hypocrite.  He says, “I am blameless” (9:21).  He concludes God can bring bad things upon the blameless and the wicked (9:22). 

o   And by the way, remember in Job 1-2, that God also maintained that Job was blameless!  Not sinless; but blameless, not having some defect in his life that made him deserving of what God allowed Satan to bring upon him.  It is similar to the NT requirements for Church leadership: they are to be blameless (1 Tim. 3:2,10).  There is not some glaring sin that defines their lives.  Thus we conclude: Bildad failed because he did not have an authority.  Like Eliphaz, he needed to define Job’s sin; he couldn’t, so he just stated a lifeless philosophy.