Page 95 - Job

Verse 22, I believe is a very tender verse.
“Those who hate you will be clothed with shame.”
But why does he mention the haters of Job? Later on Job looked at his
three friends, and he said you all hate me. I think what he is saying is
something like this. Job, I am not saying this because I hate you. The
haters of Job will be put to shame. That is not me. That is not Eliphaz; that
is not Zophar. We do not hate you, Job. We are saying this because we
love you. It is the only reason we are telling you this. You have exploded
and you have turned and rebelled against God. You have shaken your fist
in His face. You have accused God of perverting justice, of being
unrighteous, and we are just telling you this because we love you.

I believe that is the context of Bildad’s speech. God is righteous. He
always rewards the righteous. The wicked suffer. Job, are you suffering?
It is because you are wicked. Are you suffering greatly? You are a
heinous sinner, and the greater your suffering, the greater your sin. Then
we come to chapters 9 and 10. Are you ready for this? Boy, if he was hot
here in chapters 6 and 7, he is really upset here. As Eliphaz misinterpreted
the cry of chapter 3, as Bildad misinterpreted the real cry of chapter 7, so
now he utters a cry that is almost unbelievable, and as you can guess, dear
old Zophar is listening in and he is not going to enjoy what he is about to
hear. Zophar did not like chapters 9 and 10, and he tells you that in no
uncertain terms.
Job is crying out from the depths of his soul and his sickness. I just told
you Bildad’s speech was easy to outline, and it was. It was very logical.
But these are the outbursts of a frustrated man. He is not calm; he is not
logical. He is overcome with passion. I find him all over the place. There
seems to be a desperate jumping from one thing to another, from one
riddle to another. Job says, what about this? How about that? Well, God,
what do you do about this? I suppose the only thing that ties it all together
is confusion. It is all the cry of his sick heart.
It is hard to describe the speech. Try to enter into this. Job, as he speaks in
these two chapters, is full of awe and confusion. He views God as
omnipotent, all powerful and sovereign more than any theologian I have
ever read. He makes Calvin look Armenian in these chapters. He has a
tremendous respect for the power of God and His final authority.
At the same time, he is full of terror. He is scared to death and indignant.
He disagrees with Bildad that God is discriminately righteous. Job feels
that God is indiscriminately severe, that God crushes all men whether they
are good or bad. It doesn’t matter. God has a vendetta against everybody.

95