Job 18 THE FATE OF THE WICKED Bildad was the man who based his first speech on what he considered was the basic premise in life - "What happened before will happen again in the same way." He was a traditionalist by philosophy who could not see that suffering was not always punishment for sin. People in the past were punished for their wickedness, therefore all who are punished are wicked.
Those who, like Bildad are traditionalists, think in terms of colloquialisms and pithy sayings. "What goes around, comes around;" "Take it with a grain of salt;" "He woke up on the wrong side of the bed;" "Bite the bullet" are American colloquialisms. Bildad's second discourse has a whole collection of them which were based on the past in his culture. The problem was that none of them applied to Job's situation, but Bildad couldn't accept that.
His second discourse begins with a resentful response to Job's unwillingness to believe his "friends" knew what they were talking about. He thought Job should have kept quiet and just listened to them because what they said was what he needed to hear. Their opinion was that he was a wicked sinner and was being punished for secret sins of which he still had not repented. He was offended that Job regarded them like bellowing animals and considered them not worth paying attention to. At the same time, he was beating himself to pieces by going up against traditions that were as consistent as the function of the creation.
As far as Bildad was concerned, Job's light of life was going out because he was wicked and he was caught in a trap made by his secret sins. His thought was that the life and the way of wickedness was full of snares, traps and hidden obstacles all designed to bring judgment on sinners. The colloquial sayings he used had some truth in them, but Bildad was speaking from a false premise. What he had to say did not apply to Job, and he refused to acknowledge that fact.
Supposition of guilt on the part of another person is a danger that can happen to any of us. We may say to ourselves, "He is getting what is coming to him," or " It's about time something happened to expose his sin." It is quite easy to think like Bildad, but unless we know all that is behind a matter, we must be quiet. This is what was happening to those men in the book of Job. They were all talking, arguing and debating rather than being quiet and waiting on God to speak and reveal His purposes. In this regard all four men were in the same boat, including Job. God would not speak. We do not hear God's voice until we cannot hear our own.
We are in danger of having our own outlook on things and life itself, but if another person looks at things differently, we condemn him or her right away because they don't see things our way. This is especially true if we feel threatened. Any convictions we form, decisions we make or actions we take, need to have the word of God behind them to make them valid to us and acceptable to God.
Bildad saw Job being slowly consumed by death beginning with "the firstborn of death" which is disease. What a wonder it is for us to know that we are saved from the power and dominion of death by our Lord Jesus Christ who rose after His death as "the Firstborn from among the dead." We too are raised with Christ "To walk in newness of life." Whatever challenges in life come, and we do not know thy things happen, like a diagnosis of cancer or other physical condition that causes suffering, Satan will seek to make us afraid of "the king of terrors," - death. In faith we can say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" We can look beyond the present distress to where victory is found in our Lord Jesus Christ over every enemy, the last of which is death.
Bildad, instead of speaking as a friend, spoke as an adversary when he describes the wicked, their position and condition, and then their end. He said to Job that was the description that fit him. He made the assumption that because he had seen it before in others, and it fit, therefore, it suited Job. His conclusion was based on his own opinion, and he would not accept any other explanation.
If we try to determine how God works in the lives of each of His people based on what has happened to us and some others, we are making a mistake. People and events are not all the same. God does not deal with everyone with the same rubber stamp. It is incumbent on us to withhold from making premature judgments based on our own experience or that of other people. In order to be a help to suffering saints, we need to not speak in haste. It is important that any benefit we can be to others, has the assurance that the help we offer has divine sanction and is appropriate to the person, the need, the situation in which he or she is found, and even the place.