Job 24 DIVINE PURITY - HUMAN DEPRAVITY In Bildad's last speech in the on-going dialogue, he makes a final weak reply to Job by saying much the same things as Eliphaz. And these words are true. It is true God is absolute in power and authority. It is true humanity is weak and helpless when compared to God. In these six verses, Bildad basically fizzles out of new arguments or anything else to say that applied to Job's circumstances.
But underlying the true words he said was the implication that the God Job said he is longing to see and talk to about his suffering, has no interest in making any connection with Job who is like a maggot feeding on stale bread or a dead body. Couched in true words is a harsh underhanded attack against the man they had supposedly come to comfort, but they now treated like a debased enemy.
It is possible for us to say the right things that are without argument as to their validity, and use them in a wrong way for wrong reasons. The tone of voice we use, facial expressions and body language can make a simple word like "Yes," mean a whole lot of different things. "Yes" said like a question, can mean, "Really? I didn't know that before!" It can also mean I think you are lying to me. If it is said with a loud voice, it can mean, "We did it!," or "Let's get to work!" The word "up," can be used as a verb, noun, pronoun, adverb, or an adjective. It all depends on the context in which it is used.
What Bildad said about "dominion and fear" was certainly true. God is not limited in His authority. There is no power in earth or heaven that can claim ascendency or victory over Him. He can create or calm storms of every kind. He can shake or break the earth He created with the "word of His power." He can move stars out of their place. He can maintain perfect order in the whole universe so that all the multiplied trillions of heavenly bodies function in perfect harmony and order in the place to which he assigned them. He can make heaven and earth flee before His face.
It is only right for all His creation to submit to divine authority and reverence, respect and worship God for who He is, what He has done, and what He still does for us. How far beyond our grasp of divine intelligence is the fact that, father-like He cares for us! He, the all-powerful God, tends to us and knows our needs far better than we know them. The "thoughts and intents" of our hearts are known by Him. He cares and He loves because that is who He is.
Poor, faithless Bildad knew truth about God, but he didn't know the God of truth like Job did. He was stuck in the limitations of his own experience. He knew God to be of supreme power, and that He alone can defeat the powers of darkness because of His absolute purity.
Whenever we think about God, we are usually limited to the extent of our own experience with Him unless we have the new nature which He gave us at our new birth into His kingdom. We are awestruck by His creatorial power. We are made conscious of our limitations and weaknesses when we test human strength against the principles of creation and the means by which "all things consist." Many of man's inventions are used to resist established powers like gravity, life and death. There is a sense of what is holy and what is not, at least to a certain degree, in every human being.
The contrast between God's holiness and man's depravity is obvious. That is why Bildad's question, "How then can man be justified with God?" is so important. In the question is a note of condemnation of all of humanity. Bildad certainly had that right. However, it seems like his point was to melt Job down to nothing more than a helpless blob of wicked humanity. It didn't seem that he was classifying himself personally as insignificant and no more than a worm. His statements of God's holiness were true, but in his application of truth, underlying the application of truth was, he was using it as a weapon to dismiss Job's arguments. We can use truth to demean a person and that is a wrong use of it.
Man can be justified with God if there is some way to justly deal with his guilt because of sin. There is no purity in man by nature, but "the blood of Jesus Christ His (God's) Son, cleanseth us from all sin." We can come to Him by faith and be accepted in Christ, when we have repented before God and put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Bildad has basically run out of words with which to condemn Job. He had made his argument previously that Job was suffering because of his wickedness. Underlying this final attempt at convincing Job of his guilt, seems to be a point that Job was proud and didn't understand God. How could he even think that he had any right to approach a God of power and purity when he was such a wicked sinner!
Then he went on to describe humanity beginning with the humiliating way a person is born into the world. Implied in the word picture is that because human beings are born in that fashion must mean that people are not worth very much. Then he compares man to the moon and stars that to us seem pure and bright, but God knows all about them. Compared to them he speaks of humanity as worms and maggots. Worms grow in stale bread, even manna. David spoke of himself in that way when he was defeated and discouraged. This same imagery included how Christ would be humiliated, rejected and despised by people.
Bildad's point seemed to be directed at Job. He was making a comparison of the holy, pure, powerful God, with Job, a weak, wicked, worm of a person. Implied in this is, "How can you think God would listen to you and your complaints?" Bildad's position seemed to be he considered all humanity to be insignificant as as valueless as a despised worm. But that view was only his and in that conversation. God did create man first in His own image which has inherent value, which is restored when one comes to God by faith.
To use truth as a weapon to slap at people or misapply to support one's own opinion is a misuse of truth. It is true God is omnipotent. Our Lord Jesus said all power in heaven and earth is His, and under His command, authority and guidance we are to go forward with the Gospel. It is true God is absolute in holiness and is of holier eyes than to look upon sin. But we are told to be holy also, because He is holy. It is in this way we can have fellowship with God.
It is true man is in himself weak and sinful by nature. We have been "born in sin and shaped in iniquity." It is also true that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation). Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new." It is true that by one man, sin entered into the world, and all have sinned. When one comes to Christ and is "accepted in the Beloved," then our sins and iniquities are remembered no more because they have been put away legally and fairly.
When we keep truth in context and compare scripture with scripture, we begin to see things as God sees them. In Bildad's desire to bring Job down, he missed out on the beauty of God's grace bestowed on those who do not deserve the least of God's mercies.