What we believe affects our world view, as we saw yesterday with Eliphaz. Our world view then affects the way we give advice and the words we say. When we come to Job’s next counselor, Bildad, we see he is a traditionalist. His knowledge of God is theoretical and scholarly not experiential. He is like the person who has all the head knowledge but does not apply it or have a relationship with God. Bildad finds it hard to comprehend how a man can be just before God and have a relationship with the Almighty, Job 25:4-6.
Bildad starts from what he believes about God, not from Job’s situation and need. We see from Job’s own words in Job 19:1-3 that Bildad’s attitude and words hurt him. As a result Bildad’s advice is no help to Job. He has not even tried to put himself in Job’s place and imagine how he is feeling. He is busy airing his theoretical knowledge of God. He is like the person who comes in with scripture verses and platitudes but has no real first hand experience of God. And no sensitivity either.
Zophar adds his say in Job 11. His attitude is critical and he attacks Job for protesting his innocence. Zophar’s advice to Job is one of salvation by works. In other words, you need to do this, this and this and then God will accept you. In verses 13-19 he outlines four steps Job needs to take to get right with God. He is working from the premise that Job is guilty of wrongdoing and evil to have brought these disasters upon him. Yet God has declared Job blameless, Job 1:8 and 2:3. Zophar’s attitude is judgmental, confrontational and pompous. He’s pretty sure he has the solution to Job’s problem. By the time he gets to his second speech in Job 20, he is even more condemning of Job. Zophar is lacking in compassion and understanding.
Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar all added to Job’s suffering with their so-called advice. They all had their own ideas about God and altered the facts to fit accordingly. They all started from the wrong starting point, not where Job was at – but what they believed. They started from their own limited view of what God is like, whereas, the truth is God doesn’t always as we expect. We can’t limit God. Our understanding of God is crucial to the way we minister to people. We must have God’s grace as paramount when dealing with others.
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